Martial Arts News 4.30.08

• Iranian Judo fighters win six matches.

Iranian judo fighters have won six matches in the first day of the Asian Judo Championships, which is being held in Jeju in South Korea.

• Kenya being snubbed by judo politics?

The new Kenya Judo Association secretary, John Bogie, was surprised on Friday to learn that his office is not recognised by the National Olympic Committee of Kenya.

• The Washington Post actually has a boxing/MMA category!? Spratt beats Von Flue at a MMA tournament.

• China’s womens’ gold medal hopeful loses taekwondo match. What I’m surprised to find is that they are practicing taekwondo in China!

It was the first time that Wu lost both in the domestic and international competitions since she won the first gold medal for China’s taekwondo in the Asian Games in 2006.

• 160 people compete in a Pittsburgh area karate tourney.

Joe knows that karate is more than just punching, kicking and fighting with weapons.

“It is more than just fighting,” Joe said. “We teach self-defense and sometimes the best defense is running away. You may think that is being a coward but not really because sometimes that is being pretty smart.”

• MMA gear hits marketing success.

Sales of MMA-related gear rose 12 percent in 2007…

• MMA is illegal in Ontario. Recently a group of promoters were arrested for holding a tournament.

A group of promoters who organized a mixed martial arts event called “Rumble on the Rez” was charged with staging an illegal prize fight…

• Hollywood cools over Kung Fu flicks but the genre is alive and well in Asia.

Western cinema’s relationship with martial arts has been a rocky one. Like many genres, kung fu has drifted in and out of fashion, but it has never regained the same popularity as its glorious heyday in the early 1970s.

• If this had happened out West I’d have suspected Dojo Rat. However it’s in my neck of the woods and I can assure my readers that it was not I! He’s also much younger than either of us are.

He denied drinking any alcohol…During the one-leg stand the subject raised one knee up high, lifted his arms and bent his wrist. The subject stated, “I am the Karate Kid,”…The subject was arrested on suspicion of operating a vehicle intoxicated

Finally I’ll close with a new video from the Bu Ting Xi Kung Fu Academy. They have some good footage that’s worth a look!

~BCP

Jab Break Patterson Style

My instructor burned most of my tests to DVD and gave it to me at Monday’s practice. I’m going through the footage and mostly pulling the breaks I’m proud of. Here’s the jab break from my school black belt test back in December. I almost rolled this one out at Saturday’s tournament but I could not get it better than a 1 in 3 success rate. Good for the test because I could try to pick some creative and hard breaks but not good enough for me to try at a tournament. I tend to follow a moderate tournament strategy and just did not feel comfortable enough with this break. In addition my right hand is pretty banged up from the test breaks and sparring so that’s the other reason I decided not to try it.

As I experiment with these free ripping programs I’ll try to convert and post to YouTube. Anyhow here’s my same-hand jab break:

It actually took three tries but the free ripping program only allows for 2 min. of recording time. Now when I’m 80, walk with a cane, and have arthritis I can review the footage and realize why.

Incidentally my belt is brown in the footage but between the crappy lighting and conversion the colors washed. I didn’t get the plain black one until the end of the test.

~BCP

Tourney + 2 days

This is a good representation of how everyone felt last night at practice:

Incidentally that’s one of my cats. Fred has Zen truly figured out.

~BCP