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.

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!!

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.

Tournament Results

I wanted to take the time to congratulate a couple of my students who competed at the World Karate & Kickboxing Council (WKC) Provincial Tryouts this past weekend. Ryan Welsh, one of my Junior Black Belts in American Kenpo, won 2nd place in Chinese style black belt forms, 3rd place in sparring, and 3rd place in weaponry. Also, Dana Broadhead, who is a Green Belt at my school, won 2nd place in advanced Chinese forms and 3rd place in sparring. Both Ryan and Dana thus qualified for the WKC National Team Tryouts which will take place May 21-23, 2010 in Ottawa, Ontario.

UFC 112 Predictions

I am really looking forward to the UFC event in 2 days. I am have been a long-time fan of Matt Hughes, as I respect his fighting skill, tenacity, strength, but most of all, his faith in Jesus Christ. I have followed his career for quite some time, and have kept my oldest daughter Morgan (age 7) informed of who he is fighting at a given event. Of particular interest (for me at least) is his opponent at UFC 112 – Renzo Gracie. Interestingly, I am also a long-time fan of the Gracie’s, and have trained with Renzo’s cousin Royce in 2008, and will likely be training with Royce again next month. While this should be an interesting fight, I see Matt winning this fight with Renzo for a couple of reasons. First, Matt has been in the ring with so many amazing fighters, including the likes of B.J. Penn (2x), Georges St- Pierre (3x), Matt Serra (who is actually a student under Renzo), and Thiago Alves to name a few. By contrast, although Renzo has also fought many great fighters, he hasn’t fought in competition for over 3 years. That stated, he did get a big victory over Frank Shamrock in February 2007, and has won his last three fights in a row. Nonetheless, Matt has fought 7 times since 2006 (all of which have been against top notch fighters), compared to only 3 fights since 2006 for Renzo. Second, although Renzo is extremely skilled on the ground and is also a great striker, I don’t see him beating Matt on the ground, as Matt is very strong, and his “ground-and-pound” game I think will be too much for Renzo. I see Matt winning this fight by submission, TKO, or possibly even by decision. In any case, Renzo and Matt are both great guys and very well spoken so it should be an interesting fight.

In the lightweight title fight, B.J. Penn will square off against Frank Edgar. Frank is 11-1, is a great fighter and is also well spoken, and has won his last 3 fights including a victory over Sean Sherk (who B.J. also beat). B.J., in my opinion, has fought much better fighters than Frank including the likes of Diego Sanchez, Kenny Florian, Georges St-Pierre (2x), Matt Hughes (2x), Renzo Gracie, Lyoto Machida, and Matt Serra. B.J has never looked better in my eyes, he is in the best shape of his life, and his hand skills are one of the best I have seen in the UFC. When he fought against Diego Sanchez, Diego tried to psyche him out in the “stare down” but B.J. has fought against way too many good fighters to ever be intimidated, and about 1-minute into the first round dropped Diego with a vicious punch to the head. In addition, B.J. has tremendous ground skills, and is a great kicker. I have always admired how B.J. stays so calm during fights, and how good of a counter-striker he can be. I can’t see Frank winning this fight, and predict B.J. will win by TKO or submission if the fight ends up on the ground.

In the main event, with the middle-weight title on the line, I see Anderson Silva taking Damien Maia out relatively early in this fight. Anderson is lightning fast, has great hands and kicks, and is very accurate on his shots with tremendous knockout power. Although Demian has got a great ground game with excellent submission holds, and clearly wants to get Anderson on the ground, I believe that Anderson’s stand-up fighting will be too much for Demian and I can’t see this fight going more than 2 or 3 rounds. As great as Demian is, I believe that Anderson Silva is another class of fighters when compared to Demian Maia.

I am going to take Morgan out to watch this UFC with me. Although she’s young to be watching such fights, she’s seen me fighting full-contact since she was a baby so it’s just a fun time with daddy for her. Who knows, I might even get her some ice cream after….

Weapons Forms

As I mentioned in my last blog, I plan on putting some new weapons videos up on youtube over the next several months. Most of the weapons forms that I post will come from my Kung Fu training, although I also plan on posting the American Kenpo Karate Staff Set, Long Form 7 (performed with two clubs), and Long Form 8 (performed with two knives). This new video clip was taped on April 1, 2010. In it, you will see me performing a beginner Kung Fu Weapons Form called 'Single Dragon Short Stick 1'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iHq2sGm4uQ


Have a blessed Easter weekend.


Jamie Seabrook
www.jamieseabrook.com

Some Big Upcoming Events

Sorry for my long delay in writing on my blog. I have been very busy in life. In martial arts, I have been training harder than I ever have. I have not missed a single day yet in 2010 of putting in some hard, consistent training (some of the days as long as 4 hours of training time). I have also been teaching a lot more than normal, particularly in the quantity of private lessons. I also hope to have some new weapons video clips of me up on YouTube soon, particularly once I am satisfied with how I am moving with them.

In the meantime, I wanted to let you know about a few big events that are happening soon that I highly recommend:

(1) May 8-9: A long-time friend and fellow tournament competitor of mine, Simon Sherbourne, will be hosting a seminar with UFC legend Royce Gracie in London, Ontario, at Wilfred Jury Public School. I had the opportunity of training with Royce Gracie at Simon’s first event in 2008, and it was one of the best jiu-jitsu seminars I have ever attended. For more information about this event, or to register, please email Martha Sherbourne at: wkkjf.budo@gmail.com


(2) May 14-15 Break Thru Event 2010: This event will feature “dynamic, live international speakers and worship artists impacting an amazing multi-generational audience”. The keynote speaker is Nick Vujicic, a man born without arms or legs. Nick has traveled to over 19 nations sharing his testimony and his faith in Jesus Christ. The event will take place at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, and I am honored to be one of the speakers and presenters at the event. For more information, please see the following website: http://www.heartpointministries.ca/Who'sComing.html


(3) May 21-23: My good friend Michael Miller will be hosting CKF President Sean Kelley for some Kenpo Karate seminars at his school in Bradford, Pennsylvania. I will be there and will be bringing some of my advanced students with me. The training and knowledge gained at these events is incredible. For more information about the event, or to register, please contact Michael Miller by phone at: 814-368-3725.


(4) November 5-6: I will be bringing my instructor, and CKF President, Sean Kelley to my school in London, Ontario to conduct Kenpo Karate seminars. This event is open to all martial artists of all styles. For more information, or to register, please email me at: jamieseabrook@live.ca or contact me by phone at: 519-472-6321