World Oyama Fighter's Cup 2012, San Francisco

[evergrey]

OSU!

(Dear mods- all of the following images are mine, and hosted on my server.)

I was really happy with my dojo this year at World Oyama Fighter's Cup!

Lots of great people there, old friends and new. Everyone fought well and displayed great sportsmanship as well. It really gave me hope for the future of knockdown to see so many people from so many different organizations coming together, having a good time, and supporting one another.

We only had 4 kids enter this year, but they all got trophies. Two trophies for first place, one for second (he might have gotten 1st if he has been proportional to the other kid, who was at least a foot taller than him, and probably easily had 40 pounds on him, heh,) and one for third.

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0612/kids2.jpg

In the full contact knockdown lightweight division, our *7th kyu,* Taka, got third place! I'm very proud of him... he has only 2.5 years of experience, and there were I think 10 people in lightweight total this year. Compare that to Toshiki Sensei (of Yamaki Dojo) in 2nd, who is a tournament veteran and has been training for 15 years! Taka had to fight in the qualifiers, and I think he really surprised most people there at the tournament. He won 3 fights, and lost one, to the guy who took first, I believe. That gut was BRUTAL, and an infighter.

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0612/winning5.jpg

Heavyweight, well I don't know these guys really, but I believe 2nd place was taken by a *6th kyu* from Sensei Callahan's Kyokushin dojo in LA. Note that the third place guy has a green belt... there were plenty of black belts in both knockdown divisions. GO GO GADGET KYU RANKS!

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0612/winning7.jpg

Here are all the fighters in the full contact knockdown division who didn't jet out the door before the group picture, and their coaches/instructors.

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0612/aall.jpg

Here are two instructors from our little org. One broke his arm at open sparring, or maybe in the class after that, blocking a jodan mawashi geri. The other had an unfortunate knee twisting incident while getting kicked by Taka during open sparring, and tore his meniscus. We called them the Gimp Squad and everybody wanted a picture of them together, lol. I love that everyone at my school has a healthy sense of humor.

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0612/agimps2.jpg

My friend Gabriel (of Yamaki Dojo) and I. He worked out with us on Thursday, and we had a lot of fun together. We sparred after class, and I got a lovely bruise on my forearm, haha! Big fun. Sorry I threw you into the wall!

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0612/gabriel.jpg

Sensei Hill of Seattle Kyokushin and I. He won his division, I believe.

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0612/ahill.jpg

A surprise for me was seeing Duval Hamilton, who came up and introduced himself to me. REALLY NICE GUY, really good people. He does the knockdown fighter podcasts, and is the publisher of OSU! Magazine, a great magazine for knockdown fighters that I am going to be writing for regularly. I think it is published quarterly for now.

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0612/aduval.jpg

Shihan Yamaki and I. I think he might be smiling a little bit here, not sure. HE'S SO DREAMY! Also, really patient and nice and TALL.

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0612/yamaki2.jpg

The women's division actually had I think 9 women enter this time. Big improvement, both in number of participants and WHEN they held it. This time, instead of their fighting happening in the far corner during the children's division, they got to fight during the grown-ups portion of the tournament.

Maybe someday there will be full contact knockdown for them without bubble wrap too! I and many other women would be really happy about that. I talked to at least two other women who would have entered had there been a knockdown division for women, instead of the padding everywhere "semi-knockdown." Of course, I don't know how many of the women who entered semi-knockdown would go for true knockdown... but a number of them looked pretty hardcore out there!

Overall, I had a great time, and I am so very proud of my school!

OSU!

[Wastelander]

Looks like everybody had a good time and the tournament went well! Thanks for sharing, Ev!

[Dobbersky]

OSU, awesome, I can't wait until next year, Scottish open here I come

[DWx]

Thanks for sharing Ev Looks like it was a good event. Get any action shots?