Really sad...

[Montana]

I attended a local tournament last weekend as a spectator, my first in about 6 years since my back problems forced my retirement from the arts, or teaching anyway.

The tournament was hosted by a local "for profit" school, and basically I can sum up the entire days as...I wasn't impressed!

The tournament itself was run efficiently and well I thought, but I was shocked, appaled and dismayed by the level of competency I was seeing from the competitors. Probably around 2/3 of the competuitors were from the school that hosted the event and darn near 3/4 of them were black belts. They must have had at least a dozen kids ages 8-12 running around with black belts, which is one of my pet peeves about some arts.

Regardless, I have never seen, in my nearly 30 years of judging tournaments, such pathetic examples of "black belts", or martial arts in general, in my life! Oh sure, there were a few that were pretty good, but the vast majority of them were weak, slow and just plain sloppy in both empty hand and weapons kata. Sparring was...well, sparring.

The first thing I noticed when I got to the tournament was all of these people running around with light weight, aluminum bo's (staffs) that screwed together at the middle like a pool cue stick. I asked one of the competitors if I could see their weapon, and it was so light it felt like nothing in my hand. I'm used to a 6' hardwood (usually oak) bo. There were also a lot of people with aluminum kama, which again I asked someone if I could look at. Talk about flimsy, lightweight JUNK! One adult black belt competed with plastic..yes, I said plastic, sai's!

ACK!!!

So, on to the actual competition. About 95% ofthe competitors at this tournament, both in empty hand and weapons kata, weren't worth watching in my opinion. Flash, back flips, twirls, cartwheels and basically, terrible techniqes designed for flash, not effectiveness. It's probably a good thing I didn't attend as a judge because I would have left within the first hour out of disgust.

Is this what tournaments are evolving into now? Flash over substance? I sure hope not!

[ChristianeHigashi]

As a purple belt im not really one to make a big comment but in every karate competition I have been in, i haven;t seen this terribly awful crap.

i've been to british opens, higashi/wado opens but only in britain. there is no twirly, flippy stuff just solid styles that are effective.

I might be bias because i am a higashi student but in my opinion it's all about technique and effectiveness of the moves. I don't really like this thought of spins, flips etc because thats more "entertainment" than martial art in my opinion.

but this seems to be the overall thing in britain. not to much stuff incorporating XMA or anything of that sort. you should check out some british competitions even if it's on youtube.

check out this youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/joetully

go to the bottom of the list for all of the karate videos.

this is good karate in my opinion. not over done altered stuff

[Montana]

What you're describing is exactly what I'm used to seeing in tournaments for the most part. Good, solid techniques!

To many American tournaments I suspect, are going the way of flash over substance. I don't like it, and refuse to support or condone it.

If as instructor wants to "play" at martial arts, that is his choice, but for me the martial arts are all about reality and effectiveness.

[ChristianeHigashi]

I couldnt agree more. as I said i am only an 18 year old purple belt but if i see that crap take over i'll be more than bummed out.

its a martial art not dancing or gymnastics.

[Kuma]

I really can't say if that's what they're getting like, as the very few tournaments I've been to as a spectator have been geared towards knockdown karate styles, so it's primarily knockdown sparring and basic tameshiwari.

However, I have seen some of that "extreme martial arts" stuff on TV with the outlandish kata and uniforms and I can definitely say it's a strange offshoot of real martial arts.

[bushido_man96]

The tournament my school hosts yearly is just a forms and sparring event. Sometimes they do breaking, but it just depends.

We have a local Karate school that hosts a yearly tournament, and this is what I've seen at it. The sparring is ok, but the freestyle weapons and forms, I don't get into so much. I think its great that those MAists are that athletic and fit, but like you, I don't think that is what its about.

[KumitePanda]

far out! i was complemented on my sparring by a black belt...i'm at that level but only a green belt, i can keep up and tag the best BB i've met, your heart and soul should go into the style you practice and not to see that would break my heart

[still kicking]

I think it's a matter of knowing which tournaments are doing the kind of thing you like, and going only to them. In my area, there are 3 or 4 well run traditional karate tournaments a year that we go to, and a few others that are out of state that some of us attend. We were just at the Hayashi-ha Cup tourney yesterday, with a large contingent from my school. It was sponsored by Minakami's Shito ryu school, which is my style, and it seemed like most of the competitors were shito ryu. It was great fun to see everyone doing clean, traditional karate at a high level - woo hoo! As far as cartwheels and acrobatics, to me that's just silly, but if other people like it, go for it. I won't be there, though!

[CTTKDKing]

I think it comes down to what you want out of your martial arts system. I've notices most open tourneys that I've visited in the past have a lot invested in the "XMA" divisions. I love watching them, but I don't look at it as a martial arts system but more as a performing system of gymnastics sprinkled with martial arts techniques. I do WTF TKD and I've also done some local stuff that's more on par with the knock down Karate that someone was talking about earlier, and some kickboxing every now and again.

I guess my point is that as long as the schools teaching the XMA is not pushing it as a real functional system for defense or sparring then I think it's fine if that's what you are into. Me personally I like to study my martial arts and learn the functional aspect of it. Yes I do WTF sparring too which is all sport, but that's as far away from defense as I get, and even WTF sparring is full contact and teaches you how to take a hit, block and move around evasively. While the actual act of sparring in that manner may not be conducive to fighting on the street for real, it still has a defensive benefit.

That being said make sure you are aware of what your tourey that you're going to attend is offering. I know some open championships offer XMA and performance divisions and then the next day will do full contact sparring, and point sparring divisions.

I guess all my rambling can be summed up with this... I know there are a lot of flashy trashy championships out there, but not all of the U.S. based championships are like that. Keep an eye/ear out in your area for some others. I love competing. I know even if I don't hunt out my own to compete in that my school goes as a group to 2 solid WTF sanctioned championships each year. If you are having a hard time locating stuff though there's sites like the one i have linked below that have the big ones listed.

http://www.karatetournaments.com/state0.asp

[quinteros1963]

Flash is taking over at many tournaments in my area. I think martial arts are way to commercial, which is why we see these flashy tournaments and "black belts" where you ask..."is this effective?" People want to see karate that looks like the movies- high flying flips, jumps and such.

I go to both and stick to the basics, to show that you can do well with basics. I like to have fun and meet artists from all styles, which cant be done at the traditional tournaments that cater to the major okinawan styles.