What are the benefits of competitive Taekwondo/Martial Arts?

[Jaeimseu]

I'm hoping we can keep this positive, avoiding the "martial arts were never intended to be sport" whining/complaining that seems to often accompany this kind of topic.

For those who compete or teach competitors, what are the benefits to Tkd/MA in a competitive/sport environment? For those who don't participate in sport MA, what positive points do you see?

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[drop bear]

Some of the oldest examples of martial arts are sport. Basically wrestling.

(Image taken off a really old wall)

Sport is a method of resisted training that allowed a person to engage in violence without the drawback of being crippled or killed.(mostly).

Sport training is realistic provided you accommodate three issues sport faces.

They are fighting back.

They are about as good at fighting as you are.

Nobody learns if they are getting hurt all the time.

So to accommodate those issues sport requires rules and refs and all sorts of limitations placed on the fighter.

But are these limitations such a bad thing. Without the advantages a person must adapt what they have. For example I mma.

I use striking as an advantage to make throws easier. But I also wrestle where throwing someone is harder. Limiting my option in training forces my skills to increase.

When guys fight camp. They fight fresh person after fresh person denying themselves more advantage in training.

This way when there are more options I am at an advantage over someone who has trained buy giving themselves all the advantages in training.

Train hard fight easy is the motto of competitive martial arts.

In competition winning by incapacitating your oponant Is a very real prospect. This despite the gloves the rules the safe environment the ref and the other guy who is a trained fighter who knows he is going to fight and has prepared months in advance.

The amount of over engineering your self defence to achieve that result is quite phenomenal. But also should you wish to compare competition to self defence. It works exactly in competition as it works on the street.

A boxer can incapacitate an attacker even if for some insane reason he decided to defend himself with gloves and following every rule of his sport. It works exactly as it says on the box.

And competitive fighters don't have to. They can take advantage of hard pavement bare knuckle illegal strikes numbers,weapons,de escalation and all the advantages that a person has in a self defence situation.

So certainly competitive martial arts are viable as self defence and athletic pursuit as they were when they were invented. Which was basically as old as recorded human history.

 

[wingchun100]

Well, you get to know that your reflexes are there (or aren't). You get to fight against various fighters who will all move in different ways instead of the same partners over and over.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Sparring is just plain old FUN. And if it's fun, people will do it more. In "doing it more" they will become more proficient at the skills they're practicing.
After that, it's all a matter of the rules. The larger the portion of the art being trained is allowed, the more benefit from the competition.

 

[skribs]

Fun
Exercise
Learning to read opponents
Winning (or learning to lose gracefully)
Gives you a goal to accomplish
Creates an industry (protective gear manufacturing)

 

[Archtkd]

For those who compete or teach competitors, what are the benefits to Tkd/MA in a competitive/sport environment? For those who don't participate in sport MA, what positive points do you see?

1. Competition leads taekwondoin worldwide to improve fighting techniques and innovate. Many kicks, punches, evasive movements and footwork we now see regularly in Kukki taekwondo were and are being developed, modified and refined in sparring competition.

2. Competition helps taekwondoin to develop the type of self control and mental focus -- especially under extreme pressure – that one requires to win fights. Good, WTF sparring, even with it’s myriads of rules, is hard combat in which a careless mistake and loss of concentration can lead to very serious and permanent injury.

3. Poomsae competition helps one to develop better taekwondo technique, and in general has led Kukki taekwondo to standardize poomsae by laying down clear guidelines about how poomsae should be judged. In good competition, we, for example, no longer have to use terribly subjective terms like “beauty, flowed better, or looked good,” when deciding the winner.

4. Competition – sparring, poomsae and breaking -- can go a long way in lifting the spirit of taekwondoin of all ages. I have good competitors with ages ranging from 9 to 60 and they all get ecstatic when they win and more motivated to train harder when they lose.

 

[Earl Weiss]

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
― Mike Tyson

No better way to evaluate your skills then to see how they work going live and see if your psyche falls apart when you get hit.

 

[Thousand Kicks]

For me, training and competing in tournaments helps with focus.

When you are just training, it can be hard to maintain your motivation and focus. Knowing you have a tournament in a few weeks, or in the case of the truly competitive, every weekend give you a specific goal to focus on. I'm not simply talking winning and losing. I'm talking about doing some self analysis and figuring out what you truly need to practice to be a better competitor/martial artist.

 

[Jaeimseu]

I feel like the best benefit of competition is the affect is often has on the skill level of the student. The absolute best taekwondoin I've ever seen were involved with competition.

I don't think anything beats the motivation of seeing how you stack up against other competitors. It's humbling and inspiring. I've seen so many students vastly improve by participating in tournaments, edpecially tournaments where they can't easily win.

Another thing I like is that a competitive environment teaches most students that they will not always win. They will often lose, and that's ok.

 

[Kong Soo Do]

For sport/competition TKD (and other martial arts) I can see a benefit as far as cardio training. It can also be a positive outlet for stress, improve focus and provide a hobby that is a constructive use of one's time. Although it unfortunately isn't always a positive social interaction, it could/should be.

 

[Buka]

In your dojo, or in the dojo of friends you might know and train with - you know the fighters. You get familiar with what they like to throw, how they do things, their timing etc. And even if you're going up against a person with more skill, you are in a comfortable environment, one you know well. And even if you are bested in the dojo, or run out of time, you can just go up against them again and again on any given night.

In competition, you don't know anybody. Even when you compete a lot, new faces always show up. And people who suck don't usually go to competitions. There's pressure. You run out of time when you are behind - you go home. You go against a stronger opponent with equal skills you have to adjust your game on the fly - or you go home. You have an off day - you go home.

IMO, competition only improves your skill set. It also improves your patience and broadens your perspective on the arts. And if you compete a lot you're going to meet some wonderful people. (You'll meet jerks, too, but so what?)

And like Dirty Dog said, it's fun.

 

[Gorilla]

Have been able to travel the world and meet some great athletes/martial artists!