Point Fighting is Gay

[newbie2MA]

well I guess that is the part about marital arts...

i don't get or like. as I see it (newbie) it is about people all trying to excel with mind/body/spirit and their *should* be an espirit de corps.

the whole "my kung fu is better then yours" attitude to me is asinine.

that said, it probably attracts low self-esteem people; i went to class with this guy in grade school, we were always shortest and second shortest. i ran into him years later, he was a TKD expert. he used to go up to the biggest guy in the bar who had a gf, challenge him, hit on his girl and then kick his ass in front of her. it was, in a word, disgusting. i have no issues with being short, and want to learn MA for my own reasons, none of which include "getting girls", or getting back at Joe Blow from 5th grade, or making my penis 3" bigger. I just want my body alert, alive, able.

[AlexJitsu]

All I know is that point fighter + liver shot = PWNED.

[rruffian]

Old Fart

As an old fart that was doing tournament fighting in the late 70's and through the mid 80's, things have changed for the worse in my opinion. Back in the day, we called it point fighting; however, the black belts set their own limits back then. You could still draw blood, but the fighters were allowed to determine the amount of contact. It was never personal and you typically went out and had beers with the other competitors after the tournament.

Then in the late 80's things went to hell as insurance companies and those that thought they were better than they really were got involved. The last tournament I fought in was against this Tae Kwon Dork pecker-head. We lined up then he stopped the fight to fix his jewelry and hair. At that point, I just smiled, blitzed his bitch ass, head-butted him, and threw him to the ground. He looked up at me with watering eyes then stood back up. The judge restarted the match and I blitzed him again, hit with a jab/cross then a knee and threw him to the ground.

The judges then disqualified me for excessive contact. I just smiled at the other guy and said "when you come to fight worry about the fight and don't worry about your damn hair and jewelry!"

That was the last time I fought in "tournament". Since then, they have been reduced to nothing more than a game of tag.

Ahh to be an old fart and remember the good old days!

[Mad_Mally]

I just wanted to state (just in case anyone forgot) that point fighting sucks.

[bustr]

karate sparring

Check your history. There wasn't kumite until Gigo Funakoshi began working on it in Japan roughly around the 1930's

Prof. Anderson

Are you positive about that? The reason I ask is that I remember Rob Redmond relating a story on his website about sparring matches occuring at a location next to a big rock somewhere in Okinawa. This was sometime in the late 19th century. Supposedly a person would place a hand on the rock to indicate he wanted a match and a challenger would answer by doing the same then sparring would commence.


Hey Ruffian

Who was the peckerhead? Was it one of these McDojo+ plus guys from the Beaumont area?

[Toudiyama[NL]]

Prof. Anderson

Are you positive about that? The reason I ask is that I remember Rob Redmond relating a story on his website about sparring matches occuring at a location next to a big rock somewhere in Okinawa. This was sometime in the late 19th century. Supposedly a person would place a hand on the rock to indicate he wanted a match and a challenger would answer by doing the same then sparring would commence.


Hey Ruffian

Who was the peckerhead? Was it one of these McDojo+ plus guys from the Beaumont area?

I think what is meant is organized kumite, but even that wasn't done by Funakoshi but by Ohtsuka and Konishi founders of Wado ryu and Shindo Jinen Ryu and Funakoshi wasn't pleased with it at all
But this was just the reintroduction of training with a partner like there were before Itosu took them out
Tegumi drills were one of those compare the word te-gumi with Kumi-te ( K changes in g if precedeed by something) they are in fact the same

[Mad_Mally]

Prof. Anderson

Are you positive about that? The reason I ask is that I remember Rob Redmond relating a story on his website about sparring matches occuring at a location next to a big rock somewhere in Okinawa. This was sometime in the late 19th century. Supposedly a person would place a hand on the rock to indicate he wanted a match and a challenger would answer by doing the same then sparring would commence.


Hey Ruffian

Who was the peckerhead? Was it one of these McDojo+ plus guys from the Beaumont area?

I don't think that you are talking about point fighting. What you're talking about is challege matches, which are a lot different. Point fighting is a game of tag, it's really gay. The gayest part about it is the flashy uniforms that everyone wears. I can always tell the true karateka by the plainness of their Gi. Anyway, I also love how all the point fighters think that they are hard core, and the best fighter in the world. Shit, they can't even keep their balance let alone throw a proper techique.

[Toudiyama[NL]]

I don't think that you are talking about point fighting. What you're talking about is challege matches, which are a lot different. Point fighting is a game of tag, it's really gay. The gayest part about it is the flashy uniforms that everyone wears. I can always tell the true karateka by the plainness of their Gi. Anyway, I also love how all the point fighters think that they are hard core, and the best fighter in the world. Shit, they can't even keep their balance let alone throw a proper techique.

That shows how much difference thee is in pointfighting, in WKF karate there are no flashy gi, even an adidas stripe on the sleeves is not alowed
Also an unbalanced technique doesn't score
I once was a ref at a tournament under WKF rules where 2 of the teams were used to the US style of pointfighting ( with the Safe T kick and punches) they thought that every time they touch the oponent it is a score
Over extended arms and flimsy techniques

WKF karate is a game of tag but at least it demands that the techniques are technicaly sound and could do damage if not stopped

[Andrew WA]

TKD is not ussually point fighting. It is full contact fighting and continuous but they have pads and certain rules.

Most point fighting is japanese styles like most forms of karate do this for their tournaments. But serious Japanese styles dont bother.

Karate is responsible for so much of this. But some TKD and Tang soo do schools do point sparring like ITF schools. Im really sick of the stop start of the matches.

I would be SO BORED watching this type of tournament. The action is nonexistent. And yes the kids who do this think they are baddasses, but it teaches them to pull punches and doesnt help them at all with power or taking real hits. Its stupid! I HATE THE XMA!!!

[JasonE]

Even better or worse is semi-contact.

Yes, that's all we had back in those days...

You could hit a guy hard enough to knock him down or rock him, but if you hurt him too bad (bloody nose, knockout or writhing over) you were penalized a point.

I participated in a match where I lost 5-0 to a guy that never made contact. He was jumping in the air throwing backfists that never got within a foot of me. Because I didn't bother pretending to block (he was at full extension each time - no danger to me), he would get a point for some of them.

When he threw a straight shot and I slipped it to land a solid shot to his abdomen, he got a point for getting "close" to my head before I actually hit him.

Then he jumped up again and I landed a light axe kick to his collar bone as he landed. Because my thick-ass foot pad brushed his thick-ass headgear, I got penalized for head contact (yup, just not allowed).

After that he threw another jumping backfist no worth blocking and was handed a point for the win despite me kicking him out of the air. At that point, I no longer cared, I just wanted to hit him and get something for it. One judge seemed to consistently rule in my favor, but the other two always went with the kid I "fought" that time.

I can't fault the kid, he was a nice dude and was there when I'd tapped out his instructor a couple weeks before. He knew what would have happened in other circumstances. That is the last bloody time I participated in a tournament of that sort, though some schools I've trained at since have required some time playing tag in addition to the contact training.