Tournaments and Competitions!

[Tony]

Competitions can be useful in Martial Arts in getting some fight experience but in a controlled environement! Often when you seem them, a lot of the fight look like full on brawls with little skill. A lot of people take satisfaction with taking home a lump of metal afterward to put on their mantelpiece.
This is all good practice for potential encounters in the street but should we put too much emphasis in training for this only? I have never even entered a competition and I'm in no hurry to start, because class sparring is enough for me! I'm not interested in having all these awards and medals proving how "hard " I am! And who wants to be seen as "hard" ? Its much better to be respected for skill rather than being able to hurt people for fun!
Besides there are too many rules in competitions and how do you prepare for someone who doesn't follow such rules!?

 

[MJS]

Competitions can be useful in Martial Arts in getting some fight experience but in a controlled environement! Often when you seem them, a lot of the fight look like full on brawls with little skill. A lot of people take satisfaction with taking home a lump of metal afterward to put on their mantelpiece.
This is all good practice for potential encounters in the street but should we put too much emphasis in training for this only? I have never even entered a competition and I'm in no hurry to start, because class sparring is enough for me! I'm not interested in having all these awards and medals proving how "hard " I am! And who wants to be seen as "hard" ? Its much better to be respected for skill rather than being able to hurt people for fun!
Besides there are too many rules in competitions and how do you prepare for someone who doesn't follow such rules!?

Well, we can look at the 2 different types of competitions. Point sparring and MMA. While every school most likely does sparring, its good to train with different people. Some schools make tournys. mandatory, while others its an option. The problem with the point sparring events, is that it seems that unless you attend them on a very regular basis, you will be an unknown person, and most likely will not do too well in the eyes of the judges. Pretty much, the more you attend, the more people get to know you, and eventually, that will lead to more wins.

MMA events IMO give you more of that 'real deal' feeling. Less padding and fewer rules than your point sparring.

The thing that I see all the time, and what the majority of people seem to forget, is that ALL of the above mentioned events are going to have rules. Sure on the street, there are no rules, and people look at an MMA event and say, "Well, I'd just poke the guy in the eye if we went to the ground!" The thing to remember is that all of those fighters come from a prior MA background, so to think that they themselves, in a street fight, can't do a knee or groin kick or eye jab, is foolish thinking.

Another example is boxing. There are rules in that sport but I'm more than sure that Mike Tyson could defend himself on the street.

How do you prepare yourself for those 'no rules' encounters? BY making sure that you're keeping your training as alive and real as you can. Even in those cases, you still need to use caution and wear some gear. If gear and caution were not exercised, then there wouldn't be any people to train with, because they'd all be injured.

Mike

 

[OULobo]

Well, we can look at the 2 different types of competitions. Point sparring and MMA.

Don't forget full-contact kickboxing.

 

[markulous]

Yeah point sparring is crap IMO. Like 7* said if the judges don't know you you aren't going to get wins. It is so political it's not even funny. And the fact that it in no way is practical fighting.

We basically train like we were in UFC(except we have a little less rules). At the point I am at now we have on headgear but that will soon come off. And that is about the closest you can come to real life fighting without serious risk of injury.

 

[OULobo]

Yeah point sparring is crap IMO. Like 7* said if the judges don't know you you aren't going to get wins. It is so political it's not even funny. And the fact that it in no way is practical fighting.

We basically train like we were in UFC(except we have a little less rules). At the point I am at now we have on headgear but that will soon come off. And that is about the closest you can come to real life fighting without serious risk of injury.

Headgear is a good thing in full contact. It lessens the chance for concussions and broken jaws. There is no really good way to imitate "real life fighting". There's just too much opportunity for chaos in combat, the slickness of blood, the broken knuckles, the changing terrain, the interaction of others, the availability of weapons. The list goes on and on. Still, good luck with your matches.

 

[terryl965]

Well I believe tournaments are good for those wanting the sport aspect of TKD, but not for street wise TKD you can never train no matter how hard real life stituations ... I know some people say you can , But I believe the chips will fall as they may in any giving moment...... God Bless America

 

[OC Kid]

Tournaments have their good and bad points IMO.
Good points;

The students are put in a stressful situation out of their comfort zone. Teir body reacts with the same type of butterflies that they will have in a real confrontation.
They will be fighting people they have never seen or will again.
they will be exposed to different (I didnt say good or bad ) techniques and get to talk to new people.

Bad points;
politics in judgeing
false sense of security thinking if you can win a point match you can defend your self.
You loose alot of techniques if you compete regularly.
If you win regularly the ego comes into play.
Students can become to competitive.
The insructors when their tournment career is over they have a hard time transition back to a regular instructor. Instructing/ training with out the intensity it takes to compete on a national level. this can be detrimental to the students.