Open tournaments

[Kacey]

I've never competed in an open tournament other than TKD tournaments for TKD organizations that use the same approximate rules and forms, and I'm curious - both for myself and some of my students - about what open competition might be like.

Have you ever competed in an open tournament sponsored by a martial art other than the one(s) you train in? How far from your base style are you willing to go? What issues come up with rules differences? How do you decide if the rules are close enough that you won't just get run over by the differences?

 

[Brandon Fisher]

Yes thats all I have done is open style, open tournaments.

 

[HKphooey]

I have competed in many different tournaments/events. The one area I saw the most "issues/struggles" were forms.

 

[dubljay]

Sparring in open tournaments can be an eye opening experience, to take on someone with a totally differnt stlye and philosphy of fighting. The forms/katas can also be very insightful to watch. Competing in forms is sometimes difficult. Judges may not be familiar with the styles they are observing and may not see things 'correctly'.

My advice for competing in open tournaments, sparring: be ready for anything. Forms/kata: Choose a form/kata that you are very comfortable with, something that is easy to display you knowledge and skill. (a helpful mindset for kata is you want the judges to see what you see when performing a kata).

 

[terryl965]

Kacey, most opens have criteria's of the tournament for you so if you plan it right you have enough time to prepare yourself for them. The one different is continous point sparring no stopping at the end of the match they the judges decare the winner. Now that was fun, but next to that everything pretty much goes the same way.

 

[Kacey]

Kacey, most opens have criteria's of the tournament for you so if you plan it right you have enough time to prepare yourself for them. The one different is continous point sparring no stopping at the end of the match they the judges decare the winner. Now that was fun, but next to that everything pretty much goes the same way.

Well, continuous is what I'm used to, although I've done point sparring, so neither of those bother me. I was more curious about things like adapting to different rules about legal targets - for example, our target zone is the front of the torso from the belt up to the base of the throat, and anywhere on the head - no back (behind the seam down the side of a dobok jacket, basically), nowhere on the neck, nowhere below the belt, with any legal tool/technique, as long as it's controlled (there's more detail to that, but that's the basic) - and I know the Olympic rules allow for groin strikes, but if I remember, only kicks to the head, no hands - that would be weird for me, because I've spent so long not doing groin kicks, and punching to the head.

I've seen patterns competitors at open tournaments - some were awesome. One young woman apparently didn't expect to win, and made up a pattern... which was pretty obvious the next round when she had to repeat it, and there were 3 shoulder rolls, where there'd only been one the first time, along with a few other, fairly obvious changes... very strange...

 

[Grenadier]

I've gone to a few open tournaments in the past, with mixed results.

Some were well-conducted, and well-organized. They all agreed upon using USKA-style rules, and everyone was fine with that.

One in particular, though, wasn't too endearing. Most of the schools in the area taught Japanese or Okinawan Karate, and the school that was sponsoring it purely trained for Olympic-style Tae Kwon Do sparring (chest protector, helmet). The fact that they invited mostly Karate folks, but ended up using Olympic-style rules (no hands to the head, not even any fakes), with no headgear or chest protector, and scored things only by what was acceptable in Olympic-style competition, led many folks to boycott that tournament.

I normally don't mind doing Olympic style TKD sparring, having trained in TKD for a while, but if they were going to use such rules, they should have said so.

These folks had advertised their tournament as the all-region Karate tournament, specifically using "Karate" in their title. When they were awarding points for full power kicks slamming into the competitors' bodies, with no control or pullback, I had enough of that. This isn't to say that such things normally happen. They don't. Instead, it was bad judging, bad organization, and rotten policies that doomed this tournament.

The next year, a total of 12 people attended it (down from 150).

 

[bushidomartialarts]

i'm really leary of open tournements. there's some real jerks out there, and many of them show up at the competitions.

if i don't know the organizer personally, i don't encourage my students to attend.

 

[searcher]

I have competed in "open tourneys" my entire career, whether they were point or knockdown or whatever. The one thing I wil give a caution about is be careful and protect yourself at all times. I have had people try to strike me after a break and I have had them throw shots at illegal targets. Just remember that if the get a shot to hurt you, they will!! Be prepared to put them down to the deck at a moments notice.

In the forms divisions don't take it personal if you don't score well. You will have to find out what the judges want before you will start placing and/or winning.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

Open tournaments are all I have ever been to. That is what my teacher held and attended while I was going through the ranks.

It is a lot of fun, but scoring on forms gets a little sketchy. That is kind of like artistic interpretation, unlike sparring which is cut and dry.

Still, I would think that open has the potential to be more educational for students as they are exposed to other styles, both by watching and having to spar them.

AoG