I am interested in finding information about Tang Soo Do tournaments in or around Michigan. I have two children; a twelve-year-old E-Dan and an eight-year-old First Gup, and they love to compete. Any help would be appreciated. They train under a Kyosa that is very traditional; however open tournaments would also be fine.

Joe

Martial Art Style Tang soo do

We just competed in the Musa Moo Duk Kwan tang Soo Do Championships in Novi Michigan...we did rather well taking home some nice trophies! It was nice to see old friends again!
I will try to keep you updated on any local tournaments in our area. the battle of Detroit i believe is in october...and Im in the process of sponsoring my first championships the War On The River! flyers will be going out soon...were shooting for november 2005. right now were putting on a seminar with master jay S. Penfil the heart of the hyung july 16th 2005 on bunkai and pressure points within our Tang Soo Do Hyung.
Tang Soo!
Dave Zacker
Michigan Tang Soo Do
The (international) Tang Soo Do Martial Arts Society
www.michigantsd.com

Martial Art Style Michigan Tang Soo Do www.michigantsd.com

I am a Tang Soo Do instructor and student and I would suggest that you not look for just Tang Soo Do events but look for some events in your Area that are sanctioned by either NASKA or the AKA. It would give your more events to choose from and give your children a larger exposure to the Martial Arts world.

Try www.naska.com or www.akakarate.com. I am hosting an event in October but it is way out here in arkansas, but I would love to have more Tang Soo Do folks there. It is out of your way, but you can look at http://www.yowellkarate.com and select the natural state classic link.

I compete regularly as do many of my students. (We do not train for Sport Karate in the school but it does not matter real is real) And I find when we go someplace we tend to take most of the first place trophies. Tang Soo Do is a great art, but by being itself it is suited to the open circuit...we have the strength of many Okinawan and Japanese styles, but have the kicking ability of Tae Kwon Do...our forms when done traditionally are rock solid

I myself to keep me sharp average about an event every 2 weeks and more often than not win my division. Tang Soo Do artist tend to do very well on the open circuit.

Jamie

Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do

My advise is to not to go the way of sport karate… it is the path to the Dark Side of the Force (I couldn’t resist).

Obviously the school does not promote going to tournaments so I assume you have the blessing of the instructor.

If you want them to be a better human being, keep them in Martial Arts. If they want to compete and win awards and acclaim get them into a real sport where they can maybe get a college scholarship.

Most school sports programs have well-educated and properly certified coaches and trainers with licensed referees. Your average Dojang is run by a high school graduate with specific training only in a small segment of the Martial Arts.

Most tournament referees have no professional training whatsoever and they may only do it once or twice a year. STAY AWAY – STAY VERY FAR AWAY.

All tournaments I have attended are a joke, the rules are silly and they are extremely political. My son won a national sparring championship with the ATA only because his Master Instructor was the referee. My son knew the truth and never trained in the Martial Arts again. I have a basement full of trophies from mainline TSD tournaments and open tournaments and all of them together have less significance than any one of my promotion certificates.

Jamie, I have been to your tournaments and to me they are extremely unrealistic. I won a gold medal in forms against 14 opponents - the judges scoring was extremely inconsistent and of course 3 of the last 5 competitors won medals.

Also at your tournament I was disqualified by Master Magniota (I think that was his name) for throwing japs to the head. It was one of his students - of course. Yes - disqualified for throwing jabs 6 inches from this guys head. Yes I was warned but it is impossible to not to throw jabs when the opponent just stands there with his arms crossed over his chest because of the no "head" rule.

Ok tournament junkies - let me have it.


Tang Soo,
Dave

I am not sure you have been to one of MY tournaments or one that I myself have promoted. I try at my event to eliminate most of what you speak of.

I too have more trophies than you can shake a fist at and I cycle them out and send them to charities that can reuse them with a few fittings to give to someone else.

As for my instructor's permission, I do most everything with his blessing and I have been one of his black belts for nearly 20 years.

Tournaments and Sport are fun, they are great ways to socialize and meet new folks. I attend them as I attend seminars and other such things. If you train solely to be a Sport Karate Champion..that is what you are likely to come and the art would suffer. It is how you approach them. I approach them as fun, and I must admit as much as I hate to admit it, they give me an edge and keep me sharp. For us instructors it is often hard to find people to train with, for me this helps motivate me to train and makes me better.

I do not teach sport karate, my instructor would not condone it and it is not necessary to sell out and throw flying backfists leaving your ribs wide open to win nor is it necessary to put non-traditional moves into forms to win.

Your outlook is valid, but you see only the negatives. Trust me, I have been the victim of politics-but as I teach my students and this is what I want them to learn most...you cannot lose it is impossible unless you choose to lose.

See if you place 5 out of 5 or 20 out of 20 if you trained and worked hard and went out and gave your heart and soul, you won. If you vow to train harder you have won. Walk up there and let the judges know that you are here and you are already the best, the winner...you have won even if they don't see it that way. What you will find out with this attitude is that it gets really hard to cheat you and if you are true to this you will not only win, but take the top spot on that day more often than not. The key to victory is learning. While on occasion I have been bested, I have never been defeated and I learn more about myself on those occasions when the judges do not place me first than when I walk away with all of the trophies.

I have heard the argument you give, and if it is an honest opinion I can respect it...if it is but a safe opinion...one where you can judge the man in the arena from the outside then perhaps you might want to reconsider and look at the positives.

I don't need to worry about being cheated, because for me it is not what it is about. Do I like being cheated, NO, but I am not perfect and if it happens it too is a learning experience.

Tournaments are fun if approached with a healthy attitude. NASKA has nothing to do with the ATA nor does the AKA. ATA is a members only club that would not allow you to compete at their event unless you were ATA though even they are beginning to risk coming out and playing with the rest of us. And good for them. I can tell you one thing about many NASKA and AKA events when you win there you know you are at the top of your game. Instead of a big fish in a little pond, you are the shark in the ocean at least for a day :)

I respect your opinion, but I disagree in that you have focused on the negatives. Not the positives, such as the confidence it gives to the young student, the exposure to different arts, learning that life is not always fair, learning that some martial artists are frauds and seeing them exposed when they come out to play, learning what it is to take that number one spot and learning to handle taking less than number one and learning to turn it into a positive, winning situation.

Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do

Here is it summed up the best for you below by a former President of the U.S., the judges don't frighten me, the fear of not winning is my demon and this is the quote I have read for 22 years now that gets me in that Arena in Tournaments and in life in General...this is what I teach my students...it doesn't have to be Karate Tournaments...it can be any sport as Doty suggests, but if you wish to get into this...good luck and I gurantee if you stay true to yourself and the art the good things will be more numerous than the bad:

The man in the Arena

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face
is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs
and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without
error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great
devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best,
knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the
worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his
place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither
victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do

Dave, it definitely was not my event. Jabs to the head are legal, especially in Black Belt devision. We do not allow the young kiddies to strike each other in the face mask, they can stop the punch prior to hitting the face or strike the forehead. The issue is of course control, while preventing the young kids from getting injured. No such rules exist in the division you would have fought in. It could not have been the Natural State Classic that you speak of, I have a list of all black belts who judged at the event on my laptop and none by the name you speak of would appear to have been in attendance. I could be mistaken, but I do know that there were no disqualifications last year at the Natural State Classic and hopefully that track record shall continue.

Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do

devisions = divisions My what I would give to go back and edit my posts afterward :)

Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do

Joe,

After reading your postand others I felt compelled to respond. I agree with competing in NASKA and AKA but be sure to take note that NASKA tournaments are tiered in three ways. You have state tournaments, national events, and world events. If your children are just trying out tournaments I would suggest you try attending NASKA events that are rated BBB to A as a start. Then next year let them go as high as a AA and let them maybe compete in forms as a team at the Bluegrass Nationals which is rated 5-A and therefore a world event. This way you will be able to see the vast difference in the competitors as they progress up the scale. My daughter is Tang Soo Do and has competed on NASKA World Tour as a black belt for 4 years now and is considered on of the top competitors for her age group. However, there is a distinct difference between her abilities and those of competitors that compete on the state and national level. The AKA which is headed by one of the great instructors of martial arts (Jon Sharkey) has a nice blend of competition. However the AKA Grand Nationals is rated 4-A with NASKA and is thus considered a world event. Like Bluegrass I would encourage your kids to try their first world class tournament as a team in what is called the team demo or team synchronized division. Team demo is on Friday night and would allow your kids the opportunity to see the NASKA cream of the crop competitors competing in team sparring and team forms (demo and synchronized), musical weapons, forms, and extreme forms. Saturday is underbelts and black belts competing in sparring, creative and traditional forms/weapons divisions. But I would not say stay clear of the open tournaments this is a great way for your kids to get an appreciation for other styles and also see similarities while gaining a better appreciation for their own art. Some of the NASKA legends have come from Tang Soo Do. Too name a few


Sparring – Anthony Price, Linda Denley (misspelled last name I’m sure)

Forms – Amy Latta, Steve Terada

Great information LadyR, do you have a link to the NASKA or AKA so we could let everyone see the schedule??

b

Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do

NASKA (North American Karate Association)

www.naska.com


AKA (American Karate Association)

www.akakarate.com

That was a great qoute from Theodore Roosevelt. I am going to print it out and give it to my son.

Thanks

Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do

Wasn't it Madame Currie who said," I just drank what?? "

Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do