It's been a while since I did a post on the martial arts. Over the last weeks, due to my injury, my main interest was strength training and general physical preparation. Today's topic deals with the martial arts again.
Today the Shinergy[young stars] Battle Winter 2009 took place. "Battle" is what we call our Shinergy championships, because in the beginning, those championships were held in music clubs, just like breakdance battles.
Unfortunately, I couldn't be there because I had to hold classes at my dojo, but 5 of my kids competed.
I have to say, team Stadlau (that's the part of Vienna where my dojo is) did really well: 5 competitors, 4 medals.
Now of course, competing isn't all about winning some precious metal, but it does play a part. Especially for kids, I'm convinced that competition and reward are a great way to hold motivation. Also, it provides a great feedback for everyone: the competitor can measure his progress, the instructor can objectively see if his work bears fruit and the spectators get an idea of how a particular school is organized.
Anyways, the battle began with a (short) training. This way, it was made sure everyone is properly warmed up for the upcoming contest.
After that, the actual competition took place. Since I couldn't attend the event, I don't know the exact order of events, however, the kids matched with each other in the following categories:
In the Power Punch competition, the kids were required to hit a focus pad as hard as possible with a straight punch and send it flying. In each round, the pad had to pass a certain marker. If it didn't, the competitor was out.
The Jumping High Kick event was were the kids had to hit a ceiling-mounted pad with a flying front kick (or Mae-Geri, Ap-Chagi,... whatever name you prefer). Again, in each round the pad was lifted a bit higher. If a competitor failed to hit it, he was out.
Basically, the same thing was done with the Spinning Hook Kick. Precision and technical skill were the keys to success here.
Finally, the Sparring competition was held. This is - of course - my personal favourite. The system was action-stop, meaning that scores were judged after every action. This preserves the technical finesse of semi-contact sparring while giving a fighter more opportunities to act. I don't have pictures of that event, but there's a video.
My students competed in all of those events. One of them, Christopher, scored gold in the parcours and jumping high kick events. Christine, who has been with me from the moment I've opened up my dojo, scored silver in the jumping high kick and sparring. Carina, Lorin and Nikola (the youngest competitor as far as I know) did great as well.
Words can hardly describe how proud I am of those kids and youngsters. Thinking that they are the future of Shinergy, the art I've dedicated the last decade of my life to, makes me feel really confident. I'm sure I can tell you of even more of those kid's successes in the near future.
So long,
take care
PS: Of course, I've put some videos up at Rapidshare. You can find the links at the Shinergy[stadlau] media library.
Today the Shinergy[young stars] Battle Winter 2009 took place. "Battle" is what we call our Shinergy championships, because in the beginning, those championships were held in music clubs, just like breakdance battles.
Unfortunately, I couldn't be there because I had to hold classes at my dojo, but 5 of my kids competed.
I have to say, team Stadlau (that's the part of Vienna where my dojo is) did really well: 5 competitors, 4 medals.
Now of course, competing isn't all about winning some precious metal, but it does play a part. Especially for kids, I'm convinced that competition and reward are a great way to hold motivation. Also, it provides a great feedback for everyone: the competitor can measure his progress, the instructor can objectively see if his work bears fruit and the spectators get an idea of how a particular school is organized.
Anyways, the battle began with a (short) training. This way, it was made sure everyone is properly warmed up for the upcoming contest.
After that, the actual competition took place. Since I couldn't attend the event, I don't know the exact order of events, however, the kids matched with each other in the following categories:
- Parcours
- Power Punch
- Jumping High Kick
- Spinning Hook Kick
- Sparring
In the Power Punch competition, the kids were required to hit a focus pad as hard as possible with a straight punch and send it flying. In each round, the pad had to pass a certain marker. If it didn't, the competitor was out.
The Jumping High Kick event was were the kids had to hit a ceiling-mounted pad with a flying front kick (or Mae-Geri, Ap-Chagi,... whatever name you prefer). Again, in each round the pad was lifted a bit higher. If a competitor failed to hit it, he was out.
Basically, the same thing was done with the Spinning Hook Kick. Precision and technical skill were the keys to success here.
Finally, the Sparring competition was held. This is - of course - my personal favourite. The system was action-stop, meaning that scores were judged after every action. This preserves the technical finesse of semi-contact sparring while giving a fighter more opportunities to act. I don't have pictures of that event, but there's a video.
My students competed in all of those events. One of them, Christopher, scored gold in the parcours and jumping high kick events. Christine, who has been with me from the moment I've opened up my dojo, scored silver in the jumping high kick and sparring. Carina, Lorin and Nikola (the youngest competitor as far as I know) did great as well.
Words can hardly describe how proud I am of those kids and youngsters. Thinking that they are the future of Shinergy, the art I've dedicated the last decade of my life to, makes me feel really confident. I'm sure I can tell you of even more of those kid's successes in the near future.
So long,
take care
PS: Of course, I've put some videos up at Rapidshare. You can find the links at the Shinergy[stadlau] media library.
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