Some time ago, before Covid-19 turned the world upside down and shook it like a snow globe, I did something that I have not done in over 25 years. I entered and competed in a local karate tournament. The “2019 Lilac City Open Karate Championship,” to be precise.
I entered in the with no intentions of winning… or even placing. My primary purpose was to represent the American Cane System and possibly network with other schools that might be interested in either hosting a Cane-Fu workshop or teaching how to fight with the cane in their respective school.
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t have those intentions because I didn’t have those expectations.
I freely admit that I’m past my prime as an athlete. I know a lot of these schools have practitioners that attend several competitions every year and are being coached on how to win these events. I, however, have not been in a competition since I was a freshman in the college Tae Kwon Do Club. Even then, the best I ever did was 5th place in Sparring.
On top of all those deficiencies I only had about a month to prepare for the event and there was already plenty of demands on my time as it was. This just all around was not an ideal situation to put forth a top performance. Were my purpose for attending this event was at all competitive, I would have simply passed. But I saw the opportunity to promote the benefits of the cane, so I took advantage of it.
The day the competition arrived and I must confess that the day held more cardio for me than running a marathon. My nerves were wound tight and my heart rate was through the roof. And this was only during the registration.
It didn’t get any better for me. Being in the “older than 35” division meant that I was not going to be competing in my event until later in the day. Which just allowed my nerves to wind up tighter.
Despite not having any expectations on the outcome, I was still jittery as a humming bird on RedBull!
When my event was called I was in a total buzz and could hardly think straight. To be honest, I don’t even remember performing my kata.
After leaving the ring and the unnerving gaze of the judges, I started to wind down and had to take some deep breaths to keep from totally crashing from the continuous dump of epinephrine into my system from the last 4 hours.
After it was done I was ready to get about with networking and socializing (and part of me wanted to scurry away as I am not a fan of crowds), but just leaving without congratulating the winners would have been poor form.
Imagine my surprise when they called my name to claim the first place trophy! I went through the emotion of shock and excitement while trying desperately to appear a gracious winner.
I share this emotional roller coaster ride with you with the purpose to encourage you to put yourself through the same experience. Yes, I think you should compete! I feel everyone should compete at least a couple of times while progressing on their martial arts journey.
Why You Should Compete
1. To challenge yourself
You really need to step outside your comfort zone.
It is easy to become complacent in our martial arts training. The familiar surroundings of the training space can be comforting but can also lead to mental laziness. I once had and instructor make each of us students turn around and perform our kata facing the back of the dojo. It was amazing how most of us flubbed it up. Our brains were taking visual cues to tell it what to do next.
When you compete you are in unfamiliar surroundings, with unfamiliar people watching you, and with an unfamiliar tension to perform well. It is when you leave your comfort zone that you will grow as a martial artist and as a person in general.
2. To meet other martial arts enthusiasts
There is a camaraderie in this endeavor that I really do not see in other sports. (or any other activity for that matter) The bonds that are formed with blood and sweat are stronger than any industrial adhesive on the market.
We all love the martial arts! We all love the training! We love the feeling that we get when we finally figure the right blend of balance, flow, and power to make a new technique work. We love when the deeper truths of what we do reveal themselves.
Because of that love we are a weird bunch!
Normal people don’t line up to punch, kick, and throw each other around. Normal people will not accept a bloody nose and bruised ribs as badges of honor. Normal people don’t pay someone to bark out continuous repetitions of punches and kicks until our muscles scream at us.
Yes, we are weird! But weird people are always excited to meet other’s that share our weirdness. We need to be! Because normal people don’t understand what we do or why we do it.
Because of that they either ignore or mock us. Some polite ones will ask about it, but they can never understand. The reason being that what we experience and love with our martial arts training, can never be explained; it can only be experienced.
3. To see other styles
Great artists love to look at the works of other accomplished artists regardless of medium. Many times the observations of other works of art can lead into inspiration that manifests in their own works. A moving short story can inspire beautiful poetry. The graceful lines of a marble sculpture can lead to dramatic drawings. The delightful colors of a stained-glass window can lead to captivating oil paintings.
The same will happen with your martial arts training.
Observing other styles can clue in to what your own training may be lacking. It can also allow you to further understand the strengths of your own style. You may see someone perform a kata with strength and power that sparks a fire inside you! Or you may watch a practitioner with a grace and flow that seems almost effortless. Another may move with tremendous speed and precision unlike anything you have ever seen before.
These observations should inspire you. If there is an element in another art that appeals to you, work to incorporate it into your own training.
You may even find that you may come across another art that is better suited to your own body type or temperament than the one you are currently training in. That is OK! Just don’t slip into the habit of jumping from style to style unnecessarily.
4. To learn
This really is a big one… NO! IT’S HUGE! The whole point of martial arts training is to learn. And the more learning that you do, the better you will become. And tournaments are great places to learn. And you know who learns to most in a competition? The one who did not win.
Notice I did not say “the loser.” I don’t believe there are many of those in the martial arts. They simply don’t last long. I firmly believe that they only way to “lose” in competition is to walk away from the event with nothing.
A winner, walks away from the event with pride, bragging rights, a trophy or medal, and some Kudos from his/her personal circle.
Competitor that does not win, should walk away with experience and lessons on what they need to do better for next time. There will be a pathway on how they need to grow in their art. I guess you could call them “learners.” And learners buy their nature, eventually become winners.
Losers, on the other hand, will walk away from a competitive event with an attitude or an excuse. These folks never last long on the path to excellence. Eventually they accumulate enough excuses to leave on their own; or they build enough attitude to be told to go.
5. To put yourself against new opponents.
This reason is closely related #1.
When you spar at the school, you will spar against the same people over and over. It can become very to predict how everyone fights. You all have the same instructor, style, and are taught the same techniques. Yes you each will have your own little tricks that you figure out, but you can only do those so many times before everyone figures it out.
Don’t get me wrong, sparing with your classmates is invaluable. Judging each other’s kata will return priceless dividends on your performances. But it is still limited.
Entering into competition will expose you to a much larger pool of people that can give you feedback on your martial arts skills.
6. To face your toughest opponent
The biggest threat you will ever face in a tournament, or in life for that matter is the one between your ears.
Its easy to say your too old, too young, not experienced enough, or don’t have the time. Its easy to say that you just want to train and not worry about competing. It easy to say that competition doesn’t have any application to a real fight or real self defense.
But defeating your toughest opponent has NOTHING to do with “easy.” But has everything to do with stepping up and winning.
And as a mentor of mine told me years ago: “How you do one thing is how you do everything!”
I get that you might not like the idea of competition. But I challenge you to do it twice. Why twice? Because the first time might actually suck.
I firmly believe that anything that you decide to try out you should try out twice. Once to see if you like it and twice to make sure.
Now go out and learn or win!
Because either way you win!