Blood, sweat, and light-contact sparring

m0x1e · Last edited by m0x1e on Thu Apr 08, 2004 9:19 pm; edited 1 time in total

Blood, sweat, and light-contact sparring.
An event report by m0x1e, Instructor, NUIM Self-Defence Club.

One of the staples of College martial arts clubs is the intervarsity tournament, a place college martial arts coaches use to blood their students, and settle rivalries with their counterparts in other clubs. It is a place of black eyes and shattered dreams. A place of agony, ecstasy, and torn hamstrings. A place... you get the picture. Anyway, the DCUMAC (Martial Arts Club) held just such an event on Saturday March 13th in the DCU sports complex; and, lo, did it rock. The event was attended by DCU MAC, DCU Tae Kwon Do, UCD Lau Gar, ITT Kickboxing, and the NUIM Self-Defence Club. One of the first things the Maynooth representatives noticed was the absence of the usual competitive backbiting and underhanded bloodlust, which normally characterises these events. It actually seemed like DCUMAC had somehow managed to bypass the "my kung-fu is stronger than yours" syndrome (which seems to permeate the rest of the martial arts community) in favour of a more open-minded ambiance of good-natured sportsmanship.

The tournament was split, in addition to the obvious men/women's division and continuous/points fighting, into three broad categories of experience: novice, intermediate, and senior. The overall standard was truly jaw-dropping at all levels. The senior-grade fighters were particularly impressive representatives of their disciplines, and at least two of them were internationally-recognised competitors. In my humble opinion, the performance of each individual was a credit to both their style and teacher. Maynooth's only entrant, Jennifer "Buffy" Keane, fought in the women's novice section. She emerged from a harrowing round-robin as the proud (and very deserving) possessor of a gold medal. In addition to gaining this very tangible reward, we also rekindled an old friendship with the DCUMAC, which had lapsed over the last two years, due to inter-federation politics. Thanks to bonds renewed at that tournament, the NUIM Self-Defence Club hosted a three-hour inter-club training session on Monday March 29th with the DCUMAC. All found it an enriching and thoroughly enjoyable experience. A return session is planned in the coming week. I speak for every member of our club when I say: we're looking forward to it.

For more information, see web links below:
NUIM martial arts forum: http://mikadosoc.ie/forum/viewforum.php?f=67
DCUMAC homepage: http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~dcumac

This article will appear in the next issue of The Spoke

Mox
[Edited to fix DCUMAC homepage URL. -Mox]
_________________________________
"How's it goin' an' all that an' anyways?"

Näive · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 3:24 pm Post subject:

Wow! You do us too much credit and not enough to yourselves. The only reason the backbiting free atmosphere was maintained was due to the attitudes of the guys and girls who took part and I have to say that the Maynooth contingencys contribution in this respect was the most noticable (And I'm not just sucking up <grin>).
We're looking forward to seeing you next week guys :)

On a technical note,
the dcumac homepage is http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~dcumac
the crashaid site is the forums we use.

crashaid · Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2004 4:46 pm Post subject:

I have to agree with Naive, it's all done to the particants, or at least the referees. If they have any sort of bias it can turn even the most respectful open-minded person into a slobbering rabid eh, not so courtious person.

The best referee-ing I've experienced, and I've no problems in saying this, is John Sweeney, Chief Instructor of Green Dragon. He was the chief ref at DCUMAC's first intervaristy. He called it fair, was completely transparent and treated it as a learning experience, particularly for the begineers; happily doling out advice and being straight with any (remarkably few) warnings. I've seen similar with the crowd I now run with, but it's more competitive so the learning aspect isn't there.

KMcD · Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 3:35 pm Post subject:

I agree with Crash, John Sweeney is GOD!

Arthus · Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 3:07 pm Post subject:

KMcD · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 9:33 am Post subject:

mine at least

Ragdoll · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 9:46 am Post subject:

He's everyones sensei? Smile

KMcD · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 2:41 pm Post subject:

doubt that. I'm a student of his.

Arthus · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 5:13 pm Post subject:

Didn't know he was a God.