Why you should compete in our Karate Tournaments

Scared about entering the karate tournament? Afraid people will judge you if you loose? Afraid of loosing? Afraid of looking like a fool? Afraid you or you child will make a mistake? If you or your child has never competed in one of our karate tournaments before, you may have some negative misconceptions of what really goes on. There are many great benefits that you or your child will obtain from participating in a karate tournament:

A chance to put your skills to the test!

In karate class, you spend a lot of time, energy, and focus attending trainings to improve your martial arts skills. However there is never any "Games." For example Football practice is to prepare you for your game on Saturday or Sunday, Well Here is your CHANCE! Your instructors will usually begin training for a tournament 6 weeks out. When I train as a Professional Fighter, most training camps are 8-10 weeks long to prepare for that one fight or competition. Why should your child spend so much time in karate class working on kicks, punches, Kata, Sparring drills/ matches, Weapons training and learn all those sparring combinations and strategies if they never get the opportunity to test their skills? That’s like studying for a test that they will never take. Good, yes but can be very challenging to keep your child or self motivated at times. The ultimate goal is Black Belt which takes time and is a long journey, competing in tournaments will make that time that is takes more interesting and exciting

Become quicker, more elusive, and tactical with your Sparring strategies

When you train with the same group of sparring partners, over time it becomes easy for you to tell their strengths as well as their weaknesses. You learn Todd will drop right hand when executing the hook, and you have learned a defense every time it happens while sparring with him. That is good but what happens when it is a different opponent? Your game changes. By competing in tournaments in our Point Sparring division it forces you to compete with people you don’t know, which in turn makes your skills and game much better. This also forces you to learn how to adapt in the moment, which is a very important skill to learn for self defense.

Bond with your teammates and ultimately make long time friends

Karate is not technically a team sport, but when you’re taking classes and special tournament classes in our Sullivans’s USA KARATE schools, you build a kind of team spirit with every one of your classmates. When you go to a karate tournament, where your team logo and patch, travel together, stay in hotels with one another, the camaraderie is boosted even more. When one person is sparring, the whole team comes out to cheer on that student and if one person loses or gets hurt the whole group consoles the person. I have found that our students will take the bond with each other and carry it over into our school systems and at home truly making life time friends.

Strengthen your character

The ultimate aim of most martial arts is to build the character of the participants. Karate is not different. Of course going into the tournament, you should have winning as your goal. However, participants should realize that no matter the outcome, they will learn a great deal from the experience. Karate tournaments are a character building exercise, helping some achieve humility and others gain confidence. Learning how to win and learning how to handle defeat. This experience as a whole will humble our students and this will carry over into their views of life and how they respond to certain life situations. Whatever your child’s experience level or skill, karate tournaments are just the thing for them. They’ll learn a lot, meet a lot of new people and have new adventures while having fun.

Shihan Tom was ranked number one by the New England Karate Commission in the year of 2000 for Jr. Black Belt sparring, forms, and self-defense and is well known for his karate tournament background.

Shihan Tom was one of the original memebers or Hanshi and Shihan Sullivan's National Karate team "Team USA" and owns and operates USA Karate & Team United Martial Arts Academy located in Providence RI.