Types of Tournaments
From WushuWiki
ROUGHDRAFT
What to expect from different types of tournaments. As a wushu athlete you will need to gain experience in competition if you are to properly test your skills on the carpet. Many countries don't have the luxury of a formalized competition circuit for contemporary wushu taolu, and as such get exposed to different types of tournaments.
[edit] Contemporary Wushu Competition
Events such as Berkeley CMAT, National Team Trials, World Wushu Championships are specifically run as wushu taolu tournaments. Their may be other events, but the Taolu will be center stage and treated as important. They often do their best to follow the proper IWuF Rules and always have a properly sized ring. Sometimes they will even have carpet.
[edit] Chinese martial arts
These events are a bit of a gamble. Some of these will run as a traditional only event where the organizers are not interested in any hassle from the contemporary taolu folks, while other events will cater to the contemporary taolu competitors. Judges at least have a basic understanding of Chinese martial arts.
[edit] Open/Sport Karate
Wushu is becoming more popular in the open tournament scene, and as such it has made a lot of improvements in this type of venue. Often the competitors are able to approach the organizers to get a bigger ring, if one is not already there.
Do not expect to see proper nandu judging or any sort of standards in place. Some judges may be pulled directly from the crowd, with little or no exposure to Chinese martial arts, much less wushu taolu.
Most coaches would suggest altering wushu forms for these events. Some of the pureists will cry foul, but more often than not the modified 2-section forms will fair better than a proper 4-section 1:20 form.
