Competition season in karate, with the change in weather, is upon us and many of the students in my karate school are planning to participate this coming weekend at an AAU qualifier for the Karate Nationals. The students are working very diligently to perfect their skills in kata and kumite and it's a true pleasure to see so many of our dojo principles put in to action. My favorite, especially, for this time of year is: Seriousness, Try Hard, and Never Give Up! With that attitude, I expect every one of our participants to do extremely well.
Competition in karate is a unique concept. As many people probably know, I am a huge Karate Kid movie fan (the first one!) and an enormous plot line is the main character's training for a tournament to once and for all keep those mean ol' Kobra Kai's from continuing to beat him up. In the end, Daniel-San wins the tournament against his arch-nemesis with the infamous "crane stance" kick. The good thing about this movie is that winning the tournament was not the important point; conquering one's fears and not other people IS the whole idea. Yet another concept that we train by in our dojo is that our purpose is "Not to conquer others, but to conquer the weaknesses in oneself." We have this precept painted on the wall above the mirrors in our dojo, so that it is literally right in front of your face. Many is the time that I have been struggling through a drill or kata and looked up and taken those words to heart.
Competition is a worthwhile endeavor in any karate school, particularly if entered into with the attitude that you are competing against your own weaknesses. It seems almost antithetical since you are often in the ring with another competitor. Rather than wanting to "beat up" your opponent, the goal is to do YOUR best. Can you be just a bit faster? Can you get over your feelings of nervousness to perform a kata as flawlessly as you can? Yes, you want to "defeat" your opponent, but do you really want to hurt your opponent? Karate is for the purpose of defending oneself; not causing pain and torment in a tournament setting. Yes, we train to hurt others, but only under the threat of serious harm coming to us from someone else. Tournaments teach you how to be better at your sport...and karate in this context IS a sport.
Now I am all for tournaments. It is not my main purpose, but it is fun to train for a specific event. I have had a great time at tournaments, particularly at Nationals when it was held here in Winston-Salem. Every year, I had to convince myself to get back in the ring, as I was always matched up in the finals with a student of Sensei Doug Perry's. This lady was amazing! She was at least 5 inches taller than me and was tough as nails, particularly in the ring. Off the mat, she was very kind and sweet. She always beat me for the gold medal, but one year, I came much closer than ever because I worked on my weaknesses to prepare, instead of training against her strengths. The year before, she fought me in a left handed stance, which totally threw me for a loop. She was an excellent puncher and she would always managed to get inside on me. The next time we matched up the following year, I had trained, not for her southpaw stance, but instead, I worked more on my kicks. I worked on my weakness with my kicks, which was mainly my timing. That way, it didn't matter what stance she was in. I managed to score on her twice before she ever scored on me once. I think it actually surprised us both when I got ahead...the look on her face was priceless! Unfortunately, she was still much faster and she won. I still felt victorious because I had worked on something to make me better, not to make her weaker. My goal for the next year was to work on my speed, but unfortunately, she broke her ankle very badly while riding a motorcycle and did not return to karate. I was very sad for that, as she taught me a lot, likely without even realizing it.
So, best wishes to all the competitors out there! Remember what your karate means to you and you will come out on top with or without a medal!
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