Possibly sitting this tournament out.

[Montana]

There's an upcoming tournament about 2 1/2 hour drive from me that I've never attended before and was thinking of going. I got to looking over their rules and it was kinda odd how they do their kata judging. I was wondering if anybody else had seen this and what you thought about it.

After competitors are bowed in they all sit down to the left side of the judges. There are 3 empty chairs on the right side of the floor. The first competitor does his thing then is told "You are in first place" and takes the chair closest to the judges. Then the 2nd competitor does his kata. Then he's told either "You're in first place" so he takes the chair occupied by the first guy, who moves down to the 2nd chair, or he's in 2nd place and takes the 2nd chair. The third competitor does his kata then is told either 1st, 2nd or 3rd place and takes that chair, potentially making the other 2 have to move depending on where #3 is placed. Any other competitors after that will be replacing or moving occupants of those 3 chairs, or not sitting there at all.

I've never seen this and it just seems to be a really poor way of doing it, let alone telling non-chair people they sucked and are out of the running.

Thoughts?

[Zaine]

That is an incredibly odd way of doing that. In my experience competing and judging in tournaments, the norm is you go up, you are scored, you sit down. If you're mathematically inclined, it isn't difficult to track the scores and know who is in what place, but places aren't announced until everyone has gone.

[Montana]

That is an incredibly odd way of doing that. In my experience competing and judging in tournaments, the norm is you go up, you are scored, you sit down. If you're mathematically inclined, it isn't difficult to track the scores and know who is in what place, but places aren't announced until everyone has gone.

Exactly! I might be going down with another sensei from Tang Soo Do. He's VERY legit, having competed in the same circuits as Bruce Lee, Bill Wallace, Chuck Norris and the like. He's 78 years young and trust me, still has it! He's been to this tourney before and didn't like it, but might go just to watch.

He said there were a lot of things this tourney does oddly. If I go, August 3rd, I'll give you guys my impressions Afterwards.

[KarateKen]

There's an upcoming tournament about 2 1/2 hour drive from me that I've never attended before and was thinking of going. I got to looking over their rules and it was kinda odd how they do their kata judging. I was wondering if anybody else had seen this and what you thought about it.

After competitors are bowed in they all sit down to the left side of the judges. There are 3 empty chairs on the right side of the floor. The first competitor does his thing then is told "You are in first place" and takes the chair closest to the judges. Then the 2nd competitor does his kata. Then he's told either "You're in first place" so he takes the chair occupied by the first guy, who moves down to the 2nd chair, or he's in 2nd place and takes the 2nd chair. The third competitor does his kata then is told either 1st, 2nd or 3rd place and takes that chair, potentially making the other 2 have to move depending on where #3 is placed. Any other competitors after that will be replacing or moving occupants of those 3 chairs, or not sitting there at all.

I've never seen this and it just seems to be a really poor way of doing it, let alone telling non-chair people they sucked and are out of the running.

Thoughts?

I don't have much tournament experience, but I have never heard of it. Doesn't sound like a great way to do it. The couple times I did it we went up, did the form, and sat down until everyone was finished then the judges announced the third, second, and first place winners.

[bushido_man96]

I can understand not liking how this judging method sounds, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad way of judging. Instead of keeping track of numbers, it sounds like the judges are basically keeping track of who they thought performed better. Of course, I can see running into issues when judges disagree on who performed better.

[Nidan Melbourne]

The only place (real or fictional) that i've heard do that was a book called "Trials of Morrigan Crow". But never in a martial arts tournament.

I'm used to the Flag System (WKF Tournaments) and the score system (ISKA/NAS/NASKA)

[sensei8]

It's something that I've never seen before in all of my nearly 60 years in the MA. I've been an Arbitrator at MA tournaments quite a lot where tournaments have their own idiosyncrasies, but you know what?? It boils down to one thing, it's their tournament and it's their right as to how they want to represent themselves.