J. A. Crippen
25th March 2002, 05:18
After thinking about it a bit I decided not to post a reply to the "Tournaments, why" thread but instead start a new one asking why people *don't* compete in tournaments. Hopefully this will prevent a flame war from starting, which I'd rather not see...
My ryu does not train competition. We don't do randori/kumite/sparring/<insert term here>, and we don't enter in tournaments of any kind. Members of my dojo have certainly competed in competitions in the past, perhaps associated with other arts, perhaps not. Some still do occasionally enter in tournaments, however they do not do so representing the dojo or school but as entirely independent individuals.
I feel like I understand some of the reasons why people are interested in tournaments. There's the feeling of competition, the thrill of victory, the external affirmation of one's skills and capabilities. And many other reasons as well, certainly as many as there are individuals involved.
But why do many people *not* compete?
I personally don't for a number of reasons. I'm not the sort of person who is in psychological terms 'externally motivated'. I'm much more interested in understanding and improving myself than I am in comparing myself to others. I also feel that time spent in competition would be better spent in training the basics, hence improving myself both physically and mentally.
One major drawback of competition as I see it is that many techniques cannot permitted for the safety of the participants. My art is often quite vicious, with the intent of totally disabling or incapacitating the opponent if not killing them outright. It would be impossible to perform much of the art in a competitive situation because of the danger of the techniques involved. (Being dropped on your head isn't very fun, and neither is having your elbow broken and shoulder dislocated along the way.) I train these techniques over and over in hopes of internalizing them to the point that they become reflexes, like bicycling or typing. If I had to conciously avoid using them in a competitive arena then I feel they would degrade from disuse, or I would tend to perform other less lethal techniques in their place. In this case the rules required for the safety of participants in a competitive situation would basically nullify my art.
There are other philosophical reasons as well. Why would I want to attack someone who does not deserve it? Should they deserve my violence simply because they are asking for it by joining into a tournament? What does that say about me, that I am willing to attack someone for no better reason than to prove that I am better than them? Certainly that's not the point of my training, is it? To prove that I am better than another person? This *is* certainly the point in a number of martial arts I see in my city, with people learning expressly how to win against someone else in competition. But winning tournaments isn't the purpose of my art, so what would it say about me as a practitioner if I used my training in such a way?
So why *shouldn't* people compete? And why don't you *personally* compete? These are two different questions, but they don't have two different answers. There are many answers for them, and those answers will bring up more questions, I'm sure. I'd like to see what other e-budo members have to say and what thought-provoking questions they'll ask...
My ryu does not train competition. We don't do randori/kumite/sparring/<insert term here>, and we don't enter in tournaments of any kind. Members of my dojo have certainly competed in competitions in the past, perhaps associated with other arts, perhaps not. Some still do occasionally enter in tournaments, however they do not do so representing the dojo or school but as entirely independent individuals.
I feel like I understand some of the reasons why people are interested in tournaments. There's the feeling of competition, the thrill of victory, the external affirmation of one's skills and capabilities. And many other reasons as well, certainly as many as there are individuals involved.
But why do many people *not* compete?
I personally don't for a number of reasons. I'm not the sort of person who is in psychological terms 'externally motivated'. I'm much more interested in understanding and improving myself than I am in comparing myself to others. I also feel that time spent in competition would be better spent in training the basics, hence improving myself both physically and mentally.
One major drawback of competition as I see it is that many techniques cannot permitted for the safety of the participants. My art is often quite vicious, with the intent of totally disabling or incapacitating the opponent if not killing them outright. It would be impossible to perform much of the art in a competitive situation because of the danger of the techniques involved. (Being dropped on your head isn't very fun, and neither is having your elbow broken and shoulder dislocated along the way.) I train these techniques over and over in hopes of internalizing them to the point that they become reflexes, like bicycling or typing. If I had to conciously avoid using them in a competitive arena then I feel they would degrade from disuse, or I would tend to perform other less lethal techniques in their place. In this case the rules required for the safety of participants in a competitive situation would basically nullify my art.
There are other philosophical reasons as well. Why would I want to attack someone who does not deserve it? Should they deserve my violence simply because they are asking for it by joining into a tournament? What does that say about me, that I am willing to attack someone for no better reason than to prove that I am better than them? Certainly that's not the point of my training, is it? To prove that I am better than another person? This *is* certainly the point in a number of martial arts I see in my city, with people learning expressly how to win against someone else in competition. But winning tournaments isn't the purpose of my art, so what would it say about me as a practitioner if I used my training in such a way?
So why *shouldn't* people compete? And why don't you *personally* compete? These are two different questions, but they don't have two different answers. There are many answers for them, and those answers will bring up more questions, I'm sure. I'd like to see what other e-budo members have to say and what thought-provoking questions they'll ask...