I don't know what the tournaments look like nowadays...do they mix styles in competitions? I'm sure there are still the tournaments sponsored by joe-blow that hands out plastic trophies made in Taiwan. most of those local ones let anyone compete who pay.

org sponsored events or company sponsored events, this guy promotes that thing for the company over here if you agree to wear an org patch and the students pay event fees....I don't know how it works...help an old guy out will ya?

first, what types of competitions are there? are there competitions which have one style against another style?

are there any interenationally recognized competitions which may have competitors from any style of MA?

why do competitions always tend to stay within a style or family of styles?

thanks for the help...huh?! HUH??!! you'll need to speak up sonny.... had a califlower ear since back in 85.

One of the longest running open tournaments in the USA, founded by Ed Parker -

http://www.longbeachikc.com/

Curious. I have only ever been to open tournaments, and was surprised to find out (years ago) the there were some style-specific ones.

The Battle of Baltimore is a fairly large open tournament in Maryland.

thanks (shudder) . That helped me with things to search on. I found a local one: http://www.newenglandopen.com/fighting-frame.htm

Most of your local tournaments are classified as open or invitational. The open tournaments lets anyone/style compete against each other. The invitational keeps the styles bonded, Korean style with Korean and so on, another words if there was a Tang Soo Do invitational tournament TKD and TSD schools would mostly be invited to keep out the other (Japanese) styles Tried to be a good example for my son and we both went to a tournament last year and competed, he broke and sparred in the pee wee division. He took home a 2nd place sparring trophy which is still his prize possession today. Every time someone comes to the house he drags them into his room to show off his trophy, little bugger. I broke but they liked the high jumpy stuff the kids do, breaking base ball bats didn't impress them? The cost of entering both of us was about $80.00 since they charge you for every event...yup tournaments are all about the almighty dollar. Anyway I don't care because the time I spend with my son is priceless and eventually "Dad" won't be cool anymore that will be a sad day.

http://www.karatetournaments.com/useast.htm

You're still cool to me, Schanne!

Maybe this response is dated & you have your answer but in the event another poster or lurker wants to know...

Open Tournaments: Characterized by the presence of any & every style out there; Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hawaiian, American, etc. Traditional, Eclectic, Newly Invented - doesn't matter. Costumes are the rule of the day w/ an occasional rare sighting of a white Gi. Average number of patches = 3. Trophies tend to be big & gaudy (ever see a 6 y/o w/ his 6' trophy?).

Rules are often a matter of contention because officials are from scattered styles & they either forget the rules of the day & apply the rules they're familiar w/ OR aren't proficient regardless of style or rules. Aside from a brief meeting & reading the rules themselves, officials usually have no formal training & standardization.

The larger events have subdivisions: Japanese/Okinawan, Korean, Chinese, Eclectic for the competitors but the smaller one may have a Shotokan practitioner fighting a Lima Lama practitioner officiated by a Kenpo Referee & other odd collection of corner judges. Fighting usually takes the form of a quick game of tag & everybody is mandated to wear dipped foam padding (head, hands, feet & often body, shin & forearm).

Kara/Forms can range from traditional to made-up so it's impossible for any judge to determine if it was done correctly (forget a move? no understanding of the Bunkai due to body position? correct stances & timing?).

Invitational Tournaments: Usually oriented by land of origin - Japanese/Okinawan only, Korean only etc. Usually the various "ryu" (styles) are all represented however certain "ryu" can & have limited participants to their own (JKA = Shotokan, Hayashi-ha = Shito-ryu, etc.). This is not about discrimination but about consistancy. In Japanese styles, a punch to the face will score but in TKD it's disallowed, TKD allows kicking the (padded) head but Japanese styles will penalize for excessive contact. Kyokushin will allow unpadded head kicks but not face contact or elbows while MT allows everything (short of a .357 Magnun).

Hope this helps.

Thank-you for the update...so you are saying I haven't really missed much in the 15 years since I've stepped into one? more padding, less consistancy and weaker judging ?

how come most of the pictures from tournaments shows people screaming? whats that all about? It's not a kiai the way I've learned and am familiar with. The only thing remotely 'martial' I can relate these tournament screams to is during basic training when the drill seargent wasn't convinced of your determination and spirit. I SAID SHOW ME YUR WAR FACE, SCUMBAG!! lol

thanks again everyone for replies.

I think it's like a concert, the more you turn up the volume the harder it is to tell if the pitch is off.