We went to a martial arts tournament this weekend. It was the first time I’d ever gone to see something like that.
We went because my friend Jon Crane was being promoted to the 9th dan, which is the highest rank achievable in his form of karate. He’s now “The Dude” for the West Coast. It was awesome to see him receive this. Very cool. I’m so happy for him.
Before that was a tournament. They had four “rings” set up in front of four sets of judges. Each group performed twice. They were mainly arranged by belt and age.
The little kids were fascinating. Each one had to walk up to the judges and tell them their name and maybe the form they were doing. I had friends on the judging panels, who talked about how shy and quiet some of these kids were when talking to the judges.
Then, they started their form.
WOW.
They went from cute little kid to young person with a thousand-yard stare and an I’m going to kill you look in their eyes.
The transformation was really interesting. Some of those kids, if they stick with their forms, are going to be deadly by the time they’re in their late teens.
The tournament started with the youngest kids and went up in age. The older kids could do more complicated forms, with more kicks and precision.
However, even for the older kids, it was still just a dance. Despite the concentration and prison-yard stare, they hadn’t connected everything yet. They were moving their bodies well. But in my mind (and I could be way off base here) it felt as though they had no understanding of how the foot moves the hand. (I did Tai Chi for many years.)
Then there were the young teens, who hit hard. They were starting to understand more about what it was that they were doing. However, one of the young people we were watching had gone too far over into the force side. It was no longer a dance, but was instead, focused on hitting and kicking people and sacrificed the grace of the dance in the process.
It wasn’t until the older teens group that they started putting it all together, the striking with the smoothness. Plus, some adults were coming through the ranks, who also had lovely forms.
Then, and this was a true delight, some of the masters competed.
I’m just going to say it again. WOW.
They were really impressive. These are people who have been doing martial arts since they were ten or eleven. They’ve really honed their forms. They are as beautiful as they are deadly. Fabulous to watch.
The masters also did weapons forms, which was impressive. I enjoyed all of it tremendously. Actually moved seats so I would have a better view.
In addition, there were also precision teams. The Tai Chi class that I used to take performed in this. As I plan on getting back into Tai Chi come mid-April, I’m hoping that next year, perhaps I’ll be part of it.
I’ll never be a grand master. But I do like the moving meditation that Tai Chi gives me. In addition, the teacher of my form also makes sure that you understand the martial implications of each move. It looks so pretty but you’re actually breaking someone’s arm right there…As this was how I initially learned Tai Chi, I appreciate these comments.
The tournament was inspiring for me. And I think, when it’s all said and done, that’s the point.
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