Competing

[Sensei Tom O'Brien]

My students have the opportunity to compete in the AAU State, Regional & National Karate Championships all within 2 hrs. of driving time. But nobody wants to compete. I don't believe in forcing students to compete but maybe somebody has some ideas on how I can promote the application process.
Thanks,
Tom

 

[terryl965]

Sir this is one of my favorite lines to tell my newe students about competition, only a small percantage of all Martial Artist compete it is a trill and foreveb will be a memory and a way to build strong friendships over the year. I have personnally known people from the seventy from competition and the friendship will last forever. I hope this helps it does at my school and also let them know that the AAU is a friendly type of experience and brings out the best is sportmanship.

 

[JWLuiza]

Sign up to compete yourself... Your students look up to you, so being able to see you compete might light a fire in them.

 

[Blindside]

You have to lead by example, if you, or one of the other instructors isn't competing, why should the students have any incentive? I have seen it several times where if the leadership of a school stops competing, the students follow suit.

Lamont

 

[Grenadier]

An easy way to get some folks interested, would be to do a mini-competition in your own dojo. Have a kata competition, a kumite competition, and / or a kobudo competition, amongst just the folks in your dojo. You don't even have to do all three events at a time; you could just do a kata competition on one day, and then a kumite competition a couple months later, etc.

Use the AAU or USA-NKF rules (they're both fairly similar anyways, just some scoring and penalty differences).

Let there be some small prize, or a few trophies. Once some people get a taste of competition, they'll be less afraid to try bigger ones. I honestly believe that people don't compete because they're either afraid to try, or because they don't know how enjoyable it can be.

 

[Sona_Bear]

I agree with the suggestion to compete yourself. Show your students how you're preparing; it really helps generate interest.

We give out 3-time, 6-time, and 10-time competitor medals in our dojo, regardless of results; it's important to reward them for going out there and putting their skills on display.

 

[Kacey]

My students and I all competed in a tournament together last weekend. If I won't, why should they?

 

[Carol]

Well...I'm going to a martial arts event that is less than 2 hours away tomorrow.

I'm scheduled to be on call at work, but I won't be able to be on-call. So I had to have one of my colleagues cover for me. That's going to cost me $50.00. Gas will be about $30.00 each way. The cost to get in will be about $50.00. I'm budgeting an extra $20.00 or so for lunch and the bottled water/Gatorade that I'll undoubtedly be sucking down all day. I'll probably bring cash for the event in case I want to buy a t-shirt or DVD or some kind of expendable item. I'm budgeting about $50.00 for that. After working out in the morning, then breaking for lunch, and then working out in the evening....I'm going to be tired as hell...but I'm ogoing to have a 1.5-2 hour drive in front of me. Eating dinner before I go will probably be a good idea. Depending on where we end up, how good the lunch was (or wasn't) and what kind of appetite I've worked up...that could be anywhere from $20 - $50.

So...I'm looking at $200.00 - $250.00 for cash.


To be there on time, I'll need to get up at the crack of dawn...which is painfully early for me on a Saturday, esp. considering I won't even make it home from work until 1am at the earliest. Well...from the time I get up to the time I get out the door, I'll be focused on getting ready for the event. Getting showered and dressed, getting my gear bag packed, etc. I'll be out of the house around the time most people start getting up on a weekend day. I'll be driving out to the event for 2 hours...allowing time for bad weather, traffic, a stop for coffee, and gassing up the Hondar. Then I'll get to the event and spend the good part of the day there. We'll have fun do our thing, then by the time we wrap up for the evening, it will be dinner time. I'll go out with everyone, have a bite to eat...and I'm guessing that I'lll be leaving no earlier than 7:30 or 8. Which means, I'm getting home no earlier around 9:30 or so.

My engineering homework? Nope, I'll be too tired. The errands or stuff around the house I have to do...I'm sure I won't be in the mood for doing...or won't be able to because of the hour. Going to see friends? Well...I had something planned for Sunday, but I'm going to have to cancel that because I'll need to spend Sunday doing homework and everything else that I didn't get a chance to do on Saturday.

That's what it will take for me to show up at this martial arts event on Sunday.

Will it be worth it? I think so. But I can say definitively is that one of the things that is going to make it worth it is because my instructors will be there, and my training partner is probably going to be there, at least one other person that I know and respect highly will be there and likely a couple other people that I know and enjoy training with will be there.

I'm willing to make that kind of investment for that kind of day.

But to make that investment just because its martial arts and its within a couple of hours? No way.