Tournaments

Tonight at class, Master Hughes talked to us a bit about tournaments. One of the other local schools is having a tournament soon, but our school does not promote that tournament. I think that's odd, but it's a long story.

According to Master Hughes, he won't encourage students to go to other local schools' tournaments because they won't send students to ours. In fact, one school stipulated that none of their black belts were allowed to attend our tournament or a seminar we had once with Bill Wallace.

I don't understand this approach. I understand that if I join our dojang, my money won't be going to the others, so there's a competition/capitalism thing going on here. And each school emphasizes different aspects of TKD; they might even do some things quite differently.

Still. It seems like it would be good for everyone if there was more cooperation among dojangs, less guarding of students.

Justin ran into this at his University. The TKD club there won't let him join as a black belt. He'd have to start all over again and give up his membership at our school! How odd! It seems like a club at a University could attract black belts from different places and give them a place to work out. But that's not what they want, I guess. They want everyone to be trained by their teachers.

Anyone have any insights about this?

When Master Hughes mentioned tournaments, I remembered what Stacy told me: "Get into a tournament as a brown belt. If you wait until you're a black belt, you'll be up against people like Ms. Pryor!" I've only participated on one tournament: a small one our school held.

I'd like to try a tournament if I could find one this fall. I'm feeling good after doing well at the last test. So many people today and at the test said nice things to me: "Good job, Jane" and I don't think they were just being nice. I felt like things were going well. Maybe that's a sign that it's competition time!