Tournaments are not a big part of my life. I have competed in the past to support my dojo's annual tournament. I also have gone to watch tournaments and offer support to members of my dojo. I do not train for tournaments and I would never train at a dojo that only trains to compete at tournaments. I train for the day that I have to defend myself and/or others in selfdefense. Tournaments mean very little when it comes to being able to defend yourself. Lets break it down. There are three areas to compete in at tournaments: weapons, kata, and sparring. Most people don't carry weapons around with them all the time, so they would most likely not have a weapon available during a fight. However, I train with a bo, but I don't train with the bo to defend myself with it. I train with a bo to defend myself with a pool stick. Weapons training is only useful if you have that weapon with you when you fight, but people sometimes over look the weapon you always have with you, your body.

Kata is a big part of martial arts training. I do think highly of people who do good kata because a good kata probably means you have good technique, which is important in fighting. Good technique can mean the difference between just leaving a bruise and killing a person. I have had grown men punch or kick me and I bearly felt it because they did not have good technique. On the other hand, I have had Sensei Seiber punch me and it knocked me across the room. When I tried to get up from the floor, I dropped right back down because my stomach hurt so much. I know Sensei Seiber could kill me with one punch because he has great technique. Mr. Hoaglin said, "one punch, one kill." I now know what he was talking about. I believe kata training will help improve your fighting technique and is very important to martial arts training. Nevertheless, kata alone will not mean much in a fight because it does not give you that real life fighting experience. Ok, I am sure many people reading this right now are thinking that you get that in your sparring. Well, not exactly.

Sparring is fun and helps prepare you for a real fight, but sparring at tournaments is different. At tournaments, sparring means "point karate," which is where the first person to get in a clean hit gets the point and then you separate. That is not a fight. That is a game. Anyone that thinks she/he can fight because she/he has alot of sparring trophies is an idiot. In a real fight, there is no one to break you up after someone gets in the first clean hit. In addition, you cannot hit people in the face or below the belt at tournaments. Hell, you get into a fight with me, the first thing I am going to do is kick out your knee and punch you in the face. So you might be asking yourself then why do they have these rules. The reason is so not one will get hurt. The sparring rules make the sport safer, but extremely unrealistic. I would probably not compete if the sparring rules were not there because my face is too pretty and I like being able to walk.

In conclusion, I would just like to said that I have nothing against tournaments. I compete in them and I would recommend to anyone else to compete. What? I recommend competing? Yes, tournaments do have there good points. Tournaments are a great place to meet people whom share a love for martial arts training. At tournaments, you can see other styles' katas, which I have always found interesting. And probably the best reason to goto a tournament is to watch the children. I love to support and watch the children from my dojo compete. Nothing in life makes me happier than seeing one of the kids from my dojo win. The kids are just so happy and their eyes light up.

My Trophies

      NOTE: "The only thing trophies are good for is to impress high school girls (I wish I had these in high school)"