My Full Contact Woes

[SenseiMike]

I've spent months organizing a full contact tournament here in town, and not one of the local schools here is willing to send even one competitor. It's not knockdown, I'm requiring a full set of pads to be worn in every fight. But I just can't belive in a city with as many MA schools as mine, not one would send a single student.

[AndrewGreen]

How well do you know them? How well do they know you? Are the rules common enough that they wouldn't need to train for them for a good long time first? How did you convince the other schools it would be non-biased?

I wouldn't compete in or send competitors to a full contact tournament without knowing who is hosting, how many competitors, who are the competitors and who trained them, who is judging, what safety measures are in place and having some trust in those people.

To just walk blindly into a full contact competition put on by a small school with no other schools involved is not something most instructors aren't going to do.

If hosting a competition is what you want to do, spend asome time building relationships with other schools first, train at there place once and a while, invite them to yours. Work with them to plan it, don't set things to your liking and expect them to come.

They will likely just see this as a small school looking to make a name for itself, and not have much faith in the fairness and safeness of the event.

[Meguro]

The first few tournaments will be tough to draw a big crowd of spectators and a decent field of competitors. First you've got to consider how many karateka in your area do knock-down. If everyone is a point fighter, you'll have a lot of trouble coaxing them to switch formats. How many people on this forum can you convince to switch formats, never mind your city?

If there is an adequate population of knockdown fighters, you've got to shmooze their sensei. Establish a friendly relationship with them so that they don't view you as a threat or competition (not so easy, it's business afterall). For the first few years you may end up sending out open invites only to have your students fighting each other. If the level of competition is good, and the crowd is pleased, word of mouth will draw outside fighters.

Maybe you should have a point competition, with knock-down matches for exhibition purposes only. This way you get outside point fighters interested in your tournament. After being 'educated' by your knock-down demos, they might then want to give it a try next time around.

In the end, you may have to knock down the doors of the other dojo and issue your challenge (just like they do in the Kung Fu movies).

[jdhunts]

It sounds like there are not very many full-contact karate schools in your area.

However, you may consider hosting a tournament with divisions for both light and full-contact. There may be a competitor or two who would "give it a try" so to speak.

Another approach would be to have a light-contact tournament with a full-contact exhibition by your school. This may introduce the attendees to your definition of full-contact sparring and they may "give it a try" next time.

Also, the full-contact division trophy should be HUUUGE, so as to spark some interest in entering the division. It could also be a "traveling" trophy, with the winning school allowed to display it until the next competition, etc.

Depending on the number of entries, the run the full-contact division by itself as an exhibition for everyone else who did not enter, sort of like the end of Karate Kid, but less cheezy.

yada, yada, yada

Good luck, organizing tournaments can be a very challenging experience

Jeff

[Ego Assassin]

There is a tournament at the beginning of each month , mma rules, if you get with Mr. Fonseca I'm sure he will be happy to get you the info or take you to one. The event is very well run and there are some very game fighters it is a great place to test your skillz.

[Sho-ju]

I've spent months organizing a full contact tournament here in town, and not one of the local schools here is willing to send even one competitor. It's not knockdown, I'm requiring a full set of pads to be worn in every fight. But I just can't belive in a city with as many MA schools as mine, not one would send a single student.

I feel your pain.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Something else you need to consider is that not everyone is interested in full contact competition. Some like their faces the way that they are, or because of work, can't risk injury to themselves because of an opponent that pushes the rules a bit to far and intentionally injures you.

Myself, we put no emphasis on tournaments at all, so light contact, or full, I don't "send" anybody to a tournament...ever. However, if one of my students wants to enter a tournament of their own accord, they certainly are welcome to, but not as a school we don't.

[angus88]

It definitely comes down to reputation. As others have been saying, if no one knows you, no one will come.

Just get all your students that can afford it and go to all the local tournaments as they come up - go as a group so people start knowing your students. This, of course, probably means you're going to have to get your students prepared for point fighting!

Once you get a little well known and you get to know the other dojo owners, they'll hopefully come to yours too.

[SenseiMike]

It wasn't a knock down tournament, The rules were clearly stated, standard free sparring rules, moddified for full contact. The judge applications went out long before the competitor applications did. I refused to take any part in judging or as a refferee.

The only response i got was "we don't fight full contact", over & over again.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

It wasn't a knock down tournament, The rules were clearly stated, standard free sparring rules, moddified for full contact. The judge applications went out long before the competitor applications did. I refused to take any part in judging or as a refferee.

The only response i got was "we don't fight full contact", over & over again.

Can you explain to me the difference between a "knock down tournament" and "modified full contact" please? Knock down means just that..know them down or out. What is modified full contact? Isn't full contact the same thing? Somebody tells me we're fighting full contact, and you're dang sure right that I'm going to put them under as quickly as possible.