Martial Arts

Training Powerlifting
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[quote]GriffinC wrote:
Man, I make the best threads…

On a side note, what tournys do you guys compete in? And where? And how-often? [/quote]

I compete in point sparring and forms tournaments. Or at least, those are the events that I enter. The circuit that I’m on is called Tour Canada, though sometimes we go to some smaller tournaments on the CMRC circuit. These tournaments are all within southern Ontario. I’ve only been competing for a year, and only 4 tournaments. In 2005, we are planning to go to 8-10 tournaments.
Eventually, I want to start competing in NASKA and NBL. But for that, I’ll need to go to about 30-50 tournaments per year.

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I gave up on tournaments a few years ago. They were good for developing some self confidence when I was younger.

Sometimes the outcome can be politically motivated, which is something I would find frustrating. I couldn’t see spending good money to not have a fair chance. I also found it a good way to get injured, especially when they started mandating head gear.

I have some training partners who I can spar with for hours and not get much more than a few bruises even when going at it somewhat intensely. Yet in a few seconds in the ring at a tournament you can get messed up with something that is long term, chronic and might end my training altogether.

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[quote]GriffinC wrote:
Man, I make the best threads…

On a side note, what tournys do you guys compete in? And where? And how-often? [/quote]

Now…don’t get cocky. I think you just got lucky…=P

I don’t do tournaments of any sort. I usually don’t like to talk about this, but I’ll expound on the “why”:

Now, let me say first of all that I see nothing wrong with tournaments or people who do them (at all), but PERSONALLY I think that trophies are a physical manifestation of how “good” someone is. Kinda like ego-gratification. “Hey everyone, look at my trophies” type-thing. Even if not on display, the moment of awarding the winner (at the tourney) will cause a pride at being the “best”. All because of 1) THe trophy/award itself. or 2) At defeating another fellow of MA, who we could learn something from.

IMHO, we, as M.artists, need to be able to have confidence in our own abilities without prizes to cause comparison between us and other fellow MA’ers. There is too much division as it is between MA’ers. “My style is better…” blah blah blah.

In this context, it’s the “style” and not the person.

Self confidence that we are “good” is stronger when internalized because we know it instead of manifested due to a prize is stronger/healthier, IMHO.

Again, I’m not flaming competitors…just my opinion.

That being said…(time to be honest…and a little hypocritical)…If they had a contact tourney here (China) I’d enter and show them that a westerner (American) can indeed kick ass (maybe not the best, but a HELLALOT better than the majority of people think). This is a hard thing for me to deal with (racism in MA), so I’d LOVE to do it for educational (and a little ego fulfilling) purposes. And, in my heart, I know that if I won (anything) I’d leave before the trophy/pictures/whatever ceremony.

I’m sure that there are people who don’t do it for the awards…however, perhaps subconsciously, they are affected by the accolades and physical rewards instead of the internalized rewards.

It’s not about the physical awards or accolades…it’s about the knowledge/improvement/experience.

TB