My son just competed in his first tournament (he’s almost six). It was held at his school, with only the students at that school competing. The tournament for the littlest kids didsn’t involve any sparring. It was all based on forms or freestyle weapons. Each kid performed alone, with three judges scoring.
There was a lot to see–they divided people up by approximate belt level, so there were four “rings” competing at any given time. It was pretty fun to watch, especially the weapons competitors.
On the issue of sparring in general, my son got whacked in the face once and ever since he’s been fairly reluctant to do that. Even with all the gear, they can get injured, maybe especially because their sparring partners are also inexperienced. I don’t think we could have talked him into a tournament where he was sparring with someone else. From the sparring I’ve seen, I don’t think it would be more compelling to watch than forms. But then maybe I’m spoiled from too many beautifully-choreographed fight scenes in movies.
I can only speak for ATA tournaments. It’s been ten years since I attended an open tournament and I sincerely hope things have improved over what I saw.
I am a very active judge, and serve on the National Staff helping to run the three big tournaments yearly. At the regional level, you’ll have anywhere from 300-800 competitors depending on the venue, and anywhere from 12-24 rings on up. We’ll usually start out with the 4th and 5th Degree competitions judged by the Masters, then the 4th/5th Degrees will join in and judge 2nd/3rd Degrees and then they will join in and judge as well. Colored belt rings can be center-judged by any rank Black Belt that has earned at least a 2nd level certification in a judging clinic. The corner judges only need 1st level. Each ring will do forms, then weapons, then either one-steps for White/Orange/Yellow belts or free-sparring for everyone else. ATA takes pride in well-run tournaments; we usually start about 8:30 a.m. and are done by 6:00 p.m.
The national events are much larger scale. Las Vegas is held in the LV Convention Center; Orlando is held in the Disneyworld Sports Complex. For those, we’ll have around 2500-3000 competitors and about 40 rings. World Championships is held in the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock, AR and is the big dog. It’s a three day long tournament and we have been getting real close to 6000 competitors, running about 60+ rings. We do the Tournament of Champions and Black Belt Weapons competition on Friday night, all of the junior competitors on Saturday and all of the adult competitors on Sunday. It’s quite an event.
Well, we got a pretty good MA demonstration last night. In the OP I’d mentioned that my boy had earned his first belt. I’d thought there’s be a small ceremony of some sort, probably nothing fancy. I was wrong – it was a very big deal.
About 50 people were awarded belts, from the “little dragons” like my son up to one 2nd degree black. There was a huge crowd of family and friends. It went on for 2 1/2 hours. Each level of students, from the juniors on up, did a demonstration. Some groups demonstrated different moves, kicks, punches. Some did prepared kata forms as a group. 3 advanced students did thier own forms, some of which were pretty amazing.
The upper belts broke boards. Ki-YA!
For comedy, two instructors did a “light saber” point match with padded sticks.
My son, mister fidget, was rapt the whole time.
I still want to take him to a MA demonstration, but if the school does something like this every month or so, then I think that that will go a long way.