dalen7
10-01-2009, 01:57 PM
This past weekend I went to the kupa here in my small village where they were holding a kyokushin tournament.
Ive never been to a live martial arts tournament of any kind.
There are a some things that struck me as odd while there and I thought I would share my observations here and see what feedback it brings. ;)
- mixed belts fought each other. [of course they had same belt matches as well.]
black with brown, yellow with green, etc
- vastly different weight and heights were mixed.
I saw a tall boy make a smaller girl of lesser rank cry.
[could have been a smaller boy, was hard to tell with the headgear etc.]
Same boy hurt someone else who was also of different stature and rank.
- from what I was told 5 people went to the hospital.
- some large guys were fighting and one guy was embarrassed, so he stopped any sign of technique and just started trying to pound the other guys ribs. You could see the punch coming way before it happened as he pulled all the way back to pound on the guy... kind of awkward how this played out.
- on a more positive note, my thaiboxing instructor, who also does kyokushin karate, was fighting and his technique seemed to be to take punches, and then go off with really quick combos.
The offensive was cool, but Im not into the defensive of receiving the punch... to much like Rocky and wont help in the long run I dont feel. ;)
Also he was fighting a brown belt and he is at black, again not sure whats with this - but some of the browns beat the black belts, so who knows.
- I did notice that one guy flipped a guy who was trying to kick him on the ground. But it seemed this was not really permissible. In a way this invalidates kyokushins kicks as most of the higher ones you can just take and shove the guy on the ground and start wrestling.
- bare hands, ouch... some of their chest the way it was beat Im glad there wasnt a cardiac arrest. :) No hitting the face is awkward and no grappling as well, as pointed out.
In short, that is my first live viewing of a martial arts tournament. It went on all day, but I was there for a couple hours to have a look toward the end.
Each sport has its own pros and cons, and depends on what you want to take from it. What seems to be an issue is the parts which hold you back and you get in a system of believing that things operate a certain way, when outside your reality you would get the crap beat out of you. [i.e. the higher kicks which would be easier for a take down.]
Of course Aikido is no different. It all depends on what you want to get out of it... hopefully people will see the various paths to choose from instead of putting on a certain style the idea that it is capable of certain aspects that perhaps in its current iteration it isnt... make sense? ;)
Peace
dAlen