First Karate tournament!

[scohen.mma]

i'd like to say that i went to my first Karate tournament yesterday (sunday, may 20th) at York College in New York and i placed FIRST in Kata and second in Kumite beginners level of course. And i have to say, i was SHOCKED at how many Shotokan Karateka's were there!

i saw atleast 3 or 4 different styles of Karate, and for each style there were atleast 2 different schools of them there. My Dojo was the ONLY Shorin-Ryu dojo there and i can tell the judges didnt like us but apparently some of them are getting used to seeing Shorin-Ryu styles now (because of my dojo) and my dojo is so well known!

anyway, i noticed that i did well in Kata and not as good as i wanted to do in Kumite (i like to shoot for first ) and when i would talk to the other Karateka's there, they all said they do lots of kicking drills in class, and work sparring/Kumite 2 - 3 times a week. My dojo works sparring 1 - 2 times a week and little to no kicking drills in class very often. What would you say the normal sparring/Kumite training should be done in class or during the week? I feel as though some of the Karateka's either lied to me or i feel as though they work sparring too much and not enough Kata.

Now, my dojo's main focus is Kata which is probably why we did so well in that part of the competition! But do you think we should be working Kumite/sparring more times a week or is this fine?

the main purpose of this post was just to let you all know how i did in my first Karate competition, this is after 8 -9 months of Karate training and i'm very proud to represent my dojo, the East Coast BLackbelt Academy and my Organization, the Shorin-Ryu KarateDo International (SRKDI) OSU!

[BarbedTerror]

Congratulations! It sounds like you did fantastic. I'm considering entering a tournament soon, but it appears you have more experience then I do which makes me wonder if it is such a good idea. (I've been training for 3-4 months)

Sparring is essential to self defense as it teaches you how to actually fight someone rather then standing in line punching air. The amount of sparring your dojo does is perfectly fine though, you have many years of karate training to come and will surely become fantastic as sparring as time goes on.

I'm curious, after your 9 months of training what grade are you? I'm an 8th Kyu.

[Ueshirokarate]

Congrats. Try to get a training partner to work with out of class. You can drill anything you want together. Classes will always be more broad-based than you would like, as they should be.

[Dobbersky]

Congrats. Try to get a training partner to work with out of class. You can drill anything you want together. Classes will always be more broad-based than you would like, as they should be.

AGREED!!!

WELL DONE, my friend on getting placed so high on your first Competition

OSU!!!

[Wastelander]

Congratulations on doing so well at your first tournament!

As far as how much sparring you should do, it really depends on what your goals are for your training. If you want to do a lot of competitions and want to compete in the kumite divisions and do well, then you will probably need to do more sparring. If you just want to do competitions every now and then it isn't really an issue.

[scohen.mma]

Barbed terror, i checked and i am a Ro Kyu or Rok Kyu (i cant read my Sensei's hand writing very well ) and i think i COULD be whatever ranking is after, but i missed the first testing in my dojo. and in my dojo, we only have testing every 3 - 4 months, and blackbelt testing every 6 months (which you have to wait a year after you get your second stripe in brown belt i think).

also, i would reccomend you go out and give a tournament a try if anything, definetly try the Kata part of the tournament, it gives you a big taste of what its really like and in my opinion, took the most focus. my advice if you choose sparring: DEFINETLY work on getting your kicks at or even above head level, and work on controlling your kicks more than anything. i got my legs up high enough to reach my opponents head, but i showed almost no control and almost got disqualified because of it. and definetly work combinations that include both kicks and punches at different levels.

UeshiroKarate, i agree with you 100% but being my age, i feel more comfortable doing that with kids around 14 - 17 maybe 18 and most of the Karateka's in my dojo are adults from late 20's to even mid 70's! However, i do ask them for a lot of advice/assistance before and after class regarding kicks and if im' having trouble in a specific part of any Kata i'm working on. There are two friends that i try to train with outside of the Dojo, but one is in a Mini - Marine program which takes up most of his life :/ and the other is in college. Both of which do compete in tournaments.

Dobbersky, thankyou so much! I was only competeing at beginner level, but it felt good to represent and demonstrate some Matsubayashi for Karateka's that didnt even know it existed! I was shocked they didnt know of it, but some of them even asked me how i did part of my Kata (Fukyugata Ni) and tried to figure out which Kata in their system was most similar which was actually a lot of fun.

Wastelander, thanks! I do Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu, which i hear has a bigger emphasis on Kata, which is probably why thats my Dojo's main focus. So with that being said, i think i'm going to somewhat compete regularly in tournaments always doing Kata, and probably every other tournament i do, compete in Kumite. The reason i'd like to compete more though, is because of how many people werent aware of the existance of Shorin-Ryu at all. I'd like to help my tournament team and my Dojo get more recognized and i figure the best way i can do that right now, is to participate in tournaments along with the other Karateka's at my Dojo

Thanks everyone! OSU

[Patrick]

Congrats scohen.mma.

Patrick

[Wastelander]

Barbed terror, i checked and i am a Ro Kyu or Rok Kyu (i cant read my Sensei's hand writing very well ) and i think i COULD be whatever ranking is after, but i missed the first testing in my dojo. and in my dojo, we only have testing every 3 - 4 months, and blackbelt testing every 6 months (which you have to wait a year after you get your second stripe in brown belt i think).

also, i would reccomend you go out and give a tournament a try if anything, definetly try the Kata part of the tournament, it gives you a big taste of what its really like and in my opinion, took the most focus. my advice if you choose sparring: DEFINETLY work on getting your kicks at or even above head level, and work on controlling your kicks more than anything. i got my legs up high enough to reach my opponents head, but i showed almost no control and almost got disqualified because of it. and definetly work combinations that include both kicks and punches at different levels.

UeshiroKarate, i agree with you 100% but being my age, i feel more comfortable doing that with kids around 14 - 17 maybe 18 and most of the Karateka's in my dojo are adults from late 20's to even mid 70's! However, i do ask them for a lot of advice/assistance before and after class regarding kicks and if im' having trouble in a specific part of any Kata i'm working on. There are two friends that i try to train with outside of the Dojo, but one is in a Mini - Marine program which takes up most of his life :/ and the other is in college. Both of which do compete in tournaments.

Dobbersky, thankyou so much! I was only competeing at beginner level, but it felt good to represent and demonstrate some Matsubayashi for Karateka's that didnt even know it existed! I was shocked they didnt know of it, but some of them even asked me how i did part of my Kata (Fukyugata Ni) and tried to figure out which Kata in their system was most similar which was actually a lot of fun.

Wastelander, thanks! I do Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu, which i hear has a bigger emphasis on Kata, which is probably why thats my Dojo's main focus. So with that being said, i think i'm going to somewhat compete regularly in tournaments always doing Kata, and probably every other tournament i do, compete in Kumite. The reason i'd like to compete more though, is because of how many people werent aware of the existance of Shorin-Ryu at all. I'd like to help my tournament team and my Dojo get more recognized and i figure the best way i can do that right now, is to participate in tournaments along with the other Karateka's at my Dojo

Thanks everyone! OSU

Honestly, to not know that Shorin-Ryu exists you would almost have to have absolutely no interest in karate--it's a pretty major system. That said, spreading awareness is always good, and if the people in your area aren't aware of it then you are doing them a service and maybe you'll pique their interest and they will research it more, and maybe even stop by your dojo to workout every now and then.

As far as your competitions go, Shorin-Ryu as a whole tends to emphasize kata, which is excellent for self defense but not terribly useful in competition sparring unless grabs, sweeps, throws, chokes and joint locks are allowed . Kicks are certainly a very useful tool in sparring (and I love them to death) but I would argue that hand techniques are more important. Try this when you get a chance--ask someone to spar with you using only kicks while you use only hands, and then vice versa. You'll see what I mean

[sensei8]

Congrats on your first tournament success; glad you had fun.

Some great posts. I'm sure your sensei has explained to you about the Three K's...Kihon...Kata...Kumite. Very important to any karateka, imho. These three, imho, must be equal and not one more or less than the others. Kihon gives you the core foundation. Kata gives your the transitional foundation. Kumite gives you the application foundation. Karatekas can't be unbalanced in their training of either because it's like a chair with three legs. Take away one of the legs; it topples over quite easily. This is akin to your opponent owning you on the floor.

No kumite is equal to having lost the battle before it's even began. How are you going to recognize any attack? Your not going to. You have to experience the varied attacks from every possible angle, and in that, you need to experience your mistakes during kumite. Kumite is akin to a fight; a safe fight, but none the less, a fight to hopefully prepare you for the real things.

That's why you'll begin to experience the many various training stages of kumite. Each of these prepare you for the next level of kumite training. Timing, strategy, footwork...too name just a few...and in jiyu kumite, it's all about going at the defense and the offense full speed; however controlled.

I love kata and it's important to karateka's. But no kihon, then there is no karate. No kumite, then there is no chance of knowing how to "fight". Live training is important. 1-3 step are fine, but just those isn't wise because while it prepares one for transitional movement and the like, a fight doesn't go that slow or that smooth for both.

Can't know what it's like to hit a 90+ mph fastball unless you get in the batters box, get brushed away from the plate, conquering that fear, and then hitting the ball, hopefully over the fence. How can you know what to do against someone like me, with my experience/knowledge, with only kihon and kata? Imho, you're not going to know what to do, and I'll just run over you at will.

Kumite over and over and over and over and over and over and....