Another great Uechi tournament!

[Bill Glasheen]

It was fun participating in another Mattson Uechi tournament. There are the old friends seen again, the new adventures in strange places with folks we know, the karate, the competition, the excellent talents of a few and excellent effort from all, etc.

Thanks to everyone! I enjoy every opportunity I get to see the best getting up and performing under pressure.

And the rest of you don't know what you are missing!!

More later. I have to get up at 4 AM to catch a plane.

- Bill

[Stryke]

congratulations on getting in there and mixing it up .

good stuff to test and grow , always be willing to push your boundarys , sounds like a good event .

any time your comfortable your no longer growing .

[Guest]

It was fun participating in another Mattson Uechi tournament.

Hats off to ya Bill! Not many of us old dogs are ready to lace them up in the young mans game.

There are the old friends seen again, the new adventures in strange places with folks we know, the karate, the competition, the excellent talents of a few and excellent effort from all, etc.

Thats got to be the best part..hooking up with old freinds...and you sure grow close to folks you trade shots with No better way to get to know what folks are all about!

Good Flight!

Laird

[benzocaine]

any time your comfortable your no longer growing

I like that I will use it

[Bill Glasheen]

I do want to make a clarification here...

George asked me to come up to help support his tournament via judging. I'd love to get in there and mix it up, but I think George wants a new generation to get in there and make their marks. Anyhow, this is something I've done for him for a few years now. It was a bit crazy this time, squeezing the travel inbetween a son's lower school graduation and a father-in-law's funeral. But I'm glad I made the trip.

I had my years of competition. I have one real benefit from it all. Sometimes when I fly out of town for a few days, my wife sticks the trophies up in the windows, thinking they will scare the bad guys off... Personally I think the sticker that says "This property protected by Smith & Wesson" works a little better.

Now...

The real winner of the adult end of the tournament was Steve Perry's school. They managed to put a few winners in the kata competition, and sweep both the adult black belt sparring and the team sparring. They also won synchronized kata. And what is the secret of their success? They get around. They invite the Canadians (Fagen et al) to come down and run seminars. They travel to compete. They throw their egos aside, and put their reputations on the line.

Also worth noting - Vinny C did a very nice kata to win the men's Black Belt kata competition. No matter how Vinny chooses to execute a fom, he makes it look good. And easy. With two stainless steel hips to boot!

I want very much not to comment on individual performances. It detracts from the hard work done by the people who put their butts out on the line. Instead I want to point out that it wasn't this or that or the other method that won the day. In the end, the participants distinguished themselves by mastery of fundamentals.

Ron Fagan brought a few people down to help with judging and officiating. I have to tell you that his team is most professional in what they do and how they do it. Ron took a handful of us and drilled the rules for grading kata. They are...

Knowledge is “knowing” the kata. Not adding or missing a movement.

Speed is the way you perform the fast, medium and slow movements. Not how fast you complete the kata.

Timing: The gaps between the blocks and counter moves.

Breathing: “Around” the technique or “with" the technique. We look for consistency.

Focus is the “coming together” of all the energy of the move at the apparent point of focus for any specific movement.

Power is not simply brute force, but vibration, rotation, linear and up and down movement.

Balance: maintaining good balance.

Zanshin: Continued commitment.

It's amazing how easily one can just shut the eyes to who is performing the form, and look for these criteria. At the end of the day, the right kata wins. It's worth noting that in one division I reffed, three of us (John Spencer, Shelly Dunn and I) were throwing up identical scores kata after kata after kata.

Uechika - TAKE NOTE!!! No matter what your preferences, how can one argue with these measuring criteria?

Sparring is sparring. We will argue rules from now to enternity. It's a sport - period - and not "the art." I have my preferences, mind you, on what rules I want to see. For example, current WKF rules are the following:

3. SANBON is awarded for:
a) Jodan kicks.
b) Throwing or leg sweeping the opponent to the mat followed by a scoring technique.

For you folks weak on the Japanese, Sanbon means three points (and the match), and Jodan means upper area (basically the head). Now I'm all for the extra points for dumping someone and following with a good hard hit. But winning a match with a head kick? I have problems with this... I'll accept a rule like that only if you allow groin and leg kicks. Otherwise, forget it. To me, this means we either influence the WKF, or give up on them and choose rules that are more likely to promote something that looks more like a real fight.

We kept it simple at George's tournament. No half points, and no multiple points. It worked... But I think we can work on going farther - IF we can train refs who can follow and enforce such rules.

We shall see...

- Bill

[Spike]

Sparring is sparring. We will argue rules from now to enternity. It's a sport - period - and not "the art." I have my preferences, mind you, on what rules I want to see. For example, current WKF rules are the following:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. SANBON is awarded for:
a) Jodan kicks.
b) Throwing or leg sweeping the opponent to the mat followed by a scoring technique.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



For you folks weak on the Japanese, Sanbon means three points (and the match), and Jodan means upper area (basically the head). Now I'm all for the extra points for dumping someone and following with a good hard hit. But winning a match with a head kick? I have problems with this... I'll accept a rule like that only if you allow groin and leg kicks. Otherwise, forget it. To me, this means we either influence the WKF, or give up on them and choose rules that are more likely to promote something that looks more like a real fight.

We kept it simple at George's tournament. No half points, and no multiple points. It worked... But I think we can work on going farther - IF we can train refs who can follow and enforce such rules.

Winning an entire match with one kick does seem a little unreal now doesn't it?

[AE Moores]

Bill Sensei,
You are right on with your evaluation of Sensei Fagan and his two students Steve Beaudro and Steve Brown. They are very professional, know the job at hand, how to best do that job and are fair. They very much wanted to not only act as officials for the tournament, but also wanted to let this tournament be an education for those not familiar with regional, national or international tournaments. They took their time to explain things to both competitors and other officials. I think they did a great job at both.

As far as the Sanbon being awarded for Jodan kicks or a sweep followed by a scoring technique, that's news to me. It's been my experience that Ippon (one full point) is awarded for one of the following 1) Jodan geri 2) a sweep followed by a scoring technique 3) a point scored where there is no defense 4) a technique using Sen timing and/or 5) two wazi (two half points). Now in a ippon tournament where one point wins then yes a person could win the match with one of the above listed. Most ippon matches are during team kumite, but every so often you may find a tournament that is an ippon tournament. If so, hold on to your hats, because those matches are going to be quick, fast off the line and exciting.

Yes, Bill sensei, we at Stephen Perry's Karate do "get around." We have a great time doing it too. Our travels have brought us through out the US, Canada and Japan. We train hard and we have fun doing it. Training and competing is so much easier when the egos are left at the door. We've spent many of training weekends with our Canadian Brothers. We don't talk style, individual achievements or politics. We just thrive off what we all have in common....we love to train......train hard.

In two weeks time, June 18th, 19th and 20th, we will be hosting our second Shugyo training camp up here in NH. We have folks from many different styles coming in from all over New England....Uechi, Shotokan, Wado-ryu, Isshin and Chito. We also have 20-25 of our great Tsuruoka Karate-ka friends coming from Canada to support our love of training with other folks that love to train. Last years Shugyo camp's theme was "Back to Basics." Three days of just kihon. Drills upon drills upon drills of kicks, blocks, strikes, stances..etc.

This year's theme is "Live Free or Shia." Get it???? NH "Live free or Die" hahaha. The theme as you may guess is competition karate.....shia kumite. Three days of drills upon drills upon drills to improve ones sparring ability. Imagine three days of learning drills that has helped many of us bring our fighting to national and international levels and doing so in a safe and controlled manner. All are welcome from the brand new white belt with a weeks worth of classes to the most senior black belts.

Detailed info on the camp will follow.

[Bill Glasheen]

Andrew

What I posted came from this site...

Rules Discussion

It is aways down, where the folliwng is attached.

WORLD KARATE FEDERATION
KARATE RULES

Here's the partial text from that section. Note what I put in red.

ARTICLE 6: SCORING
1. Scores are as follows:
a) SANBON Three points
b) NIHON Two points
c) IPPON One point
2. A score is awarded when a technique is performed according to the following criteria to a scoring area:
a) Good form
b) Sporting attitude
c) Vigorous application
d) Awareness (ZANSHIN)
e) Good timing
f) Correct distance
3. SANBON is awarded for:
a) Jodan kicks.
b) Throwing or leg sweeping the opponent to the mat followed by a scoring technique.
4. NIHON is awarded for:
a) Chudan kicks.
b) Punches on the back., including back of the head and neck.
c) Combination hand techniques, the individual components of which each score in their own right.
d) Unbalancing the opponent and scoring.
5. IPPON is awarded for:
a) Chudan or Jodan Tsuki.
b) Uchi.
6. Attacks are limited to the following areas:
a) Head
b) Face
c) Neck
d) Abdomen
e) Chest
f) Back
g) Side
7. An effective technique delivered at the same time that the end of the bout is signalled, is considered valid. A technique even if effective, delivered after an order to suspend or stop the bout shall not be scored and may result in a penalty being imposed on the offender.
8. No technique, even if technically correct, will be scored if it is delivered when the two contestants are outside the competition area. However, if one of the contestants delivers an effective technique while still inside the competition area and before the Referee calls “YAME”, the technique will be scored.
9. Simultaneous, effective scoring techniques delivered by both contestants, the one on the other (AIUCHI) shall not score.
EXPLANATION:
In order to score, a technique must be applied to a scoring area as defined in paragraph 6 above. The technique must be appropriately controlled with regard to the area being attacked and must satisfy all six scoring criteria in paragraph 2 above.



Vocabulary Technical Criteria

Sanbon (3 Points) is awarded for: Jodan kicks. Jodan being defined as the face, head and neck.
Any scoring technique which is delivered after legally throwing, leg sweeping, or taking the opponent down to the mat.

Nihon (2 Points) is awarded for: Chudan kicks. Chudan being defined as the abdomen, chest, back and side.
Punches delivered to the opponent’s back, including the back of the head and neck.
Combinations of punching and striking (tsuki and uchi) the individual components of which each score in their own right, delivered to any of the seven scoring areas.
Any scoring technique delivered after permissible physical action of the contestant has caused the opponent to lose balance as the score is made.

Ippon (1 Point) is awarded for: Any punch (tsuki) delivered to any of the seven scoring areas excluding the back, the back of the head and neck.
Any strike (uchi) delivered to any of the seven scoring areas.

I was not pleased when I saw that. Maybe it's a new rule. Who knows?

- Bill

[Stephen M Perry]

Yep it's a new rule most tournaments (including the AAU tournaments) still use the old ones.

[AE Moores]

Pre-2000 Vs. Post-2000 Rules

The WKF made some major changes to their rules in 2000 to make the tournaments more TV/spectator friendly. The WKF was the petitioning body to put sport Karate into the Olympics. They changed rules for both Kumite and Kata. The rules stated for sanbon for a jodan geri are the post 2000 rules.

Following these major changes the WKC was formed, basically keeping the pre-2000 rules in place. These are the rules that most major tournaments use ie AAU, US Nationals etc.

[Stephen M Perry]

and this just in. There is no limit on points just time so three points for a kick would not end the match.

[AE Moores]

ahhhhhhhhh

[f.Channell]

If the rules are anything like the judo rules you can expect to see them change annually.
If Karate makes it to the Olympics you will also see the rules possibly change to make it more viewer friendly and exciting for spectators.
Sorry I missed most of the action. I was on the other side judging the kids.
I hope some of these kids in the next few years will come over and join the action with you guys.
This was one of the goals originally.
Fred

[Guest]

The real winner of the adult end of the tournament was Steve Perry's school.

I'm going to disagree Bill, the real winners were everyone who participated and anyone who helped make the even happen.You win by pushing your limits. Hats off folks!

[Stryke]

Bill congratulations in the helping run such a monster , officials hardly get the recognition they deserve .

You and all the others involved give the oppurtunintys for others to explore and benifit , and often only get in the line of fire as a result .

hats of to the competitiors and officials

hope it was a positive learning experience for all