Fu Pow,
1st of all, your mailbox is full, wanted to thank you again for Seattle... I am waiting for you to come here...
2nd...
I may be wrong... but i remember some tournaments which would list which styles could compete... Example: Traditional Southern Long (Choy Lay Fut, Hung Gar, Hung Fut, Jow Ga, Lama, Hop Gar, etc...)
then another division... Other Traditional styles...
Because our brothers in the Short division deserve a fair shot too. They should compete against other Hakka or short handed styles which have similar foundations...
I would really hate to see Southern mantis adding butterfly kicks to compete against wah lum mantis... ya know???
To each his own...
But i for one love to see the traditional styles in full force... Seattle was a treat for me to see some really good Hung fut, Jow Ga, Hung ga, Chin woo and others...
With my example above I think everyone will be more happy, because as the old saying goes...
"Those who matter, don't mind and those that mind, don't matter...
I have lost alot won alot, and it don't matter, I just love kung fu... That feeling being out tre, the energy, those moments into the form... the adrenaline...e
So the trophy/ medal collectors will be happy, even if the divisions are smaller, cause it appears they are only after a medal anyway, thats fine... maybe one day they will understand what it really is all about...
It's nice to just look at all the styles without any prejudice and admire the skill, but like CLF Nole said ... there needs to be a standard in judging...
Joe