The Traditional Kung Fu Invitational - 2007

Competitors: $40.00 for first division, $15 for each additional division.
Admission: $7.00, Under 6 and over 65 free

Registration starts at 8:30 AM
Competition starts at 10:00 AM sharp!

Here are some comments received from past years:

> > Sifu Jack Wong,
> > The tournament went great. My students had a lot of fun and it was a
great experience for them.
> > Comments? The only thing I can think about is the 2nd and 3rd place
awards being the same. When the competitors get home they may forget if they
won 2nd or 3rd. hahaha...Near the end we only had one ring going for the
> > traditional events, yet we had 5 judges ready on the other side to judge
> > traditional. there was about 3 divisions left which we probably could
have finished faster with 2 rings. Other than that it was an excellent tournament
> > > > and all of us are looking forward to this competition again next year.
> > Thanks. > > > Candice


> Welllllllllllllll. The tournament was run very smooth again. If I had
> to complain it would be to say that sweet and sour boneless pork
> should have been on the menu after the tournament.
> > Really: Two of my student had to compete against one another when
> there were still student from other schools that were in the push
> hands division. Suggest, Judges try to insure that all students from
> same school be paired up with another opponent before the medal round.
> > Try to get some more "old timmers" to compete in the over 45 division.
> There must be a lot out there. Ha-Ha. Your tournament was fine. Thanks
> for the invite and say again congads to Si-Fu Andrew for me. Thanks
> Edward Laramie


Nice to have met you. I think the tournament was essentially a very positive
event and I am hoping to bring other students next year.
I do have a few comments to make but am going to take my time in submitting
them as I want to be sure my wording conveys that although there are one or
two things that it would be nice to change, on the whole I think it was
pretty satisfactory.
I am organizing a 4 day camp this weekend so probably won't get back to you
until early next week.
Cheers,
Gord


Wong Sifu,
I just wanted to let you know I had a great time! I couldn't believe the number of changes
you were able to implement in such a short tie. I always enjoy making friends
with kung fu practicioners of different styles and schools.
Thank you once again for another wonderful tournament experience.
Ricardo



My commetnts:
1. Generally ran smoother than previous years. Any feedback from participants ?
2. Still not enough taichi judges.
3. Definition of "Novice" could be clarified, by adding another sentence or two, such as :
" A participant with two or more years of total acculmulative martial arts training
cannot enter as a novice in an event even if the participant has less than two years
of training in that particiular event."
4. In the definition of the "Advanced" category, could add " A participant who enters an
advanced categroy cannot enter any other events in the novice category." There will be
no room for confusion by the addition of clarifications in 3 & 4.
5. Clarify rules among outself on "tripping" for push hand.
[After the push hand event, I went over to the participants and ask for their feedback
on what they think about our pushhand rules. They all liked it because it avoided
wrestling and said we were quick to stop things from deteriorating and kept the event
very clean. I asked whether "tripping" should be allowed, they say they prefer no tripping.
We disallowed tripping in this year's event, and turned out to be a good thing
because someone could get hurt falling back on wooden floor.
I found that in some pairs, it was quite difficult for them to score because they were
trying to literally push each other and did not try enough to shed the opponent's
force to upset their balance. The pushing was made more so because no tripping was
allowed, giving them less tools to move the opponent. Hence, we should clarify
tripping rules among ourselves, considering safety vs more flexibility.]
6. In your contract with the school, should stipulate that more than one washroom
(toilet stalls) should be available for male and female participants, and with adequate
supply of toilet paper and paper towels (toilet paper and paper towels were not issues
this year but previous years were when the school janitor did not show up,
so might as well put it into your contract as contractual requirements.) One toilet stall
in men's side this year is not satisfactory when they closed off access to the other
bigger men's washroom. Don't know about situations for the females.
7. Should have designated videographers and video camera(s) for each ring.
Having Mike as the designated photograher and asking winners to turn around were improvements.
However, it wasn't worked out who should be handing out the non-winner certificates and
whether they should be in the photo line up. The non-winners ended up walking away before

receiving their certificates. I suggest that after the winners were
standing at the podium, the judges hands out the non-winner certificates first and ask them
to stay for photos, then hand out the winner's prizes and certificates before turning
around for the group photos. This gives some idea how many people they have to out-perform
to win the event.
That's all for now.
CK


Hi Jack,
.....Hope things are going well for you.
Here are my little suggestions.... 1. Propaganda
- make this event more visible by the public
- It will attract more groups and individuals to the competition
2. Brief introduction for the competitors
- It is done by the competitors or the committee desk; it will make it more
interesting for the audiences if they can hear it.
3. Group championship
- Something similar to NHL cups. The winning group can keep the trophy
for one year. However, it is meaningless if only a few groups participate.
- Only the open forms competition should be counted. The particular form
competitions should be excluded i.e. Bun Bo, Sup Ji Kau Dah are specific
for a style and should not be counted.
4. Family Pass
- Most of the competitors are kids. We should encourage their family
members to come and show their support.
- i.e. $13 for a family pass
It is only my 2 cents. May not work in the reality.
.........
Take care!
Regards
PC


Dear Master Wong,
Sorry for the late reply!
Some of my kung fu classmates were wondering if there was any chance that this year
you could mix up the order of the events, in terms of age and level categories for traditional,
so that if someone is enrolled in multiple events would be able to catch a breathe.
I understand that as a practicioner we should always be ready to go on and on
but it would be much appreciated if we could give each competition their best.

This would allow each competitor a genuine chance for those who desire to compete
in multiple categories compared to those competing in one
(i.e. competitor with energy spent compared to a group of rested and fresh -
if he had an event one after the other). Another benefit would be less people
waiting around all day for their events. For example if children category were
intermixed with adults then neither group of practitioners would be waiting around for their
event since if an adult event was currently up then a children event would be for sure next.

Also if the event order was posted at the tournament then the order should be
kept as close as possible since there would be a certain expectation for the
practicioners to prepare mentally for single or pair choreography events.
These are my humble suggestions to an already excellent tournament.
Thank you so much for all your efforts to listen to everyone's input and in
putting out one of the best tournament.
Yours sincerely.
Jane