The Preparations for Virtual Kata Tournaments" The Adjustments

Online tournaments are looking to become a part of the new normal due to the still ongoing 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic. But the question is: how does one prepare for an online tournament?

Off the Record with Migs Bustos aired its ninth episode on Friday and one talking point involved someone who joined and won online tournaments. Sharing his experience was James delos Santos who recently completed a sweep of three online tournaments last month. 

Answering the question above, delos Santos began by saying "I had to make some adjustments also in virtual tournaments because I've been used to competing in the actual tournaments before this whole pandemic happened. In an actual tournament, you perform once in front of the crowd and also in front of the judges, and then the judges will evaluate you on the spot once the performance is done," He continued, "However, with the virtual kata, the adjustments that I had to make is I had to get up my whole set-up like a camera and my laptop. I would record my performance then I would upload my video onto my laptop and then send it to the tournament organizers. If they (organizers) approved, they would send it to the judges for evaluation," Delos Santos, who is currently ranking number two in the virtual ranking, also revealed that the organizers of such virtual tournaments have precautionary measures in place to prevent athletes from using the same video for another tournament or editing the videos and that's another adjustment that he has to make. 

In the end, James delos Santos pointed "This was the opportunity (joining virtual tournaments) that I found throughout the pandemic. It's what keeps me healthy and fit. It's also keeping me motivated.  It also helps me set more goals for myself. I would encourage a lot of karatekas out there to give virtual competitions a try,"

Screenshot is from pinoyliga.com Facebook page