2020 Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Online Championship

[Jimbo]

This online thing has been a blessing-in-disguise, since I haven't been to a tournament in decades. I feel like I've been living a cave! I'm wondering at what point did Shaolin styles start having so much acrobatics and whippy weapons? When I was a teenager we had to train using heavy oak swords and breathe out of our nose, but then, I still admire the agility of these kids today, so this time I'm not going to front-run any of the judges with my favorites because it would just reveal my age and how far out touch I am with what's considered traditional kung fu these days.

TBH, I’m always much more impressed by a good, solid traditional form, performed to near-perfection by a seasoned practitioner, than all the flashy acrobatic forms in the world. I’m pretty sure that in most cases, the acrobatics and lightweight weapons were incorporated into traditional sets due to the influence of wushu (and/or XMA).

The thing about traditional forms is that they adapt, grow and change with the practitioner. The young people who are doing the modernized XMA, wushu and “nandu” will decline sharply beyond a certain (still-young) age, in the same way that gymnasts decline.

[GeneChing]

As of this posting, there is only one competitor in the YOUNG ADULTS (18-24) of the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com ONLINE Championship. Enter now and your chances of winning a trophy are great! ENTRANCE DEADLINE IS WEDNESDAY.
ENTER HERE NOW

TBH, I’m always much more impressed by a good, solid traditional form, performed to near-perfection by a seasoned practitioner, than all the flashy acrobatic forms in the world. I’m pretty sure that in most cases, the acrobatics and lightweight weapons were incorporated into traditional sets due to the influence of wushu (and/or XMA).

The thing about traditional forms is that they adapt, grow and change with the practitioner. The young people who are doing the modernized XMA, wushu and “nandu” will decline sharply beyond a certain (still-young) age, in the same way that gymnasts decline.

As you know, I'm a huge proponent of real weight weapons, however I couldn't figure out a way to control for that in an online tournament. I'm open to suggestions.

All this being said, the two judges for our Traditional Kung Fu division would love to see something traditional. This time, it falls on the traditionalists for not entering. Even with our Songshan Shaolin, we have had more Modern Wushu entries than classical.

[YinOrYan]

As of this posting, there is only one competitor in the YOUNG ADULTS (18-24) of the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com ONLINE Championship.
...
As you know, I'm a huge proponent of real weight weapons, however I couldn't figure out a way to control for that in an online tournament. I'm open to suggestions.

Oh no, I hope we're not scaring-off those young whipper-snappers! Any form is better than how my young relatives workout, that is, just with their thumbs...

[GeneChing]

The TEEN Champions are declared!



The YOUNG ADULTS (18-24) Premiere this Friday (DEC 4) on our YouTube channel!

The YOUNG ADULTS (18-24) division Submission Deadline for the Tiger Claw Elite ONLINE Championships is TOMORROW (DEC 2)! ENTER HERE NOW

[YinOrYan]

The TEEN Champions are declared!

Here were my top picks:

Ellie Luong, Songshan Shaolin, Eagle (I know a similar form so I know that was well done. I'm going to add some wing flapping like that!)
Kaylee Wibowo, Modern Wushu, Contemporary Sword Form (Controlled that whippy sword well. She should try a Ming sword).
Alexander He, Traditional Kung Fu, Southern Fist (Had better breath-control than the others. He should try it with his teeth clamped-down).

[GeneChing]

Oh no, I hope we're not scaring-off those young whipper-snappers! Any form is better than how my young relatives workout, that is, just with their thumbs...

That's like the dude at the high school dance who thinks he's scaring off all the babes. Traditionalists are scaring off the youth. They just aren't attracting them. Or at least, the young traditional practitioners aren't coming out to play. As of this post, there are only 3 entrants for the Young Adult section. That guarantees that they will all win a trophy if we don't get any more sign ups by day's end tomorrow.

[YinOrYan]

... They just aren't attracting them. Or at least, the young traditional practitioners aren't coming out to play. As of this post, there are only 3 entrants for the Young Adult section. That guarantees that they will all win a trophy if we don't get any more sign ups by day's end tomorrow.

Well the Young Adult section seems to have demographics against it, at least in the U.S. When the kids go to college I think they are no longer forced to train by their parents. I don't know how U.C. Berkely gets enough kids participating in their tournaments. The University here has much more students but I could not even pay the kids to be interested. When I first started college they had several different martial arts classes, and now there's none...

[Jimbo]

I have no problem at all with kids/young people doing acrobatic/wushu-type forms. What I have a problem with is when they enter the traditional divisions, and the judges score their form higher than well-done traditional forms because they incorporated a backflip, or a tornado kick into a split, or called their wushu form traditional, etc. Those actually happened at kung fu tournaments I attended, admittedly a long time ago (late ‘90s).

TBH, kung fu isn’t popular with young people at all. Nowadays, even karate, Kenpo, TKD, and kung fu, if they’re practiced at all, seems to be all kids forced to train by their parents to give them another activity a couple times a week. Most will have quit by their teens. The only MA actually sought out by teens and young adults are BJJ/MT/MMA (or at least they were pre-Covid; only time will tell how many MA schools, BJJ academies, and MMA gyms have had to close permanently). But that’s all OK. MA will survive somehow, some way. There will always be SOME serious practitioners who will be motivated and carry it on, even if in small numbers.

[GeneChing]

I hear ya on Wushu competitors scoring over Traditional, Jimbo. I remember losing to wushu drunken style and changquan in a traditional ring back when I competed, and that was like 30 years ago. It's still an issue. I go blue in the face at our Judges' meetings trying to get them to agree to proper separation.

The fundamental problem is that traditional is not designed for competition while Wushu is. Teachers of Wushu train to win. Traditional practitioners perpetuate their tradition, whether it works in competition or not. Wushu coaches also know how to play the game - they stack their judges (all CMA tournaments rely heavily on volunteer judges) and rally their schools. Traditionalists expect fair play, and tournament promoters do their best to provide that. Wushu players play to win and capitalize on every advantage. As a former NCAA athlete, I admire that. That's how you play the game. But there's the rub. To a traditionalist, it's more than a game.

Now, Modern Wushu coaches are several generations deep. They play to win. They still enter traditional because some young coaches don't even know the difference. It's a constant challenge to beat them back. They play the game. The traditionalists abandon the game when they can't win by tradition, so the Wushu players win by default. And they're fine with that.

Okay, end of rant. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The YOUNG ADULTS is our smallest pool and it goes live tomorrow. There are less than half as many entries as there are trophies, so it's like a participation trophy, but none of them knew that going into this and kudos to them for representing.