A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

Ok, I guess that if you've been following my blog lately, you know what's going to happen now. This is Mareike's fights from our trip to the [TaekwonDo Open Polish Cup last year] . Enjoy! This was Mareike's Semi-Contact fight: Now here we go with light contact: I guess I've uploaded all fights now (might be wrong, though, so I'll check again). Next, I'll collect, edit and upload all the stuff we filmed at the [International Polish TaekwonDo Championships in Wieliczka] this month. Bear with me, that'll take me some time. Make sure to check in often, though, as there's always new content. So long, don't get hurt

Just like [Anna] , Anton had four fights in Opole, three semi-contact fights and one light-contact fight. Here we go: Here we go with Anton's first fight: The win in the first fight took Anton to the semi-finals: After losing in the semi-finals, Anton fought for the bronze medal: As mentioned, after the semi-contact fights, there was a light contact bout as well: I'll be uploading Mareike's fights next, so stay tuned. So long, don't get hurt

Before I start uploading [the most recent] fights, I'll finish the series on the Opole Open last november. This time, here's Anna's fights. Here goes Anna's first Semi-Contact Fight: After the first fight, Anna advanced to the Semi-Finals: Having lost the Semi-Finals, Anna went on to fight for bronze: After the three Semi-Contact Fights, Anna entered the Light-Contact event, here we go: Considering the fact that this was only her second tournament, I'd say Anna did great. I'm definitely waiting for things to come here. Next, I'll be convering Anton's fights. So long, don't get hurt

As mentioned in an [earlier post] , I'll be posting video footage of our trip to Opole last year. Took me a while, but hey, better late than never, right? After watching [Valentin's fights] , now it's time for Manuel. Note that I won't be analysing anything here - I'll cover that in a later post, when I have time. For now, it's just the video footage. Manuel didn't do any semi-contact fighting, instead focusing on the light-contact side of things. Enjoy! Here we go with Manuel's first fight: And here's the finals: Next I'll be posting Anna's fights, so get ready for some lightweight-action! So long, don't get hurt

As mentioned in an [earlier post] , I'll be posting video footage of our [trip to Opole] last year. Took me a while, but hey, better late than never, right? After going through [Chris' fights] , here's Valentin. Note that I won't be analysing anything here - I'll cover that in a later post, when I have time. For now, it's just the video footage. The only thing I will add here is that this was Valentin's debut in tournament fighting. Considering that and the fact that his opponent in the light contact bout is the vice-world-champion, I think Valentin did pretty well. Here's Valentin's first fight of that day, under Semi-Contact rules: And here we go with his light contact fight: Next up: Manuel. Watch out. So long, don't get hurt

As mentioned in an [earlier post] , I'll be posting video footage of our [trip to Opole] last year. Took me a while, but hey, better late than never, right? After going through [Hanna's fights] , here's Chris. Note that I won't be analysing anything here - I'll cover that in a later post, when I have time. For now, it's just the video footage. Here's Chris' first fight of that day. Winning that fight took Chris to the Semi-Finals. Finally, the third fight was for bronze: Next, I'll be posting Valentin's fights, so stay tuned. So long, don't get hurt

As mentioned in an [earlier post] , I'll be posting video footage of our [trip to Opole] last year. Took me a while, but hey, better late than never, right? Since Hanna had the most fights out of all our fighters, I'll start with her. Note that I won't be analysing anything here - I'll cover that in a later post, when I have time. For now, it's just the video footage. The first Semi-Contact fight was over relatively fast, with the technical KO (10 point difference) coming down just two or three seconds into the second round. Here goes Semi-Contact #2: After winning that fight, Hanna went on to the Semi-Finals: The fourth fight was the finals: Finally, Hanna did a light contact fight - after all those fights, there unfortunately wasn't all that much gas left in the tank. So much for Hanna's fights, next up will be Chris, so stay tuned. So long, don't get hurt

So over the next couple days I'll post the videos of our fights at the Opole Open 2015. I have to say, the [PUT] people really did a good job on organising the event, and while international participation was a bit lower than usual, the level of competition was awesome. What I like most is the non-dogmatic approach these guys take. Most schools offer both Taekwondo and Kickboxing, some also do other styles such as MMA or even Krav Maga. As long as they adhere to the rules, everyone's welcome to fight. Contrast this with the rivalry and bad blood that dominates the martial arts world here in Austria. For example, I've once witnessed all participants of the [WKF] being barred from entrance to the [OEBFK] national championships due to inter-federation rivalry. Needless to say, the level of competition suffers from stuff like that. Now you could argue that the situation in Poland is different in that there's no competing federations from the same style involved. ...