Azmyth

here's a few clips of me in my first tournament since I came back to MA in like 7 years. I currently go to a school that teaches its own system of a mixture of Kenpo, Jiu Jitsu, and arnis. However what you will see is TKD since thats where I am rooted and this was an open tournament. - This is me doing Yul Gok. I placed 4th, I only worked on it for 2 days.. as my wife had been in the hospital for nearly 2 weeks with our 10 week premature son. he's doing well, but hasn't come home from the hospital yet. I competed against a guy that did a palgwe can't remember which one, and 3 shotokan guys. The shotokan guys sweeped forms in all divisions. - This is me in sparring (in the black). I thought the other guy was really good. I won 5-2. this was my favorite match, and he was a nice guy to boot. I think he was WTF but not sure. I took 2nd in sparring. - This is me sparring another one of our students. I can never beat this guy because he ALWAYS just throws random clashing movements. He doesn't use his brain when he throws the moves. he's training to fight an MMA fight in February.. I'd like to know how you all think he'll do just from watching this. he beat me 5-4 according to the judges. and yes, I wasn't wearing a mouthpiece.. my instructor never made it a point to give me one. I guess that was my own fault for not taking the time to do it. Oh well I have one now.. nice bright pink one By the way, see if you can tell the difference in me and the way he spars. thoughts and comments welcome!

yeah, the yelling wasn't a problem It was the poor judging. There was one judge there who was awesome.. he was dressed the part, he was loud and very easy to understand and if a point was made he demonstrated the maneuver that scored the point himself. The other judges were nowhere near as good.

speaking of yelling. that was another issue i had. my friend was a judge on some of the upper belt divisions (he's 2nd degree black belt). He was getting annoyed because all of the shituryu guys there would yell everytime they "thought" they got a hit. The problem with that is, the judges were scoring points based on whether or not the guy yelled.. vs. him actually making contact with the person. I watched them score at least 7 points, where NO contact was made.. but it was based simply on the judges not paying attention and the "yelling" making them have the false impression contact was made. I was actually surprised at the tournament. There were hardly any of those "US champion" sparrers there. If you youtube US karate championships you'll see what I mean. THAT really is a game of tag.

Well, I went ahead and did it the way I was taught. Alot of the divisions were sparce.. mine was one of the larger divisions as small of a tourney as it was. It was me, another of my classmates who did one of our school's forms, a TKD guy who did Palgwe 4, and 2 Shituryu(sp) Karate guys not sure what forms they did. I placed 4th in forms.. with my classmate coming in 4th, the other TKD guy in 3rd, and the other 2 in first and 2nd. In my eyes, one of the shituryu guys deserved first.. however the other was very sloppy even though I didn't know the form he was doing it was terribly sloppy. He stopped several times because he seemed to have forgotten parts of it, and his stances were weak. The other TKD guy had decent form but I believe the only reason he ranked higher was due to it being more difficult than mine. I was told by several people afterwards they thought I should have taken 2nd. Eh.. but judges decision. Sparring... After watching the video everyone agreed I won 1st hands down. However thats not how the judges saw it. same guys this time. I had to spar the other TKD guy first. I was nervous because he was GOOD.. he had really strong kicks and and was a monster with the backfist and he was FAST. He did one of the prettiest jump spin side kicks I've seen and landed it perfect on the guy he sparred before me. Weirdly enough me and him fight almost identical, and me being more experienced I beat him pretty easily.. but it was a dang good fight and everyone said it was one of the most "technical" fights of the entire tournament.. almost "movie like". After he and the other 2 shituryu (they have sharp forms, but not so much sparring ability) guys had been eliminated.. it came down to me and my classmate for 1st and 2nd. I knew it was going to end this way. For some reason, me nor anyone else in our school has been able to beat this guy in class ever. Even black belts (he's blue). Its not because he's good.. its because he's "wild". He just throws crap and hope it lands. I got nailed in the mouth by an uppercut (which are not legal). They didn't count that, but they did all the other crap he threw. Basically.. all he does is stands there and waits for you to do something, or he will throw a low round kick that I blocked every single time. When he kicks he throws both his hands up with palms turned outward but he throws his body back so u cannot reach him when he does it even though he is wide open. It looks almost like how you would see a girl with no martial arts experience fight. As soon as you would throw anything, he would rush me.. and instead of using actual technique he would throw wild rabbit punches and haymakers. He got all of his points via beating me on the top of the head as he ran me out of the ring. The center judge even told him that he had to stop "clashing" as you can't tell what to score because its just wild moves thrown randomly. He's never point sparred before and is very cocky anyway.. he's training to fight MMA so he has that mentality. I didn't say anything and let it go. According to the rules the only punches allowed were reverse punches with the back hand, and backfists and ridgehands.. jabs were not allowed as they are too hard to score. However he would just run and jump nearly on top of me and "girl fight" punch to the top of the head with his fists pointed down. On the video I had already won the fight a minute in, with 3 obvious body kicks.. worth 2 points each.. but because the judges weren't paying attention they weren't scored. He beat me 5 to 4, all my points were scored via backfists to the head when he would try to kick. all his were the wild clashing blows when he would try to pretend my head was a speed bag. I think I am gonna let my instructor see the video because someone needs to sit down and talk to this guy about point sparring. I took 2nd.. he took 1st.

My school is hosting an open tournament tomorrow. I'm a little worried though for 2 reasons. 1. I'm doing Yul-gok.. even though my school has its own system consisting of American Kenpo and Jiu Jitsu my roots are in TKD.. so will be doing a TKD form. I was watching videos to brush up... and noticed that noone does it like I was taught. Is my way wrong? or is it normal for there to be slight variances in the way its done? I usually do my forms very "strong" and "fluid". I am out of breath by the time I finish. I don't "bounce" like the sine wave guys do. ITF style I suppose, but I've seen the movements done slightly different in every video. Should I just stick to how I was taught? 2. If I kick with my left leg, I have a sharp pain up near the upper thigh/groin area.. I've tried stretching out some tonight hoping it won't be as bad tomorrow.. but its preventing me from kicking as high as I normally do. I take pride in my point fighting ability, and thats where I shine.. not being able to kick high is going to severely drop me, since almost all points I score are to the head. anything I can do?

can a few people with alot of school experience PM me.. I want to get some opinions on this, but I do not want it public. thanks.

I will agree that wrestling is "martial" but in no way would I consider it an art. you don't see many "wrestling schools" that allow you to train in the "art" of wrestling. now, granted.. I am sure there is alot of history behind how wrestling was founded.. but at the same time.. wrestling is rolling around on the ground without any sort of training as a test of strength and might.. in my eyes anyway. sure later on they came up with different maneuvers.. but back to what I said earlier.. if it was a martial art.. wouldn't we have forum for it? or wouldn't there be "grandmasters" in it? or schools you could go to learn it? just my thoughts.

it def. is a martial art. maybe I should rephrase by saying. "I watched WCL, I def. enjoyed it.. because they punch & kick".

I watched WCL.. I def enjoy it.. more martial arts based.. less wrestling based.

i think i was a little too general with the gi statement.. if your main background is muay thai.. wear muay thai shorts.. etc. MMA has become a fighting style in itself.. what kind of martial arts background does randy couture have? forest griffin? tim silvia? just curious

the gi would make it a tiny bit like it used to be. instead of them looking like they stepped out of Vince's empire. where can I watch full contact kick boxing?

right credibility and teaching ability are the key things that matter.

true, like i said.. they aren't all that way.. but as said before.. make them wear gi's and i'd be 100% happier with it. I wouldn't like to watch full contact traditional fighting much either if they wore bicycle shorts.

Yeah, I am sure they are.. I think my issue with it... is that me being a traditionalist, I actually know some local MMA fighters that while they don't do UFC (as of right now) thats their goal.. and when I have ever talked to any of them.. they have no idea what I am talking about when I talk about martial arts, or kata, or forms, or "empty hand". They actually make fun of me for learning "martial arts" rather than doing what they do which they call street fighting. None of the ones I know have ever stepped foot in a martial arts school ever, and I'm fairly sure couldn't do a simple side kick to save their lives. I think thats the main thing that bothered me.. I'm fairly sure that alot of the pro UFC fighters have strong martial arts backgrounds.. but the ones I have come in contact with in person have done nothing but knock traditional martial arts.. Like I said I am old school. Maybe I should overlook the ones like that, and remember that some of them DO have traditional martial arts backgrounds, and that they are not all just street brawlers. I consider martial arts to be more than just seeing who can beat one another's face in. (Kinda killing my point here.. but bleh) Alot of the UFC fighters are cocky, arrogant, and just plain annoying.. when they lose they get mad, and when they win they rub it in your face. I dunno about you.. but the minute i jumped in someone's face in class after defeating them in sparring.. I'd be kicking the heavy bag 1000 or so times as punishment for losing control, and not being disciplined. thats my 2 cents Tito Ortiz is still pretty awesome IMO..even thought alot of people don't like him.

make them wear gi's and it will have my vote.. and no they aren't too hard to wear, royce gracie and those guys did it.. so can they now. If it really is martial arts.. I think they should like more like martial artists and less like wrestlers imo. before long they will have gimmicks.. and valets. I like UFC now, when i look past the fact that its not really based on what it was founded upon anymore.. which was style vs. style fighting.. hardcore ufc'ers don't take offense to my comments.. i still enjoy it from time to time.. its just getting more and more mainstream.. eventually its not gonna be anything more than a real wrestling match.. which is not bad.. but its not martial arts. where are the black belts?