A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

Recently, my friend and fellow Shinergy instructor [Elias K] fought at the WKF Austrian Open in Vienna. I didn’t have a chance to be there and witness the event first person, but fortunately, there’s full video footage of the fight. Without further ado, lean back and enjoy a great fight! Round I Round II So long, take care

After defeating Jakob in the semi-finals of this years WKF national chmapionships in full contact kickboxing, I went on to face Andreas K. from the Fight Club Graz for a 3 round bout.You can find Andreas on his club's website . Overview Point-wise, I dominated that fight from the beginning. Andreas is a good boxer, but I just had an advantage whein it comes to kicking. Scored a lot with high kicks and follow-up strikes. Didn't look too bad when it came to boxing, either. But then this guy was tough as coffin nails. No matter what I did, Andreas just wouldn't go down. More than that, I never was under the impression that any of my blows had any effect on him. Well, maybe that's not entirely true - in the third round, I hammered him with a roundhouse to the body that had him fight for balance for a moment. Still, it did nothing to actually stop him. Made me think of a zombie. Anyhow, in the third round, Andy's tenacity won the day. When I was throwing a right over...

Here's a re-post of my fight against Jakob from ATUS Weiz. The following footage was taken from a different point of view, so it might be worth watching again. Next up, the finals against Andreas from Fight Club Graz. So long, take care

Last saturday, I competed at the WKF national championships 2012 in Villach. Took silver. My first fight on that day was against Jakob (if I remember correctly), a former boxer from ATUS Weiz. Gameplan When my fight was up, I wasn't really warmed up properly. Therefore, I decided to take things rather easy and start out slowly. Now I'm not particularly good at sticking to game plans, but at least I stuck to the easy pace for around 15 seconds before rushing in for the first time. My technical goal for that fight was to "force choice", as video game players call it. Virtuafighter.com defines the terms as follows: "In a situation where you can move before your opponent can, you can threaten them with two different potential attacks, such as a mid attack or a high throw. These are difficult to defend against at the same time, and the opponent is forced to choose how to respond."  In my case, this simply means alternating kicks, punches, high and low ...

After defeating Alfredo in the semi-finals , I was up against Yuri, a slovakian fighter. Yuri's pretty young and exceptionally talented. Also, he's really tall for the -71kg division, which is a great advantage especially in light-contact fights. Having seen Yuri perform in the semi-finals, my coach and I decided it would be best to keep the pace rather low, fight defensively and wait for an opportunity to out-box the slovakian. I don't know why, but I just dumped that gameplan a couple of seconds into the first round. Tried to score with an axe-kick. The ring canvas was slippery, though, so I fell. Now usually I'd try to close the gap and outbox tall guys. However, this time, I just went for that classical light-contact strategy and poked around with the lead leg. To my big surprise, Yuri didn't seem to have an answer to that. It's not like I'd score with those kicks, but I kept the center of the ring and had Yuri move a lot. A lot comes down to e...

My first opponent at the WKF Austrian Open 2012 was Alfredo S. from Venezuela. It'm been one of very few times that I faced a fighter who wasn't taller than me. Competeing in the -71kg division (rather than -75kg) definately is a good idea for me. Granted, there's still a lot of tall guys around at that weight, but then I'll always have to face that challenge, regardless of style and division. All men are simply not created equal. Anyhow, Alfredo displayed a rather unorthodox style. Don't get me wrong here - he's not a bad man, by any account. (On a sidenote, he took gold last saturday at the national championships in his division.) His stepping was just unline anything I've encountered so far. But then that's not exactly true, either. Felipe, one of my students, moves in a very similar fashion. I guess that's just the latin american genes showing. Since the fight was under light-contact rules, I decided to make heavy use of the lead leg. When ...

So on saturday I competed in the WKF national championships 2012. Took silver in the -71kg full-contact kickboxing division. Overall, our team did pretty well, in terms of medals: The results Thomas Reiss Shinergy[liesing] Semi-Contact MASTERS (+35years) Silver Frank Zauner Shinergy[zone wien] Semi-Contact -75kg Gold Semi-Contact -86kg Bronze Andreas Mehic Shinergy[stadlau] Semi-Contact YOUTH +71kg Silver Light-Contact YOUTH +71kg Bronze Lukas Pezenka Shinergy[stadlau] Full-Contact -71kg Silver           My 2 cents Not too shabby in my opinion, especially considering the fact we're note even kickboxers. Still, I'm not really satisfied. Should have taken gold. Got knocked out by my own fault in the finals. Did a stupid beginner's mistake. On a whole, though, I really can't complain - after all, I've won my first full-contact fight. Hence, regardless of the finals, I've scored quite a big personal success. Also, I found that there...

So today's installment is dedicated to Gabriel's light contact fight at the WKF Austrian Open 2012. The out was fought under light contact rules in the -67,5kg youth division. Gabriel fought at a Shinergy[battle] before but in terms of kickboxing, this was his debut fight. Considering this fact and his relatively limited training time - Gabriel first came to my Dojo about 6 months ago with no prior martial arts experience -, I'd say his performance was outstanding. Now since I was warmup up for my own fight, I haven't had a chance to take the coach's role, so Chris worked the corner. From what I heard, Gabriel just implemented every single coaching instruction. Watching the video, I can absolutely believe that, too. Gabriel's opponent - who I believe was from Slovakia, while Andreas, another fighter from my team, keeps telling me he heard him talk in bosnian - obviously had some tournament experience. Also, he displayed more than solid technique. In terms of...

Introduction So last saturday me and my team competed at the WKF Austrian Open 2012. Let's start the review with some facts and numbers: General/Starters Result 5 starters for the Shinergy[supreme team] 4 gold medals 4 of which are from my school 4 silver medals 3 injuries 1 bronze medal 2 of us got away without a scratch We all competed in Semi- and Light-contact events. You can find the team roster in the table below Name (alphabetically) 1st Event / Division 2nd Event / Division Result Eppensteiner, Christian Semi-Contact Men / -75kg Semi-Contact Men / +91kg Silver / Bronze Krzan, Gabriel Semi-Contact Juniors / +71kg Light-Contact Juniors / -67,5kh Silver / Gold Mehic, Andreas Semi-Contact Juniors / +71kg Light-Contact Juniors / +71kg Gold / Gold Pezenka, Lukas Light-Contact Men / -71kg - Silver / - Zauner, Frank Semi-Contact Men / -75kg Semi-Contact Men / +91kg Gold / Silver A chaotic schedule Now you might be wondering why everyone was starting in so many different classes. T...

Tomorrow's weigh-in. Still need to lose quite some weight. I never attemted to make that much weight before. If this actually works, it'll definately be something to be kept up for future full-contact bouts. Jesterday's session was short and technique-centered. 5 rounds of shadow-sparring, 5 rounds of padwork, for a total of 10 2-minute rounds. While the technique-goals were rather strict while working the pads, the shadow-sparring was rather freestyle. I didn't ask Chris what he was doing, but my concept was very straight-forward: Stepping / Movement only Boxing, freestyle Boxing, freestyle Kickboxing, freestyle, Kickboxing, freestyle Nothing fancy here. Since Chris is competing in the semi-contact (a.k.a Point/Stop) division while I'll do light-contact (a.k.a continous), our padwork obviously differed a lot. Chris devoted his rounds to the following: Roundhouse kicks only Spinning kicks Lead leg kicks Adding punches and mixing it all up Punches only On the other h...

Three more days until the WKF Austrian Open in Steinbrunn. I'm fighting a hard battle against my weight - for the first time since 2004, I've decided to fight in the -71kg division. Weigh-In is friday from 4pm to 8pm. I'm drinking quite a lot, more than 7 liters a day. Thursday, I'll cut to 3,5 liters. Beginning thursday at 6pm, I'll stop any water or food intake until the weigh in. Really curious as to how much weight I'll be able to drop. Anyhow, when it comes to training, we're not doing a lot anymore. No hard training whatsoever. You see, recovery is becoming an issue when food intake is limited. Probably the single most limiting factor is the absence carbs. This might be less of an issue with traditional diets where you're eating 5 to 6 times a day - with the warrior diet, however, this definately makes a difference. Coming back to the topic at hand - training -, I did 15 2-minute rounds of shadow sparring today. I really come to like this stuff bet...

Come Saturday I'll fight in a WKF full contact kickboxing tournament here in Austria.So, starting today, I'll post a short summary of my final preparations. Chris, who's now also running his own school in Gaaden ( www.shinergy.com/gaaden ) is coaching me. Also, he's helping me out as a sparring partner. There's nothing like having a good friend when it comes to preparing for a fight. Not long ago, Chris qualified for the european championships but then tore a ligament and wasn't able to compete. Obviously, neither was he was in any condition to do sparring. That's when it became most apparent to me that having a good and reliable sparring partner is invaluable in our sport. Now, however, he's back on his feet and although he still can't kick all-out, he's probably the best training partner I can imagine. Anyhow, without further ado, let's take a look at today's session. First, I warmed up with my warmup routine, which I'll cover in a ...