There are plenty of things you can gain from competing on the martial arts tournament scene. One of the greatest benefits for being in the sport martial arts world is seeing other martial artists from all over. Martial artists from different styles, backgrounds, personalities, etc. Chances are you may be competing with these people in your division (i.e. weapons, forms, fighting) or see them compete for the nighttime finals.
Each competitor possess different strengths and weaknesses. At tournaments, I try to utilize these to climb to the top. Unlike all games, you don’t win them all. No one likes to lose. I do not like losing because the entire purpose is to win. However, the only exception of losing is discovering oneself. For example, last national tournament I competed was at the Battle of Atlanta 2011. Unfortunately, I did not place the way how I wanted. My techniques were on point, but my timing was off. Through months, it was very difficult to pinpoint the missing piece of the puzzle. Brian Ruth, a well-respected martial artist in sport karate, stated I lacked aggression from my attacks. It was crazy enough to finally recognize this issue.
This is a priceless moment which the monetary things such as trophies and money does not matter! You it the exposure to other people foreign to you.it’s the goal setting it’s the dealing with disappointments well as success. The dojo or Dojang is your home. Like every other home, you learn the fundamentals of life. You learn health, respect, courage, leadership. These are not shared in tournaments.. In the tournament scene, you only learn the desire to win and great sportsmanship! One must return to the essential traits to anchor this endeavors.
Tournaments are a great place to utilize them. If you want to be a great athlete you must maintain proper health. If you want to do well in tournaments, you need to show respect to the past present and future competitors, coaches and judges. You step on any mat be it for forms, weapons or sparring you are showing courage to step outside of a comfort zone and allow yourself to be judged by others and finally if you are part of a team or school competing you need to take on that leadership role.
Metaphorically,some times we focus so much about the club (tournaments) in which we forget about our home training (dojo). In today’s society, this is extremely crucial. We always want to show off, turn up, but don’t want to place the necessary home skills to offer for the real world. When the club is over, you have to worry about going home safe. Are these domestic values gonna help on your way back. It’s all fun and games until the light are on and the music stops playing. It’s something to think about.
“Iron WIll”
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