I fought in my first Martial Arts Tournament yesterday.I don't know if you've ever been to one of these but they're interesting. That being said I'm not sure how useful they are. I spent alot of the day sitting around and very little of it actually competing. This one was multidisciplinary. I entered in grappling, self-defence and point-fighting.
- I was easily beaten in grappling. I definately need to work on this.
- I scored well in self-defence and placed high in my tier.
- I like point fighting but their wasn't enough low level belts registered in my category and so all the color belts were mixed together. I fought an orange belt from a karate school whom I'm certain considered me an easy victory.
11 comments:
Competition provides a safe, organized way to not only test some of your skills, but also to practice with different people (and sometimes against different disciplines).
While sparring (especially point-fighting) is supervised and ends at a designated time or after a certain number of strikes (and therefore is not realistic, as it is quite limited), it still allows you to test and hone your speed, reflexes, stamina, and accuracy.
I mean this not as a condescending comment, but as a martial artist I think you should ask yourself whether your not learning from this experience indicates some flaw in the tournament or some error on your part.
[insert wise Oriental words here]
Very well said. I completely agree (and didn't hear any condescending tone). The trouble I had was that I would have loved to have more practice. More chances to learn. For a grandtotal of what must have been less than 20 minutes on the mat, I invested an entire day (not to mention a minor entrance fee).
I understand that this is the nature of a tournament. Do two different schools ever get together for a day, letting one school lead for half the time and the other school lead for the other half? We have had instructors come in from other schools and individual pupils too but never entire clubs.
I my experience, it's rare for entire clubs/classes to migrate like that for a day. This is primarily because instructors wouldn't want to disrupt their own schedule in order to make the trip (because they make their money partially by having a consistent schedule that students can rely on), and most students wouldn't be able to/want to make the trip if it disrupts their usual schedule.
This can be a good thing, though, because crowding can be an issue.
Most of the time, it's just an instructor and some of his more devoted/higher ranked assistants visiting to do a "seminar" at the request of the hosting instructor.
Also: is Batman really the best martial artist ever?
Lady Shiva typically bests him. Also, he and Richard Dragon have never really gone head-to-head (as far as I know). And it was Connor Hawke who defeated the Silver Monkey (I think).
And, of course, there's Cassandra, Cain, Ben Turner, Natas, and O-Sensei. Just to name a few.
I'm kind of dragging my heels on "Batman -- Martial Artist", but it's taking a long time so that I can cover as many styles as I think necessary. The end, however, I think should be a decent overview of HOW Batman's martial arts training would go. But before I get there, I want to cover a few more Chinese styles, then about 5 or so Japanese styles.
That's just perfect. I had initial writen a PS for the bottom of the post which stated that I knew Batman wasn't even in the running for the best martial artist in the DCU. But then I said to myself, "What the hell. Maybe it will generate some comments."
Lady Shiva definately schools Bruce. So does Connor. The consensus seems to be that although Connor can hold his own against Shiva, she is his better at least consistancy-wise.
Things seem to get blurry with the top four or so (Shiva, Hawke, Richard Dragon, Bronze Tiger?) but if we take into account the "Good Guys Always Win" phenomenon than we should probably conclude that in all honesty the title belongs to Shiva.
By the way, I didn't comment on your last post but it was good as always.
to add to the discussion of best martial artist in the DCU.. You have to consider Black Canary. She was already pretty shit hot then Shiva taught her for a while. Didn't she beat Shiva once?
I didn't know that. When?
Was the Golden Age Dinah particularily noted as a martial artist?
I'm sure Dinah vs Shiva was in Birds of Prey. I'm 90% certain she got taught by Shiva during Birds of Prey, and I think there was some carry over to her 4 part mini series, about her and Sin, before she said yes to Ollie's proposal.
Golden age Dinah was a judo expert. she acquired all her other martial arts skills after the first crisis.
I didn't read Simone's Birds of Prey but recently (under your suggestion maybe even) I've been reading her work on Wonder Woman and have been really enjoying it. I think BoP may be one of my monthlies when she starts with them again.
I wrestled competitively in high school for four years and coached a little after that. I usually used tournaments as a barometer for how well I was doing at advancing in my ability as I was getting started. As my understanding of the sport grew, I began to realize that it gets more nuanced at higher levels. Noticing this is one of the most crucial aspects of my development, as I began to watch (in real-time as opposed to practice) how different moves worked. I would take notes on how different things worked and use practice as a forum for trying these things out. A large part of learning comes from observing (this is true for any subject).
I would recommend that next time, try to watch the level directly above yours and see if you can spot where the faults are in their form. As you watch long enough, you will start to see the kind of things that will make you better. Once you see a great match, it will make a lot more sense. In wrestling we always used to say "moves beat muscle, positioning beats speed". Stick with it.
I dig the blog by the way.
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