Ross Levine and Morgan Plowden of Team Impex win men and women’s grand champion titles.

It was a beautiful weekend for the New England Open which was hosted May 31-June 1, 2013 and for the second year at the Manchester Radisson in Manchester, New Hampshire. The venue was buzzing with excitement.  As you entered the tournament area for Friday evening and Saturday day’s competition, you were greeted with an oversized karate guy with a trophy stand in front of him. Many spectators took the opportunity to snap a few pictures with their large trophies.

The event was the destination for some of the top teams in the world with a full house from Team Impex, Team WKF, Team All Stars and Team Straight Up on hand.

Friday night’s events started close to on time and the room was packed with both under belt and black belt divisions. There were a lot of Teams that showed up for the men’s team fighting.  Also, there was a good number of Movado teams to mix things up. JPM’s Chelsey Nash and Nikki Pelland beat Str8t Up’s Marissa Meyer and her teammate to face Team Impex on stage Saturday night for women’s team sparring.

Mens sparring eliminations were very exciting with WKF beating Next Level to make it to the semi-finals on stage Saturday night.  Also winning were Allstars, Str8t Up, and Impex.

As always, the finals were a little unpredictable but definitely fun and inclusive. The kids got a chance on stage with Bailey Murphy facing Jalen Carr. Carr managed a 7-3 win and bragging rights. Team Sport Action from Canada continues to entertain as the demo team winners and performers for the night. Later in the night, Team Emig defeated the tough-as-nails girls from Team BringIt for the synchronized teams title.

Instead of running the usual NASKA overall divisions in the finals, this was accomplished during the day time with the finals reserved for some new challenges. First, a 13 and under boys forms and weapons challenge was offered. Danny Etkin was up to the challenge with his extreme routine and the win. For the 13 and under girls, Isabella Caracta coordinated her mani/pedi to match her nunchucks and won the show.

For the 14-17 boys weapons and forms competition, Reid Presley was impressive with his double bo routine but the judges were all about Jackson Rudolph this evening as Rudolph took the title. For the girls, Mackensi Emory was able to hold challengers at bay with an intense extreme routine that got the judges’ votes.

Micayla Johnson is barely 18 but she’s turning out to be a formidable adult competitor. She took on Stephannie Figueroa and Becca Ross and came out the winner in women’s weapons. The women were followed by men’s forms with Micah Karns putting on a performance that overcame all – including the crazy drunken style of Sen Gao. In women’s forms, Becca Ross redeemed herself by winning the title with her traditional routine. For men’s weapons, it was the quiet storm of Stephen “Thor” Grasz and his traditional sword that took the title for the evening.

The New England Open has a few signature divisions that provide some great entertainment. In the Super Forms finals, the competitors spin a wheel to determine what type of form they will need to perform. Sammy Smith is an old pro at the division, ending up on stage in the finals almost every year since it was introduced. She took on Cody Sanders and she ended up showing the crowd her diversity by winning with a traditional weapons routine – using Drew Derek-Bisbee’s adult sized Oar as the weapons. She received Beats by Dre headphones as her prize.

The newly forged Team Alliance debuted its junior fighters at the event and faced Team United in the finals. Alliance held onto an early lead and kept it all the way to the end for the win. Next up were the men’s sparring semi-finals. With four teams left, it meant a lot of battles.

For the women, during the day time eliminations Morgan Plowden took on the woman who is considered the number one female point fighter in the world right now – Chelsey Nash in the lightweight division. Plowden came out the winner and advanced to win the overall grand championship title. The two had another rematch in women’s team sparring in the night finals. This time Nash left nothing to chance as she led Team Paul Mitchell to a team victory over Team Impex.

Team WKF faced Team Straight Up in match one. WKF was in the lead going into the finals. Kyle Richards of Straight Up tried to bring his team back into the forefront in his fight with Victor Suarez but it was not to be and WKF advanced to the final round. Team All Stars group of Joe Fife, Raymond Daniels and Jack Felton then faced off against Impex’s Jadi Tention, Avery Plowden and Ross Levine. Earlier during the eliminations, Tention lost by one point to Daniels for the 30 and over grand championships and Levine had defeated Felton in a classic match-up for the men’s grand championships. The finals provided two exciting rematches for the audience.

In round one, Fife and Plowden ended with a 2-2 tie. Daniels and Tention went at it and managed to exchange points on not just technique but also the opponent going out of bounds. It ended with Daniels up by one point and Impex in the lead. Felton wasn’t ready to let Levine go away with bragging rights as he managed to hold onto the All Stars lead and come out with a 6-4 lead against Levine to move All Stars into the final round.

The night ended with the final Men’s Team Fight of WKF against team All Stars. Victor Suarez opened strong for WKF as he defeated Joe Fife with score of 3-1. Raymond Mendoza of WKF squared up with Jack Felton for the second round.  Felton not only was able to make up the point spread from the first fight, he scored enough to give his team an 8 to 4 lead.  Tom Roberts of WKF not only had a 4 point gap to make up in the final round, but he had to fight Raymond Daniels. Daniels held on to his team lead and Allstars won 10 to 5.

The New England Open was all Team Impex during the day with teammates Morgan Plowden and Ross Levine winning the overall women’s and men’s point sparring grand championships. The paths that took them to those victories were varied and exciting. But Team All Stars held the night with their dramatic victory over Impex and WKF for the men’s team sparring victory.

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Jermond Wiggins, Richard Plowden, Morgan and Avery Plowden after their wins at the 2013 Kumite Classic.

The 2013 Kumite Classic was a banner year for promoter Bill Viola. Held May 24-25, 2013 in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, (just outside of Pittsburgh) the event celebrated its fourteenth year with growth. Viola saw a huge increase in participation at an event that he has been building as part of a unique setting – a fitness expo. The Kumite Classic took up half of the event arena with the other half filled with body builders, weight lifters, nutrition booths, a climbing wall and more.

The surge in participation made it clear that the event space will need to expand and Viola is ready – “I have the entire center next year and I will expand the competition space to accommodate the growth in numbers,” he vowed. “2014 is our fifteenth anniversary and I want to offer competitors something really special.” It is clear that Kumite Classic has hit tournament maturity.

The event not only saw a growth in numbers, it highlighted the return of a number of NBL competitors who took a break and returned – all grown up. Ashley Artese took a three year break to complete a college degree and returned in 2013 – a little rusty but still dominating in the women’s divisions. Kyle Petrosky made the drive from Ohio where he is completing his college degree and found himself on stage fighting a continuous sparring match against Billy Leader – another ‘kid’ who grew up in the NBL. Leader is one of three of Viola’s students who have helped him to build his school and tournament to the level they have reached today. Dominic Leader and Viola’s sister Ali were also instrumental in the Kumite Classic accomplishments.

Another NBL junior turned adult was at the forefront of the competitors at Kumite with Nick Cain, who created a new team – Refuse 2 Lose (R2L). R2L fielded two teams in men’s team sparring, R2L Red and R2L Silver. First, Team ATL’s Jermond Wiggins, Kevin Walker and Ryan Johnson toppled the strong line-up from Team Plowden consisting of Kyle Petrosky, Jeromy Roque and Avery Plowden in a close and exciting match-up. It came down to the final match between Plowden and Johnson with Johnson in the lead by nine points. Plowden nearly brought his team back but Johnson held off the “Predator” Plowden to advance his team. However, ATL was ultimately eliminated by R2L Red’s El Java Abdul-Qadir, Sam Simeon and Justin Jones who advanced to the finals.

In the other bracket, R2L Silver’s Nick Cain, Jacob Gunn and Daniel Marshall brought down a strong Team Kumite led by Billy and Dominic Leader. It would end with R2L Red facing R2L Silver in the finals.

Adult fighting was also up for grabs as top female competitor Chelsey Nash was in the house but recovering from the flu so she did not compete. The women’s divisions fought down to Morgan Plowden and Gina Thornton heading to the stage for the championship. For the men, the champion from the Grand Slam Open, Jermond Wiggins was eliminated while Avery Plowden, Jeromy Roque, Adam Medford and Billy Leader made it to the finals.

The finals brought everything to a head as it would be the test to see who would go home with Kumite bragging rights. It turned out to be a great ending to the action at the 2013 Kumite Classic. It was double wins for Sen Gao in adult contemporary forms and weapons – he asked the crowd to enjoy his performances and did not disappoint. His drunken style form was convincing and his whip chain scary. The judges were impressed and so was the audience. Of note, Nick Cain purposely broke his bo over his knee at the end of his creative routine. We’re expecting him to go through a small fortune in bos if he plans to make that his standard ending.

R2L Silver’s Jacob Gunn, Nick Cain and Daniel Marshall went down to the wire against R2L’s El Java Abdul-Qadir, Sam Simeon and Justin Jones. Cain tied it up in the second round and Jones and Marshall went into battle mode in the final round. Marshall was able to hold on to give Silver the win.

Alex White brought home a victory in junior musical forms while Jacob Cleary stays red hot in junior musical weapons with his win on the heels from his victory at Grand Slam Open. It’s 10 grand championships in a row for Cleary. The question now is can he be beat in 2013? So far, the answer is no. Devon Javois showed his deep inner chi with his win in Junior Japanese while Hope Chase went hard to win a victory in Junior Korean.

The Adult Traditional Finals was impressive with five exciting competitors going head-to-head. David Coppock yelled and stomped his way through his Kenpo routine. Ashley Artese and Andrew Cabilan were intense with their Japanese performances. Daniel Marshall’s straight up kicks reminded everyone what flexibility in a Korean routine really looks like. In the end, it was Joey Castro’s traditional weapon that was the most impressive. Castro was so impressive that he received all perfect 10s from the judges and was declared the winner.

Hunter Williams had a come from behind victory to win the 15-17 boys heavy continuous fighting. Sara Russell and Brigid Chase also took home continuous titles in the finals in an energetic fight. Kyle Petrosky and Billy Leader put on a show in adult continuous with Leader ending up the winner by a mere 2 points.

Jermond Wiggins brought home win number one for “kids trained by Richard Plowden” in the traditional kumite division. Wiggins fought Billy Leader (one of the three times Leader was on stage in the finals!). In the traditional competition, the competitors wore no helmets and thin sparring gloves. Techniques had to be focused, hard hitting and clean. Wiggins was able to land some nice shots to win the match. He came out of the division with a nice cut under an eye and Leader took some nice shots as well.

After the Wiggins’ triumph, the Plowden siblings gave their dad the trifecta as Morgan Plowden won the women’s point sparring grands and Avery Plowden took the men’s title. Morgan went hard against Gina Thornton as the two put on a show. Avery had a very close match against Billy Leader (who was on stage AGAIN!). Leader came from behind to tie the score late in the match and with stop-time during the final 30 seconds according to NBL rules, Avery and Leader exchanged points down to the wire. In the end Avery managed to hold onto a lead as the buzzer sounded. Proud dad Richard Plowden posed with Jermond, Avery and Morgan on stage after the competition as the kids – now all grown up – showed off their successes.

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Promoter Clermont Poulin was inducted into two Halls of Fame at the event this year.

The Quebec Open is set in the historic city of Quebec the weekend of April 24-25, 2013. Today we evolve the martial arts in different ways yet still hold tight to the traditional meanings, values, and beauty. The Quebec Open really demonstrated this theme of complimenting the traditional with the changing of styles. There were very traditional forms and weapons along with the Extreme and Creative forms. Mix in the different styles of fighting and it made for a great experience.

There was a great turnout for under-belt competitors of all ages on Saturday. For fighting, Robbie Lavoie and Chelsey Nash represented their country well, they both walked away with the Overall Fighting Grand Championships. Lavoie had a five-point deficit against Fortunato Aversa, not only was he able to tie up the match, Averso pushed him harder by up getting a sixth point in that Lavoie answered right before time was called to put them in to sudden victory. Lavoie was the first to score to win 7-6.

Chelsey Nash basically fought through her division and all the run offs, one after another, with only a minute break. Her final fight happened in parallel with Lavoie’s and had some similarities, they both ended up being close matches at the end with some back and forth with points but Nash kept a comfortable lead to win. It was amazing to see her complete five fights in a row without seeming disheveled, she is an amazing fighter to watch and keeps her composure through it all.

The women’s traditional Japanese division had the most impressive turnout for the black belts. Three of the four sides of the ring were lined up with great competitors. Stephannie Figueroa managed to prevail as the winner in the fierce competition.

The night show was kicked off by a spectacular demo by Team Emig. Mackensi Emory, Tyler Weaver, Danny Etkin, and Aidan Considine each started in a corner of the ring while the lights were off. Each corner had a floor light that shown up through them, creating a very unique way of mixing a light show with karate. The crowd loved it as they demonstrated tricks, weapons, and extreme moves. They definitely carry on Emig’s dynamic legacy. The always fun Toupi dancers kept the energy going to set the tone for an exciting night.

After the warm Quebec welcome, Dallas Liu dazzled the crowd and the judges with his musical bo performance, winning the 13 and Under Weapons Overall. He beat out a great performance by Jake Presley’s well received traditional bo, Isabella Caracta’s colorful nunchucks, and Emma Teo’s traditional bo.

Reid Presley opened the 14-17 Weapons Overall with a solid Traditional bo form that received mixed reviews by the judges, yet was a crowd pleaser. You could hear his strikes from the first row. GiGi Valdivia followed with a traditional bo, her intense yells were not enough to beat out Sammy Smith, who stuck her landings in her high flying nunchuks form. Tyler Weaver’s dropping of his kama solidified Sammy’s win. Weaver was able to redeem himself in the 14-17 Junior Forms Overall, by winning over Sammy Smith, Cole Presley, and GiGi Valdivia. Both Sammy Smith and Mackensi Emory swept their divisions on Friday night, but Emory only made it on stage for the Team Sync Forms.

There was some fierce competition in the 18 and Over Men’s Forms Overall. Steven So tricked it off with a musical form that set the tone for the men. In a rare turn of events, Micah Karns scored only one 9.99, and the rest were 9.97s with his musical form. Drew Derrick-Bisbee introduced the crowd to a traditional Okinawan form, complete with facial expressions and unique yells. He had the crowd chuckling from his introduction, stating he will not be doing tricks, or music, only “karate-do.” Austin Jorgensen mixed things up for everyone with his Chinese Drunken style form where he fluidly moved about the stage, balancing while he bends back almost parallel to the floor, then effortlessly kipping up from laying flat on his back. Vincent Scarduzio wrapped up the division with an intense extreme form. However, Jarrett Leiker was a crowd and judge pleaser with his traditional form, winning the overall title.

With multiple day time divisional wins by Caitlin Dechelle, Stephannie Figuroa, and Tressa Young, only four women performed on stage for both the 18 and Over Women’s Form Overall and Weapons Overall. Caitlin Dechelle was in great form winning both events. Her open hand form was solid, landing all her tricks while still executing clean techniques. Tressa Young showed her versatility by starting the night off with a Chinese open hand form and wrapping up the evening with a traditional bo form. Stephannie Figuroa started out strong demonstrating control and balance until midway through her traditional form when she stumbled on a kick, though subtle, it may have been the tipping point for the judges to choose Caitlin. Marie Anne Ouellet represented for Canada. She beat out some of the NASKA top competitors to make it to stage with her intense bo form. The crowd loved her but it wasn’t enough to beat Caitlin.

Junior Team Fighting consisted of two Canadian teams: Studio Elite and KJS. Claire Cocozza and David Bossinotte’s team had a secret weapon, their second fighter, who was female and smaller than her opponent, was the first to 7 points over the taller KJS fighter, ending the match before time was up.

In the13 and Under Forms Overall, Christine Bannon-Rodrigues was very proud of her student Kathryn Tian for making it on stage, and her overall success this weekend. She won the CMX grand, 3 firsts, and 4 second places. She faced heavy competition on stage, including the overall winner, Aidan Considine, whose tricks look like a young Matt Emig trickster. Sage Sweeny from Bring it! and Derek Meegan of AKA both had strong traditional forms.

One division that many appreciate at the Quebec Open is the “Defi Challenge”. There were 7 brave competitors that performed their katas on stage. They were all ages, abilities, and styles. The winner, Abigale performed an amazing bo form. Her strong stances and fluid movement concealed the fact that she had an artificial lower leg. We hope to see her compete more in the years to come.

Grand Master Clermont Poulin was inducted into two Halls of Fame Saturday night. Hanshi Andy Horne gave a wonderful speech that recognized Poulin’s over 42 years of commitment to martial arts as a practitioner, instructor, good will servitude, and promoter of the industry. He has touched many lives throughout his martial arts career. Hanshi Horne presented him with the certificate of Karate Masters Hall of Fame from the World Martial Arts and Kobudo Association. Also, Poulin was inducted by the Budo International Magazine’s Hall of Fame as a Legend Grandmaster & Goodwill Ambassador to the Martial Arts. Both inductions were received with a standing ovation from the crowd, judges, Grand Masters, martial artist from all over and his students. The cheers and ovation went on for a while as Poulin recognized each section of the audience with a charming and gracious smile.

In the Junior Continuous Fighting USA (Str8t Up) vs. Canada match up, both fighters were attacking hard, but Str8t Up had a height advantage and was able to land more kicks. Canada took the hits well and did not back down. USA won the decision.

Reid Presley’s Double Bo Demonstration was a phenomenal sight. Leveraging the bos atop of one another and they flashed through the air so fast you could hardly keep up, it was truly a good evening to have the Presley name, we saw three on stage: Cole, Jake and Reid!

The team Synchronized Forms had the very experienced and high-flying Team Emig against the more traditional younger Team BringIt. Both forms brought unique qualities to the show. Team Emig was fast paced, using up the entire stage for their high energy moves and loud music, while Team BringIt stayed in the middle, blind folded, moving at a controlled pace and with no music. Both teams flashed an appreciation to the crowd at the end, Team Emig donned ‘Quebec’ shirts, while BringIt pulled out Quebec flags. Team Emig flipped away with the win.

Steven So, Alexander Baril who won NASKA Canada’s over all, Vincent Scarduzio who’s bo slipped, Austin Jorgensen and Drew Derrick-Bisbee all were on stage for a second time this evening for the grand finale of men’s weapons. Even with a second showing along with Geo Leon, they could not out shadow Shahin Jahan-Vash’s tremendous double sword form. He executed his weapon flawlessly and kept strong stances throughout his form. You could see how proud his father was watching him from the sidelines. He won by receiving all 9.99, even though Alexander Baril received two 10s.

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Jermond Wiggins wins the men’s point sparring grand champion title at 2013 Grand Slam Open.

Lynchburg Virgina, the home town of Liberty University and the site where Promoter Jeff “Sushi” Doss puts on the Grand Slam Open Nationals the weekend of April 19-20, 2013. Going from a winter storm to a severe thunderstorm in the span of 12 hours kept me on my toes for the flurry of martial arts competition that boasted several different twists from a standard tournament. The most unique division to come from the mind of Jeff Doss is the Iron Man Challenge which combines forms and sparring to crown a champion.

After a few competitors dried themselves off from the brief down pour, the Friday night competition began. This is when the first round of the Iron Man Challenge would qualify the top 4 competitors doing their first form event. Engardo Martinez, Jake Haromeszeki, Josh Bailey and Ryan Shields all moved to to the 2nd round of the challenge which would continue at the Saturday night Finals.

A lot of talented fighters also showed up to support Jeff Doss’ tournament including JPM’s Chelsey Nash and Cass Sigmon and Team Velocity’s Jeromy Roque, Steven Lennon, and Leo Valdivia. All of these top competitors made their presence felt in the team fighting events on Friday night. The Mixed team fighting event, featuring 1 woman and 2 male fighters, was a real battle with Team Unity taking on a mixed JPM team. The first fight pitted two of the top female fighters around with Nash taking on Gina Thornton. Nash pulled her team out to a 2 point lead, Josh Page and Team Unity’s Danny Antoine fought to a tie therefore maintaining the 2 point lead. Anchor man Cass Sigman had his hands full with Wayne Easterling but Sigmon added an additional point to give the JPM team a 15-12 win.

Men’s team fighting had an impressive 8 team turn out. A couple of first round battles brought a pile of intensity when Team Velocity and Team Unity went at it. Team Velocity utilized their size and length to pull out a 17-13 win, but couldn’t quite master the NBL rules in the second round to move on. Team Kumite was led by the tenacious Leader brothers of Billy and Dominic, and beat out El Java Abdul-Qadir and team R2L. Team ATL got the job done in the other bracket to move on to the finals along with Team Kumite.

The SportMartialArts.com crew was more than happy to have momma Crawford help out with the night time filming, but she was even more excited when her son, Carson Crawford, started the night show off with a win in the Junior Hard Musical Forms championship. And what would a night time show be without a high flying Adult Contemporary Forms division set to the dubstep classic Cinema. Thanks to Ewell Carter we were not disappointed as he got the crowd fired up with his win.

It’s always impressive to watch the endurance and intensity the continuous youth fighters bring to the show. Jaren Schrum out battled Trent Spence for a win. By a final score of 114-113 Meghan Hamilton barely, and I mean barely, out kicked and punched Brigid Chase. Close fights would turn out to be a theme for the entire show.

Another new division Jeff Doss brought to the tournament was the Hyper Trick Battle where previously qualified competitors went back and forth in kicking and tricking battles. Josh Bailey out kicked Lance Dawson for the first win and Carson Crawford was at it again in the Unrestricted Pro division as his tricks outscored those of Hunter Orlowski. Then a team battle broke out where Team UnresTRICKted won with an array of crowd pleasing acrobatics and tricks.

The team fights championship featured Team ATL and Team Kumite. Billy Leader came out strong once again and his 5-3 win over Sergio Brandon gave Kumite a lead. ATL’s Jermond Wiggins came back strong for his squad beating Dominic Leader 5-2 to gain a 1 point lead into the final round. Kevin Walker couldn’t quite get it going against a strong Cass Sigmon as Cass won 5-1 to give Team Kumite a 12-9 win for the title.

The intermission featured a touching video montage of lost friend Eddie “Moose” Moore who was a familiar face behind the scenes for Jeff Doss and the entire karate family. The Moose award was created in his memory to honor friends helping friends.

After the emotional break it was back to the weapons finals where Jacob Cleary earned the huge Gumball machine trophy with the Junior Musical Weapons championship. Some of the NBL rules can result in some interesting forms finals as was the case with Josh Bailey who performed his form 3 times due to a restart and a tie breaker to take the Adult Contemporary Weapons championship. He wouldn’t get much of a rest after that as he had to get ready for the second round of the Iron Man Challenge.

Because Ryan Shields took first place in round one of the challenge he was then able to choose which of the three other competitors he wanted to fight in the sparring portion of the challenge. He chose to pit up against Josh Bailey. The two battled back and forth with the fight ending in a 6 to 6 tie It was Josh Bailey who prevailed with the final point to move on to the final round. That left Engardo Martinez and Jake Haromszeki to fight for the last spot. The much smaller Martinez took an early lead and used the entire ring to try to maintain that lead. Jake finally chased him down to tie the score and send it to overtime but Martinez pulled out the last point to move onto the finals.

Jermond Wiggins and Ulises Ramos had to battle to get into the men’s Point finals. Ramos was unable to get past the length of Wiggins as Wiggins won 9-2. Team Velocity’s Jeromy Roque battled all day to make it to this point and faced Anthony Merricks. It was more struggle for Roque as he barely out-pointed Merricks 7-6. El Java Abdul-Qadir was awarded the Men’s Senior Grand Championship as he blitzed his way through the 35+ crowed.

The final round of the Iron Man Challenge required that the two remaining competitors perform a different style form than what they did in the first round. Engardo Martinez performed a strong traditional style form and edged out Josh Bailey by a score of 3-2 to take down the title and a killer custom Grand Slam Belt Buckle along with paid entry fees in the Super Grands and upcoming Kumite Classic.

Devin Javois scored 9.99’s across the board to win the Junior Japanese championship beating out Aaron Bailey and Christian Flournay. The final adults forms division featured a lot of familiar faces with David Coppock, Ashley Artese, Dan Marshall and Ryan Shields all going strong for the Adult Hard Traditional forms championship. Dan Marshall won over the judges with some very impressive kicks that were hard, locked and darn high. Emma Falanga then took the Junior Koreans Forms championship to end the forms championships competition for the night.

The woman’s sparring finals would feature a battle we saw on Friday night featuring Gina Thornton and Chelsey Nash. Thornton was ready this time and jumped out to a 5-1 lead. But no lead is safe with stop time and world champion Nash in the ring. Nash proved her talent once again and came firing back to send the fight to overtime with a score of 7-7. Her tenacity won out again as Nash took the point and the title.

Team ATL’s Jermond Wiggins and Team Velocity’s Jeromy Roque both brought their tall and aggressive fighting into the ring to fight for the Men’s Point Grand championship. It was a tough fight to judge as the feet and fists were flying. Roque had a lead with only seconds left but Wiggins chased him down in the last second to send the fight to overtime where after several close clashes Wiggins finally came out with the point and the title.

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Jarrett Leiker (2d to R) wins the men’s forms grand championships after a tough battle with Sen Gao, Steven So and Will Coneys.

The Ocean State Grand Nationals is one of the top martial arts events on the East Coast. This NASKA 5A World Tour event is also a KRANE 5A+ rated event and it draws competitors from all around the world. Hosted by Team Paul Mitchell head coach Don Rodrigues and his legendary wife Christine Bannon-Rodrigues, the event boasted some incredibly exciting fight match-ups along with top performances from competitors. Held April 12-14, 2013 in Warwick, Rhode Island, this year’s Ocean State Grand Nationals offered great competition.

Men’s teams was not about quantity but about quality. Although there were only four teams, they were powerful teams. Team Alliance debuted at the AKA Grand Nationals. The team is coached by Mike Conroy and features many of his former Team Full Circle members. Alliance had a tough match-up against Paul Mitchell’s first team. Alliance started off strong as Jason Grenier took an early 7-4 lead over László Gömbös, but Cass Sigmon was able to dominate his match up and swing the momentum to the JPM side with a 10 point victory. JPM fighter Zsolt Mórádi was able to hold off Hamed Firouzi to clinch the victory for Paul Mitchell.

The other semi-final match up featured the red-hot Team Next Level from New York and the second Paul Mitchell team. JPM rookie Justin Ortiz made quick work of Paris Wilson with an 8-1 start. Kodaq Wray was able to take two point back for Next Level in a close match up against DeAndre Walker. Anthony Merricks fresh off his grand championship win at the Amerikick Internationals gave it his best shot at brining his team back but seasoned fighter Greg Betlach was able to hold it down for Paul Mitchell to put both team Paul Mitchell teams into the finals circle. Ultimately, Team Paul Mitchell decided to play nice and have the team of Ortiz, Walker, and Betlach bow out to Gömbös, Sigmon, and Mórádi.

On the forms and weapons side several new adult  competitors took the next step and were able to take home divisional wins. Steven So was the big surprise in the men’s CMX divisions with a couple of division wins. This year several females moved up to the adult division and now the divisions are stacked with talent. Micayla Johnson and Stephannie Figueroa both took home first place finishes in weapons and forms competition.

In the junior divisions the talented Presley boys have been making a huge impact this year. Cole, Reid, and Jake all won their respective traditional form divisions! They are sure making Mom and Dad proud.

Chelsey Nash is the female fighter to beat right now and she had a tough match-up against Chiara Dituri in a heated battle. This was one of the most intense female fights in years and both women wanted to make a statement. Nash made it clear she is still the one to beat as she advanced to the finals to match up with Robyn LeBuffe for the fighting grands.

Top men’s fighter Ross Levine was in attendance but after catching a Raymond Daniels’ elbow to his face at the Canadian Open a few weeks earlier,  he was unable to fight at the event. Levine decided to dust off his bo and make a return to weapons competition. Levine had the crowd going wild and the judges loved his performance and awarded him the creative weapons divisional win.

The Ocean State Grand Nationals has always taken pride in finishing saturday eliminations quickly so competitors and spectators have plenty of time to rest before the finals. 2013 was no exception. Everyone had several hours to relax and catch up with friends before the highly anticipated finals.

Everyone’s favorite polar bear and DJ, Joey Greenhalgh had the energy at a high level when the doors opened. The night show started with a performance by demo team champions Karate Sport Action from Canada. KSA has been one of the most consistent teams in the division over the last year.

Next up, the 13 and under division for grand championships consisted of Sage Sweeney and Alex Vecchio’s traditional forms as well as the CMX forms of Isabella Caracta and Dallas Liu. Vecchio was looking solid but had a stumble to take him out of the running. Sweeney was solid and strong and Isabella has been making huge strides and we keep seeing awesome performances. However, little phenom Dallas Liu was unstoppable and got the nod from the judges.

14-17 forms grands was super competitive and Team Emig’s Tyler Weaver and Mackensi Emory were flying all over the stage and had the crowd going crazy. The traditionalists Gigi Valdivia and Cole Eckert had extremely strong showings. Tyler Weaver continued his dominance of this year and took home the trophy plus a goodie bag of Paul Mitchell products to assure that his hair would continue to look amazing.

Our friends from Hyper hosted contests and seminars throughout the whole weekend as well as sponsoring a team trick battle. The finals for the team trick battle ended up with another match up of Team Emig’s Mackensi Emory, Danny Etkin and Aidan Considine against Team “Sensei’s Stach”’s Cody Sanders, Justin Okubo and Keenan Carr. Team Emig took home the $250 prize again.

Micayla Johnson was killing her form but lost control of her kama, Jenny Espina also lost control of her weapon leaving Kimberly Ross’ double broadsword form and Stephannie Figueroa’s sword form to decide the women’s weapons championship. Figueroa showed she can definitely step up to the next level and won her first overall adult grand championship.

The men’s weapons division was loaded with Geo Leon, Steven So, Kyle Montagna, Sen Gao, and Ross Levine. Levine decided to up the ante throwing a lot more difficult moves then we saw in his first appearance and unfortunately dropped his bo making the judges decision a little easier. Sen Gao also was disqualified after his weapon snapped in half. There was only a small margin between Leon, So, and Montagna. The judges decided in the end that Kyle Montagna would take the W for Team Paul Mitchell.

We have seen Robyn LeBuffe from Florida make a few appearances on stage already this season and this would be her toughest match as she took on Paul Mitchell’s Chelsey Nash. LeBuffe was trying to put pressure on Nash with her kicks but Nash was able to use her experience to dodge and score on several blitzes and even get a quick kick of her own in to easily take home yet another title.

Aidian Considine was able to stand out in the 13 and under weapons grand championships with crazy bo tricks and flips meshed with fantastic basics. The older kids weapons grands was a tough match up as Amanda Chen, Tyler Weaver, Sammy Smith, and Reid Presley made the judges decision a tough one and Presley’s insane bo speed and solid stances was awarded the title.

Tyler Weaver and Mackensi Emory put on a fantastic demo next as winners of the synchronized team division. It is amazing how great the two teenagers timing is. In women’s team sparring, Team Paul Mitchell continued its fighting dominance as Nicole Pelland and Chelsey Nash paired up to take the victory over Team Alliance. And then it was on to the men’s fighting…

The first of the men’s fighting semi-finals match was a rematch of the Diamond Nationals overall final fight. Kodaq Wray wanted to prove that his victory over Zsolt Mórádi was no fluke. Mórádi was looking for revenge and was able to get it to advance to the final fight. On the other side of the bracket, former teammates Cass Sigmon and Hamed Firouzi matched up to see who would have the chance to win $1,000 against Mórádi. Sigmon and Firouzi went back and fourth in an extremely good match. Firouzi snuck in a last second punch at the buzzer for the victory.

In women’s forms, Stephannie Figueroa and Micayla Johnson both showed they really wanted to take home the prize money and had great performances. However, Becca Ross was not going to let that happen and performed one of the best traditional forms she has done to date for the victory.

Steven So made another appearance on stage for men’s forms grands and crushed his form. DMV tricker Will Coneys was tricking all over the place and the crowd loved it. Sen Gao’s soft style performances have been a crowd favorite over the first half of the year, and Jarrett Leiker performed a flawless traditional form. It was the closest division of the whole weekend but Leiker definitely earned the victory and the $1,000 prize money.

The final event of the evening pitted Team Alliance’s Hamed Firouzi from Minnesota against Team JPM ‘s Zsolt Mórádi of Hungary. The match was filled with fast and hard hitting action. Firouzi was as aggressive as we have ever seen him trying to throw Mórádi off of his game but Mórádi was able to get a couple more points in to take home another win for Paul Mitchell.

The event closed out with the winners coveting their new awards as they smiled for snapshots with family and friends. WIth only the Quebec Open remaining to close out the first third of the NASKA 2013 NASKA, it is shaping up to be quite the competitive year on the circuit.

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Competitors line up for adult weapons at the Naperville Challenge.

By Stacy Strunk

Hosted by Sharkey’s Karate Studio, the Sixth Annual Naperville Challenge convened April 7, 2013 at the Y Sports Complex in Naperville, IL. This is the second year that The Challenge has been held at this location and promoters chose well.

If you haven’t attended a Challenge since it was held at the Lincoln Junior High School’s gym, the newer venue would be a real treat. Whereas the middle-school location was filled to capacity, encouraging claustrophobia and PTSD-induced flashbacks of dogeball games, the new location is both spacious and bright. Natural sunlight pours through windows around the entire east side of building, much to the delight of the karate parents grabbing video of their kids.

In fact, the building is so spacious, it appears to be dimensionally transcendental. And by that, I mean the inside of the building was much larger than you’d think by its parking lot. (That was a Dr. Who reference. If you didn’t get it, it just means you spend more time in the dojo than on FaceBook or watching BBC America.)

A true regional tournament, this AAA rated AKA tournament mostly draws from the Greater Chicago area, Indiana and Wisconsin. This particular tournament, however, may have had a slightly larger pooling area because it was also a regional qualifying tournament for the 2013 World Karate Council USA Nationals. The blackbelts who brought home trophies, also brought home invitations to the national tournament in June.

But many familiar faces were missing from the tournament, too. Jeremy Talbott, a fixture in the blackbelt 40-49 division was noticeably missing; especially since he was at the tournament, but officiating rather than competing. (Perhaps, we should give him a pass this time since his school was hosting the event.) His absence cleared the way for David Odle to take home first place trophies in both creative/traditional weapons and traditional forms.

The adult blackbelt division was particularly exhausting for the older groups. All adult black belt divisions met in the same ring, in order of age. So the largest group, 18-29, would do their weapons kata, while the 30-39, 40-49 and 50+ competitors (which made up a total of six additional competitors) waited. Then, the youngsters competed in forms, while the older groups waited again. So, the older competitors either practiced their kata or felt their joints growing stiff during the wait.

There were new faces, too. Corey Holzman-Crass made the trip from Wisconsin to snag first place in the traditional weapons category in the 18-29 division. In a division where bo kata are a dime a dozen, his kata can only be described as “daaaaamn.”

Traditional forms, in general, were standout events for the 18-29 group. Payton Foley, completely shut out her competition, pulling two perfect 10s and three 9.99s from her judges. She also received the largest cheers from the spectators, which is rare for traditional forms. It’s usually the creative and extreme kata that gets all the love.

If you have time in your competition schedule, next year, try to fit this regional tournament. There’s a good group of competitors who attend. The facilities are awesome and there’s still plenty of room to grow at this location.

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Reid Presley stuns the crowd with his double bo routine in Amerikick finals.

The Amerikick Internationals is always a classy event and 2013 was no exception. Held in the Philadelphia Convention Center March 22-23, the event offered fun competition in the middle of an historic city.

The forms and weapons competition brought out some great competitors and everyone was talking about the return of Michael Guthrie to competition. Guthrie won the men’s extreme weapons competition and then tricked out in the Hyper individual competition and led his Team Win to win the team tricking competition to the delight of his fans. Hyper Martial Arts also offered the first weapons tricking competitions that were a big hit with the competitors and spectators at the event. Tim Conkel, Reid Presley, Sammy Smith and Adriana Noonen were all weapons winners during the finals.

The Amerikick tournament is also renowned for its demo team competition and a ton of young competitors were on hand to demonstrate their team skills. Amerikick schools were the overall winners for the underblack and black belt demo team competitions and were able to perform in the finals as their reward.

Team Velocity from Florida braved the cold winds of Pennsylvania to compete in the team competition and Amerikick’s famed Open Weight Superfight challenge. Velocity’s Steven Lennon, Jeromy Roque and Leo Valdivia conquered all to win men’s teams. However, it was Anthony Merricks of Team Next Level who made the short trip from New York to use his come from behind style to win the overall men’s sparring grand championship. Kudos to his challenger Julio Lugo who defeated some top fighters to make it to the runner up position.

Gina Thornton of Team MASMAL defeated Alana Wegfahrt of Team Amerikick for the win in women’s point sparring. Caitlin Dechelle made the trip from California to bring home two grand championships in weapons and forms for the women.

In the Open Weight Superfight challenge, three of the the top seeds, Chris Milares, Leo Valdivia and Kodaq Wray made it to the final four but it was the non-seeded Jason Bourelly who would end up with the Superfight title in 2013 as he defeated Kodaq Wray in an action-packed fight.

Despite winning 7 out of 8 divisions, Dallas Liu’s hip flexor made him drop out of grand championship competition. In the end, Derek Meegan’s traditional routine was the 13 & under forms winner while Aidan Considine keeps improving with a win in 13 & under weapons. Mackensi Emory did girls everywhere proud with a forms title for the 14-17 year old kids. Reid Presley made everyone’s mouth drop as he finally perfected his double bo routine to defeat the incumbent Jackson Rudolph in the run offs and then to by winning the 14-17 overall weapons title.

Sen Gao of China was picked up by Team ASG and is looking quite comfortable on the stage. He won the men’s forms grand championship with this snake routine. He was looking like a winner in weapons when his weapon broke. It was Stephen “Thor” Grasz with another grand championship title with his traditional sword.

The other big event at the Amerikick Internationals is the traditional challenge. This separate division is for true traditionalists with very strict rules on the the routine that can be run, number of yells and more. This year, in the junior competition, Destiny Vergara emerged champion. For the adults, Joey Castro demonstrated the routine that would garner the win.

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Team Kiraly, surrounded by the other men’s teams, wins the Irish Open title for team sparring.

With over 2900 participating competitors, the 2013 Irish Open retained its title as the largest fighting tournament in the world. Held March 1-3 in beautiful Dublin, Ireland, competitors and spectators were treated to intense competition and a beautiful tourist destination.

Team Kiraly from Budapest Hungary had its best event performances to date from the team packed with semi-contact, homegrown superstars. Overall, the Hungary team took home 11 first place wins including wins from nearly all of the Veres family in the individual divisions with Mercedes Veres and Alex Veres winning along with older brother Ritchie Veres in -63 kg semi-contact fighting. Kristian Jaroslaweic and Laszlo Gombos also won their weight classes.

Also present was Raymond Daniels and Team All Stars. Daniels is the defending champion for the men’s open weight (grand championship) competition at the event. Daniels also competed in his individual weight division and made it to the finals to face his young nemesis Zsolt Moradi. The match went into overtime with Moradi scoring with a final kick to win the match 10-7. Robbie Lavoie of Canada was the sole All Star member to win a weight division title. However, the win was hard on Lavoie as he re-injured a newly healed broken hand in his win over Sean Brennan of Ireland. Lavoie was unable to compete in the open weight division the next day. Another exciting match was between Laszlo Gombos of Hungary and Mark McDermott of Ireland. The two went into double overtime with Gombos scoring with a kick to the head in the sudden victory round to win the -75 kg semi-contact division.

In the forms and weapons competition, Luke Scott of the UK won the soft style competition and men’s weapons. It was Micah Karns who managed to make his routine last the required full minute to win the men’s musical forms competition. Competitors from Russia were also on hand in forms and weapons – providing the crowd with lots of entertainment as forms and weapons begin to finally gain a foothold in Europe.

The Irish Open boasted 27 teams for men’s team sparring and 17 teams in the women’s team sparring division. The All Stars suffered an initial defeat on Friday evening as a group of young fighters from Italy’s Team Bestfighter handed them a loss in the quarter-finals for men’s teams. The Bestfighter team moved on to face Team Kiraly for the title and Kiraly handily defeated them for another men’s team sparring title (they won last year as well).

Daniels was not finished as the next day was the open weight competition. The gregarious and recognizable Daniels is considered a celebrity in Europe and was asked to sign autographs and pose for photos all day. While all of this was going on, a quiet storm was brewing with Jack ‘Iceman’ Felton. In order to compete in the open weight division (the only division that has a cash award at the event), competitors must participate in his/her weight division as well. Felton won one fight in his weight division and then bowed out in order to protect his foot that had recently healed.

Winning the open weight division is what gives competitors the true bragging rights for the Irish Open. All competitors of any weight can enter and the men’s division boasted 116 entrants with 78 in the women’s division. In the women’s open weight competition, it was Shannon Brennan of Ireland that took the win to the delight of the hometown crowd. Raymond Daniels was the 2012 defending champion and had won 9 total open weight titles in the past 10 years. The one year he did not win, he did not attend the event and Jack Felton won.

For the men, Daniels was shocked as he was eliminated in overtime in an bracket round by young Tamas Imre of Hungary. Although Daniels protested some of the calls of the fight, the win stood and Imre advanced with Daniels not even making it to the final eight. In another bracket, Jack Felton shocked 2012′s runner up, Zsolt Moradi, by handing Moradi a 9-4 loss. Both Daniels and Moradi ended up watching the finals from the sidelines.

In the end, Kristian Jaroslaweic and Ritchie Veres of Hungary along with Jack Felton of the USA and Roman Brundell of Austria made it to the final four of the open weight division. Brundell surprised Hungary’s Laszlo Gombos with a defeat in a semi-final match.

Jaroslaweic bowed out to Veres to advance Veres to the final match while Felton faced the long, lanky and huge Brundell. Felton fought the match perfectly, capitalizing on Brundell’s length and using his timing and speed to pick Brundell apart and score. This set up Veres and Felton for the finals.

Felton got ahead in the final match initially and hit Veres with a resounding side kick to the gut that made Veres spit out his mouthguard. However, Veres is a veteran and was able stay in the game to end round one down by only one point. In round two, Felton continued to fight smart but Veres stayed with him point for point. The match ended with the fighters tied and went into overtime. In overtime Veres was able to get a 3 point lead with only a few seconds left. Felton scored two points and with 1.6 seconds on the clock, Felton pushed through Veres’ kick and appeared to blast him with a back knuckle as the buzzer sounded. However, only one judge called a point and Veres was crowned the open weight winner for 2013!

After the competition was over, the Irish Open after party festivities began, with Joey Greenhalgh as the Polar Bear DJ. Competitors left their rivalries on the competition floor in order to get onto the dance floor. The party was so exciting that even when security tried to shut it down, the crowd chanted for more!

The post Team Kiraly and Jack Felton Help Irish Open 2013 To Do It Again! appeared first on Sport Martial Arts.

Team All Stars dominated the individual fighting divisions at the event and Raymond Daniels is back!

Compete Nationals is a NASKA 6A rated event that was held February 22-24, 2013 in Ontario, California near to Disneyland. The weather was mild and the event attracted a number of martial arts celebrities like Mike Chat, Steve Terada and Disney XD’s Leo Howard. One of the highlights of the event was the return of superstar competitor Raymond Daniels. Daniels injured himself early in 2012 by tearing his achilles heel and spent the better part of the year recovering. Compete Nationals was his comeback event and he, along with this Team All Stars, were quite the presence.

Team All Stars nearly dominated all men’s fighting from individual point divisions to teams. Robbie Lavoie of Canada eliminated Team Paul Mitchell’s Justin Ortiz to win the men’s lightweight grands and go to stage. Jack “Iceman” Felton overcame Zsolt Moradi of Team Paul Mitchell to win the men’s middleweight grands and Jamal Albini defeated Cass Sigmon of Team Paul Mitchell to take the heavyweight grands. Daniels opted to acknowledge his age and compete in the 30-39 year old division. He defeated teammate Ryan Huntley and had a hard and exciting fight against Gerald Dawson to win the 30 and over grand championship title. This set the stage for a Team All Stars-only finals for men’s point sparring.

Entering into the finals, Team Paul Mitchell found itself in the unusual position of underdog with no representation in individual point sparring, Paul Mitchell’s only chance was in men’s teams where Cass Sigmon, Zsolt Moradi and Laszlo Gombos would face the Team All Stars line-up. Cass Sigmon redeemed himself with a great fight against Jamal Albini that ended with Team All Stars having a healthy 5 point lead over All Stars following round one. Although Jack Felton was able to gain back a few points in his match with Laszlo Gombos, Paul Mitchell was still ahead by 3 points going into the final round. Raymond Daniels had difficulty getting around the lead leg of Zsolt Moradi and his spin kicks were not scoring. In the end, Moradi held onto the lead and Paul Mitchell ended up by two points to stop the All Stars drive for dominance.

Gerald Dawson made a bit of history in teams by fighting with his sons at his side making for quite the father-son bonding experience. Dawson also put on a great performance against Daniels in the executive men’s grands which served as his announcement that he is also back. With both Daniels and Dawson fighting in the 30 and over divisions this year, the executives will definitely be divisions to watch.

Compete is known for some big demo team divisions and 2013 was no exception with Red Dragon teams garnering most of the top honors and demonstrating their skills on stage. Team Emig’s Tyler Weaver and Mackensi Emory received the highest scores during the day for synchronized teams. However, during the night time finals, Team BringIt’s Jae and Sage Sweeny were awarded the honors for their blindfolded traditional routine. The Sweeny’s have won this division in the past two NASKA events and appear to definitely be bringing it.

Dallas Liu and Danny Etkin continue to make waves in the kids 13 and under divisions. Liu’s crazy form routine was the overall winner and Etkin amazed everyone with his chuck routine to win in weapons. A rare bo drop by Jackson Rudolph opened the door for traditionalist Reid Presley to get the 14-17 weapons win. Sammy Smith made a mistake in her weapons routine but she was en fuego in forms and took home the win for her age group.

Team Paul Mitchell got great results from their female members as Chelsey Nash came out and won her first grand championship of the year in women’s sparring, defeating Florida’s Robyn Lebuffe. Caitlin Dechelle was a double grand champion winner in women’s forms and weapons.

Paul Mitchell couldn’t seem to get anything started in the men’s forms and weapons divisions. Sen Gao – the weapons winner from AKA’s surprised Micah Karns and Jarrett Leiker by taking the men’s forms grands. Austin Crain moved to adults was in the finals for weapons along with teammates Kyle Montagna and Austin Jorgensen, all representing Team Paul Mitchell. However it was Stephen “Thor” Grasz’s traditional sword routine that took the win.

Although Raymond Daniels garnered most of the attention at the event. It was the quiet force of Jack “Iceman” Felton that deserves more attention as he stopped Raymond Daniels by taking the overall win in a close match for men’s sparring grands.

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Tips for dealing with jetlag when traveling to events.

Competitors are getting ready to head out to major events in 2013 with many of the events requiring cross-country or even trans-atlantic travel. United States competitors heading to Compete Nationals in California the weekend of February 22-24, 2013 may have flights of 3-4 hours in length. Competitors traveling to the Irish Open in March or coming from Europe to the US Open in July will be on planes for eight or more hours at a time.

Upon arrival, these competitors are expected to perform at peak levels. However, these long trips require the competitors to pass through various time zones and passing through several time zones can result in jet lag. Jet lag is a condition characterized by fatigue, headaches, dizziness, low energy and low cognition. Jet lag is basically a disruption of the body’s normal circadian rhythm. A person’s circadian rhythm is the normal activity cycle of the body over a 24-hour period. A circadian rhythm can be modified by bright light, darkness, melatonin and exercise but the light-dark cycle of the environment is the strongest influence.

There are things that athletes can do to reduce and sometimes prevent the effects of jet lag and make trips less taxing – thus resulting in better performance on arrival.

Since light and dark are the most influential on the body, upon arrival at a new destination, trying to get your body to adjust to the new daylight/night time schedule is the first step to helping your body to adjust. There is no evidence that using sleeping pills or other drugs to induce sleep on the flight to your destination will help so leave that out of your solutions. If you can arrive a day or two early at the destination, your body will have more time to prepare and be ready for competition performance. Add some light exercise the first few days and you will be closer to adjustment.

Prior to leaving on the trip, getting a good night’s sleep, drinking extra water and avoiding alcohol is recommended. The air inside planes actually dehydrates passengers. Inhaling dry cabin air makes you lose water from your upper respiratory tract. While on the airplane, try to drink water at least once every hour. Sitting for long periods of time on airplanes, combined with the air pressure from take-off/landing and altitude may lead to blood pooling in your legs. Get up and move around often on the flight (every 2 hours) and do some light stretches.

The joy of traveling to tournaments doesn’t have to be ruined by a poor performance due to jet lag if you prepare and plan appropriately.

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