the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

You may stop competion during your old age. But you don't have to if you can just modify the competition rule as:

One person play offense. The other person play defense.

For example, in 1 minute (or 30 seconds) timeframe, if the attacker can

- land his punch/kick on the defender,
- take the defender down.
- ...

the attacker wins that round. Otherwise, the defender wins that round.

If you

- feel good today, you may try to be an attacker.
- don't feel good today, you may try to be a defender.

It's not a real fight. But you can still test your offense/defense skill in a safe environment.

What's your opinion on this?

I was going to say I strongly recommend a sport called pickle ball

It’s sort of like tennis lite.

Not exactly MA, but uses some cool attributes

This method is also a good way to develop a certain technique.

For example, if you want to play as an attacker, you can keep using the same technique over and over. Since your opponent only plays defense and won't fight back, you can just concentrate on making your particular technique work.

johnwang wrote:This method is also a good way to develop a certain technique.

For example, if you want to play as an attacker, you can keep using the same technique over and over. Since your opponent only plays defense and won't fight back, you can just concentrate on making your particular technique work.

We usually refer to that as drilling

In my experience three components can really help keep folks safe.

The first two are Communication and Intent, both vital in any meaningful relationship. It is hard to keep a person safe If the intent is to 'win at all costs' and 'not hold back because this is real'. So if the two players communicate that safety is central, and the intent is around meaningful (and indeed powerful) martial explorations within the confines of what both agree is 'safe' there can be different outcomes than when 'competition' is the main intent.

The third (as in other places folks have fun) is Roleplay. One that I like is 'Drunk and Friend'. One person gets to be the angry/lusty Drunk trying desperately to get back to the bar to F or F. The other is the Friend is trying to get the Drunk across a street and into a cab and get them home safe. The Friend knows that they may get clocked (accidentally of course) in the focused desperation of the Drunk trying to get back into the bar, will not take it personally, and will continue to keep the Drunk (and themselves) safe as they stay connected, gently guiding them into the cab. The Friend also in no way can intentionally or accidentally 'release' the Drunk until they are safely in the cab, as the Drunk may rush into traffic.

Not sure about the fun part but I used to do competitions about 35 or so years ago but after a while I realized that my postures were not acrobatic enough or not enough nandu looking.
I do like to watch interesting form competition but beyond that my only goal through participation was just to present a unique and different way of doing taolu. Far too may times I would do form but was "scored low" because the judges did not know and were not aware of Sun taijiquan.

I was thinking of sporting my Daoist looking beard, the usual uniform and carry my Daoist wisk half broom for effect.

yes I think it's a really good principle

I played some 'fighting games' with my daughter recently. we had a nice plush yoga matt on the floor, mixing ground to stand up
it was a bit one sided but we both had a lot of fun.

"kick your butt"
"grab my hoodie string"
"untie my hoodie string"
"take the hoodie off my head"
"tap the chest"
"smack the butt"

cloudz wrote: 'fighting games'

Other fighting games that I like to play are:

If I can

- get a head lock on you, or
- get a underhook on you, or
- get a overhook on you, or
- get a bear hug on you, or
- pick up your leading leg, or
- grab on your both wrists, or
- ...

with in 1 minute, I win, otherwise, I lose.

It's a safe game because one person tries to achieve something, the other person tries not to allow that to happen. There is no fist/kick exchange. One person can train offense skill while another person can train defense skill.

My last competition was over 40 years ago, I realized, that is something more in the life than be the best fighter,
but
if you still need some ability poof:
kinda of judo sparring on good tatami will do,
no punching, kicking or dangerous locks...

A great post but some terminological problems should be clarified. What you are proposing is just training, not competition.

In my limited experience, people stop competition for many reasons, but the main one is the issue of injury. This is more true for some sports or martial arts than others.

Ian C. Kuzushi wrote:In my limited experience, people stop competition for many reasons, but the main one is the issue of injury. This is more true for some sports or martial arts than others.

Good point in regards to full contact fighting competition. However, far greater numbers of people compete in various form competitions at most tournament events.

Although the major tournaments usually include Senior form competitions for Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced level practitioners, most will stop competing when advancing age and diminished athleticism becomes obvious.

Additionally, the most successful competitors of any age, who have repeatedly won their preferred events at every major tournament over many years time, are encouraged to stand down as a competitor to serve as a judge for those events instead, thereby giving others a fair chance to win in their absence. It's all good!

wiesiek wrote:if you still need some ability poof:
kinda of judo sparring on good tatami will do,...

My last wrestling in the park with a 20 years old wrestler was when I was 69. When you are 80 years old, you no longer need to prove anything. You just want to have some fun. I agree that a pure wrestling can be safe too. But one person plays offense and another person plays defense is much safer.

Ian C. Kuzushi wrote:What you are proposing is just training, not competition.

Brendan Lai told me that he told a challenger if that challenger could block his single punch, the challenger won. Otherwise, Brendan won.

Sometime competition can be simple. For example, if you can take me down within 2 minutes, you win, otherwise I win. In that 2 minutes, you play offense, I only play defense. IMO, that's still "competition" because you will try as hard as you can to take me down.

Some people saw the title and assumed something different - reading your post it's pretty obvious and clear what you mean and where you're coming from. it's a good point that offence / defence is a smart way to keep the intensity more manageable.

cloudz wrote:it's a good point that offence / defence is a smart way to keep the intensity more manageable.

That was how my long fist sparring training started during my high school year. I learned how to dodge punches through sparring and not through form training.