Reflecting on the Karate Tournament

  

From 1974 to 1984 I participated in many tournaments in the old region 10 (Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania as well as tournaments in Virginia and New Jersey, New York and Connecticut). Most were open tournaments, a few were Isshinryu only tournaments.

 

They had many varied divisions at different times those divisions were:

 

          Kata

          Kobudo

          Kumite (Light Sparring, Semi-Contact and Full Contact)

          Self Defense

          Demonstration

          Breaking

          And a few others

 

Not every tournament had every division, the three K’s were the standard.

 

At that time I moved from white belt to 3^rd dan black belt.

 

The competition was some of the best in the country. That included several National Champions. And many of those regional champions could have become National Champions if they had traveled.

 

Note in those days I traveled to compete or judge, and did not travel with a camera. I have but a few photos from those days.

 

Some of those champions (as an example)

 

Among these competitors are Cindy Rothrock, Dale Kirby Sr., Cezar Borkowski, eorge Michak, Dennis Brown. Bill Pickells and Jun Chung along with others. At Victor Moore’s tournament in Northern Carolina.

 

 

At  times when requested I also judged.

 

Those tournaments had a very wide range of styles. They ranged from the sublime to those that were quite different.

 

There were  tournaments run by:

 

Francisco Conde  (who threw 14 tournaments a year, 2 Large ones and 12 local ones.

George Dillman (2 large tournaments a year)

Hidy Ochiai (1 tournament a year)

And many times many single tournaments run by local instructors from many styles. Such as those of George Iberl and Al Smith.

Much of the judging was done by early American regional karate seniors at most of those tournaments. It took time for the most part for them to really see what a new competitor had. They pretty much controlled the tournaments.

 

There were also many other things going on at the tournaments.

 

For one thing the tournament director often and their own rules for the day.  Of course as the tournament went on those rules would flow to what the judge running the ring thought they should be. There was no one constant set of rules.

 

The Senior tournament judge  often favored their students.  Which is why often the high and low score were thrown out and the remaining scores would be totaled to be the score for the participant.

 

That was not always a constant, I remember at least two tournaments for black belt kata and kobudo divisions, That had 25 judges for those divisions and the total of all 25 judges became the score for the participant.

 

I remember one time two senior judges tried to convince a very good kata competitor not to compete in kobudo,  saying as his system did not have weapons, they did not want him to embarrass himself. They did not know what he had, and he then went on to win the kobudo division.

 

Another time those same two judges tried to give him advice how to throw his side kick, having no idea how he was trained, Of course they could not do what he could do. Then he competed with him doing his side kick as his father had trained him.

 

Often there were other things that happened on the tournament floor that others could not see.  Psych War existed trying to weaken another competitor. Such in a kumite division attempting to tell another competitor how dangerous his opponent was to psych him out.  Even senior competitors would try to play head games with their competitors in kata and kobudo divisions.

 

I experienced all of this happening at one time or another.

 

People go to tournaments for themselves, for their schools, some just showed up at the beginning for black belt kata and/or kobudo. Some showed up at the end of the tournament just for black belt kumite. There was no one reason at times all of them occurred.

 

Strictly for myself I was just competing to push myself to become better, I had no instructor coaching me in Isshihnryu during that time. Lewis Sensei was too distant for regular class and Charles had returned to the USAF for his career. Though I trained with many fine people, none of them cared about my art.

 

So I chose competition to force myself to grow.

 

It was not my concern to win, just to keep pushing myself to become more skilled.` And constantly going up against the best around helped me by doing that.

 

I was teaching youth through the Scranton Boys Club for free. I did not take most of my students to tournaments. Just a few of them at nearby tournaments at times.

 

I saw repeatedly that their parents and families took their kids to tournaments and how those young competitors were lost in the crowd of adults towering over them. It came to me that a tournament just for Youth made sense.

 

So I proceeded to throw three of them (1982, 1983 and 1984). They were without charge, the winners would receive small trophies and all would receive a certificate of participation (so everyone had something to go home with signifying they were there -  an idea I borrowed from Hidy Ochiai.

 

They grew year after year. The first two were held at the Boy’s Club gym , the third at the local Armory. No group or system won everything, all the winners came from many different places

 

It felt very good to do something for the kids.

 

And I attended more sad more tournaments to support other schools, often being placed in youth judging. Obtaining a wider picture of what others were doing.

 

The 1983 tournament at the Scranton Boys Club.

 

One of the real lessons I learned was that most tournaments were a money raising mechanism for the host instructor. I speculate for many of them they were a serious revenue for their program.

 

Then time passed, I had to move on to New Hampshire for work.

Karate was still very important to me, but I had less time for tournaments. I slowly began to move my program in a different direction, one away from tournaments.

 

 

Along the way I learned many lessons. One of the instructors I  spent much time training with on many incredible lessons. He was also an extremely skilled competitor in the region.

 

Among the lessons, when he competed in kumite he went through everyone he faced like a buzz saw. But never in class did I once see his students spar. His abilities did not come for him or his students from sparring. Instead it was the accumulation of many different practices that brought those abilities together.

 

Likewise those who observed his Kumite, Kata and Kobudo at tournaments had no idea of what he was actually about. Following that line of logic, what you see at tournaments tells you nothing about how and what individuals really train in.

 

The tournament performance is but a shadow of the actual arts they practice