Tournament Training

The next CCKSF Kung Fu tournament is being planned for October this year. Students that are interested in competing should start thinking about it and slowly begin to prepare.

Although it isn't necessary to do any kind of special training, it is a way to increase your chances. For anybody that is interested in trying, here are some tips on preparing.

Forms:

1. Decide which form(s) you will be performing and make sure that it gets some exposure during your workout even on days that you are focused on other things. Just running throught the forms a couple of times continues to build on your muscle memory.


2. Clarify any confusion you have on the techniques of your form now. This prevents trying to make late stage changes the week before a tournament.


3. Self regulate - look at your stances, look at your body positioning, look at your techniques. The less time we spend on correcting your form, the more time we have to work on improving your form.


4. As we get close to tournament time, shift your focus to the forms you will be using for competition. Since there are other forms with the same or similar moves in the style, it is best to avoid confusion.


5. Prior to tournament day, make sure you are comfortable with the routine of the tournament - introduction, procedures, etc. If you are not sure, ask.

Fighting:

1. Fighting is much more difficult to prepare for because your opponents are unknown. Start by making sure you get a bit of practice in whenever possible, even if it is just working on specific techniques instead of free sparring.


2. Make sure to practice against various opponents instead of just one regular sparring partner. This will give you some work with different fighting personalities, different favourite moves, different sizes and different levels of aggressiveness.


3. Vary your fighting style between aggressive and passive to give you options depending on situations that may arise during the tournament fights.


4. As you get closer to tournament time, make sure you take some time to fight in more aggressive situations. Make sure your partner agrees and have some of the instructors watching...this will simulate some of the more aggressive tendancies that come out during the tournaments.


5. Well before tournament day you should review the rules to make sure there are no surprises.


6. Make sure that you are prepared to have fun and learn from the tournament whether you win or lose.

I want to be clear that this preparation is optional. The main idea is to compete to experience the atmosphere, push yourself out of your comfortable setting of your school, see what other styles do and make a few new friends so those students that choose to go without preparing can still have a valuable experience. As you gain more experience in martial arts, you will find that you can be asked to perform without much notice so it is much better to be prepared all the time.

The 21st Annual Canadian Kung Fu Championship 2010

October 16th will be the date for this year's CCKSF tournament. Information can be viewed at www.wushu.ca

Tournament in Quebec

For anybody that is interested, there is a tournament in Quebec on the weekend of May 1st. As some may remember, we competed in the tournament when it was in Ottawa in 2006 with great results. The details for the tournament (World Kobudo Championships) can be viewed on the CCKSF website.

James' First Tournament

Just a quick note on the CCKSF tournament from this past weekend. We had one competitor from our school this time around but it was a great experience. James went into his first tournament and won a Bronze in Hand Forms and a Silver in Sparring. Congratulations James. Good showing for your first time out.

CCKSF Tournament Reminder

This is just a reminder of the CCKSF Kung Fu tournament coming up on the 31st. Details at http://www.wushu.ca/ for those that are looking for info on it. I will be there as usual and would be happy to see anybody that wants to compete or just check it out.

Sparring Videos From Last Tournament

Here are some videos that one of the CCKSF group posted on Youtube from the last tournament. Those in my class will notice a few familiar people in here.

Praise from the Pres

For those of you that were not in class when I spoke about it, we got some great praise from the President of the CCKSF recently. He had video taped all of the fighting in the most recent tournament and after watching it was very impressed with one of our competitors (J.P.) In fact, he said he has been waiting for 10 years to see this type of progression in the fighting division. For years there has been the hope that fighting would progress away from standard exchange of punches and street fighting to a more refined style of fighting. To finally see effective use of counterattacks and resistance of the urge to just throw fast punches even when the opponents are doing it was very enjoyable for him to watch. We have discussed this in class over the years and we definitely see that fighting properly is not the ideal in these fighting situations but I have a strong belief that the ones that stick to it will eventually be the better Martial Artists.

We seem to have the attention of the President and have him thinking of ways to get the rest of the competitors going in the same direction. Way to go JP and the rest of the competitors that have tried to fight the way we teach in class.

Picture Slideshow

I mentioned to some of the students that I had put together a slideshow with a bunch of pictures that I had (mostly from tournaments). I guess this is one way to get them posted for the class to see. Enjoy!!!

CCKSF Tournament Crew

A small group of students competed this weekend in the CCKSF Kung Fu tournament. Along with a great chance for Kai and Kevin C to get some tournament experience, we had some medal winning performances from a couple of the more senior students in the group, Jason and JP. Great job guys.

Medals won were:

• Jason - Gold in Advanced Long Weapons
• Jason - Bronze in Advanced Hand Forms
• JP - Gold in Advanced Short Weapons
• JP - Bronze in Advanced Hand Forms
• JP - Bronze in Fighting (Heavyweight Division)

More important was once again recognition from judges that the proper use of techniques by our students (in both forms and fighting) was a good example for other competitors moving forward. Even in fights that were not victories, the students did a great job of controlling techniques and producing a great technical fight. In these tournaments, I believe this is the true indication of the success of the students and a strong endorsement that our training methods will produce proper martial artists in the long run.

Announce Yourself

As a judge in tournaments for many years, I have seen many students come up to perform. I have seen many ways of announcing their forms and have formed some preferences. Here are some tips for those that intend to compete in forms/kata competition:

1. Always bow - show your respect for the judges.
   
2. Speak in a loud clear voice. If I can't hear you, there is no point to speaking to me. Remember the tournament is a noisy place.
3. Announce your name
4. Announce your school and/or instructor
5. Announce your form

Another Local Tournament

I had previously posted some events that I thought might be good experiences for the students. I recently received an ad for an open tournament that seems to be in a fairly accessible location for many of the students so thought I would add that link too. This is on Saturday, November 29th in Toronto - here is the link. I have never been to this tournament so do not have any recommendations for it but it seems like it might be good for those that want to experience an open run by Karate practitioners.

10 Thoughts About Tournament Competition

Many students of Martial Arts will become involved in tournaments at some point in their training career. I have competed quite a bit and trained many competitors over the years. I think it is important to understand some important things about tournaments as you enter into competition:

1. Tournaments are a great way to see other styles and schools as a comparison to your school. Tournaments are not an absolute indication of how good schools are but are a good way to see what techniques are done by other styles and enjoy the differences in forms.
2. Winning a tournament is something to be proud of because it is an indication that within the rules of the tournament, you were the top performer. You are also representing your instructor and school successfully.
   
3. Losing a tournament is not the end of the world. Remember that tournaments are designed with a set of rules and therefore there are some judgments used to determine winners. Do not be discouraged if you do not do well within the defined set of rules.
   
4. Go to tournaments with the goal of experiencing the atmosphere. Tournaments should be more about the experience and less about the result.
5. Try to make friends. As you compete you will start to recognize other regular competitors. Martial Artists are all practicing for similar reasons. You will likely find others that are like minded at tournaments.
6. Cheer for your classmates. Attendance at tournaments is also a way to support other students from your school that are in the tournament.
7. Gain experience performing in front of a crowd. Tournaments are a great way to get used to the fear of performing in front of an audience. This confidence can carry on into your everyday lives.
8. Gain experience performing under the pressure of being judged. Once again, this can carry on into your everyday lives.
9. Gain experience fighting with unfamiliar partners. As you practice fighting, you will become comfortable with the techniques used in your style as well as the fighting styles of your classmates. Tournaments are a good way to practice fighting in situations where you do not know what techniques to expect.
10. Gauge your performance. You have an opportunity to analyze your performance after a tournament to determine if you know your forms well (did you freeze or perform without hesitation), how comfortable you are with your techniques (did you throw a variety of techniques during fighting or rely on a few techniques) and how comfortable you were walking up and executing in front of a group of judges.

I believe that every student should compete at some point in their training career for the experience. This should be done with the clear understanding that you do not need to win to be proud of yourself.