Tournament season is ramping up, again. Here, at Chon's Karate, we plan to next attend GM C.S.Kim's Annual Tournament in Monroeville, PA  It is a great experience, if you haven't been there, yet.

I need to say something about the tournament experience as a traditional martial artist. Competition is not the center of martial arts. Again, competition is not the center of martial arts. It is a crucial teaching tool, ground for experimentation, and means of communication and communal solidarity. But it is not the heart and center of martial arts.

Why do I stress this? I stress this because it is very easy to get caught up in the competition spirit. Tournaments require preparation, both physically and mentally. They also require an investment of resources. And once you've been to a few tournaments, you think economically. You prepare yourself for one, then you want to maximize that preparation by attending more than one tournament in two months.

There is no problem with this. In fact, there is a great advantage. By better yourself, then competing, you get a chance to see yourself through a new set of eyes. You also have a chance to learn from every person at each tournament you attend. Your tournament fee, in a way, is like paying tuition for a giant class/seminar! There is no problem here.

The problem comes in when competition is the heart and soul of your martial arts experience. It can be your primary outlet, but when you practice, just to do better than the other guy, you've missed out. You've missed out on the very fruitful and important benefit of self-improvement.

The martial arts are designed to better your as a person, in the context of building up a good social network with others. While competitions do that well, we have to keep them in perspective in our minds.

And with that, I would like to share an excellent video of a breaking competition with you.