Over the weekend, I had a karate tournament. On Saturday, my whole family was up at 6:00 am and by 7:00, we were out the door and on our way to Providence, RI for the first tournament since the beginning of the summer. Before I go any further here; let me just say a big congrats to my little sister; who not only took 2nd place in sparring but 1ST PLACE IN FORMS. Honestly, I'm so happy for you. I know you've worked really hard on your form over the summer, and look at how well it paid off. I'm very proud.
I myself took 2nd place in weapons and 4th in sparring- which in all honesty is a mediocre day for me. I was tired out after my weapons form and ended up fighting rather soft-heartedly, hence the 4th place there. Oh well, you can't win them all! Besides, I'm not here to talk about wins or losses today. I'm here to talk about pride and good sportsmanship. Over the weekend, you see, I wasn't the only one who went to a karate tournament. A handful of people I know who train at different dojos also had a tournament, and I tried to do my part in wishing them all the best in their competing. The issue here is the rivalry. When I checked facebook after both our tournaments had ended; I saw not only one but two bitter posts that were directed at the other school; ripping down their technique and calling them out entirely. I don't understand this. I understand friendly competition within tournaments... but there's no need to be an ass to your fellow students! Come on. It's a bit much. At the end of the day; we're all training to have fun and learn to defend ourselves... regardless of what style we take. Sure, there's some minor differences here and there; but most systems mirror each other in some way or another. There's no right or wrong way to train as long as you give it your all and practice well. I view karate almost like religion- everything has the same base; with different twists thrown in... and there's so many different styles that you can't say for certain that one is more correct than the other. And just like religion... doing one style or another doesn't make you any better of a person. What makes you a better person is when you can give your competitor a friendly competition and then laugh and celebrate as friends after the fact. There shouldn't be hurt feelings or these senseless rivalries between schools. To close out this post, I'll leave you with two karate mottos to follow. The first is a philosophy: "peace over power". The second is a list of the five rules of my own dojo: Effort Etiquette Sincerity Character Self-control - maddie
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
September 2021
Categories
All
|