Tournament Logistics

Runs With Fire

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An upcoming tournament in which I had entered was postponed until further notice due to lack of commitment. It was hosted by my school. Basically there were about thirty would be competitors but many never got around to/ forgot about the formal applications. Only had nine properly completed applications. Now, this school also hosts an annual conference within the same martial arts community with an attendance around two hundred. I am going to make a presentation to management to hold the tournament during the conference as one of the scheduled classes/ activities. Since management is already quite busy during the conference, I am going to offer to work out the logistics to make it happen. I need to do something as I haven't been teaching in a while.

I would like advice on setting up and running a tma tournament ie. brackets, preliminary rounds, final rounds, and how to keep it lively and exciting.
 
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Runs With Fire

Runs With Fire

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My proposal seems to have garnished a fair deal of positive reception within the school management. Can't believe they responded so quick. They like my ideas. Thus far, I'd better start planning.
 

CB Jones

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Bracketing is bracketing....just have to decide if it will be single or double elimination.

The main thing to keep it flowing is make sure you have judges and scorekeepers.

Put 1 or 2 people as facilitators helping keeping everything going smoothly.

Have your facilitators and you use Walkie Talkies to help with communication
 
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Runs With Fire

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Bracketing is bracketing....just have to decide if it will be single or double elimination.

The main thing to keep it flowing is make sure you have judges and scorekeepers.

Put 1 or 2 people as facilitators helping keeping everything going smoothly.

Have your facilitators and you use Walkie Talkies to help with communication
I'd prefer multiple elimination, if time will allow. I'm going to figure on both until I have a better idea of the numbers I have to work with. My gut says I will have time for multiples.
 

CB Jones

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I'd prefer multiple elimination, if time will allow. I'm going to figure on both until I have a better idea of the numbers I have to work with. My gut says I will have time for multiples.

If you have enough judges and scorekeepers to keep at least 5-6 rings running it should work out.
 

Gerry Seymour

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Have your facilitators and you use Walkie Talkies to help with communication
This is big for any event. I've seen corporate training events stumble because two people were running around trying to find each other. Key personnel should be on earsets, so they hear everything that's said on the walkies.
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

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Please explain.
What used to happen in my some fencing meets, we would start off with a pool of 4 or 5. People in the pool would all fence each other, and the best "x" number would proceed to double elimination. Those people would be seeded based on their results in the pool, giving everyone an hour or so break while another weapon would fence and the people running the tournament figured out the seeds.

That said, since this may be smaller, you could do a round robin with the winner from each pool moving toward, and "pre-seeding" the pools randomly to save time once all the pools are finished.
 

CB Jones

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What used to happen in my some fencing meets, we would start off with a pool of 4 or 5. People in the pool would all fence each other, and the best "x" number would proceed to double elimination. Those people would be seeded based on their results in the pool, giving everyone an hour or so break while another weapon would fence and the people running the tournament figured out the seeds.

That said, since this may be smaller, you could do a round robin with the winner from each pool moving toward, and "pre-seeding" the pools randomly to save time once all the pools are finished.

With this being your 1st tournament I would be careful not to bite off too much with trying to do pools and or round robins.

Typically, the tournaments we go to are a couple hundred competitors and kata, weapons, and sparring (single elimination) takes 5-6 hours to complete.
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

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With this being your 1st tournament I would be careful not to bite off too much with trying to do pools and or round robins.

Typically, the tournaments we go to are a couple hundred competitors and kata, weapons, and sparring (single elimination) takes 5-6 hours to complete.
I agree with that, was just explaining how those tournaments work.
 
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Runs With Fire

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I have two days at the conference to pull it off. I was thinking, for sparring, if I have around ten in a division, everybody fights everyone once in the preliminary. Placement is based on total points scored, or matches won. Top four compete in a first to five points basic bracket final round.
 
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Forms, I might put weapons with non weapon forms ,as personally, I see no reason why not and I need to keep numbers up in each division. Forms will have two rounds and a different form must be presented each round. Forms will be judged with a score sheet listing x number of scoring categories from 0-10. Average score of both rounds will be used for placement. Ties will be determined by a showcase of both competitors by display of technique.
 
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Runs With Fire

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The biggest thing I want to do is avoid too many age/skill level categories. I talked with my wife about two skill categories. She thinks red belt and above for a category, and everything lower in another category. I was thinking restricted (color belts), and then open (brown and above)
 

CB Jones

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I have two days at the conference to pull it off. I was thinking, for sparring, if I have around ten in a division, everybody fights everyone once in the preliminary. Placement is based on total points scored, or matches won. Top four compete in a first to five points basic bracket final round.

Ok but keep in mind a 10 competitor round robin will generate 45 fights in that division.
 

CB Jones

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Forms will be judged with a score sheet listing x number of scoring categories from 0-10.

Be careful not to over complicate it for your judges or competitors.

Just a suggestion but you might just want to let judges score on a 10.0 point rating system.
 

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