International CMA Championship

[LiLong]

I would like to report the success of the 4th annual International CMA championships in St. Pete FL. There were hundreds of competitors which made for some very fierce competition. Competitors from china, canada, germany and all over the US were there. Hung gar, CLF, Wah Lum and many others were well represented.

I would like to congratulate meltdawn for placing in the top three in her empty hands forms division. Her style is very powerful and I was honored to experience her formidable skills at the tournie.

My performance left a bit to desire and only placed fourth in both empty hands and weapons (butterfly swords). I was disqualified in sparring due to a use of an elbow to the chin that was somewhat of an accident.

The master's demo was awesome with some show of bagua, hsing-i and other internal styles.... very cool indeed. Also the lion dance teams were quite good.

I would hope kwoons from all over the USA could show up to the next one in 2003. The absence of our WC cousins was much missed.


Cheers :D

[meltdawn]

Thank you Sifu Nick Scrima and Chinese Martial Arts School for an excellent event. It was extremely well organized and the venue was top notch. A terrific turn-out and a successful event!!!

It was a pleasure to meet students from Lee's White Leopard, the Lee Koon Hung school, the Wah Lum school, Master Scrima's school, Sifu Brian Ahern's school, Li Long school, and some very good wushu athletes. My guestimate is that there were about 500 competitors and 100 spectators. I must say we stood out, with our white t-shirts and white-striped pants.


LiLong, it was also a pleasure to meet you and thank you for your kind words. I didn' know you had watched! Your finishes were not bad given your competition. Your empty hand form was really interesting, I am sorry to have missed your butterfly swords set. I missed a lot, running from ring to ring trying to stay organized. And you gotta watch those elbows . ;)

gwendolyn, I am sorry we did not meet.

For our school, the question of the day was:
"What IS that???" :) The decision to compete was was based upon our club's desire to promote the art of Lung Ying Jing Jung in Florida and the United States. It is the Association's wish to grow stronger through membership gained by knowledge and goodwill. This was a terrific start. We all had a wonderful day, watching all of the competitiors from different schools and experiencing showing our own in front of others.

John was our first student to compete. He was in Beginner Men's division. John was not nervous and he played an excellent Soy Kiu. His average was about 7.5 in a class of 15 people, northern and southern. John did not place in the top three, but for his first event, and being in a style that apparently the judges had never seen, his scores were good.

Andrew Lum was the second to compete. His division was Intermediate Ages 9-11, northern and southern mixed. His ring was directly bemeath the Master's diaz. There were probably 40 - 50 kids in Andrew's class, and he was scheduled near the end, about an hour after the class started. When he began his Sarm Tone, ALL of the children watched, and I glanced up to see the masters on the diaz, including Chan Pui and Wu Bin, leaning over to watch. Made me very proud!!! He played his set extremely well. At the close of the class, he was one of the three called up, and placed in third position. Then a judge moved him to the middle. Then they hung the gold medal around his neck! Watch this kid... it's in his blood.

Alex Lum was the next to compete, in Beginner Ages 6-8. There were probably more then 50 children in his class. He had the longest to wait, but took the opportunity to make a few friends and win 3 consecutive bouts of thumb wrestling. Unfortunately Alex's streak was interrupted by his turn in the class. He was nervous, but did the best M Ma Gwai Cho he could muster. They presented the entire class with medals, which Alex liked but still isn't quite sure why he got, because he promptly came over and told us all of the mistakes he made and intended to fix.

I was the last competitor. My division was Intermediate Women's Southern. I was nervous, but I had watched my classmates do so well that I was very encouraged. I was the last to go out of four, a smaller class than I had anticipated. Two girls did choi li fut sets and the third was a northern stylist so the judges debated, but kept her in. They all played well. I presented my Ying Jow with as best as I could, though a little stiff. Upon the conclusion, not one of the five judges moved to set a score. The ring steward stood up and asked me if my set was northern or southern! I replied "dragon", but that didn't get me anywhere, so I said "Hak Ga" and still no response, then I heard someone yell "southern, definitely southern!" My scores averaged 7.97 which put me in second. I was pleased, though it was a strange feeling to finally understand that most people really haven't seen Lung Ying.

Master Lum was proud of our efforts as we were proud to have him there with us. Several judges recognised him and came up to say hello. Many people came up and inquired about our style during the day, and we were pleased to hear that most had happened upon our website. We feel that the day was successful, and we all felt like we presented our club in the most positive light possible. We all left smiling, with new enthusiam and drive to train harder. The best thing about tournaments is getting to be around so many people who love kung fu!

Thank you to all who wished us the best, and train hard.

Lynlee
FDSAA

[CLOUD ONE]

on coming second. Which girl won, the Choy lay Fut?

It always makes me wonder if the judges has not seen this form before and therefore do not know if it is Southern, Northern. how or what are they judging on?

[feldor]

CONGRADULATIONS!

My MSN at work is messing up....:(

Hope things are well with you and the horses.....:D

Try to catch you soon on MSN.

REAL busy....

[fiercest tiger]

What was that?

hehehehe good on ya, you had a go anyway.:)

[feldor]

sifu,

Sent you a hotmail. Talk to ya soon.

:)

[feldor]

Sifu,

Check your hotmail. Talk to you soon.

:)

[fiercest tiger]

Hi Mate,

i got your email and ill call you my tomorrow about things, need to talk with you!:( nothing bad for you buddy, nothing but love!;)

[LiLong]

Hey meltdawn, you are most certainly welcome... the compliments are most ceratainly well deserved. I tried to find you after your performance so as to perhaps meet your teacher as well but had to scramble to find my sparring gear.
I usually am careful with my elbows, but after a blow to the face which resulted in a mouth full of blood (without a penalty call) I decided to go all out and use a tried and true method to gain ground. i stormed the opponent with focus and determination. The intended maneuver was to get my leading elbow over his guard and roll a back-fist right to the jaw, but he was a CLF exponent thus as I closed the gap so did he, his guard dropped and my elbow got him.
The empty hand form I did had some of our Hung Gar influences such as Hok Fu Jow, tiger claws and crane strikes. The Sword form was the same as the empty hand but with swords.
I found out I actually tied for first with three other competitors, but when the high and low scores came into the equation they separated us by one hundreth of a point each. I had a lot of fun the whole day however so that experience alone was worth it.
The one thing that did puzzle me was taht after I performed my form one of the judges came to me, asked me the style I played and asked me "Are your forms supposed to begin and end at the same spot in the ring?" To which a I responded with a puzzled look, told him the style and after a second realized what he was asking me. i proceeded to ask him if he went back to the original spot he started a fight after the bout was over. I guess judges are somewhat biased by fully stylized forms that lact more as choreographies, then a collection of useful applications. the spot where the form starts and ends is really quite inconsequential. Oh well... there is always next year where I hope to either do the LLBM version of Lau Gar, or perhaps another LLBM form.
cheers :)

[sanjia]

Lilong : The empty hand form I did had some of our Hung Gar influences such as Hok Fu Jow, tiger claws and crane strikes. The Sword form was the same as the empty hand but with swords.

Interesting, in a 'mixed' style I studied the empty hand 'tiger/crane' set is also done with double broadswords, and double cudgels.

Lilong : the spot where the form starts and ends is really quite inconsequential

Mmm, snap, in fact all the sets except the first finished in a different place!

Mark

[PorcelainMantis]

Hey MeltDawn...I competed against you in Southern empty hand!I was the Northern one (Wah Lum) that the judges were debating about. Although the form I did was definitely Southern, when the judges started talking I thought they were going to boot me out. What they were ACTUALLY talking about was my lack of power! (I asked one of the judges after!) I managed to get 3rd, even though the competition was fierce! Congrats on winning 2nd! :)

[meltdawn]

Hi porcelinemantis, nice to meet you again!

Congrats to you also. My classmate really liked your form. ;)

Thank you to everyone for your support, kind words and emoticons.

Anyone going to Chinwoo?

[David Jamieson]

Hey Congratulations.

Sounds like it was fun.

peace

[SaMantis]

Hi LiLong,

I read how the judges questioned whether your form was supposed to start and stop in the same place.

I asked the same question of my Wah lum sifu early on in my training, because he would put an "X" on the floor with chalk and tell me to start & end the form on that X.

In some northern & shaolin schools, forms start and end at the same spot to honor buddhist tradition, represent the wheel of life, karma, etc. The sifu also said it showed that the system has roots in a buddhist temple.

I agree, going back to where you started at the end of a real fight doesn't make sense. It's more of a tradition than a rule, unless the instructor knew exactly what form you were doing it shouldn't have mattered, IMO.

Anyway, I had a great time at the tournament, and congratulations to you and everyone who competed! :)