What does it mean to be a world champion?

[quinteros1963]

With the many associations/organizations out there now, with each claiming a world Champion. What does it mean? Come train with World Champ ....... I recieved a letter from a tournament series stating that I was their World Champion for 2009, I just needed to submit the membership fee. I am far from a Champion, but it made me wonder that others make a big deal of being World Champ when trying to attract students from simular orgs.

What are the major Org in the USA and the World, that matter?

I know that in boxing you have the major orgs, WBA, WBC, IBF; Minor WBO, IBO NABA etc...

Perhaps I should win a few more and in the future open a school stating I was a 3 time world Champ! LOL

[DWx]

sorry but you had to pay to be their World Champ? Sounds like a bit of a money making scheme to me.

If you're do hold a title it can attract people to your school if you choose to use it in the advertising... MA newbies think its awesome and for those in the know if its a credible tournament circuit you're champion of I guess its attractive to come train with you.

[quinteros1963]

sorry but you had to pay to be their World Champ? Sounds like a bit of a money making scheme to me.

I never paid any sanctioning fees which is why they were asking me to join the federation, which involved $$$. To my knowledge most associations have annual membership fees.

[mr_obvious]

Well....what do / did you compete for? The competition, or a title.....or both?

[quinteros1963]

I'm in it for fun. I could care less for the awards (my son has them and some are under my bed). I had no idea that they rated events and named champions at the end of the season. Again I find it very surprising that after winning a number of tournaments that are regional at best, that the orgs have the nerve to award a world championship.

But, At least I'll have something to tell my grand kids about.

[bushido_man96]

World Champ is a pretty ambiguous term. Every major sport in America crowns a "World Champ" at the end of every season. Same with different MA orgs. I know the ATA has their own tournament circuit, with two National tournaments held per year in the U.S., and the Worlds tournament held annually in Little Rock, Arkansas. The ITF and the WTF both have their own national and international competitions, with the WTF culminating in Olympic appearances. I think the WKF holds annual championships, as well. I don't know if the National Black Belt Congress or whatever still goes or not, but they did a similar thing, and I think an instructor here in my town fought and won a title in that league.

So, as you can see, it varies from system to system, but that doesn't mean that one isn't legit.

[quinteros1963]

So lets see we have the following orgs with World Champs each year:

NBL

SKIF

WUCO

JKA

JKF

IFMA

SKIL

TKO

AOK

SKITA

ATA

and many others...

They should all get together and have a tournament of champions to determine the Super Champ

[sensei8]

So lets see we have the following orgs with World Champs each year:

NBL

SKIF

WUCO

JKA

JKF

IFMA

SKIL

TKO

AOK

SKITA

ATA

and many others...

They should all get together and have a tournament of champions to determine the Super Champ

You mean like a Unified World Champ? Why not? That's if they can all agree on any terms.

[DWx]

sorry but you had to pay to be their World Champ? Sounds like a bit of a money making scheme to me.

I never paid any sanctioning fees which is why they were asking me to join the federation, which involved $$$. To my knowledge most associations have annual membership fees.

I guess so. The opens I usually go to don't make you join to have the title though. If you won it you won it.

The ITF and the WTF both have their own national and international competitions...

Because of the divisions in ITF we actually have 3 World Champs (one for each of the orgs) so even if you win one of them you not really really World Champ because you haven't competed against the all of the ITF practitioners.

They should all get together and have a tournament of champions to determine the Super Champ

You mean like a Unified World Champ? Why not? That's if they can all agree on any terms.

Hard to do something like that though because who's rules do you compete under? Champion of point stop sparring will have difficultly under continuous fighting rules and vice versa. Problems with sparring light contact to heavy contact etc...

[Adam_XKT]

A few years ago I competed at a "national tournament." It's been too long to remember exactly where other competitors were from, but it seemed to be a little higher caliber than the tournaments I was used to visiting. I took first in a forms division and didn't think much of it, except that my trophy was several feet taller than what I'd been used to receiving.

Unbeknownst to be, my parents had a sign made with my name declaring I was a national champion. Technically, I guess they were right - I had won a division at a national tournament.

But I didn't feel like a national champion. I didn't go around the country winning forms divisions. I felt like I should've had to beat many people in different divisions to win. In fact, my division only contained three people total.

World champions don't mean much to me. I'm not into sport karate, so the fact that somebody has X amount of world championships doesn't impress me. I guess some kind of credibility is nice, but I'm more interested in their karate teaching ability and the knowledge they possess, not how many trophies sit in their room.