Originally Posted by
Kipling
I'll stick to Japanese arts, as I honestly don't know much about the chinese arts.
I've never really seen an aikido competition, i'm not sure how they'd pan out tbh, possibly end up a bit like judo =p
jujutsu however (at least in my association) has many different forms of competition, and some of these are based more on the "art" than the "fighting"
we have:
Sparring - stand up semi contact fighting, most strikes allowed (no elbows or knees or low blows) as well as standing locks and throws - judges desicion
Ground Fighting - both start kneeling, fight goes until the end of the round for judges desicion or until tap out
"Kumite" - at some smaller comps they mix the 2 above into one competition, which is basically ameture mma rules - very fun =D
Kata - Pick a Kata and perform it, judged on technique, accuracy and generally how well you did it
Weapons Kata - Same as above but with weapons =D
Pairs Demo - This is basically a 2 min long choreographed fight, you're both judged on how good/smooth it all looks, and how good the techniques are
and finally:
Random Attacks - I've just got back from the European championships in this, and while originally I didn't rate it, after training as part of the UK squad for 6 months in preparation I now really enjoy it. The Idea is that its a self defence competition, you take a partner with you usually, and he/she is your attacker, they will be told in secret what attack (usually from a list of 40 or so) to do on you. they then stand behind you, the ref tells you to turn around and as soona s you're facing the attacker they perform the relavent attack and you have to defend yourself. judged on effectiveness, technique and it has to be streetwise - so it would have to work on the streets - which limits the "flying" techniques =p