Tournaments?

I was talking to Sempai the other day and the subject of Karate tournaments came up. A lot of my training days were spent participating in various events, and she was wondering why we don't do a lot of participating these days.

To answer this question I think I first have to tell you why I participated in competition in the first place. Ever since I was 15 years old I always wanted to teach Martial Arts. Competition just didn't appeal to me; in fact I think it's fare to say I'm basically not a competitive person at heart. But since I did want to teach I always thought that by winning various events I'd have the credibility to represent my art and my Sensei as a teacher. (This was mistaken thinking - see my footnote.)

Thinking that I had to accomplish something in order to be a great teacher was really a mistake. While it's true that I wouldn't trade anything for the lessons learned through competing, the reality is none of that was necessary to be a good teacher. All that was and is required is a genuine love for the students you are blessed with; it's that love that makes people of all ages learn - it's also that ability to see the greatness in them that makes them see it in themselves. Behind every Master is someone who knew they would become a Master - someone who believed in them; and that's what all great coaches and teachers have in common.

One coach screams like Bobby Knight, another is soft spoken like Tony Dungey, but no matter what STYLE of coaching, the consistency is they care about their people and see their greatness.

But as for open tournaments, I do NOT recommend open tournaments to our students today. (We do host our own internal dojo events that I DO recommend HIGHLY.) The reason I do not recommend tournaments in the open circuit to most students has to do with the philosophy and atmosphere that we've created at our dojo. The culture of our dojo is a carefully designed ingredient to helping students learn. We have a certain way of treating each other, a certain way that we believe rank should be considered and respected but not lauded, a way we believe that higher ranks should conduct themselves. We also believe that winning is secondary to representing self and art with etiquette and dignity.

We believe that you could spend a lifetime on one segment of one art. We believe that the variety of technique is far less important than one technique performed with excellence. We believe in being flexible and open to change, but change for change sake or out of boredom is a mental and attitudinal problem that can never be fixed with a new technique, form or weapon.

The problem I have with open tournaments is that new - and often unaware - students are exposed to a clash in culture that is not representative of what we believe the Martial Arts are and should be. Sadly they sometimes can bring some of these less than positive attitudes back onto our mats and have a less than positive impact on our culture. Sometimes this can lead to the student getting sidetracked, and losing sight of what matters the most, and losing their way in their own practice.

I realize it may sound self serving to say this, but it's from the heart. I believe we've created something really special in our dojo. We've created something that shouldn't be special because it's the atmosphere that the Martial Arts was designed around; but unfortunately today it IS really special. It's my conviction that open tournaments are seldom helpful in creating a better dojo and better Martial Artists.

Do you still have the urge, just gotta know what it's like? Here is my challenge to you then: spend one year training in our dojo HARD. (no off one week on another) Train hard and fully submerge yourself in the class, the philosophy, and learn to meditate and do it daily. If you've given the dojo one year, then go and watch your first tournament and I bet you you will not be comfortable there. You will feel something is missing, something very important in the practice of the Martial Arts and you will understand my viewpoint.

Is there a place for competition in the Martial Arts world? I believe there is a place for few, and I mean very few, who might be looking for MMA experience to use that experience as sort of a test - a personal rank test - of what it's like to face their fears and challenges head on, and try one of these events. But that is the exception and not the rule, and generally an MMA event is not viewed as a "Martial Arts" event; it's generally viewed as a "sporting" event. Consequently our team members actually have a better chance at influencing the culture of the event rather than the other way around. - I've seen this happen with my own eyes!

Bottom line; train, train harder, meditate and understand the philosophy behind what we do, and don't let anything side track you on your way to becoming the Martial Artist that our ancestors would be proud of.

Just my thoughts today.