From Tournaments to Teamwork: Building a Better Competitive Culture

Tournament season is upon us—and it arrived quickly.In our sport, there really isn’t much of an off-season. Karate tournaments don’t function like traditional team sports. Events must be carefully organized and often scaled large enough to attract the best competitors from across regions and even the country.

As a newly formed team, it’s critical that I select events that are not only challenging, but also fun and meaningful for my athletes. Competition should test you—but it should also inspire you to keep coming back.

This isn’t just important for teams; it’s important for individual competitors as well. Athletes and parents need to ask some hard questions:What are my goals? Am I trying to elevate to a higher level?If the answer is yes, then you must focus on leagues with strong national circuits. And right alongside that question comes another unavoidable one: How do we pay for it?

My early martial arts career took place before the internet—before GoFundMe, before Etsy, before online fundraising was even a concept. Raising money to travel and compete felt foreign, and frankly, uncomfortable. I grew up without much money, and there was a real stigma around asking for help.

The reality is this: competing at the level required to attract major sponsors is astronomically expensive. It demands a clear vision, a detailed plan, and the discipline to execute both.

That is why I created my nonprofit, Team MMAA Inc.

The goal is simple, but ambitious: to help lift talented athletes who might otherwise never get the opportunity to compete. I want to use sport as a vehicle to elevate not just individual competitors, but the culture of our sport itself. And this vision extends beyond my own studio—I want to take this nationally. I want to help fund athletes who deserve the chance to compete but lack the financial means to do so.

Youth athletics has always troubled me—not because of competition itself, but because of how we elevate talent and how we treat it. The incentive structure is flawed. Socio-economically advantaged kids receive more opportunities simply because they can afford them. That doesn’t produce the best talent; it just gives privileged kids more chances.

What if we fostered genuine merit instead?What if we cared more about the experience of sport than identifying the next “bright star”?What if we invested in late bloomers and seemingly average kids who just haven’t had enough chances yet?

That’s the work I want to do.

I want more kids at tournaments. I want sport to be about more than metrics and podiums. I want to invest in athletes who struggle to believe in themselves and give them the experience of competition—so they can learn the value of effort, resilience, and hard work. I want kids to know it’s okay to place fifth and still be valued, supported, and welcomed.

I want fun to return. I want sportsmanship to prevail.

This is a lofty ambition, I know. But if we can train young men and women to be good teammates, to excel in their roles, and to win and lose with grace, we create something far more important than champions—we create stronger, more grounded citizens.

Let’s build a place where everyone has the opportunity to compete.Where success and failure are determined by effort—not status.

If we can teach the next generation the value of competition, shared struggle, and grit, we will raise leaders capable of solving the problems of the future—together.