Going to Competitions

[sensei8]

Going to tournaments when nobody knows you is the best test of yourself and skill.... No hype, no back up, no cheering,etc. Just you and nobody you know.

For me, the best feeling was winning a huge tournament outside of my state being the only one from my dojo competing. Thru the first day of eliminations i dont think anyone knew who i was, just some random guy(which probably played to my advantage as the more well known fighters from the west coast tournaments were reckless ), .. but i think on the finals day they kinda knew who i was. so that anonymity was gone(which also played to my advantage as to my surprise the finalist were overly cautious , go figure).

It is much harder to compete against "unknown" average fighters than "elite" fighters that you fight with every tournament for many years. That "unknown" factor really challenges your strategy and focus.

Good luck! Enjoy the various environments of competing and martial arts.

Solid post!!

[Nidan Melbourne]

I compete often here in Victoria Australia when Tournaments are on.

The furthest I have to travel is to Keysborough from Richmond Victoria. which is 32 km (20 miles) from home for me. Which I don't mind doing because I can then either drive home or go to my beach house which is 77 km (47.8 miles) away.

I don't compete outside of the state because Australia is freaking huge in comparison to the U.S. and I don't have the funds to fly/drive their nor the time to do so. But I am a huge kata fan for tournaments

But those tournaments I attend are generally really well run and happy with. Although there was an exception at the Shotokan Cup (It is a Victorian Karate League Tournament) this year where the program that organises the schedule for the day and the breakdown of each division into trees of who wears what and who they compete had failed when the organisers went to print off those files. So they had to do it manually.

[JR 137]

I compete often here in Victoria Australia when Tournaments are on.

The furthest I have to travel is to Keysborough from Richmond Victoria. which is 32 km (20 miles) from home for me. Which I don't mind doing because I can then either drive home or go to my beach house which is 77 km (47.8 miles) away.

I don't compete outside of the state because Australia is freaking huge in comparison to the U.S. and I don't have the funds to fly/drive their nor the time to do so. But I am a huge kata fan for tournaments

But those tournaments I attend are generally really well run and happy with. Although there was an exception at the Shotokan Cup (It is a Victorian Karate League Tournament) this year where the program that organises the schedule for the day and the breakdown of each division into trees of who wears what and who they compete had failed when the organisers went to print off those files. So they had to do it manually.

Australia and the US are about the same size. The US looks a little bigger, actually...

http://m.aboutaustralia.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aboutaustralia.com%2Faustralia-size-compared-to-usa%2F&utm_referrer=#2728

[sensei8]

I compete often here in Victoria Australia when Tournaments are on.

The furthest I have to travel is to Keysborough from Richmond Victoria. which is 32 km (20 miles) from home for me. Which I don't mind doing because I can then either drive home or go to my beach house which is 77 km (47.8 miles) away.

I don't compete outside of the state because Australia is freaking huge in comparison to the U.S. and I don't have the funds to fly/drive their nor the time to do so. But I am a huge kata fan for tournaments

But those tournaments I attend are generally really well run and happy with. Although there was an exception at the Shotokan Cup (It is a Victorian Karate League Tournament) this year where the program that organises the schedule for the day and the breakdown of each division into trees of who wears what and who they compete had failed when the organisers went to print off those files. So they had to do it manually.

Australia and the US are about the same size. The US looks a little bigger, actually...

http://m.aboutaustralia.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aboutaustralia.com%2Faustralia-size-compared-to-usa%2F&utm_referrer=#2728

For grins and giggles...

Australia is 2.9 million square miles

USA is 3.8 million square miles

[wayneshin]

I think it's more about size to population. Australia only has just over 20 million people. The U.S. has over 300 so our population centres are far more spread out.