NINE SPARRING CATEGORIES

SKIL point fighting, SKIL & WKC continuous sparring,, padded weapons sparring,
San Shou fighting, Mixed Martial Arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Free Style Grappling & Modified Pankration.

DATE:  Saturday, & Sunday, March 19/20, 2011

SCHEDULE:

Friday night registration 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Capilano University Sportsplex 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Registration (& weight in) begins Saturday & Sunday at 8:00 a.m. Competitors may registeer right up until their division begins
Referee’s meeting Saturday & Sunday at 9:15 a.m. sharp
Eliminations begin Saturday & Sunday with divisions being called at 9:15 and the competition starting at 9:30 a.m. sharp.

Info: http://www.mantiskungfu.com/TigerBalmInternationals.htm

Its time once again for the Full contact Karate tournament.

Sunday, November 28 2010
Doors Open 12:00 pm, Fights Begin 12:30 pm
Place: British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT)
Address: 3700 Willingdon Ave. Burnaby, BC

Advance Tickets now On Sale
Adult (13 & over): $10.00/ea ($15.00 at the door)
Child (6 – 12): $5.00/ea ($10.00 at the door)

Main Features of the Event

• World famous Kyokushin knock down fighting matches

• Professionally edited 20-page event programs

• Traditional Karate forms called “Kata” competition

• Karate demonstrations

More info: www.fightingart.ca

I am training my way through a karate kickboxing program at Versus Training Center as I blog about martial arts in this blog. They are two symbiotic experiences that feed and support each other. It was time again on October 28 2010 for a belt promotion class. Its a time to have our skills tested and get recognition for the hard work we have put in to our training. My program is a very modern Karate Kickboxing style, described as… ‘more power than Kyokushin Karate, more technique than Muay Thai’ (Iman said that). The class starts with technique drills, to demonstrate mastery of individual skills and combinations. My promotion to blue belt was the highest ranking promotion that day and it put me on the menu. I had to go through seven rounds of sparring, and the last two were against my Senseis, Ali and Iman, both who are Kyokushin black belts. So there I was sucking air after 5 rounds, and there were two more to go. and in walks Iman with his gloves and shin pads on, and he is fresh and ready to go. Well it turns out I did ok, but I really had to dig deep because I was gasping for air after doing 5 straight rounds. But it turns out that I did ok. And now I have a blue belt. Thanks for a great test, the sparring, and all the great training. See you in class. Osu!

Link to full photo set on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157625195875779/with/5149282759/

Presenting the West Coast Can-Am Championships, at BCIT in Burnaby, BC, May 29th and 30th. Ill be in the modified Muay Thai Division on May 30. See you there!

Premiered in 1979 as the First Annual West Coast Can-Am Championships, this tournament has developed into one of the most prestigious and longest-running annual tournaments in Canada, as it enters the 31^st year in 2010.

The goal of this event remained the same throughout the 31 years, to provide a safe, fair and fun competition event for Martial Artists of all styles. The Can-Am is known for its quality 5 ft and 6 ft trophy awards for both forms and fighting competitions, as well as handsome awards for judging officials.

Over the years, many world-famous Martial Artists from all styles such as Karate, Kung Fu, Wushu, Taekwondo, Hapkido, Tang Soo Do, Tai Chi, Jiu-Jitsu, Kenpo, have competed and performed in the Can-Am.  The Can-Am has indeed become a showcase of Martial Arts.

There are over 700 divisions to compete in, such as hand forms (Kata/Pattern), weapons forms, Karate Style point-fighting, Continuous Fighting, Sanshou fighting, Pankration, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Each category is further divided by gender, age, and ranking.

In this year’s 31^st Annual, we are again anticipating top competitors coming from China, the United States, and other parts of the world, and of course, our own excellent Martial Artists of Canada. To more accurately reflect the international level of competition, this tournament will soon be renamed “The International Can-Am Championships”. This historic name change will be announced in the 31^st Annual Awards Banquet, to mark the official entry of this quality event into the international arena.

Time of year again for the awesome two day martial arts tournament, Tiger Balm International. This year will feature nine sparring categories, including SKIL point fighting, SKIL & WKC continuous sparring, padded weapons sparring, San Shou fighting, Mixed Martial Arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Free Style Grappling & Modified Pankration. There will also be some great Demonstration forms that cant be missed.

Tiger Balm is one of the two largest martial arts tournaments in the greater Vancouver area along with the WCMAC held in October at BCIT. Tiger Balm fills the Capilano University Gym with participants from a large number of disciplines, with men and women participating at all ages.

San Shou Fight at Tiger Balm 2009

And moi, the Martial Arts Nomad, is going to be there fighting in my first tournament. Who wouldn’t want to beat up on guys half their age? Been training hard, cutting weight, so lets see how it goes! See you there!

Date: Saturday, & Sunday, March 27/28, 2010

Where: Capilano University Sportsplex 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, B.C., Canada

More info http://www.mantiskungfu.com/TigerBalmInternationals.htm

Link to a few photos from last year

Girls and Corpses Magazine published a Karate issue, I had to get it. True to its name, there is page after page of hot babes and dead guys, often really close together. The whole thing reminds me how the school where I train looks after an hour of intensive martial arts training: some chicks and a bunch of dead guys walking around.

Girls and Corpses has a wide appeal to all who dig low brow arts, horror movies, computer games, comedy, and we wont forget the hot chicks, then there is the seriously under-represented demographic of cadavers that they are clearly working to build upon. They have had a golf issue, a firemen’s issue, a boating issue, a religion issue, now a martial arts issue… you get the picture. If death is not a limitation, why have any others? Altogether its a strong dose of formaldehyde with comedy that will slay you whether or not your humors have left you.

This magazine may cause bouts of uncontrollable laughing, nausea, giggling, rickets, munchies, intestinal gas, heavy breathing, priapism, elephantiasis, staring, guffawing, the runs and spontaneous combustion.

Deaditor Robert ‘Corpsy’ Rhine describes it as a combination of ‘Fangoria meets Maxim… a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of hot girls and dead guys…’ served up together. Yum yum. Now while the web is killing print, Girls and Corpses is thriving. The growth in readers is spreading unchecked, like zombies after the apocalypse. Now I am among them. Corpsy says the intention of the magazine is to ‘get your brain flexing its ways it hasn’t exercised before – kind of like brain pilaties. Kind of sounds like when sensei makes us do the deep splits and his regiment of crazy conditioning.

Killer cover girl is Quina Feldstein, a third degree black belt and Karate sensei. Quina comes from real magazine royalty. Her grandfather is Al Feldstein, Editor of MAD Magazine for 29 years. Flipping right to her center spread article, I was curious to see how serious her martial arts would be. In a two piece bikini gi with black belt, Quina demonstrates moves like the spinning reverse hook kick, arm bars, wood block breaking, katana sword, mat rolls, and rear naked chokes. Quina leaves no doubt who is deadliest in her photo shoot. I see enough to know that most mortals would be struck down pretty quickly if they ever crossed her path. See the guy who tried and look at what happened to him.

You can also judge my reaction by the look on my face. It seems that Sensei Ali had some inspiration of some kind or another, about using his Katana, after looking at the magazine with me.

Girls And Corpses

Someone else knows how to use a Katana

If you are the type that would be mortified at Girls And Corpses (and maybe you should be), then you would be well advised to read the publication’s disclaimer:

Surgeon General Warning:

This magazine may cause bouts of uncontrollable laughing, nausea, giggling, rickets, munchies, intestinal gas, heavy breathing, priapism, elephantiasis, staring, guffawing, the runs and spontaneous combustion. This magazine contains depictions of dead things, actual beautiful women, dark comedy and simulated acts of affection between the living and the dead. If you are offended by any of these things, throw out your television immediately.

…. no corpses were harmed in the making of this magazine, All corpses are 18 years of age or over.

:

Come see the real Karate at the 10^th Anniversary Vancouver Cup 2009 Karate Championships.

Featured at the event will be world famous Kyokushin knock down fighting matches, traditional “Kata” forms competition, Karate demonstrations and Taiko drum demonstration.

Sunday, December 6 2009
British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) 3700 Willingdon Ave. Burnaby, BC.
Doors @ 12:00 pm, Fights @ 12:30 pm

Admission:
Adult (13 & over): $10.00/ea ($15.00 at the door)
Child (6 – 12): $5.00/ea ($10.00 at the door)

More Info: http://fightingart.ca/

Here are some shots of the Karate and Tae Kwon Do action at the 2009 Western Canadian Martial Arts Championships on Saturday.

Full Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157622656455388/

Full Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157622656455388/

2009 Western Canadian Martial Arts Championships

October is coming soon and that means its time for the 2009 Western Canadian Martial Arts Championships. Its a great place to several different disciplines of martial arts, different classes and different age groups all together at one place. I attended last year’s event and blogged it, since a fellow martial artist and occasional sparring partner, Adam Blanchette, competed in kickboxing.

This year promises an exiting tournament with two days of action with new and expanded divisions in Karate, Kung Fu, Grappling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Modified Muay Thai. Dont forget that besides fighting or just watching, this is a community event that needs volunteers for setup, registration tables, timekeeping and other tasks. Volunteering gets you the best seats in the house and a sweet T-shirt if you register before October 9th.

There is also the event Facebook page.

See you there!

A story came out on reddit.com recently, about a video that somehow surfaced on YouTube.com from about 25 years ago where a mentally unstable man makes his way into a Karate dojo in Quantico, Virginia, and ends up dead. So goes the story that he was a bit of a pest at the local mall, and was definitely known around town.

He dropped into the local Karate dojo to teach them some moves that he said ‘Jesus taught him’. In a case of extreme bad judgement the men from the gym took the opportunity to teach the guy a lesson. They beat him to death, it appears.

Reddit.com, being what it is, a massive clearing house of information, gets the word out. The media got on it, and the law is now on it, and so it should be. The owner of the dojo, Bobby Joe Blythe, has been tracked to where he lives now in Hanford, California.

So we can call it good news, the power of the Internet coming to expose a horrible wrong from 2 decades ago. But the actions of these men, committing murder, is all the more reprochable because the actions were taken in a dojo wearing gi and belt. They are dishonouring all martial arts by their actions. Isnt it obvious that you dont fight people who dont want to fight? That you dont entrap or lure people into a situation where they are subjected to an unfair fight? Its an obvious concept that you dont just inflict injury on anyone, least of all someone of some diminished mental or intellectual capacity. Its so profoundly wrong on so many levels.

If you find yourself in a martial arts dojo of any description and you find the other members or instructors are mean, insensitive, cruel, bullying, or humiliating in anyway, get the hell out and never come back.

Ill spare showing you the original video on my blog, its real faces of death stuff. But if you want to see it, its a related video to the YouTube video link I included in this post.