I remember back
in the 1980’s Karate Illustrated focused more on tournaments, including
national rankings by region around the country. Then one day about the mid
1980’s they had an idea and were going to do articles about all the great
champions of the past.
Then for about 4
issues they selected and interviewed about 4 past champions. The articles were
about their past victories and what they have been doing since that time. Invariably all of the answers were it ceased being
fun winning and so they discontinued karate.
Then
the articles stopped.
I guess Karate
Illustrated got the idea that they took the time and effort to get real good.
They realized having done that there were other things to occupy their time.
That posed a problem for KI, being as they were very involved in the tournament
scene, they didn’t want to tell people that the reality was getting so good
would cause them to move on. So KI discontinued those articles.
Now this is just
from my memory and of course I may not be remembering correctly, but this is
what it seemed like to me.
Reality is that
is not what happened each time. The example would be those who continued to
become instructors making their living by training other people.
But it made me
think. I had been competing at a regional level, but when I began many of those
competing became national champions themselves.
You worked year
after year, then when those others moved on, you became one of the competing
seniors. Perhaps your own day would come, and then you would find your own
reasons to drop completion.
Most black belts
did not compete but a few times. The few worked on their skills and grew
better.
But no one
really talks about the numbers and what the average karate-ka of any rank moves
on, and they do.
What tournaments
mean - means different things to different people. At one level they mean
income for the tournament promoter, enough so many times the promoter relies on
that income.
They are not the
only thing karate is about. They are what they are.
At one
day, at one instant, the judges declare someone wins, everyone is other than
the winner. That does not mean they are bad, they have a place to be managed in
a karate career.
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