Tournament

Long day of participating in a martial arts tournament yesterday. I spent all day long judging sparring and forms, which was great fun. There is nothing quite like putting head gear on an 8 year-old and telling her to whack the other kid. OK. That is an overstatement; it isn't quite like that. Still there is a lot for students of all ages to learn.

In some divisions girls fought boys with some very good fights. The girls take not shit before being socially conditioned to. It is pretty awesome. I hope they keep that attitude as they grow older.

As a fan of both traditional and the more modern mixed martial arts, I enjoy forms competitions, but forms have to be executed properly. The whole point of forms is to work on basics and execute great technique so that when the gauntlet drops a student has practiced a jab or kick a million times flawlessly. People seem to forget that and think forms are a waste of time and useless in a real fight. Like sparring, forms have a direct application to self-defense. They apply to MMA to, but differently. You have to develop a different game for MMA, which as some rules, then you do for self-defense, but either way forms are a good way to hone some fundamental skills without a partner on the mat. Like most things in life, it is all about attitude. Too many martial artists today dismiss traditional training methods and too many dismiss MMA as not martial arts. In my view, both are necessary to self-defence and self-improvement. A person needs to practice skills and also test them in the most realistic circumstances possible. You can read every engineering book in the world, but it is worthless if you can't even change the oil in your car.

Unfortunately, because there were so many divisions of all ages and ranks to judge and monitor, we didn't get to fight. Our Professor set up some team sparring with Second and Third Degrees at the end of the day, which was really awesome to watch. In sparring, people always see the skill: timing, speed, technique, but there is also a ton of respect and spirit being developed. Fighters respect people who step us and make them step up their game, and respect is at the core of martial arts. That's why I think everybody should have some good sparring in their lives, even if it does not involve physical contact. It is healthy and good for people to spar with each other 's ideas and challenge each other's way of life. However, sparring is not fighting. Fighting is about hurting the other person as much as possible as quickly as you can, sparring is about understanding another person and coming to understand yourself. It's all about attitude. So think about that before you go spar your boss.