traditional form in tournament

[JAKEHE3078]

simple solution. if you want to compete against only traditional than enter a traditional competition.

[DWx]

I like watching XMA but it should be separate from traditional. XMA and traditional performances have different goals and in judging them there are different criteria, a lot fairer to both the traditional guy and the XMA guy if they are kept separate.

That kids pretty good though.

[kajukenbogirl]

That is one of the reasons I compete at NASKA tourneys. Atleast up until the Grand Championships, traditional has its own divisions. I'll do tradional and creative, but once you get into musical or extreme, you are competing with the "flippers".

[ironsifu]

I don't see how a traditional kata can compete with the "xma" gymnastic style, this is why I believe that tournaments should have a seperate division for both traditional and non traditional or "xma".

Luckily in my division there isn't too much, but I see it alot in the other divisions and honestly don't think it is fair to have to compete with someone that is doing all this flashy flips and what have you.

Like ironsifu I enjoy a good form, one that I can see useful techniques in and flipping in the air in my eyes is not a useful technique.

YES!

i dont know why they dont separate it. i use to say, that a lot of teachers have shallow knowledge, and they run out of things for the students to learn, so for them, "advanced" martial arts is learn a new style, or worse, gymnastics. i like tournaments where the promoter is picky about who is a judge, instead of calling any black belters to the ring because "ring 10 needs a judge". who is to say the judge is qualified? so then, we have some 19 years old kid, who been only in his hometown and never seen any martial arts around the world, and he's going to give a score to the form that excites him the most. its been many tournaments where the best lost to the flashy guys, because the judge doesnt know between good martial arts and bad martial arts.

i really dont like XMA, but they have there place, theres people who dont like point fighting, theres people who dont like kickboxing and theres people who dont like MMA... something for everyone. but there should be a difference and each style has its own place. i remember seeing strong hung gar guys lost to a wu shu.

[axispower]

The key to this whole thing is to know your tournament circuit and whether they run open kata or separate traditional from non-traditional. Non-traditional, by the way, can be further defined down. Some non-traditional (creative) kata divisions do not permit the competitor to use flips, back-handsprings, back-tucks, etc. Those techniques can only be utilized in Extreme kata divisions.

In the early years of running the roads hitting tournaments we ran into the whole traditional vs. extreme thing just about every week. I lobbied the promoters in this particular organization for three years to break the groups down, but they were not interested in adding divisions. End result - they lost our tournament dollars. Now we compete in tournaments that are more martial artist friendly.