Need some martial arts research for a story I'm writing

Lotuswheels22

Yellow Belt
Were there any martial art tournaments that had children through late teens, compete in fighting competitions through the 1990s to 2000? Specifically open styles or anything similar to kumite matches, maybe even also including weapon demos and such. It’s for my story for a part that takes place, particularly through the 1990’s and up to 2000. It should be in the US but can also be based on world competitions. I can’t seem to find anything. Can anyone help? Or I can just make one up?
 
They were and still are tournaments with teens sparring and weapons competition all over the country. If you are referring to a Blood Sport movie style Kumite then I am not aware of any.

I am not real clear what your question is.
 
Tournaments? Only a few thousand. Maybe more.

But I wonder if this is a good idea for part of your story. I mean, if you don't even know that tournaments exists, how are you ever going to write a remotely believable story?
 
Tournaments from the early seventies until right now have a bajillion kids competing. If you're running a tournament it's where a lot of the money comes in.
 
They were and still are tournaments with teens sparring and weapons competition all over the country. If you are referring to a Blood Sport movie style Kumite then I am not aware of any.

I am not real clear what your question is.

Not a Blood Sport type. More like Karate Kid but with open styles that compete but they would all follow the same rules set. Would this be believable that a tournament like this existed in the 90's to the end of 2000?

Tournaments? Only a few thousand. Maybe more.

But I wonder if this is a good idea for part of your story. I mean, if you don't even know that tournaments exists, how are you ever going to write a remotely believable story?

Since this story has fantasy elements, could I just make a fictional tournament thstvwas set up at this time in the 90's? Or if it was out of the states.
 
Since this story has fantasy elements, could I just make a fictional tournament thstvwas set up at this time in the 90's? Or if it was out of the states.

It's fantasy, you can do whatever you want. That doesn't change the fact that a person who doesn't know anything about martial arts and tournaments is really really unlikely to be able to write a believable story about martial arts and tournaments.
 
It's fantasy, you can do whatever you want. That doesn't change the fact that a person who doesn't know anything about martial arts and tournaments is really really unlikely to be able to write a believable story about martial arts and tournaments.

As long as I do the research it should be fine? If I combine the rules that were used in TKD, karate kumite competitions and possibly even kung fu matches, and just call it an open martial arts tournament could not work?

I also trained in traditional martial arts when I was a kid up to my early teens, but I never competed in them. When I was a little older I tried a few amature kickboxing matches.
 
I can write good. I'm just focused on getting the right information for this moment.

@Dirty Dog can you let know what you disagree with so I can correct it? Is it the type of tournament I would set up in the 90's?
 
I can write good. I'm just focused on getting the right information for this moment.

@Dirty Dog can you let know what you disagree with so I can correct it? Is it the type of tournament I would set up in the 90's?

It's the idea that you can write about a subject when you don't know anything about it. I thought I was clear about that.
 
It's the idea that you can write about a subject when you don't know anything about it. I thought I was clear about that.

I have little knowledge on martial arts, only from what I experienced but that is why I'm looking to learn more on here. I researched "martial art tournaments in the 90's" with kids to teens and all I could find were small sparring matches. So if anyone can help me with what tournaments were like during that time period, how scoring was done, and what specific styles would of allowed punches, kicks and a takedown to score a point with a strike.
 
Not a Blood Sport type. More like Karate Kid but with open styles that compete but they would all follow the same rules set. Would this be believable that a tournament like this existed in the 90's to the end of 2000?



Since this story has fantasy elements, could I just make a fictional tournament thstvwas set up at this time in the 90's? Or if it was out of the states.
No fantasy to that. The still occur on a regular basis.
 
I'm just trying to get information on what type of competitions existed in the mid 90's to 2000 and what the point systems and such were like so I can make this legit when I write about it. I don't know why I'm getting insulted just for asking in a martial arts community who has the knowledge of this, with remarks on whether I can write or not.
 
I have little knowledge on martial arts, only from what I experienced but that is why I'm looking to learn more on here. I researched "martial art tournaments in the 90's" with kids to teens and all I could find were small sparring matches. So if anyone can help me with what tournaments were like during that time period, how scoring was done, and what specific styles would of allowed punches, kicks and a takedown to score a point with a strike.

Therein lies the problem. That you apparently don't recognize the problem indicates it may well be an even bigger problem than I had initially suggested.
Write what you know. Because when people write what they DON'T know, it's painfully obvious. And ruins what might very well have been an enjoyable story.
 
I'm just trying to get information on what type of competitions existed in the mid 90's to 2000 and what the point systems and such were like so I can make this legit when I write about it. I don't know why I'm getting insulted just for asking in a martial arts community who has the knowledge of this, with remarks on whether I can write or not.
The direct answer to this is-there wasn't one type of competition that existed in that time period. This would be similar to asking "What type of restaurants existed in the 90s" because you're writing a book about a cook.

To make it realistic, you don't need to worry about the type of restaurant. You would need to work in a kitchen to have a baseline of experience, and then write based on that experience. That's where the realism comes from, not whether or not there were more sushi or italian restaurants in california in 1995.

Similarly, it doesn't matter what type of tournament you base it on. A similar tournament was bound to exist then. Just find a tournament/style that interests you in terms of writing, train for a bit so you understand what that's like, and then participate in a similar tournament so you understand what that's like, and you'll develop realism from there. If for whatever reason you're not able to do that, find current tournaments, go to some of them, and write down your observations. Again, the type doesn't matter for realism, capturing what happens there, how it happens, and people's emotions in the place does.

After that, if you want to know what's changed since then, let's say you choose kyokushin tournaments. If you want to know about rule changes or changes in strategies that occurred since the 90s, once you know the modern strategies, you can ask about those to get those aspects correct. But just a general "Were there teen martial arts tournaments in the 90s and 2000s" question isn't designed to get you a productive answer.
 

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