When the martial arts association I’m a part of runs tournaments, we typically offer two or three divisions that students can choose to compete in: forms, sparring, and some type of specialty theme (i.e. board breaking, weapons, synchronized forms, etc).
Most students do the standard forms and sparring.
A form is a pattern of moves, traditionally taught as a means to practice self-defense without needing a partner, that typically takes around 30 seconds to complete.
Our style of sparring is point-based where students use martial arts techniques to strike target areas to accrue more points than their opponent… it’s single round elimination, bracket style, and one match lasts around two minutes.
When meeting with the judges today, one concept we—as an association—really wanted to communicate was let’s make sure none of our students have a “two minute and thirty second” experience.
In other words, let’s make sure nobody gets a bare minimum experience.
…Because it often happens where a student will arrive, do their form (30 seconds-ish), spar and lose their first match (2 minutes), and be… done.
Our goal was to be proactive in how we upped the students’ time and experience while at our event. This includes time spent with students warming up, checking forms, practicing sparring prior to their division start as well as giving them specific feedback, drilling certain concepts, and consoling those who needed it afterwards.
I felt like this was worth sharing today because it applies to so many aspects of life.
…In what domains are you only giving the bare minimum experience?
How can you be more proactive and up the time spent and value added in those domains?