Taking Team Sparring to the next level

[miguksaram]

Originally written by Richard Plowden

 

The World Sport Karate Federation is the new league in 2004. It's till in its "learning" phase but so far, the first four national events of season have gone well and the WSKF is gearing up for its first ever finals - to be held October 29-30, 2004 in Chicago, IL in conjunction with the AKA Grand Nationals. As a new league, the WSKF has the freedom to create its own structure, and the following announcement was received by SportMartialArts.com which shows just how creative the WSKF is striving to be. Check out the new team sparring structure announced for the WSKF 2004 Finals.

 

The World Sport Karate Federation is delighted to announce a new innovation to be unleashed at the 40th American Karate Association Grand Nationals and WSKF Finals World Championship. At this event a new four person black belt team category featuring three men and one woman vying for a first place $4,000 cash prize will debut. "Ask most fans of sport karate and they will tell you that team sparring is one of the most exciting components of a tournament," said WSKF president Richard Plowden. "Usually the teams are all male or all female, although in recent years we have seen the 'Battle of the Sexes' take off with one member of each sex. Well, we think that this 'Ultimate Team Challenge World Championship' will be one of the most exciting things to hit sport karate since the creation of protective gear."

 

The team challenge also will bring with it a format that rewards teams that have a history of sport karate excellence. "We are not like professional wrestling where we can ignore the existence of those entities that are the true superstars in our sport," Plowden said. "Anyone that follows sport karate knows that Team CJB has been the top team in the world for the last half decade. They even enjoyed a winning streak that has some of us saying that they could be the best three man squad in sport karate history. Anchored by Jason Tankson-Bourelly, who in my estimation is the world's greatest athlete not in Athens this month, Team CJB has to be a favorite. "

 

"We are seeding three teams into the semi-finals of the Ultimate Team Challenge World Championship," Plowden added. "Thus far, Team CJB has accepted a position as a seed. Team IDC who has also enjoyed tremendous successes over the last couple of years has accepted a spot as well," Plowden said. "The coaches of CJB and IDC have shown that they are just not guys who stand on the sidelines and scream 'go', they are truly coaches, teachers instructors. The third team is yet to be named and a fourth team will be determined based on Friday night competition. One team will win on Friday night to join the three elite seeds for $4,000."

 

Each team is being mandated to have a female fighter in order to participate adds an extra wrinkle to the process according to Plowden. "Right now Team Victory has a solid woman's fighter in California's Marielle Elliot who can beat anyone on a given day," Plowden said. "But you literally have free agents out there like Claire Cocozza, Regena Thompson, and Nancy Price who can be a huge boost to any team's roster as their female representative. This is going to be an exciting event."

 

So who's up to the challange?

[Kreisi]

Sounds cool

[miguksaram]

It was. Some great fights at the tournament. People were definetly hungry for the money. Unfortunately the final matches were way to one sided for Team Straight Up. It was fun none the less.

[Goju 4 Life]

IDC wasn't a pushover. Overall great nighttime show.

[miguksaram]

IMO, IDC didn't pit the right fighters against Straight Up. Once Raymond was in there at the end, it was just play time. However, I will say this IDC's first match up in the night time finals was great. The crowd was loving it. You know when you get an audience all hyper during these mataches, it is a good one.