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Show up, Pay up, Line up, Shut up
(Unwritten
Tournament Rules)
I have attended hundreds of tournaments as
either a participant and/or an official. I believe that I have seen about
every kind of behavior and incident that can possibly occur at one of these
events. I know and appreciate how hard the sponsors work to put on a good
tournament, and how hard they try to make everyone happy. Alas, all
tournaments are judged by how unhappy people are when all the competition is
finished. I know that there would be a lot less hassles, hard feelings and
anger if everyone would follow the simple rules that I preach to my
students: Show up, Pay up, Line up and Shut up.
SHOW UP
If you are going
to compete in a tournament, it behooves you to show up in plenty of time.
Unless your crystal ball is a heck of a lot more accurate than mine, you
have no idea of when your division is going to start. Oh sure, you may have
a rough guesstimate, but it is only a guess. So if the tournament is
supposed to start at 10:00 a.m. (and I acknowledge it is rare for any
tournament to start at the advertised time), then be there at 9:00 a.m. By
doing so you will have plenty of time to change, get stretched out, get a
feel for the layout of the venue (knowing the locations of all of the
bathrooms can be critical), and, most importantly, check out your potential
competition.
Sometimes it is hard to know exactly whom you will be competing
against, but you can get a rough idea by looking at the color of the belts,
and the people that appear to be in your age bracket. Make a mental note of
the kinds of uniforms that you see: generally speaking a Tae Kwon Do dobok
can mean that you will be seeing a lot of kicks coming your way during
sparring; a black gi could indicate a Kenpo stylist, which are known for
their punches and hand combinations; an all white gi may belong to a
traditionalist that uses more static stances, reverse punches and front
kicks. Don’t bet the farm on any of these ideas, they are just ballpark
clues, but they may help.
A
more concrete clue is to watch how your potential opponents warm up. If they
are warming up for sparring, believe it or not, many times they will warm up
with their best techniques. Remember what you see, because I will bet you
that you will see those same techniques again if you face that fighter, or
even that style, in the ring. If you see many of your potential competitors
warming up with the same kata that you were going to use, then change your
kata to something that will standout and contrast with theirs. The judges
get bored with seeing the same kata over and over again. Give them an excuse
to give you a higher score. I actually heard a judge mutter, “Thank
God!” when a competitor displayed a different form than we had been seeing
alllll! day
If you are coming to the
tournament to help out and judge the events, then it is even more important
to show up early, or at least on time. Besides the whole respect thing, -
setting a good example and all of that - the officials meetings are usually
held about 1 hour before the start of the shindig. If the time of the judges
confab is advertised, you have no excuse to be late, or worse yet, miss the
meeting all together. You’re a Black Belt for Pete’s sake! Set an
example of responsibility and promptness. The rules meeting is designed to
give you information that will help you do your gratis job with some level
of competency and uniformity. If you don’t attend, or are late, you could
miss some important rule changes that would result in you having a very long
day, highlighted by being pulled from your ring for constantly messing up.
After the meeting, go to your assigned ring or officials holding area and
stay there.
PAY UP
If you have seen the flyer
advertising the tournament you should know how much it is going to cost you
to enter, and compete, in one or more of the divisions. Have that amount, in
cash, on hand. If the entry fees are not advertised (and I can’t imagine
why they wouldn’t be), then contact someone in charge and find out what it
is going to set you back to play. Bring cash because many tournaments will
not accept checks or credit cards.
The entry fees are not the only
things that you may have to spend your hard earned cash on. If there are
snack bars at the venue, you will need to have some spare change in case you
get the munchies. Most tournaments require specific kinds of sparring
equipment; groin protection, mouthpiece, foot and hand gear, head protection
and sometimes chest protectors, and not all tournaments have extra gear
available for sale. Some tournaments, depending on the divisions that you
have entered in, require that uniforms be a certain color or style. You have
to supply this paraphernalia yourself, and if your existing gear is in a
shoddy or torn condition then you need to replace everything with new,
approved battle rattle, and equipment cost can run as high as several
hundred dollars. I have seen several people share equipment such as foot or
hand gear, - and I once saw, to my disgust, two men share a mouth piece -
but you’re going to be better off if you have your own equipment.
Paying
up doesn’t just apply to the money. Your school or instructor may want you
to enter a certain tournament to fulfill an agreement or obligation with the
tournament sponsor(s) –pay-up. The association or organization that you
belong to may encourage, or downright insist, that you attend certain
tournaments – pay up. And off course, if you are a Black Belt and have
been asked to help out at a tournament then you have an obligation to do so
– pay up.
LINE UP (and Listen Up)
Pay attention to the public
address system that announces which divisions are being formed up. It is
usually hard to hear and/or understand what is being said, so listen up. And
don’t go running up to just any official every 15 minutes asking if your
group has been called. It’s probably not his job to keep track of when, or
if, your division has been announced. Just because a person is wearing a
Black Belt, that doesn’t mean that they are keeping track of everything
that is going on around them.
If you have been directed to the
staging area or a ring, go there, and stay there. This means that you
are ready to compete when you get there; have on hand any equipment that you
will need, plus water or whatever support gear that you require. The judges
assigned to your ring should not have to hold up the competition, and baby
sit you, because you have wandered off looking for misplaced equipment, or
you have walked over to another ring to watch your buddy compete. The
officials need to make sure that the correct numbers of people are in the
right division, and the right ring. Help them out by being where, and when,
you are supposed to be, and staying there. These same hard working officials
will probably be giving you some important information – like the rules
– so be quite and pay attention.
Judges and officials need to line
up also. Your job is to run your ring like you know what you are doing. As a
judge or official give a hoot about the welfare of the competitors by not
acting like you’re bored, or that this task is beneath you. All officials
should know the competition rules and safety guidelines, and be able to
explain them to their charges. Line up in your ring with the intent to give
the best that you can give. You volunteered to help out, and if you are not
where you’re supposed to be, then you are not a help, but a hindrance, to
the smooth and timely running of the tournament. I can understand the need
for a bio break after being in a ring for a long time, but I have had judges
excuse themselves, never to return. That didn’t help anyone.
SHUT UP
You would think that, of all
places, one would see good conduct at a martial arts tournament, but you
would be disappointed. You would be excused if you thought that the majority
of the problems came from the little kids, or lower ranking belts, but you
would be wrong. If you made a real wild guess and thought that maybe the
parents gave a lot of grief, you would be partly correct. Sadly, the ones
who incur the most disruptions, i.e., complaining, gripping and whining are
the instructors and other Black Belts; the one group that you would think
should have it together. A tournament is a contest that is meant to be fun
and challenging. Judging kata is very subjective, and the opinion of
performance can vary from judge to judge. Sparring is about as far removed from real combat as one can get. It is a
game of tag, and it doesn’t define the worth of the style, system or
instructor. So everyone should get a grip, do a reality check and shut up.
If, as a competitor, you don’t
know the rules or where you should be, it is probably because you did not
shut up and listen. If you don’t like, or agree with, the rules or the
format of the tournament – shut up. The rules are the rules, and the
format is the format, and complaining about them won’t get them changed.
Adjust and adapt. If you don’t like one of the judges, for whatever reason
– shut up. The officials are working their butts off for free, and are
trying to do the best that they can while being hollered at by parents,
instructors, and many times by the promoters themselves. In over thirty
years of competition I have never known a judge to deliberately cheat. Since
the judges are human it should be no surprise that they can make bad calls,
use poor judgment and generally screw up, but I always assume that they
would never cheat. If you think that you have a bad judge in your ring, then
do a good enough job so that it won’t matter who the judges are. If you
are sparring and you throw your best never-fail technique and don’t get a
point – shut up. Don’t complain to the judges, your opponent or your
instructor. If you know that you got the point in, and that you should have
won, that is all that matters. If you did a great job but didn’t win a
trophy – shut up. Those gold-colored trophies are not real gold, they are
plastic. Besides, how much would that trophy be worth if you won one, but
you knew you did not deserve it because you had done poorly?
Here are some
things that I have seen at tournaments that illustrate my point: I believe
that Black Belts should set an example of sportsmanship, and not let their
egos get the best of them. Having said that, I have seen Black Belts
carefully note down how each judge scored them during their kata
competition, and then become incensed when a judge scored one of the other
contestants higher. My thought would be, maybe their kata was not as great
as their ego told them it was, and maybe, just maybe, the other guy was
better. I had one person tell me, “that judge scored that last contestant
higher than me, even though he made mistakes when performing his kata”. I
would have been too embarrassed to point out that someone did their kata,
made mistakes, and his kata was still viewed and judged to be better than
mine!
I have heard sterling yudansha
complain bitterly about points that were not given to them during sparring.
They loudly proclaimed that the judges were blind, prejudiced and didn’t
know anything about fighting. The thought that his opponent may have been
smarter, better, more experienced and maybe even luckier, never seemed to
occur to our fallen hero. What kind of example does this Black Belt think he
is setting for his students? Does he think that those judges will forget his
pouty actions? Is he thinking about the impression that he is making on his
students, or any future judges, that might be standing around listening to
him spew? It just makes me want to yell, “Why don’t you just show up,
pay up, line up and SHUT UP!”
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