Nick Scrima`s 2004 Tournament

[Oso]

sometimes the editor is a bit indiscriminate.

competition teaches you to perform under pressure. unless you go out and try to get into fights (not recommended) it may be the most high pressure situation you will be forced to use your skills in.

[Tainan Mantis]

Green Tea,
Good luck on your first Tourny.
The scary part is performing and being judged by strangers.
You probably know that performing in front of strangers often will erase this fear.
One of my brothers, John Scolaro, would do his sets in public, like in front of a restaurant where people were watching.
He would do this with no provocation and we all felt it was somewhat odd.
But he had no inhibition and so when he went to tournaments he walked on stage like he owned the place.

One of his first shows was in front of about 300 spectators. He forgot the form in the middle and from there made up a form on the spot.

I think that was becasue he was often performing in front of people so he didn't feel too nervous that he couldn't improvise.
Though he was a little nervous to forget the form.

Yushan 18 elders and crew.
What is wrong with going incognito.
Then change T-shirts after you get some trofies?

[Oso]

won't yu shan, 18elders and pong lai be known already?

[18elders]

good luck-don't get discouraged if you don't win. the problem with tournaments is not all judges are familiar with your material or sometimes i think they don't have a clue about anything.
Alot of judges score high on the flashy crap, and acrobatic stuff. I look at the martial aspect of it. if you have no power or jing you lose points on my scoring. Do your form at a nice speed, put some power and spirit in your form, hold some good stances for a split second, do your form like your kicking someone's butt. Alot of Wler's do well in tournaments but i think it is just a bunch of flash with no martial substance.
Little open gate is nice, do good low stances and put spirit into it.

My shrfu(american but lived in taiwan for 10 years and speaks chinese like we was born chinese), he was judging a tournament here once and he scored the guy low. The performer's teacher(chinese) started complaining to another student (speaking chinese) thinking my teacher didn't understand him. My shrfu got up and went over to him and told him in chinese he scored him low because there was no spirit just a bunch of flashy crap. The other guy was shocked because he didn't think my shrfu understood him.
Unfortunately alot of flashy crap wins.

Good luck anyways, practise your form facing different directions in your school and also diagonally so you don't get stuck in a different environment.


Tainan-at chinese new year, shrfu told me to go perform leepi, i had just finished learning it, i started it but was so used to bung bu that i went into it, then i did a section of 18 elders and then ended with the last road of ba bu lien huan. Needless to say shrfu had a good laugh!! He said i told you to do leepi, not everything!!!!

[yu shan]

My personal objective behind supporting this Martial Arts venue is "fellowship", and "learn kungfu". Hopefully some smoothing of a strained relationship between two groups can be met, and let by gones be by gones. Also, the opportunity to meet and train with these Mantis Greats is an advantage. Knowing my Shifu, he will also tell me to compete. At my age, I have nothing to prove. Competition bores me, and I would be perfectly happy to settle with learning and teaching.

TM, Flem

Wasn`t there a story about John and Leroy busting out Wah Lum`s two-man form outside a movie theater following some fake verbal altercation? I could see it...

[Tainan Mantis]

I have not heard the fake fight story.
But I can see those two doing those kind of shenanigans.

Yushan,
We sound about the same on learning and competition.

18 Elders,
Sounds like you are ready to create your own form.
I remmeber John created his own form.
It was every WL form he knew strung together without stopping.
I was flabbergasted.

[Hua Lin Laoshi]

Unfortunately 18elders's asessment is about right. Seen any Karate tournaments lately? Never saw flash like that when I was in Karate. I blame the judges for that trend. Competitors will do whatever will get the judges attention and score points. Look what TKD sparring turned into (tag, your it). Look at modern Wu Shu. I would expect the general public to be astounded by the flash but not the judges.

I also think that subconsciously some judges tend to 'run with the pack' and try to be consistant with scoring. I know I feel funny when the score I give is way out of line with the others. And that happens a lot because I don't seem to see things like everyone else.

In defense of some of the flashy moves I have to say that when judging you have to consider the difficulty of the moves. Performing a form at a competition is more than just showing you know fighting moves. You're also showcasing your physical abilities, i.e. speed, balance, co-ordination etc. When judging you have to strike a balance and view the performance from different angles.

Maybe there needs to be a few special skills divisions at tournaments. Something like power generation. Use a force meter to register striking power. Divide by weight class since larger, heavier people will naturally hit harder. At the Wah Lum tournaments we have a horse stance competition to see who can last the longest in a low horse.

Another option could be to get a little more detailed in scoring and tracking of scores. Rather than scribbling on scraps of paper have a pre-printed form. Score different aspects separately then total for a final score. Competitors can see the score sheets and see how well they did in different categories like speed, power, balance. It put's more work in the judges and tourney holders hands but competitors get some really useful feedback. Give them the score sheets when done if they want.

[Ronin BaBu]

I'm planning on going with my kung fu brother as 8 step representatives. I think it would be great if all of us going could get together down there and show some mantis stuff.


I almost got into trouble at my last tournement because i added some flips into one of our forms. My one sifu scowled at it because he doesn't like things done just for flash.. but i supposed it was ok because if we were doing 'true' martial arts i don't suppose we'd be at a tournement at all now would we?

[Oso]

i added some flips into one of our forms

LOL !

I'd be happy to just do a flip, much less as part of a form.

...instead...I just flip out and stuff frisbee's in people's mouths to kill them.

[Green_Tea]

Thank you everyone that wished me luck and gave me advice. Practing in front of people sounds good, I thought I'd start by doing the moves in front of friends. This weekend was my birthday so I went to my grandparent's for a family bbq. I was practicing the moves in their big open yard. Felt so different on uneven grass and barefoot (and in a swimsuit *lol*). I also bought my uniform for the tournament. It's really pretty (but hot). So now I'm getting less nervous and more excited. That'll probably change .

During the party, I also saw my cousin, who used to train hardcore in Tae Kwon Do. He was telling me that he absolutely loved tournaments. He loved seeing all the out of town people, he loved trying to guess if regular competitors would pull out "signature moves" to win. The way he talked it made me excited too!

He was also telling me whenever he'd compete in tournaments with all martial arts that the Tae Kwon Do students never had much of a chance winning in the forms competitions when they were up against the Kung Fu students. He said that Tae Kwon Do forms are not as beautiful as Kung Fu forms. And then he started to tell me how impressive and beautiful Kung Fu forms were.

I guess I'm too new to things to think much about it. I knew wushu looked very beautiful, but I never knew other martial artists found Kung Fu forms so beautifully done . Who knows, perhaps this can help me. I took dance for about five years. I always assumed it somehow made learning kung fu more of a challange for me.

[Oso]

http://www.kungfuchampionship.com/Bio_DChin.htm

hey, just saw this, I met Master Chin back in March at the tourney here in NC. He was very funny to talk with and very approachable. It will be some good fighting if any of his students compete.

[yu shan]

Oso

You were suppose to fight against a Hop Gar practitioner awhile back, was this one of Master Chin`s students? Will you compete at the Championships in Orlando?

Ronin BaBu

A major part of my attending is to meet as many people as possible, hopefully many KFM`mrs. I agree with you, it would be great to get together and share.

Green_Tea

Good luck with your form. I always liked LOG, it`s one of those basic forms that just feels good. Always had a question about the three cont. rolling backfists, and the application to this. I have a nice app. for one... but not three! I think it was cool of your cousin to give kudos to CMA. This is kind of unheard of, usually TKD folks scarf at us and we make fun of them. Anyway hope to meet up with you in O`town, BTW your art is awesome!

[Oso]

yu shan: Yes, it was. But, he has a pro contract now that forbids him from fighting amature. Which pretty much means I was happy to not have to fight him. He, brought 2 of his students to fight the lei tai. I've got them on the same tape as my fight which you saw I think.

I was gonna fight the lei tai again in mid June here in Charlotte but finances may prevent me from doing both. If I have to pick, I'll pick Orlando since pong lai is going to be in da hizzouse. And of course for the puerto rican food !

Didn't you say you knew somebody in Nashville that was willing to spar full on?

[Green_Tea]

yu shan:

Yeah, I heard we're "not supposed to" like TKD . I guess because I'm family my cousin forgives me . I will say it seems like all the people in my school with the most beautiful kicks end up telling me they started out with many years in TKD. When I was learning my 8 basic kicks my sihing was this tall, lanky guy with TKD experience and it always frustrated me that I couldn't do kicks as nicely (probably also had something to do with my lack of experience ). But I think the main problem was being 5'5 and stocky :/. I should probably watch one of my sifus whose even shorter than me!

<- I know this is supposed to be the "Embarressed guy" but to me he looks like he's sighing and saying, "Ah well" heh heh.

[Tak]

I'll see you all there!

AFAIK, the reason for the switch from Tampa to Orlando was twofold: the availability of better facilities, and more attractions for visiting competitors, spectators, and their families.