CompuServe Thread

#Karate Tournament 1.A

3 messages in this thread
#79940From: Margaret CopelandApr 21, 1994 8:49 AM
Ok, let me make a hypothetical example here. If I come from the "Dragon Reborn School of TKD" and you are from somewhere else and we go to a national competition and I best you, then I get acknowledged nationally as a champion? <- presuming you already had that status. This is not to be confused with whatever degree of belt that I have. Is that confered through your school or what ?
#80000From: Black Belt SystemsApr 22, 1994 12:23 AM
Your example is spot on – however, there are several groups you could get a national title in the same style, just like there are multiple football leagues. The belt rank you hold would (probably) be the same as the person you entered into competition with. I've not seen it done otherwise, except for overall champion of a tournement – never for a title that goes outside the tournement bounds. Belt rank is conferred by your instructor, often in conjunction with a particular master or panel of masters. There is some variance here, tho not a heck of a lot (at least within TKD there isn't). Having said that, belt rank isn't the final delineator of skill or level of accomplishment. There is a _huge_ range of skill you can see between one practicioner and another for any particular formal rank. –Ben …via AutoPilot
#80017From: Margaret CopelandApr 22, 1994 8:58 AM
Well I guess there is order out of the chaos of TKD schools anyway. Actually my major interest in the TKD is in the movement aspect. I got stuck watching my daughter do her gymnastics class which happened to meet in a partitioned gym. The TKD class met on the other side. So I spent months watching this class run backwards, do their excercises, etc. Unlike so many athletic activities, TKD movement operates in a sphere – with the participant doing many types of pivots, kicks etc. that go all around the compass. If you think of a sport such as baseball, all activity is oriented (mostly) to facing the opponent. I'd just spent months fooling with this 3D stuff on the computer – 'transforming axis', setting up motion paths,etc. Watching the TKD was like watching what I was doing on the monitor. To cook it,I then attended this modern dance recital at a local studio. There was a couple who have a new form of dance which they have perfected. Let see if I can explain this correctly. They did one performance where their literally rolled over each other using their shoulders only as a contact point. Both of them had studied some form of martial arts. Hope this doesn't sound to weird, but that's why I'm fascinated with the martial arts stuff. They are defying gravity !