Preparing for my first kumite tournament...

[rmurray]

No divisions? I've never seen that. That sounds kind of dangerous. Even small tournaments will usually have two. Where are you fighting at, the thunderdome? JK. Good luck. Hopefully you'll draw a good opponent for you. I'd hate to be a beginner walking into that battle.

[KumitePanda]

do you not practice jiyu ippon ? this is what you will be doing at the tournement for your grade. its from free stance.

[conrad665]

And I never heard of a tournament with divisions mine is a tournament among university teams only, with age restriction. Last year a girl from our team sparred with a national team member, and you can guess the result but I think it is not that bad. I will have the chance to observe advanced ones.

And it is free sparring. I'm still way too slow and a bit afraid to attack against 'huge' opponents.

Thanks for sharing your opinions I'm trying to do my best to prepare for dangerous opponents. But I have one problem here: I cannot spar with taller ones, they always hit me. I usually try stepping in and punching since kicks are not that useful against them, but if the guy is also fast, I'm doomed. Do you have any ideas? How can I overcome this problem? Thanks in advance.

[Jeffrey]

One thing that is often overlooked is distance. Learn yours and pay attention to the others.

[conrad665]

Hi,

I got back from the tournament 2 days ago. I had three matches, and lost them all. The first one was 9-0, the other ones were better. I even got a point by a chudan gyaku zuki What I understood is that I need to work much more than before to be able to win. Everyone there was great, I had a chance to observe and learn, at least. Sometimes I hit my opponents, but because I was not sure of it and my techniques were not good enough, I couldn't make them points. In the last match, for example, I kicked a chudan mawashi geri, but it was not a good one although my opponent was caught in a defenceless position. Anyways, next year I believe I will have a better tournament and win at least one match. Thanks for your advices, and I'm still waiting for your opinions for the next year's tournament

[rmurray]

I've heard it said that you learn more from the losses. I tend to beleive that. Better luck next time.

[Lee M]

I don't think you can add new techniques but you can improve your strategy and sparring.

Keep changing your approach until you get the right results. See how your opponent reacts each time and then adjust.

In one month to go lots of sparring - ease up the week of the fight.

Start focusing on visualisation maybe get a book on training your mind.