This is a dedication to the worst tournament I have had the misfortune to attend so far.
Sunday, March 2nd, I took a ride to Tamaqua, PA for the COAL KICKIN' Tournament. I had discovered it online and decided to check it out. After a beautiful ride through the mountains with high hopes and high energy, I arrived a little before the 10 am SHARP! musical forms competition. Well the 10 am SHARP! turned into 10:40 give or take. They started with musical forms individuals and teams. What struck me as odd was 'musical anything' is usually for entertainment or demo only at the other tournaments. I was excited at the prospect of seeing it none the less. It was ok... I felt a little robbed when I found out they had this as competition but no breaking! NO BREAKING! I have never even heard of a tournament that had no breaking! Board breaking is a display of true technique. Without good technique, one cannot break boards. This missing was a good indication of what this 'tournament' was about...
That aside I also noticed not a single Korean or Asian Master. This in itself I found very unusual! Well after the musical forms they began with BlackBelt forms. This to me is an ART! Watching it is mesmirizing. Well expectations were dashed for me! I was standing near the judges, and they hardly even LOOKED at the competitors. They were looking right, left, behind etc... I was shocked. The first two competitors were in their own devision. A blackbelt performing a red belt form (poorly) won over another blackbelt performing an advanced blackbelt form. When the judges were asked how could that be they actually said (I HEARD THEM) ... "THAT DOESN'T MATTER HERE! THIS ISN'T NATIONALS" then they actually chuckled! OK, I was set to leave because this seemed like a backwoods thrown together "party" that was just for people who knew one another. If you were not known, you were actually ignored - even looked at funny! Well behind me was lower belt weapons. Imagine my surprise when someone who dropped their weapon during competion scored higher than another that didn't! OK. I'd had it at this point, but decided to watch ADULT BLACKBELT WEAPONS, since this is one of my favorites. 3 men and one woman. The woman had a sword, two men had bo staffs and one had an oar. The staffs were very clumsy! I couldn't believe how sloppy it looked. The oar was ok but nothing I hadn't seen a hundred times. The woman with the sword was Breathtaking! It was flowing smooth, lots of differnt moves, flawless IMO. The sword looked like an exstention of herself! I had seen her at another tournament a number of months ago -(Funny I never saw any of the other competitors before). I knew she would get first. Well when she didnt even place I gasped, along with the stranger standing next to me, who actually said under his breath, "are you kidding?".
My daughter will be doing tournaments soon... NOT THIS ONE! She was not impressed and actually asked me if they were all this BAD (shes 9). I told her NO. Im taking her to the Keystone State Championships in April where she may even compete. (Of course if she decides she's ready ;) ) The Keystone State Championships never fail to impress and the judges PAY ATTENTION. So don't ever waste your time with the COAL KICKIN' Tournament! Its not worth it!
