Black Belts Discipline

[the beast]

I was at a tournament this weekend and witnessed two black belts point sparring and it turned into a brawl that had to be broken up by several others.

I find the lack of discipline and/or lack of control to be apalling, what type of example are these guys setting for the youngsters watching them?

Honestly if I were in charge they would both be disqualified and banned from tournaments for at least 6 months, since most people there are point chasers I feel this type of punishment might teach them a lesson.

[tori]

That is bad. I can't imagine what my instructor would do had I been there and behaved that way. There would never be tournaments for me again, and I bet I would set the record for most push ups ever done.

[Ranpu]

thats not right, part of learning MA is self-discpline, how did they even make it to black belt?

[joesteph]

This reminds me of that TKD participant in the Olympics, the one who struck an official.

I don't know if the two referred to in the OP had "bad blood" between them, but the public arena is no place to settle a quarrel. With the dan ranking, special honor is given; to accept the belt is to accept the responsibilities that go with it.

[Ozpunker]

I competed in a tournament on the weekend. It was national titles and I have never seen so many injuries and disqualifications in a single tournament. I watched some children (maybe about 10 yo) compete in point sparring which is strictly non contact for children, and those little dudes were vicious. In one particular fight one kid kept doing some sort of flying kick into the other kid's face. Those sorts of moves are illegal because you can't control the amount of contact once you leave the ground.... That particular round ended up with one kid on the floor holding his side in pain and the other crying on the side of the mat nursing a sore mouth.

When my fight finished (The last round of the entire day) the referee thanked us because he hadn't seen too many nice clean fights that day.

It was rather disappointing to see how some people have no concept of sportsmanship.

-One guy from my club won his 2 rounds in full contact because in the first fight the opponent struck him 3 times in the head (Illegal move in full contact) and in the second fight his opponent spent more time trying to shove him out of the ring rather than trying to use decent martial arts techniques.

-Before my fight there was a hold up because parents were arguing with the judges from my ring about trophies and such (Everyone was told before the day started that absolutely no one under any circumstances were allowed to approach the judge's table)

-Also when I was leaving there was a family in the carpark who were having a big argument on the phone about some sort of result that day. We overheard some racist comments and other abusive language.

Maybe I was being naive but I thought that if there was any sort where everyone would have complete respect for each other it would be Martial Arts.

[Tiger1962]

I was at a tournament this weekend and witnessed two black belts point sparring and it turned into a brawl that had to be broken up by several others.

I find the lack of discipline and/or lack of control to be apalling, what type of example are these guys setting for the youngsters watching them?

Honestly if I were in charge they would both be disqualified and banned from tournaments for at least 6 months, since most people there are point chasers I feel this type of punishment might teach them a lesson.

I agree - black belts should control themselves and not get out of hand because you are setting an example & at that level are supposed to be controlled. In looking at it on another light, I can see how something like this can escalate or be provoked and for that I have to put partial blame on the judges. For example, if a tournament is a non-contact or light contact one, and that isn't enforced by the judges, then it's easy to see how things can get out of hand if violations aren't called and then - one thing leads to another. That doesn't mean it's justified, but I can see how it happens. They (the black belts) definitely should be penalized for this or on a tournament ban - - and an announcement made at the tournament so spectators and members alike will know that this sort of thing is not tolerated.

Edited December 9, 2008 by Tiger1962

[tallgeese]

Yeah, that's a lousy display and some sort of punitivie action should be taken.

However, Tiger does make a point, rules need to be inforced. It's hard to blame competitors for getting out of line if it's been progressively toleraged all day.

[brokenswordx]

This part of the reason why I don't go to tournaments anymore. . .

[tori]

It's only one of the reasons that I don't go anymore. The other reason is their is little tradition left in the styles being represented at the tournament.

Only goal is to win trophies. Not even viewed as a learning experience anymore.

[the beast]

I agree that the judges are partially responsible for letting it get out of hand but ultimately the responsibility has to be on the competitors. (These were not kids or people who are new to this, these were blackbelts 18-34 they should know the rules. )