I'm asking what seperates a good to great Olympics Style event. What does a competitor look for in going and what does a instructor look for, so there competitors get the best of both worlds.
Terry
Terry
Olympic Style Tournament
- Thread starter terryl965
- Start date
Laborn
Blue Belt
i look to get my butt kicked, so i can rewatch and rewatch the video to see my weaknesses.
karatekid1975
Master Black Belt
I don't spar in tournies (as I mentioned before, I hate the rules, despite the fact I like TKD).
Anyways, when I go to a tourny, I look for how many competitors there are in my division, the age range, and rank. (I won too many times in "age" divisions by default because there wasn't enough 30 somethings breaking, even after missing my breaks ...... whatever). The tournies that work for me is the ones that go by rank, not age (well there wouldn't be 12 year olds in my division, but a lot of teens and 20 somethings). Roughly 15 to 35 age range for breaking (for females, because it seems not many females like breaking) and 17 to 35 for forms (eventhough I competed against 16 year olds and above at the last one and got 2nd place out of 10, I believe
).
Anyways, I know if I'm in the 25 to 35 division, I already won ... that sucks. I hate those tournies ....
Anyways, when I go to a tourny, I look for how many competitors there are in my division, the age range, and rank. (I won too many times in "age" divisions by default because there wasn't enough 30 somethings breaking, even after missing my breaks ...... whatever). The tournies that work for me is the ones that go by rank, not age (well there wouldn't be 12 year olds in my division, but a lot of teens and 20 somethings). Roughly 15 to 35 age range for breaking (for females, because it seems not many females like breaking) and 17 to 35 for forms (eventhough I competed against 16 year olds and above at the last one and got 2nd place out of 10, I believe
).Anyways, I know if I'm in the 25 to 35 division, I already won ... that sucks. I hate those tournies ....
terryl965 said:
As a competitor, I'm looking to get on the matt in a reasonable amount of time. I mean, I know that's difficult, and waiting is the rule, not the exception, but having an adult weigh in and then not competing until 6:00pm is rediculous. Poor planning.
Enforement of approved equipment only. I went against a guy once wearing 3 layers of leg guards. PALLEEESSSE.
Even matches. Some tourneys (mostly invitationals) will have gaps in competitors ages, weight and experience. Understandable, but a good tourney will offer matches to its competitors and a bad one won't give you an option, resulting in a potentially unsafe match. I was put into such a match when I was a red belt and thrown in with a third degree master. The long and extremely painful beating I took was memorable.
As an instructor, I'm looking at the quality of the judges and referees. Some tourneys are so large, it seems like they're taking extrremely underqualified individuals to fill the spots.
The flow of the event. Good records of who's competing where and when. I've been to tourneys where they can't seem to find anything. An unlisted competitor is the rule instead of the exception. Also, reinforcing who and who isn't allowed into the competition area and when. West Point was far and away the best venue I've ever experienced.
Adequate facilities. Is the event large enough to accomodate the turnout. I know the idea is to make money, but I've been to some where I felt like we were so much cattle. Nowhere to warm up, no where to have lunch, no security, no emergency lanes (or anyone on duty), one bathroom for 1000 people, etc.
That's just off the top of my head. I'll go into greater detail in your What makes up a good tourney thread.
Miles
Senior Master
Organization is key-having a good-sized holding area where the staging can take place outside of the tournament floor. Also, having sufficient judges so the tournament director is not running divisions from one understaffed ring to another. Having a pre-competition meeting for black belts/judges so everyone is on the same page as far as how the rules will be interpreted.
Miles
Miles
karatekid1975
Master Black Belt
Miles, that sounds like our inter-school tournies. There are 4 schools in our association. And our tournies are very well run.
