Competitive Martial Arts...what the heck happened?

Over the past 15 years martial arts has changed drastically in terms of the purpose behind competition. Some of it has been for the better but much of it has been for the worst. In this blog post I am going to focus on two things. First the sparring at events today and secondly the attitudes of competitors in relation to traits of martial artists.

Kumite was not meant to be about who can slap who the first with an off balanced technique or who can beat who to the strike. I competed on and followed the PKC, NASKA, NBL, RSKC and a few other circuits back when I was a teen (1985-1989) and again when I was a young adult (1991-1995) and watched it change almost every year. In the mid 80's the fighters were more focused and there were more use of strategy than just wailing that I saw when I returned to the circuits in the 90's. Point fighting had become a game of bouncing around, throwing multitudes of techniques and off balanced attacks that were scored if you hit the other person...and some times even in areas that would have done nothing in a real fight. I grew up wanting to be like Steve "Nasty" Anderson, Larry Carnahan, Keith Vitale and others who I watched in awe when they fought. These guys were precise, quick, smart and if they scored there was never a question that it hit because their opponents quite often had to get back in the ring or stand back up. During the 90's fighters were all over the place and many of them had great technique but would get points called as they were falling down off balance. To me this never seemed right. The PKC in Indiana maintained more traditional guidelines than other states did in terms of scoring but to no avail as even they began to score slapping techniques and things of that nature that had no real focus or intent but rather were just whipped out there to in "hopes" of landing for a score.

I also believe that seating the top competitors is really stupid. If someone wants to claim to be the best fighter in a circuit then they should have to fight all the way through like everyone else. I was seated a few times at tournaments in the early 90's because I had enough points to be in the top 10. At those events I always got in trouble because I refused to be seated (among other things as well since I refused to pay a membership fee to join their groups). I competed because I loved it and never cared about titles or things like that. I just do not feel that it is right to seat a competitor so they get it "easy" or if they are on a team so the do not lose to a "no name" fighter which can and has happened.

Now onto the attitudes at these larger circuits. I am personally disgusted with the trash talk, ego stroking, coaching and everything else that goes on...especially on the NASKA circuit. I can understand rooting for a fellow team member but not when they are yelling out things for the fighter to do to win. That fighter is in the ring...let them be the one to win...or lose. Then you have the guys who think they are big and bad and go around flaunting their attitude towards other fighters in their division. Call it mind games, intimidation...whatever it gets old really quick especially when we are supposed to teaching people respect for our opponents. Over the years I was disqualified at more NASKA and NBL events than I can remember because I got tired of the attempted bullying of this fighters and loaded up on them in the ring...and sometimes they got me back as well which is just fine. I can also remember one of my black belts getting into it with another coach who jumped in the ring at Blue Grass Nationals in 1995 after my student beat his student (who was ranked #2 at the time). This coach ranted and raved like a two year old claiming the fight was called wrong and that they were showing favoritism to my student (who had never fought at a NASKA event). What was worse was when the center official tucked his tail and treated this loud mouth baby like they were some kind of demi-god.

1997 was the last year we competed at any NASKA event, well at least the bigger ones, because the bad mouthing and poor displays of honor, integrity and respect had became so abundant. Then in 2005 my daughter wanted to compete at the AKA Grand Nationals in Chicago so I took her and five of my students. Two of my students did very well in sparring as did my daughter but once again during the black belt fights there was coaching, smack talking and attitude flare ups all over the place. My own daughter even said she never wanted to go back because "that is not what we do". Since that time I have stopped attending these larger events and no longer follow any particular circuit. We attend several small tournaments every year and host three of our own and I can gauruntee that if anyone, regardless of who they are, were to act in those manners they would be disqualified on the spot. I am sure that would mean the "big names" would never attend our events but to be honest they may big in name but not in martial spirit. Now don't get me wrong...I know there are some very respectable fighters on those circuits that still do it right but by and large I believe the other ones have lost their way over the years.

But what do I know? I am just a small town dojo owner and Sensei who has trained for 30 years...I could just be seeing it in a different light because of how I was trained...or maybe I am seeing it in the right light because of how I was trained. Regardless until they bring back discipline, respect and honor to those events we will continue to follow the small circuits where the old traditions still matter and to score a point you have to do it cleanly with no question you made the score.