Monday, May 24, 2010

CKF Event & Tournament Results

Yesterday myself, John McDonald, Matt Trejo, and Chris Newsome attended the Chinese Karate Federation (CKF) event held at Michael Miller's Dojo in Bradford, Pennsylvania. The training included two seminars taught by Mr. Sean Kelley, 7th Degree American Kenpo Black Belt and President of the CKF. Mr. Kelley taught the technique, "The Pincher" (or what some teach today as "the Grasp of Death"), as well as "Thrusting Lance" for his first seminar on trouble techniques. His method of teaching "Thrusting Lance" was much more practical in my opinion than the "old school" version commonly taught in the Kenpo system, the latter of which you are to shuffle in to grab the opponent's groin, thereby losing control of the knife. In his second seminar, Mr. Kelley taught kickboxing drills on "live bodies" utilizing various hand techniques, kicking techniques, and foot maneuvers. We then finished the day with some great sparring with Michael Miller and several of his advanced students.

Also yesterday, Dana Broadhead, an American Kenpo Green Belt student of mine, made the Canadian Team by winning 2nd place at the World Kickboxing Council (WKC) Canadian Qualifiers in Ottawa, Ontario in 18+ Chinese Forms (performing Long Form 3). The WKC World Championships are being held in Portugal in November of this year. Way to go Dana!!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Two New Weapons Forms

Two New Weapons Forms

The following two videos of me performing Tonfa Set 1 and Tonfa Set 2 were recently posted on you tube. The first tonfa form is a required form in the Black Dragon System of Kung Fu. The second tonfa form, interestingly enough, was actually a created form that a black belt candidate performed as part of a black belt grading at the Kenpo school that I was at back in the 1980s. I have always liked the form, and there are many people who do not know the history of this form that continue to practice it today, but I was there. I hope you enjoy them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqMH-wYQ0cA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6qsjOSmTvk&feature=related


Also, as a quick follow-up to my UFC 112 predictions, I was glad to see that Matt beat Renzo, although I was surprised that the fight did not go to the ground. Matt fought a very strategic fight, and I was surprised that Renzo made no adjustment to all of the roundhouse kicks to the leg that Matt was giving him. I knew that if Renzo continued to allow Matt to dominate with all of those leg kicks, it was just a matter of time before Matt would take him out. In any case, hats off to Renzo for getting in the ring with Matt. Renzo is a true legend.

I was wrong in my prediction of the Penn-Edgar fight. Edgar fought an amazing fight and I didn't think his footwork and speed would last an entire five rounds against Penn. To be honest, however, I didn't think that Edgar did enough to "beat the champ". In my eyes, to take the title away from the champion, there should be NO DOUBT who the winner is.

As for the Silva-Maia fight, that was just outright disappointing; sure, Silva got the win, but I thought the way that Silva conducted himself in the ring was very unsportsmanlike. Silva should have ended the fight very early (which he clearly could have). It will be interesting to see who the UFC matches Silva up against next.