Martial Arts Tournaments

A good martial arts article below covering sport martial arts, which is where many people train for martial arts tournaments.

Sport Martial Arts - Pros and Cons

You first must ask yourself why you are training in the martial arts. Many people begin martial arts training after being inspired by a specific sporting event or athlete; it is their intention to compete in this sport. Boxing is a type of martial art, but not a complete one by itself; alone it is just a sport and a way to practice your striking skills. Even within striking itself, the rules of the actual sport make it incomplete as a self defense art. So you have to ask yourself whether you are an athlete first or a martial artist first. If you are a martial artist first, you will view sports as training tools for specific types of fighting. In that case, it will not be necessary for you to chase after medals or trophies at tournaments, simply practicing in that sportive manner at the school or dojo will be enough for you to enhance your training.

Pros

For all martial artists, sportive versions of any martial style have their benefits. As a Jiu-jitsu teacher, I can tell you that the sport of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is an excellent instructional tool for beginners because it teaches them the importance of position and places a value on each movement. It will also promote safe daily practice that allows you to train more and get better faster. Let’s face it, you can’t go 100% all of the time, so sport (sportive practice) is a nice happy medium between going nuts and unrealistic cooperative training.

Cons

The biggest problem with sport martial arts is that quite often, people who do them feel as if they are a complete martial artist and ‘street ready’. Even in a sport like Mixed Martial Arts fighting, where it is as close as it gets to reality, it still isn’t ‘real’ fighting. If you do not balance your training, you are apt to become delusional and not realize that you are not as prepared as a well-rounded martial artist. An 80 year old woman with a gun can easily take out the current Ultimate Fighting Champion if he doesn’t have one, so even “Reality Fighting” is still a sport. In some cases, the rules may cause what was once a martial art to become more of a sport. We can see this with Judo, where it began as a collection of Jiu-jitsu styles and was quite effective in all ranges of unarmed combat; addressing strikes, throws and groundwork. Now, it has become known as primarily a throwing sport and not taken as seriously as a complete and well rounded self defense system. When too many rules are added to a martial art in its practice, it will become more of a sport and lose much of its value as a martial art.

Ideology

A True Martial Artist is humble and without ego, does into boast or brag and is generally unassuming. In an ideal and perfect world, a true competitor should have some of these qualities, but the reality is that most do not and it is the nature of sports in general to be associated with just the opposite. This has always been the problem with sports and martial arts; getting oil and water to mix. The greatest hypocrisy in the Martial Arts instructional industry is when a teacher asks you to leave your ego at the door, but prominently displays his competition record for all to see.

The question you have to ask yourself is, “are you are martial artist or an athlete first?”, then train accordingly. If you are a “Self Defense” guy, realize that a little sportive training (not necessarily tournament, but at least opening yourself up to practicing that way) can accelerate your skills and if you are a “Sport Guy”, know that its not for everyone and make sure you are balancing your training with real martial arts; don’t get carried away with an ego or the 80 year old woman with the gun might disagree.

Gene Simco is a career Martial Artist and Author of several Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Books. In addition to holding a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, he has appeared in many instructional videos. He is available for instruction via an online video training program at http://www.jiu-jitsu.net or at his school in N.Y. (http://www.jiu-jitsu.net/nyma).

For more information about him or his products, visit http://www.genesimco.com.

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Bruce Lee martial arts

Bruce Lee, The Greatest Martial Arts Action Hero

Before Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme, there was Bruce Lee. In a way, it is a real shame that many of today's generation of action film fans have never been exposed to Bruce Lee because he was perhaps the greatest martial arts action hero of all time. His martial arts on film may not have been as fancy as say Jackie Chan's or Jet Li's but his on screen ferocity and charisma are unequalled. Even more important was the impact on martial arts that Bruce Lee had which still endures today even over 30 years since his passing.

Bruce Lee always considered himself a martial artist first and an actor second. As a martial artist, he was way ahead of his time in developing his own style of martial arts he called jeet kune do. His martial arts incorporated the most practical techniques from various combative disciplines as he moved away from the traditional and classical techniques. His martial arts abilities were real and respected by other prominent martial artists like Jhoon Rhee, Chuck Norris, Ed Parker and Joe Lewis. His name was inducted into the prestigious Black Belt Hall of Fame twice, once while he was alive and the other after his death. These are honors that no other martial arts action hero has ever come close to. Martial arts schools in North America enjoyed a huge growth in enrollment because of Bruce Lee.

North America got an early glimpse of Bruce Lee when he played Kato in the Green Hornet television series and a bit role in the movie Marlowe. He went to Hong Kong and made a few films like Fists of Fury (called the Big Boss in the Asia market) and the Chinese Connection which made him a huge star in Asia. Bruce Lee also wrote, directed and starred in his own movie production called the Way of the Dragon which featured perhaps one of the greatest martial arts fight scenes ever. This scene took place in the Roman Coliseum and was with Chuck Norris which gave Norris his first film start. It was Enter the Dragon that broke him to North America. Unfortunately, he died tragically at the age of 32 in 1973 before he was able to witness the success of that movie. At the time of Lee's death, he had completed the fight scenes for another movie called Game of Death which featured basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabar, who was actually one of his martial arts students. Other students of Bruce Lee included actors Steve McQueen and James Coburn. Game of Death was completed with look-alike actors later on.

One of the most significant contributions Bruce Lee made is that he opened the door for other Asians in the entertainment industry worldwide. He was the first Asian to achieve any significant success in the North American entertainment scene. He became a star in North America and the rest of the world by playing heroes rather than past stereotype roles for Asians such as like servants, gangsters, laundry workers or other 'pigtail coolie' characters. On an even greater scale, Bruce Lee gave Asians, particularly the Chinese people worldwide, a reason to be proud. Bruce Lee influenced them to be confident in pushing forward to achieve their goals no matter what field they were in.

Clint is a lifelong martial artist with over 36 years of training experience in kung fu, tae kwon do, karate, kickboxing and martial arts weaponry. He has won Canadian and world championship titles (NASKA, NBL and WSKF). He is also owner of Martial Arts Articles Online (http://www.martialartsarticlesonline.com), an online martial arts information resource.

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