Training for the 2010 Power Nationals

It has been almost 4 years since I competed at the 2006 LTKKA World Kenpo Karate Championships in Baltimore, Maryland. Come July 17th 2010, I will be entering my next competition at the 2010 Power Nationals Martial Arts Challenge. This tournament is being held in my hometown of London, Ontario, and I had the opportunity of competing at this same tournament back in 2004 against Kyoshi Christopher DiLiberto, an 8th Degree Karate master from Ancaster, Ontario. This time I will be in the 35+ black belt division, and I will be entering sparring, forms, and weaponry. For sparring preparation, I have been fighting at least two times per week with my highest ranked black belt, Matt Trejo, who is a 3rd Degree American Kenpo Karate black belt. I am also fighting several other of my black belts, and have been working full-contact kickboxing pad drills incorporating hands, kicks, and elbows every week. For forms, I am going to perform the Hung Gar Kung Fu form, Tiger and Crane (Fu Hok Surng Ying) which requires a tremendous amount of endurance and skill to perform start to finish. For weapons, I have decided to perform the highest level of American Kenpo Karate’s forms, Long Form 8, which is performed with two knives. Although not flashy when compared to other weapons forms that I know, it is definitely the biggest challenge for me, and is requiring a lot of time to prepare and train for. I had my friend Jacob Katz make me the training knives so as to give more realism to the form. I am looking forward to this competition, as the Power Nationals has always brought out some top notch competitors, so training for this event has really “kept me on my toes” so to speak. I will do a post-blog of the event once the competition is over.