Today, from out of nowhere came a fight scene in the middle of down town Vancouver in front of the Art Gallery steps. Its a location popular for people selling art, petitioning, playing chess, rapping and breakdancing, or just to sit and eat a snack. But today, the street crowd was treated to a MMA fight. It was all organised to appear out of nowhere, complete with a boxing ring, MC, referee, lovely ladies, and Sensei Blake Lirette and Kirash Moghaddam, two super tough MMA fighters ready to fight to submission.

Here are some pics as the event went down:

The point of all this, if you are wondering, is to show people what MMA is about. Misconceptions abound about this new sport, and the local Martial Arts community is pushing to bring big ticket MMA events to Vancouver. The City of Vancouver was poised to sanction these kind of events, but sidestepped it by deferring to a provincial level authority. Everyone here is hoping the provincial authority will make the right move to officially sanction Mixed Martial Arts events.

So from the grassroots up, people are working to raise awareness about MMA to counteract the conjecture that keeps it from being sanctioned. We have to really show it to people so they can begin to understand better what it is – the future of martial arts. With Georges St. Pierre named Canada’s athlete of the year, we hope that he will be able to practice his sport in his home country.

MMA fans in New York State assembled a webiste for information about this sport, and the information there is just as applicable here as it is there. Hit the site and get the facts about MMA.

Ill be posting the video for this event as soon as it comes available.

—–

Update:

We got some media lovins from Fight Magazine and the Vancouver Sun:

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Mixed+martial+arts+fight+breaks+Robson+Street+cause/2025348/story.html

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Mixed+martial+arts+fight+breaks+Robson+Street+cause/2025348/story.html

Now the word is really going to get out there!

Versus 21 just took down their big dividing wall and doubled the size of the place. Originally, the wall divided the facility. Half was for martial arts and heavy training, and the other half was for yoga, pilates, and bicycle. Well the martial arts side of the business kept on growing. We got together one Saturday Morning in August to take down the wall, which would more than double the space available for martial arts.

Drywall and insulation pulled out

Cutting apart the steel studs

Cutting the mirrors out carefully

Apparently, there is such a thing as world record for demolition of a house by a martial arts team. In Prince Albert, Saskachewan, a karate school run by Wolfgang Manicke holds the world record for housewrecking. Its even featured in an episode or Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, and it is noted in the article that the feat will be registered in the 2002 Guinness Book of World Records. An online search of http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/ didnt return a result on this but the site states clearly that not everything is in the online database. However you can certainly see the video record for the “Most Impressive Breaking Demonstration“. It is very impressive. I cant do that.

But unlike some karate team that shows total wanton disregard and disrespect for abandoned houses, demolishing them in 2 hours, 15 minutes, we tried to be much more careful. Safety first. We were volunteering our time for the improvement of our dojo, we had to deal with tons of icky drywall, insulation, steel studs, wiring, and four large glass mirrors which would be reused. Then we had to sort out all this stuff and hump it down the stairs. I hope this doesnt sound totally wimpy, but we took 3 hours to get the wall down, and we were using tools. Of course we tried a few punches to the drywall, a few elbows, a few kicks to begin with, but say what you will, tools are the way to go. Call it a weapons training day or something. We used cro bars, pry bars, sledge hammers, cutters. and grinders. Actually, it was kind of a weapons day. Any of those would be good for self defence in a real fight. Maybe not the grinder or cutter, they were electric.

Its a common principle among martial arts that a student takes care of the dojo as part of the duties of training in the martial art. In some martial arts like Aikido, the class ends with dutiful sweeping and wiping of tatami. So it was not too terrible at all to put in a little time to help the gym along that I go to train in.

Now look what we have, this big wide open space with tons of room.

New Gym View

A big wide open space

Double the space double the gym

UFC Night at Edgewater Casino Sponsored By Versus 21. Photo: teantiki

On December 27th, We braved the winter storms and mountains of snow to join up with friends from the gym and MMA fans for UFC Night at Edgewater Casino. The PPV event is presented in a large theater on two giant video screens. Bar and food service is also available right in the hall. Its the best way to see the best MMA fights around.

Versus 21, Vancouver’s leading MMA & Kickboxing studio is now the proud sponsor of UFC nights hosted regularly at Edgewater Casino.

Tickets to the event are FREE, but seating is limited. If you plan to attend, head down to Edgewater Casino early evening (5 PM) and pick up your tickets. See you there.

Friday is the day for sparring. That is when I go to Versus 21 and try and put together what I learned there. It involves facing off against another human being and trying to get a good kick or punch in, and of course I take a few myself.

When I started sparring, I discovered what a huge challenge it was to apply what I learned in class on a heavy bag against a real opponent. Everything is changing. You have to pay attention. You get tired, sloppy, you miss, your opponent frustrates you, you drop your gloves or he or gets through your block somehow. Or maybe, the level of conflict escalates and its up to you how you want to respond. Its about taking responsibility for what you have learned.

I have heard a general criticism of martial arts before, that it is too much about an instructor at the head of the class, telling you want to do and you dont think for yourself as a student. To even warrant such a comment, there must be examples out there where that behavior is taken to an extreme, even parody. But sparring is the remedy for all that. You are put in charge of your learning.

And what a Its a huge shift it is from simply blocking that kick because the sensei told you to, and taking responsibility for it yourself. Its up to you to block that kick now. You dont want to block that low kick? Fine. Dont block the low kick. Feel the consequences. Because having the best sensei in the world wont matter if you dont take responsibility for the lessons you have learned. And by the way, it turns out that you lose less energy by lifting that leg and blocking that kick rather than leaving it on the ground and taking it.