Tiger Balm 2010 Day 2

March 31st, 2010 | Tags: kickboxing, kung fu, pankration, tiger balm, tournament

I went to the second day of Tiger Balm Internationals for some fresh content for my fight blog and also because I entered in the WKC full contact continuous sparring division, which is why I did a bunch of training and lost all the weight.

A tournament is always a busy scene and participants have to show up well in advance because anything could go down. For example if divisions are too small, they can get combined with other divisions, and suddenly the day goes by faster, or if there are free mats and enough judges a division can get moved to the open mat and the day progresses faster. Injuries, meetings, impomptu debates can also prolong the day.

The schedule for the day would include Kung Fu, Weapons, Kata demonstrations, Pankration, and WKC no face and full contact continuous sparring. I got there at 11:00 and met up with friends from the gym and I shot photos of the action until my division was called to the mat around 5:00 PM.

Jon Funk

Jon Funk, Sifu instructor of Mantis Kung Fu and Organizer of Tiger Balm International 2010, stopped and talked with me during his busy day just after addressing competitors for a Pankration division. We talked briefly about what busy events tournaments are, and that things were proceeding to plan with the usual concerns that happen during the event. A two day martial arts tournament takes months of planning and preparation and the end result is a gymnasium full of people and the action goes on all day long. I asked him briefly about other attempts to present martial arts events in Greater Vancouver such as the recently announced cancellation of MMA Expo. Jon understood how such an event could have its difficulties not understanding how to work with all the different stakeholders in the community and various levels of government, all who could have an impact on the future of holding such events. Its something that takes some skill in knowing how to do. Just as I thought, organizing such events is a black art unto itself.

My fight was the first up in the division. I was put up against a guy from Basi’s Lions Den Kickboxing from Calgary. I started out strong but didn’t figure on what I had to do during a ninety second long fight. So I knew when it was over that I did well; I got in lots of head shots, I listened to Sensei Ali and fought like he told me to, but the judges decision went to the other guy and that was ok. I cant control whether I would win or lose the fight, but I wanted to have a good strong fight and that is what I got.

My training partner Aaron Blanchette did a little better and won his first fight and was 1-1 for the day. Way to go Aaron! Osu.

There are 225 Photos in the Tiger Balm International 2010 Day 2 Photo Set. Here are a few of my favourites.