The answer to the 'what happened to the tournament' is....APATHY!

We thought that Shawn is so lazy that he would rather pretend like it never happened than take the time to post the results.

Yes, the magical disappearing tournament has reappeared and I'll bet you are all thrilled. Two weeks after the event, Shawn Terrance has finally found the energy to post about the tournament.  How sad that the kids are so low on his priority list. Of course he got the YEAR wrong, "April 12th, 2007".  Sad. Six of his students won and 9 of them didn't.  Doherty's Martial Arts really scored 99 points, but he lets Shawn split up his kids by his ever expanding locations. Then is comes down to whomever brings in the most bodies gets the higher score. Too many variables to judge the quality of the schools and point sparring is terrible for self-defense.  Like I said before, yes, they may be the sparring champions, but it ain't exactly the nationals. There are many scarry people here.  Shawn has also been known to stack the rings and to lie. Doherty probably feels sorry for him. "Yea, yea, whatever. You win. I just want my kid to get out there, have some fun and get some experience. It doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things". Some pretty vulnerable kids did pretty poorly. Meltdown.  I didn't see too many new names either.  I see the black belts are still chicken to spar. Black belts spar at Islander's tournament and at the Youth of America tournaments.  They are not afraid to lay it on the line. Some people feel that if you lose a sparring match as a black belt, people will not respect your rank. Well, only the one's that have good reason to doubt their abilities worry about that.

Yesterday my son was saying that Shawn would have to cancel the tournament because he couldn't afford to pay for the little plastic trophies. Then he said that his enrollment is down to "smiling rocks on sticks". He took a pencil in one hand and a pen in the other. He sat there starring at them in a strange way and then said to the pencil, "Jimmy! Go fight Sarah!"  He totally gets it. It was hilarious.

Now about that lack of testing.  At first, testing was three times a year and then it was changed to four times a year. When Shawn split, testing was conducted every month. Then he got some sort of obsessive book where he compulsively charted attendance and showed how many classes were needed for promotion.  Last year, there were just two opportunities to promote regardless of how many classes one attended. 

A tale of two schools:

Last week at Islander's I had the pleasure of watching the youth black belt test. Five kids got their black belts, including the daughter of the owners, who is 13. If there was a dry eye in the house it didn't belong to me.  Shawn's only had three black belts plus one that he 'doesn't count'. Remember, Shawn can 'run the school any way he wants to' so if your kid earns a black belt and Shawn later decides not to count it for any reason, there you go.  A few months ago we also had the pleasure of watching adult black belt testing. Four of my classmates earned this honor. Shawn has never trained/retained adults to that level. Black belt testing is such a special night at Islanders. The whole school comes out and it is so festive. Shawn's first black belt test was done  without witnesses at a remote location. When a scheduling conflict had people showing up at  the second black belt test, we found out why. I may eventually post the full critique that my husband made. Shawn did not even test stick or knife defense. The kid blew the neutral stance. How does one blow the neutral stance??!!  Shawn did not even write anything down to keep track of how he did.  It was a walk through.  Ken has more black belts on his juding panel than Shawn will every have black belts in his entire life, and they all had critique forms.  And while theoretically Ken can 'run the school any way he wants',  major decisions regarding policy, curriculum, etc. are voted on by a panel of black belts. He also has a true governing body, a modern arnis foundation, not just a company that takes his money to let him use their name. In fact, Ken is an inheritor of a style. George Dillman is going to do a seminar at our school next month. He is truly a legendary martial artist who has won numerous Black Belt Magazine Martial Artist of the Year awardsn; he's not just a personality. Ken is a class act who attracts class students and has highly accomplished friends. Ken has taught seminars in France, Germany, England, and he recently was invited to do a demo at The Classic. Shawn and his associates award themselves belts and make up styles.