Tournament This weekend - Any advise?

[Shino]

About 3 months ago, I started taking karate. Things have progressed pretty well so far. I have moved up 2 belt ranks and exceed all of my instructors expectations. Now, Saturday we have an interschool tournament. It will just be our Dojos' students competing against eachother. They asked me to compete in the tournament. I knew they were going to ask me to compete, but I never thought it would be this early.

The way this tournament works is that I will be competing against people in similar ranks as mine. Currently I am an Ad Gold belt. The people I will be competing against ranks between White and Adv Green. I'm signed up for two events. Forms, where I will be performing the Heian Shodan, and fighting. The forms event I'm not really worried about. I pretty much got that down.

I'm a little nervous about the fighting portion of it. During my sparing sessions, I usually fight against the blackbelts at the school. Including the owner who is a 4th degree. He fought me yesterday and pretty much embarrased me. But they all say that I'm doing fine and I just need to relax. I did fight a brown belt and pretty much beat him, but he was starting every attack with a round kick and it was easy to block and go in on him.

Has anyone competed in some sort of martial arts tournament? What advise do you have for a first timer?

[Reverend]

GOOD LUCK TO SHINO! KNOCK EM OUT!
Of people I know, Bryan is the most advanced in karate, and he's pretty friggin good.

My solace comes from being able to blend the eight years of kempo training with collegiate wrestling moves and some ground fighting/submission tactics. Add in the fact that I weight lift, it should even out some.


Reiterate, GOOD LUCK SHINO! ROCK THE CHIBI ON SOME LLAMAS!

[BryanFJ]

Oo! Sparring! I like sparring, but most people put too much ego into it, and they get too serious. Anyway, the key thing to remember about sparring is that it is not fighting; sparring is far more akin to playing a game of tag than real fighting. Because of this, make sure to focus much more on speed and accuracy with your strikes rather than power. This means that you should probably never be kicking with your rear leg -- try to pull off snap kicks with your front leg and follow up with a few punches. One trick that I like to do is slide forward and bring my front leg up like I'm about to do a front kick, forcing them to bring one hand down to block, then quickly shuffle in and strike at the open space with a punch. As for defense, I'm assuming that the target areas are on the front of the body from belt to chest (ie, arms, legs, head, groin, and back are all non-target areas). Use this to your advantage -- keep your hands on guard and your elbows down covering your ribs at all times. When you block try not to smack the strike out of the way, but rather simply deflect it so it misses the target -- you really don't have to put much power into your blocks to make a strike miss. This allows you to bring your hands back to guard as quick as possible. In regards to footwork, always always keep moving. Never let your heels touch the ground. Keep on the balls of your feet and be ready to move quickly. Also, most people, when they spar, forget that they are in a 3D arena, and only step forwards or back. Move sideways, and do it a LOT. This will present targets for you through your opponent's guard. Good times to sidestep are right before you strike, or right after they strike. Sparring takes a bit of getting used to, since it's a bit counter-intuitive (they put you in a fighting situation and tell you not to use power), but it really can be great fun.

One thing, though -- I'm not trying to make you paranoid or anything, but when sparring, try to keep an eye on if your opponent is getting frustrated or not. Sometimes if you start beating someone, they will get frustrated and lose control, by which I mean put more power into their strikes than they should. Protect yourself at all times if this happens. The last thing you want to do is have your tournament ruined because someone lost control and punched you in the ribs too hard.

Anyway, good luck, and make sure to tell us how it goes! :D

--Bryan

PS: BTW, what style of karate are you taking?

[Reverend]

Bryan, you ought to open up a PO dojo (not POjo, that names already taken) to help train people.

[Shino]

Thanx guys for all the info.

I'm training in American style Karate. So far I'm enjoying it. It's hard work though. I originally started doing it to get back into shape. Still working on that part. :: I used to play foot ball and lift weights and all that... when I got about half way through college I stopped due to lack of time. Now I'm regreting stopping.

I will definatly post on how I do. Honestly I expect to do pretty well in the form event. During class I do the form better then most of the students in there... Most of the blue/ purple/ red belts...

We'll see

[BWS-1]

SHINO! I would sooo want to spare with you!!!! Having a match against a Karateka is something I want to experience in my life at least just once! Since I'm a judoka, we both have different techniques and that should make things interesting. That's funny because, just before I wanted to post a topic about me going in a tournement this Saturday, I decided to check your topic if, by any chances it was Martial-art related, and guess what? It was!!! Of course it's not judo but, it shouldn`t be too different from judo in the basic rules.

1. Watch your stance
2. Not attacking your opponent when you have the chance to might result in a penalty
3. Injuring your opponent after failing a move might result in a penalty too.
4. err, there are lot`s of cheeze moves that the other can do to make YOU have the penalty so be carefull
5. be like water ... er, that's what they say in judo ... well, might wanna try that in karate but I dought you'll have to get your way out of the arms of your opponent ^^;;

Wish me luck for my tournement too, it's my first in 10 years and I'll be competing against some blue belts X-x (I'm just a mere yellow belt hehe)

Either you win, lose, or get disqualified, but regardless of the qualification, I hope you will enjoy this experience


Good luck to you, Shino!

[Reverend]

Good luck BWS-1, we'll be pulling for all our otaku who go off to rock the llamas!

[Sperrit]

Go Shino! Go BWS-1! Kick some booty at the tournaments! I know you guys can do it! I will send you good chi so that you may gain great confidence!
...
Llamas???

Join the Fun

[Reverend]

[BryanFJ]

Someone call for me?


:o