Prematch Briefing is mandatory meeting must be attended by all coaches and fighters before tournament, very important to socialize the tournament rules used by the organizer.
There are so many martial art tournament organizers nowadays. Those organizers created their own rules based on their own personal taste and style, that why prematch briefing is important. For examples:
- Some Taekwondo organizers permit all basic strikes, other organizers ban punches.
- Some Karate organizers permit all basic strikes, other organizers ban kicks.
- Some Kickboxing organizers permit Round Kick to calf area, other organizers only permit Sweep Kick to ankle area.
- Some Kenpo organizers permit all basic strikes, other organizers ban both elbow and knee strikes.
- Some Tui Shou organizers permit all basic throws, other organizers only permit pushing the opponent body with palm techniques.
- Some Jujutsu organizers use single point match tournament format, other organizers use point collecting match format.
- Some Knife Fighting organizers permit blocking/trapping using the unarmed hand, other organizers only permit blocking with the knife.
Dizzy? Me too.
Although there are so many tournament organizers with different personal taste, at least all good martial art tournament organizers are agree with 1 thing: Ban all strikes to most fatal areas like back brain, eyes, neck, throat, back bone, bladder and testicle for safety.
Prematch Briefing is also effective method to prevent cheats by corrupt referees. When i participate at a Karate fighting tournament in 2008, the organizer told us at prematch briefing “All basic strikes are permitted except to groin area!!”, but there are corrupt referees who give a penalty (yellow card) to fighters who use kicks and at other side they let the fighters who pay them to use any kicks they want, of course the coaches and audiences protest together (because they already knew the real rules, coaches and audiences aren’t stupid).
