We recently attended a sports tournament. The age range was ages 5-the oldest participant. The tournament started at 9am with a schedule of events posted. So, with no further ado, I bring how not to host a tournament, or why it sucked to spend the day there.
1. Schedule too many events and not enough time. This will ensure that your schedule of events gets off track pretty quickly in the morning.
2. Make certain you do not rent enough space for the size of the event. This will crowd everyone in together like sardines. People are always happier when they are crowded like sardines.
3. Call participants up to staging where they will spend one very boring hour doing nothing but waiting.
4. Move participants to a random ring where their coaches cannot find them. Leave them, in gear, for 4-6 hours to do nothing.
5. Tell spectators they are not allowed to bring in food but are free to purchase food that will be available from vendors at the event. Run even 3 hours or more longer than the vendors are willing to stay.
6. Tell spectators to get off your lawn, er, fence. So what you called their little Johnny to staging and assigned him a ring 5 hours ago and they are tired of standing. They can get their dirty little paws off.of.your.fence.
7. Charge schools $50/coach so that bringing coaches in becomes cost prohibitive. This will ensure that someone's little Johnny will participate in his event(s) without a coach. This makes parents very happy.
8. Refuse coach challenges unless they are from out of the area. Then very willingly agree to their challenge.
9. Change the rules. Start with a point head shot at the beginning of the match and then at the end, change it to three points thus ensuring that the true winner loses.
10. Keep the same 24 judges and 6 referees on their feet for 16 hours so that their final calls will be unacceptable and gobbledygook stupid.
Now, for some suggestions that will help make future tournaments more enjoyable for participants.
1. Rent a larger space and set up rings like this:
-- 2 rings for black belt participants
--1 ring for 18+
--1 ring for 14-17
--1 ring for 11-13
--1 ring for 8-10
--1 ring for 5-7
This is only 1 extra ring than you provided. However, it would help coaches to know where they need to be.
2. The larger the event, the more time you need. If you have 9 events, you should plan to split them up between two days.
3. Give your refs and judges a break. Have a rotation or give them a 20 minute break between events.
I'm sure there are more ways to help than these three, but these three things alone would have made a huge difference in our experience. There were a lot of unnecessary injuries because the children were tired and hungry and had been sitting idly for 6 hours.
