Ric Miller of Eugene had the best overall score for adults in the annual Coquille Martial Arts Tournament last weekend, while four South Coast competitors also took high honors.

The fourth-annual event drew competitors and judges from as far away as Sparks, Nev.

The event also drew many dignitaries, including Chip Wright, who worked for many years as Chuck Norris’ stunt double and now has a school in Medford.

Competitors ranged in age from 4-year-old Johnathon Huffman of Coquille to 63-year-old Walt Hardman of Coos Bay.

Geoffery Perry of Coquille Martial Arts tied Hayden Johnston from Chip Wright’s School for best overall score among youth competitors.

Michael Daily of Reiss’ East-West Karate was the grand champion for junior black belt forms, while Dustin Graves from the same school was grand champion for all belts for students under 7 years old.

Dane Saxton of Coquille Martial Arts was the grand champion in black belt sparring.

During the day, the students competed in forms competitions, as well as sparring and team events.

Martial artists compete in a variety of forms or kata divisions.

A form is a series of movements designed to each the student about some aspect of their particular martial art, including balance, power and movement. Historically, forms were often used to perpetuate a martial art in times when the government had forbidden such practices.

Traditional forms are those that are unique to the individual school or style and may be hundreds of years old.

Weapons, such as the kama, bo (long staff) and Chinese swords also were traditionally taught using forms, while creative forms take a more modern approach, by combining flashier moves with more traditional ones. The forms may be choreographed to music or performed by synchronized groups.

Scoring is done in much the same way as gymnastics or skating, with three to five judges each rewarding a score within a particular point range for the performance. Points may be awarded or deducted for stance, balance, techique, difficulty and interpretation.

The high point of the forms competiion is the grand champion division, where the winners of each of the earlier forms divisions compete for the best overall form, age group and/or rank.

In most martial arts, the idea of self defense is to end an attack with a minimum number of strikes or techniques. Speed and accuracy, and the ability to prevent an opponent’s techniques from doing damage, is key to this philosophy. The average unarmed attack/defend scenario where the defender is trained lasts only a matter of seconds, and often without major injury to either party, which is the reason many people train in the martial arts.

In point sparring, fighters punch and kick until a judge sees a good technique and calls the point, stopping the fighting. Then the other judges give a call or consensus on who received the point. Confirmed points are awarded based on two out of three judges or three out of five agreeing. This type of sparring best represents the philosophy that less is more, common to such styles as tae kwon do, karate, kung fu and systema. In this type of competition, technique is valued over brute force. Fighters learn to control the amount of force necessary for the moment.

Other styles may go continuously with two or more judges counting points for each fighter and then comparing scores to determine the winner. Some styles of sparring go until a competitor is injured or gives up.

Team sparring is similar, but allows groups from the same school to compete together as a team. Points from each competitor’s rounds are added together to get a team score.

For the very youngest competitors, many of whom do not spar in the traditional manner, there is belt or flag sparring, where a person’s goal is to take the flags from the opponent’s belt while protecting his or her own flags.

The wins from each division are then added up to determine a best overall, or high-scoring, martial artist.

The grand champions are listed in today’s Community Scoreboard, along with the competitors form Coquille Martial Arts.