Kyokushin Competitions

[blacktiger]

I have a question (don't we all)

Ive looked at a few competitions that I'm looking at entering for me and my Students.

The Standard WKF, EKO Kumite competitions are totally different, although there is a possibilty of entering the "Freestyle" Kata Competitions but as there's not enough Gymnastics in the Kata we practice, I'm not too sure if they'd win anything.

So that leaves Kyokushin based Competitions. I see kumite as not an issue we just got to remember not to grab etc. But for those students who would be interested in entering the Kata Competitions that are part of the event, we as Ashihara Karate don't practice any of the Kyokushin Kata. So not too sure how we'd get around that as I'm not about too change my kata list so that we are winning kata competitions like Freestyle Karate Dojos, I teach Karate for the Streets but want to add a few "goals" to those who want extra out of their journey.

Any recommendations etc.


osu

[senshido]

its very difficult to judge kata that you dont know... no problem telling if a technique is good, but as far as I'm concerned the Ashihara competitor could make something up on the spot and I wouldnt know that it wasnt a genuine kata.

[monty]

I guess the closest thing to Ashihara kata are the Enshin kata?

Perhaps you could contact Pavel in Gloucester, he runs an Enshin dojo and might be willing to do an inter-style competition.

[GJEC]

We (when in Kyokushin) used to compete in local 'All Styles' kata competitions, where there was a judge from each style present who was honour bound to report any mistakes before marks were awarded.

I did, the Kofukan instructor did, the rest just smiled and said bugger all.

Gary

[Ros]

I'm not sure I necessarily understand the value of kata competitions. For me, kata is useful in several ways, but being able to understand the applicability and actually use components of them are far more important than being able to make them look nice.

Maybe someone who teaches karate for the streets might agree?

In your position I would emphasise to my students that aesthetics aren't necessarily important but efficacy most definitely is, and get them entered in lots of open knockdown contests so they can show off their fighting skills.

[blacktiger]

Jul 18, 2013 2:35:15 GMT -5 Ros said:

I'm not sure I necessarily understand the value of kata competitions. For me, kata is useful in several ways, but being able to understand the applicability and actually use components of them are far more important than being able to make them look nice.

Maybe someone who teaches karate for the streets might agree?

In your position I would emphasise to my students that aesthetics aren't necessarily important but efficacy most definitely is, and get them entered in lots of open knockdown contests so they can show off their fighting skills.

Ros, Thanks, You're right, A kata used for Bunkai and Ohyo isn't going to look pretty enough to win competitions.

It will look messy and untidy etc.

Yes, I will look at just Kumite rather than Kata

OSU

[powerof0ne]

I won nationals in WKF/USANKF and placed first at nationals/jr. olympics/world tournament qualifiers tournaments under the same orgs a hand full times when I was a shito ryu stylist. However, what judges look for in that sort of competition are much different than how those outside that type of karate practice kata. Point fighting for knockdown karateka IMHO is also a waste of time unless you focus on those type of rules with other WKF style point fighters for months and months before hand.

With that being said, I agree with Ros, now I don't agree with kata competition in tournaments at all.

If you spar regularly with grabs/throws/takedowns and are going to do a Kyokushin tournament where this isn't allowed, I'd advise 2-3 months of focusing on kumite without the grabs/throws/takedowns before competition...and with others that also do kumite like this on a regular basis.

If you only do kumite with others and all are just temporarily trying to "change" to a different rule set, you won't do as well as you would training with others that. I'm saying this from my own experience of trying to do just that with others that didn't specialize in the type of competition I was training for...it doesn't work well. Just giving advice from my own experience to help out, nothing personal.
Osu!