I went to my first martial arts tournament a couple weeks ago. The 2005 Taiji Legacy was a Chinese martial arts tournament in Plano, Texas, bringing together many different styles in one cornocopia of kung fu goodness. Getting a chance to see many different styles was pretty amazing. Watching little kids get funky with the Shaolin kung fu at an early age was also awesome.

This gave me a chance to try out my chi sao, which, sadly, needs work. Must work on the footwork, dammit! I’m debating on whether to train for light contact, or even sanshou; you can only progress so far with the technical stuff. It’s almost like you’d get an incomplete training without it. One of the guys from my school picked up second in sanshou at the tournament.

Yet, strangely, the air at the tournament was filled with politics. What’s going on in the Tai Chi world? What’s all the buzz about different Wing Chun styles? Everyone wants to be king of the hill, it would seem. Enough of the politics. Why not just practice your art, striving to become better, and both enjoy and respect other arts? We’re all on the same journey, just taking different roads.

I’m looking forward to attending more tournaments in the future!