Our guest writer from Europe, Teutonic Fist, has been busy on the knucklehead front and sought some advice on structuring in-group competition.
Teutonic Fist
Hey yo chief, I need some advice for a very meat and potatoes matter.
We don't know how to structure the fight club system.
I was for a bracket system. Means 4 candidates for example. The two winners fight for 1st and 2nd place. The winner of the loser match is 3rd. People object to that because everyone should fight everyone according to "nothing is won nothing is lost". And at this point, I just don't know. Any advice?
James
We have used bracket systems when being officiated by martial arts people and it always means that certain people just don’t get matched. That is good for a promoter but not for a club in which each guy is hoping to develop as much as possible, which is done through contact. Bracket systems also create byes, which are never good for the event's integrity.
We have used various types of round-robin “everyone fights everyone" systems.
Here is one example:
Bouts are decided by fighters submitting, calling themselves out based on an outcome in line with you training focus.
Each man starts with a point for every other man in the competition. Five fighters each start with 4 points. You lose a point every time you step down. Winner stays up—making conditioning a leveling factor. The last man standing will finish with between 1-4 points, depending on his dominance.
Experiential Round-Robin
Our best outcome was opponent scoring, round robin, every one fights everyone.
After a fight, each man enters a number for his opponent's quality of opposition.
Rate your man from 1-5 based on a value system you all agree on.
We used:
0 -refused to fight
1 -tested me
2 -challenged me
3 -matched me
4 -elevated me
5 -schooled me
Alternately, if two guys don't trust each other, they elect a referee who awards 1-5 of the 5 potential points to the fighters, splitting the points up between the two of them according to his appreciation of the action.
Good luck, Man.
Twerps, Goons and Meatshields: The Basics of Full Contact Stick-Fighting
link › jameslafond.blogspot.com
