Toledo

Toledo is a place of martial arts fantasy.
There are sword, armour, spear shops on every corner of every street. That and Marzipam.
Raquel was my guide for the day.

Cuenca

Cuenca is very much like this....upupupupupup
then...downdowndowndown
The Spanish Gallery of Abstract art is based there. A Hidden Gem

The Brits 09

Fighters being instructed in the rules which were considerably different this year. For next year to get through the fights quickly maybe we should have more fighters on the mat at the same time. Points deducted if you hit the wrong fighter.
Amir does his stuff. Quite dramatic don't you think. This time it took 2 cars to get us there. And instead of the usual slightly odorous place we usually stay we ended up in the travelodge(i think or was it a premier inn?) beside the football ground. we ate in Brown's for the first time in years; and probably the last. We did have to eat tho and that got it done. Then we had one of our more interesting walks around town before retiring. There will be more pictures of the Following days events. When I get them from Arc and Sarah.
Only two competitors this year. Both did us proud. Gus got two fights n Lucia got 3 medals.
As I said there will be more pics to post shortly. On the day I found myself kept very busy looking after people(yes that's what I was doing) In so doing i managed to miss most of Lucia's contests. It worked tho. This me getting superstitious. I was in Gus' corner and.... No all was not lost.... There was winning as well.
I think I saw less this year than any other year we have been going down. I must have been busy.
The stories of the judging made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. But then judges are just people and people will have their hobby horses. We all carry our prejudices with us... even someone so wonderfully insightful as me. I do not particularly agree that people have to do a judging course. I do think that experienced people applying the judging criteria should be able to tell a good form from a bad form in open competition, no matter the style. The other issue that raises its head is that of judging the form based on the way you teach it and or do it. Due to space restrictions it is sometimes necessary to adapt the form being done by adding or subtracting a step here of there(for example sabre Coiled dragon moving Quickly): that should not result in marks being deducted(because i know this form). I think people should be encouraged to be creative with the forms they have. What is wrong if someone changes a technique(for another valid technique not flying somersault sort of stuff)... It only really matters in this case if you are judging your 'own' form. Other matters like taking the weapon to the ground... People judging should know about this stuff.... Judges owe a duty to competitors to know more than just their own stuff and to be actively interested in Tai Chi beyond their own borders. Wu style people seem to feel particularly hard done to. Maybe that is part of the reason behind the judging courses. On the other hand in my opinion it is not a smooth flowing form. It tends to appear jerky and stilted. Last year I saw one of the Wu girls do forms that I thought were much smoother than before and she won... This year the smoothness was gone and the broken jerkiness was back. This is a pity. I don't know if it has anything to do with an excess of Square form. The form I do I practise and teach comes down the line from Wu Jian Chuan. I think an excess of Square form flattens a persons form. I think it should only be used to teach and then dropped.... But then even square form can be done smoothly.
Enough.
In pushing hands and fisticuffs things are easier to judge.
Moan over.
I was having a trawl thru the t.c.u. web site the other day and came across the criteria for judging form for each of the styles(that is the criterial each style uses to judge itself). It was very interesting indeed. Worth having a look at. however in competition at the British Championships the criteria are clear and all competitors and judges are aware of them. By participating you accept the rules. As a judges you apply the rules. anything else is either stupid or cheating or both.
and this is not me judging.
Just me exposing my ignorance.
Being opinionated.
And maybe even confrontational.
Oh well.