My First 1st Placing in National All Styles Round 4

[iceman (Mike)]

This is definitely non-astronomy, but I know there is a few people that do, or used to do some form of martial arts training, so I thought I'd post it.

I competed in the National All Styles Round 4 event yesterday at Ryde, and finally won my first event - the Point Sparring for the 3rd-1st Kyu division.

It was my 4th tournament this year and I've been progressively getting better each time, so I was really happy to finally win an event, after some 2nd's and 3rd's in the last few events.

You can watch the videos and read all the commentary here:
My First 1st Placing in National All Styles Round 4

Thanks for looking.

EDIT:
I competed in another tournament on the weekend.
See post 21 for more.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Ah so......Karate Kid...remember....wax on, wax off

Great going!!!!

[DavidU (Dave)]

Great skill there Mike. You must be happy with the result.

[beren]

Great stuff Mike and congratulations, looked like a lot of fun makes me wish I kept on with my Muay Thai/Boxing bit nervous watching with those hands down so low though

[Robh (Rob)]

A result of discipline, training and developing experience.
And presumably, some talent.
I did Hapkido for many years and know how much dedication is required.

Well, done!

Regards, Rob.

[Dennis]

Congratulations Mike – it certainly looks tough!

You appeared very much at ease and looked quite loose compared to your opponents, who seemed more mechanical in their approach? Your kicks appeared very effective and they didn’t appear to have an answer for them. Obviously I write this with respect for your opponents as performing at this level takes immense dedication and commitment. I used to take classes when at Uni, many, many moons ago LOL! and can certainly appreciate what it is like under fire for a 3 minute round!

Well done again! You’ve certainly got a couple of quite demanding hobbies in astronomy and the martial arts, not to mention family and work!

Thanks for the write up, I enjoyed watching the videos of your sessions.

Cheers

Dennis

[DavidU (Dave)]

Note to self : NEVER be cheeky to Mike.

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks guys, appreciate you taking a look and posting some feedback.

Beren/Stuart, you might be interested in this: http://www.martialartslife.net/forum...nd-august-2009

It was the first fight for a kickboxer, part of a martial arts community I'm also part of.

Watching that, it's much more brutal than mine LOL! There's no way I could do that

Rob - my friend that started Martial Arts Life (a friend/ex-work colleague of mine) does Hapkido. I did one class with him one time - was fun! Except his fiancee had her wrist broken during that class! Ouch!

Dennis - thanks for your comments. I was very nervous at the start of the day, but getting the continuous sparring and then the kata out of the way earlier on, helped me be more relaxed for the point sparring. Trying to control the nerves has been one of the biggest challenges when starting to enter tournaments. Trying to make sure you don't forget everything you've learned is tough

I'm definitely enjoying the martial arts training at the moment - it's very tough to balance the demands and desires of the different hobbies, not to mention family and work!

Thanks again.

[BerrieK]

Well congratulations Mike, top stuff. You must be pretty fit to be involved in such a demanding sport.

You sure look pretty relaxed - powerful even (aah yes, power comes from speed and weight together with relaxation, confidence and concentration......). My kids do Tae Kwon Do and as such I spent nearly 4 hours watching the club grading on Saturday afternoon. Are your kids involved as well?

Kerrie

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by iceman

This is definitely non-astronomy, but I know there is a few people that do, or used to do some form of martial arts training, so I thought I'd post it.

Very cool - congrats on the placing. Pretty good Kumite stances and you snap that round-house pretty fast and high. My boy's been doing shotokan too for the past 8 years and is going for his junior black belt grading in December with Yoseikan-ryu. I'm just the taxi driver, doing a bit of table officialing on occasions for the tournaments and the NSWKF. Takes a lot of training and dedication to do what you're doing. Well done again.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by beren

Great stuff Mike and congratulations, looked like a lot of fun makes me wish I kept on with my Muay Thai/Boxing bit nervous watching with those hands down so low though

Same here. I can appreciate Karatake, but prefer Muay Thai's style. That said, you can't beat it for discipline.

Mike, good footwork, style and a better reach gave you a good advantage over the first guy in the point sparring. vs the guy in the continous sparring, he seemed a bit more aggressive than you and I was a bit worried about the low hands too. Beren - you gotta remember than kicks to the groin are illegal in Australia (at least from memory). It doesn't stop them from accidently happening, but most fighters do genuinely try and avoid groin kicks. In Muay Thai anything is fair game (that's if you're not doing kick boxing where knees and elbows are disallowed that is).

Good stuff Mike, enjoyed watching the sparring and kata.

Dave

[casstony]

Why isn't protective head gear worn?

[Jen]

Originally Posted by renormalised

Ah so......Karate Kid...remember....wax on, wax off

Great going!!!!

Good on ya Mike

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks Jen

Originally Posted by BerrieK

Well congratulations Mike, top stuff. You must be pretty fit to be involved in such a demanding sport.

You sure look pretty relaxed - powerful even (aah yes, power comes from speed and weight together with relaxation, confidence and concentration......). My kids do Tae Kwon Do and as such I spent nearly 4 hours watching the club grading on Saturday afternoon. Are your kids involved as well?

Kerrie

Thanks Kerrie - my fitness is getting better. A few months ago I started regular fitness training in preparation for my black belt grading. It's definitely helping.

The NAS tournaments have a lot of Tae Kwon Do competitors. I did do TKD for about 6 months, but a looong time ago (I was only 13 at the time).

My son Jacob did Karate for a little while, but gave it up after only 6 months or so. I started when he stopped (almost 3 years ago now).

Originally Posted by multiweb

Very cool - congrats on the placing. Pretty good Kumite stances and you snap that round-house pretty fast and high. My boy's been doing shotokan too for the past 8 years and is going for his junior black belt grading in December with Yoseikan-ryu. I'm just the taxi driver, doing a bit of table officialing on occasions for the tournaments and the NSWKF. Takes a lot of training and dedication to do what you're doing. Well done again.

Thanks! My footwork and distance awareness are two of my strengths. Helps me to not get hit too much
I competed in an AKF tournament early this year (February?) - it's certainly a different beast than NAS. I'm hoping to compete in a few more AKF events next year. My friends' daughter went down to compete in the AKF Nationals in Adelaide just a few weeks ago.

I hope your son sticks with it after he gets his black belt!

Originally Posted by dpastern

Same here. I can appreciate Karatake, but prefer Muay Thai's style. That said, you can't beat it for discipline.

Mike, good footwork, style and a better reach gave you a good advantage over the first guy in the point sparring. vs the guy in the continous sparring, he seemed a bit more aggressive than you and I was a bit worried about the low hands too. Beren - you gotta remember than kicks to the groin are illegal in Australia (at least from memory). It doesn't stop them from accidently happening, but most fighters do genuinely try and avoid groin kicks. In Muay Thai anything is fair game (that's if you're not doing kick boxing where knees and elbows are disallowed that is).

Good stuff Mike, enjoyed watching the sparring and kata.

Dave

Thanks Dave. I think the guy in the continuous sparring has done a lot of kickboxing training - he definitely fought like a kickboxer, with the high guard and the thigh kicks.

Originally Posted by casstony

Why isn't protective head gear worn?

It depends on the tournament. In some tournaments it's mandatory(IBS and IMAT events I think), and others it's not required (but you can wear them if you want to, I guess). We all have mouth guards, of course.

Strangely enough, in some tournaments they allow kicks to the head but not punches to the head. I don't understand those rules!

[h0ughy (David)]

well done mike

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by iceman

Thanks Dave. I think the guy in the continuous sparring has done a lot of kickboxing training - he definitely fought like a kickboxer, with the high guard and the thigh kicks.

I was going to say that, but since I'm not really totally au fait with your style, I didn't know if it was just a variation. I did notice his raised leg blocks on low roundhouse kicks, typical of kickboxers. It probably explains his aggressiveness on the mat as well now that I think of it.

A mate of mine did a bunch of martial arts, mainly Kempo karate, but he also did kickboxing, muay thai and hapkido, all to some extent. I wouldn't want to mess with him lol!!!

Dave

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Nice one Mike.

[iceman (Mike)]

Originally Posted by dpastern

I was going to say that, but since I'm not really totally au fait with your style, I didn't know if it was just a variation. I did notice his raised leg blocks on low roundhouse kicks, typical of kickboxers. It probably explains his aggressiveness on the mat as well now that I think of it.

Yeh definitely, it's probably a good style and tactic for continuous sparring which is a much different beast than point sparring.

The National All Styles tournaments are good in that you do get to fight against people with different styles - karate, tae kwon do, hapkido, kick boxing, kung fu etc. It's interesting to see how the different styles go against each other.

[Ric]

Well done Mike.

The hard work and discipline has paid off which is probably the most rewarding aspect of it all.

Cheers

[beren]

Beren/Stuart, you might be interested in this: http://www.martialartslife.net/forum...nd-august-2009

It was the first fight for a kickboxer, part of a martial arts community I'm also part of.

Watching that, it's much more brutal than mine LOL! There's no way I could do that

Thanks for the link Mike, good going for a first comp bout nearly had his opponent when he performed that third flashy superman punch .

I was going to say that, but since I'm not really totally au fait with your style, I didn't know if it was just a variation. I did notice his raised leg blocks on low roundhouse kicks, typical of kickboxers. It probably explains his aggressiveness on the mat as well now that I think of it.

When I was doing MT you get so ingrained using your leading leg as a block, feigning or launching a push/thrust kick.
Mike I think your footwork and kicking served you well in the point scoring, the opponent in the continuous sparring clearly had good skills and apart from me thinking "tuck that chin in, lift those hands" thought you handled it pretty well in the punching exchanges even when he switched southpaw a couple of times