Martial Arts Tournaments - Karate Fit USA LLC | Lawrenceville, NJ

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Martial Arts Tournaments

Tournaments can be a lot of fun, and can be a good way to get people out of their comfort zones and undertake new challenges.  Tournaments are friendly competitions, and it can certainly feel good to win trophies and whatnot. But tournaments are not essential to martial arts training, and a tournament victory does not necessarily mean that one person is a better martial artist than another (whatever that would even mean)!

There are different types of tournaments, and they can have significantly different rules and judging criteria.  Most people like and do best at tournaments that are closest to the way they train. Since we are a traditional school, we tend to prefer traditional rule tournaments over the "sport tournaments" that seem to require flips and spins and weapons acrobatics and 5 second long, movie-style Kiai and facial expressions. -Not that the acrobatics are not impressive; they require athleticism, and action movies would be much less entertaining if they stuck to the simple techniques that actually work the best!

Tournament kata are like music recitals for martial arts - but with scoring and winners. You can practice your "song" at home all you want, but when you have to get up in front of someone else and perform the same thing it can suddenly be scary or overwhelming.  Overcoming this can improve self-confidence, and the skill of "ignoring everything around you and just doing what you know how to do" is helpful in life. Some tournaments reward the acrobatics such that is can be extremely difficult to win without such moves, while others reward stance and technique effectiveness. Some tournaments only allow you to choose kata from a list of their kata/forms, and they judge based on their accepted way of doing those kata (stances, etc.), whereas most allow anyone to do anything, and judges often have to rate people doing kata that the judges either do not know or perhaps do differently.

Tournament Sparring is yet different, as it is not simply you doing your thing, but instead involves someone else also trying their things. Many tournaments have mixed styles, so karate people spar kung fu, tae kwon do and other practitioners. To keep everything standardized, the tournament will publish their rules and requirements, which can vary greatly! Some do not allow punches to the head, some give different points for different types of techniques, and some allow takedowns, low kicks, sweeps and such. If you have only trained with no punches to the head allowed, and you go to a tournament where that is allowed, there is a high chance you will get surprised by a punch to the head.  And if you have trained the punches-okay styles (like ours), it can be very limiting and difficult to go to a tournament where that is not allowed (you will see MANY opportunities to punch their head, but you can spend a lot of focus filtering yourself to not do that today).  Especially if trying a tournament with different rules than you are used to, it is important to practice that way to give you the best chance of victories.

I think tournaments are good for people to at least try.  It brings a new challenge (and hopefully a sense of achievement, whatever the outcome), and can motivate people to train harder and just get better.  It can be a chance to see new styles and people and weapons and whatnot, and perhaps you make some new martial arts friends among the tournament regulars.  But we don't put too much stake in whether someone wins or loses, as the ultimate goal of martial arts should be to make future you better than current you. Hopefully the extra training involved in trying to get ready helps with that, and the confidence to perform in front of people is also good for your overall life!

Mark Swingle, KF USA

Kids Martial Arts Classes - try for free!

Kids Martial Arts Classes - try for free!

Thank you for your interest in Children's Karate / Martial Arts Classes. We have separate classes for different age groups and experience levels, allowing us to have group-appropriate content and activities. We also sometimes use our two different rooms to focus on subgroups within a class. Our students learn to protect themselves, express themselves, and grow as people and as martial artists.

We focus on self-development and fitness through self-defense, but in an age-appropriate, safe and fun manner. -This is why some of our Instructors have been with us for 10, 15 and even 20 or more years, often themselves starting as a Little Ninja!

We always offer a free trial, either in their group or private mini-class if preferred, and we offer a New Student Special to allow for an extended risk-free chance to confirm they want to continue training longer-term with us.

Thank you for contacting us. We will follow up with you as soon as we can to answer any questions you might have and to schedule your free trial class! You can also call or text 609-690-9060 for more info, and can pre-register for your trial class at www.karatefitusa.net/signup

Adult Martial Arts - Try a Free Class!

Adult Martial Arts - Try a Free Class!

We offer Adult classes for all ability and experience levels, sometimes using our two rooms and offering variations to challenge Beginners and Advanced students and properly direct the material.

We focus on self-development and fitness through self-defense, but in a safe, fun and effective manner. Our classes include Karate, Weapons and Small Circle Jujitsu techniques, with both solo, partner and group work.  Training brings mental and physical health benefits, and increases confidence to help improve your life outside of karate as well - even if you hopefully never need to use the many techniques you will learn!

Please come in for a free trial, either a regular group class to see what that is all about, or we can also arrange a private mini-class if preferred. We then have a New Student Special to allow for an extended risk-free period to reconfirm you like our approach and look to continue longer-term.

Thank you for contacting us. We will follow up with you as soon as we can to answer any questions you might have and to schedule your free trial class! You can also call or text 609-690-9060 for more info, and can pre-register for your trial class at www.karatefitusa.net/signup