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 3rd 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, George 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
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