arnisandyz said:
I was just being speculative, not saying that it happens all the time, just that the possibility for it does exist. Consider this scenerio, a grappler who wants to prove himself (and his system) enters the stick tourney. Chances are high he will get hit, but with gear, the strikes just bounce off and he continues to the takedown- his specialty, all he needs are 3, if he can get 3 before the fight is over, it doesn't matter how many times he gets hit. He's not really cheating, just fighting within the rules. Takedowns are great and definately worth having in the tourney, they can be incorporated into an effective fight strategy and should be judged accordingly, but 3 and your out seems unbalanced. How bout 3 leathal target blows with the stick and your out?
I've never been to the Arnold, but I'll definatly check it out sometime! Sounds like a good event.
I agree completely. Like I said, I'll mention it to the other guys and we'll look at a modification to the rules to prevent this.
The reason it's a win is that, often, when a takedown is done, the fight would be done - the fighter who gets taken down often has the wind knocked out of him, sometimes loses his/her weapon, is sometimes unconscious, is almost always at a disadvantage and would, in a real situation, take a lot of damage before he/she could get back to their feet. But beyond that, if one fighter is able to take the other down three times, it shows that the one doing the takedowns is more than likely controlling the fight better.
As far as 3 lethal strikes - it's hard to define lethal strikes when no one's dying. A strike that might not phase one person might knock another out or kill yet another. However, the judges do watch for and take into consideration good power shots that might finish the fight - if they're to the head, they might KO or kill, to the body might break ribs and do internal damage, to the leg might take out the knee (but since the knee's not a legal target, they're simulating by hitting the thigh). The action is too fast to really count the strikes - the judges have to watch the action and determine, based on their experience and knowledge, who would likely have had the upper hand in a real fight - or, more accurately, a series of fights between the two people since real fights rarely last more than a handful of seconds. Watching the fights is kind of like watching a whole series of fights rolled into a couple of minutes. If I, as a judge, feel that Fighter A would have won the majority of those fights then I give Fighter A the 10 points then I give Fighter B 9 or 8 points depending on how well he fought. So if they have 10 clashes in a round and Fighter A wins 6 of them, then I'll give Fighter A 10 points and Fighter B 9 points. If Fighter A wins 8+ then I'll only give Fighter B 8 points. If Fighter A wins all 10 clashes then I'll give Fighter B 7 points - but that's pretty rare. They fight 3 rounds like that then I tally the points. Sometimes a fighter who loses the first round will win the second and third rounds, and the match, because of endurance or because the first round was decided by luck more than the skills/abilities of the fighters.
We have 4 judges (1 in each corner). They're all instructor level in at least one FMA system and have some experience at stick fighting - either in a tournament setting or at least in class sparring. If one of the fighters is a student of one of the judges, that judge steps out (we've never had to ask a judge to do so, it's always been volunteered) and another, from a different school, sits in. We try to keep it as unbiased as possible.
Mike
