Wankan! Boring, Forgotten, and/or Misunderstood?

[sensei8]

sensei8 wrote:

So, from what you two are saying, I need to be from Cirque du Soleil!?!? What a sad epitaph for the martial arts!

No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that there are some katas that are percieved as having a higher degree of technical difficulty in performing, and so those forms will naturally get geared more towards competition.

I could take Chon-ji hyung to a tournament, and I have no doubt that I would knock the snot out of that form. I could nail it, no problem. No kicks, only punches, blocks, and front and back stances included. Now, if someone in my division does Choong Moo hyung, and knocks it out of the park, as well, then who should be rewarded? The black belt who did the white belt form and knocked it out of the park, or the black belt who did the black belt form and knocked it out of the park? That's the analogy I was trying to make.

What? Am I suppose to argue with you? Especially after you've made some GREAT FANTASTIC points? Sheech, not me! BTW...LOL...I'm just funning with you Brian! Excellent points...again!

I just can't do all of tricks that these whippersnappers can do, so I wouldn't even try. If I do try, then, they'll have to come up with a brand new division for me called..."Fall Down Go Boom" division. Therefore, I'll stick with "traditional" divisions, more my speed....slow and firm on the ground.

[bushido_man96]

I'm with you there, Bob. I don't consider myself really all that old, and I still couldn't do all that fancy stuff, either.

[ShoriKid]

I feel your pain on this one. One reason, amoung others, that I don't care for kata competition out side of AAU. My first school always went to the AAU tourneys, and we did well in the kata sections when we competed. When you get into open tournaments....well, things weren't so fun. I didn't do rolls, flips or jump spinning kicks in my forms. I couldn't place unless someone screwed up and fell on their faces. Weapon's forms got even worse. Me and my bo vs. flippy guys with kamas and swords. I seriously thought about hauling a nice European longsword to a tourny and just going through one side of a fight scene to see how I placed.

I don't know if a governing body would help out sensei8. It would have to be pretty extensive and put on a lot of tournaments. Heck, I'm trying to figure out what sort of rules you'd see for kata and sparring.

As to Wankan, I completely agree. It's a technically complex form, when you know what your looking at. It doesn't however, display atheletic ability and physical prowess in an eye catching way. Anaku falls into the same catigory of technically demanding without being eye catching.