Waldorf Martial Arts “Dragons” Sport Karate Competition Team

Waldorf Martial Arts Competition Team is open to all students’ Yellow Belt and higher with the approval of

Team Members and Coaches

their instructor and parents. Categories of competition include Patterns (Forms), point-sparring, and weapons. The main competition focus for our competition team is within the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), but we also enjoy competing with other martial arts leagues and surrounding studios. Waldorf Martial Arts not only participates in local events, but regional and national tournaments as well.

The competition team season runs from September through July, with practices once a week. We practice forms, sparring, weapons, and focus on the mental component to sports. The team also has a fundraising committee that helps offset the costs of tournament and travel fees.

The competition team is required to attend comp team class every single Friday. They only get to miss one class a month or they are disqualified from the team. They are also required to attend sparring class every Friday, to get better at and practice their sparring. 

The workouts are a step up from regular classes, they last longer and are much more challenging. It is a class that pushes students to their limits every single week that incorporates intense Martial Arts, but also strength training and running. They get extra time to work on their forms for competition. 

2024 Team Members

Students on the comp team are required to attend every local or regional tournament we choose to attend. They have to compete to stay on the team. That means not only working hard to do their best at tournaments but also competing in every event that they can. That means forms, sparring, and weapons (if they are learning weapons). The goal is to win a State, Regional, and National Championship title in Forms, Sparring, and Weapons.

Competition team is a place where students work extremely hard and push themselves, but it is also a place of friendship. The comp team often grows closer than any of the other classes because of the extra time they spend together and the hard work they accomplish together as a team. The team pushes and supports each other to become the best Martial Artists they can be. 

Training for Competition

Martial Arts training has many benefits- improvement of physical abilities, learning and practicing life skills, and having a community. The Main goal is to earn a Black belt. However, we would argue that another exciting goal could be to compete at tournaments. Waldorf Martial Arts encourages every student to attend a competition at least once, but we know that they will keep going once they realize what a special experience it can be!

Taekwondo tournaments give the students something to train for. You wouldn’t show up to baseball and soccer practice every day and never compete in a game, right? So why would Taekwondo be any different? Those hours of hard work should be for something alongside getting a Black belt, and tournaments are the perfect place. Students get to show off their skills and get the chance to earn a medal. The sense of accomplishment that they get from winning something will encourage them to keep going and train even harder. 

It’s also the opportunity to see where they are in their age range and division. When training with the same people every day, it’s easy to believe that they are the best or the worst at something. But when they compete against other people they get to see if they really are that great (which is empowering) or if they need more work (which is humbling). Either way they are encouraged to work even harder to become better. If you win a game, you want to keep going. If you lose a game, you want to work harder to win next time.

Tournaments challenge you in new and exciting ways. When students step onto the mat, they put themselves out there to be judged on their hard work. They are competing against people that they don’t know that are from different schools all over the region. It can be intimidating! It’s also the chance to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Growth only happens when we push ourselves to do something new and different. Competition is a great way to do that!

Some thoughts on the purpose of competition– It has been on my mind lately that many of the kids in our program sometimes lose sight of why they are practicing Taekwondo.  And without a purpose, it is very hard to progress at anything! Many kids come into our program simply because their parents want them to develop a better sense of confidence, better discipline, or better concentration.  Some simply need a physical activity to burn energy.  Some are looking for an alternative to sitting on the bench at team sporting events.

These are all very good reasons for enrolling your child and, given that they stay in our program, will eventually occur.  However, many of our kids do not grasp/understand their parents’ goals for their taking Taekwondo.  Simply put, they see no end product in what they are doing.  In the beginning this is not a problem.  But after the 5th or 6th month, some students begin to tire of coming to practice day-in and day-out without a definite ?end” in sight. 

The way our society is conditioned is very different from that of the Asian populations from which Taekwondo came.  Our kids are taught from a very young age that most physical activities (i.e. sports) have a specific purpose . . . to score a point.  Plus, most sports are practiced for only a portion of the year. 

So now we have our child begin Taekwondo in hopes of developing him into a stronger more capable person.  But, being a child, he eventually loses sight of this reasoning (or simply didn’t understand it to begin with).  He never sees an end product of his practice (with the exception of a new belt awarded every 4 months).  Plus, he’s doing this year round without a break!  Practice in any endeavor must culminate with a reason for practicing.  That is, our kids must be able to test their skills.  Belt testing simply doesn’t do it for many kids.

If you think this may be a problem with your child.  If their interest seems to be waning.  I’d like to suggest that you let them come to our competition team tryouts in September.  Competition, if presented properly, can be very beneficial for kids.  That is, winning is not the only reason for competing.  The real purpose of competition is self-improvement.  It is learning how to give 100% effort.  It is about learning not only to win with humility but also how to loose gracefully. It’s about getting better at what you do. Competition forces you to face yourself as well as test the skills you’ve been practicing.  It teaches you about yourself and life!

Practice is where American kids learn the fundamentals to test their skills, competition is where they actually test their skills and realize a concrete purpose of practice.  Competition, I think, will give our kids a seeable purpose.  It gives meaning to practice above and beyond the belt test which after a while begins to take on less significance and importance to them.  Face it, most kids don’t like to test, but they do like to compete.  If you would like to discuss competition for your child further with me, please don’t hesitate. 

Mr C