Rudi Ott on USAWKF San Shou Team Trials

[Brad]

Love and Hate
- By Rudi Ott (July 17, 2003)

What's love got to do with it? Everything. We have love for our art, love for competition, and love for living in the present and being at our best. Love is what makes us spend many hours at smelly gyms and starve ourselves to near unconsciousness. Love gets us through aches and pains, bumps and bruises. Love picks us off the matt and gives us energy to continue to fight, win or lose. Love is the core of our being, our very existence. Love is why I'm writing this letter, and I don't want my love to turn into hate.

As a fighter I have been very fortunate in the fact that the love growing inside me manifested itself into the drive and desire to surpass my potential and conquer my limitations. As a coach, I hope that the same internal mechanism transforms itself into a greater good, serving others. I have always felt coaching fighters is more strenuous than fighting itself. Not only do you live through your students, but also they are a direct reflection of you. If you have done your job right, they become prepared for any obstacle they might encounter. Day to day you work on them physically and mentally and hope you have given them your best. So what happens when those who put in the hard work, and achieve the desired goal, do not obtain the result they deserve? The answer...hate.

Hate seems to be the culprit behind the conflict at the recent USAWKF US National SanShou Team Selection on June 28th in Atlanta, GA. For a little history, I have been a team member in 1997, 1999, and 2001, and my coach Cung Le in 1995, 1997, and 1999. In each of those years we have also had a mix of teammates and students on the team. For Sanshou in the US, the US Team has been a benchmark for top fighters. The head coach of the US Team has always been Shawn Liu, and (if USAWKF has its way) he probably will be head coach for a long time to come. For years we (the SanShou community) have maintained a good relationship with Shawn Liu, but have never been happy with USAWKF's inability to support their athletes in anyway shape or form. Unfortunately, our relationship with Shawn Liu has since deteriorated, and he has sided with the USAWKF.

SanShou has come along way in recent years. This is a credit to the top six teams in the country, known as the "Big 6", which comprises fighters from New York, Boston, Ohio, Oakland, Houston, and San Jose. The Big 6 has been producing top quality fighters, year in and year out. It has also grown in notoriety because of its top fighter Cung Le and the exposure he has brought to the sport. Shawn Liu also did a lot for the sport early on. Liu was first to organize SanShou tournaments and bring teams from China to compete with American athletes, which raised the bar for our athletes and set a barometer for our skills. I myself competed against a fighter from the Chinese military team in my first tournament. There is no doubt about his contribution, and for that I am grateful.

However, Shawn Liu has also been ineffective in pushing SanShou to the main stream. He has been mired in outdated principles and fighting formats, which was reflected at this year's Team Trials. To put it bluntly, the trials were a disaster. It started with the date being put too close to Cung Le's Born to Fight Tournament, to which all the top teams and fighters had already committed. It continued when the New York team was banned from the trials just for voicing opposition. It culminated on the day of the event. In all the years that team trials have existed, this year had the lowest participation because only the teams that wanted to deal with all the politics were willing to make the trip.

This is when hate began to rear its ugly head and direct itself at the UsH Fight Team. It is common knowledge that Cung Le and I have denounced the leadership of the USAWKF (Anthony Goh) for some time. Other teams have done the same and boycotted their events, while others tried to be diplomatic for the sake of their athletes. Well, our opposition was soon thrown back into our faces. There are only 5 positions allowed for each team out of 11 weight categories, but six fighters won their division in the recent trials. Albert Pope at 60kg, Mike Norman at 65kg, Max Chen at 70kg, Russ Middleton at 80kg, James Fanshier at 85kg and Patrick Berry at 90kg. There was a dilemma in choosing which five fighters make the team. The team must be decided by an established set of criteria. Albert, Mike, and Max have all been previous team members, so they have secured their positions. Russ Middleton won this year's USAWKF Nationals, so he would be the next likely candidate. It came down to James Fanshier and Patrick Barry. James has a USAWKF National title from 2000, when he beat Russ Middleton. Patrick Berry lost this year's National to Brian Madigan, whom James recently beat in the finals of the Team Trials. In summary, James beat the fighter to whom Patrick lost and has a title from the Team's organization. Thus, by logic, James should be the one selected, right? Wrong! Patrick was chosen instead of James. Oh, did I forget to mention that James is a member of the UsH Fight Team and that Patrick is a student of Shawn Liu? Hmmmm.

Anyone using the existing criteria would have selected James, but the powers that be in the USAWKF (Anthony Goh and Shawn Liu) chose to override the selection process that they themselves established. The criteria are as follows, in order of importance:

1. US Team fighter who has placed in at least one of the previous 3 World Championships
2. Fighter that has been on US Team for 2 consecutive terms.
3. Former US Team Member
4. Former USAWKF National Champion (a title that James Fanshier held)
5. Former USASKF Title winner (made for Patrick Berry & Shawn Liu's own organization)
6. Former US Open Title winners


I know many of you who are reading this are thinking that I, Rudi Ott, am biased. Well yes I am, and I can't help being biased. I gave up my position on the team so that James could have a real chance at making it. If I claimed my spot, it would be moot for James or Patrick. It is very sad that we have all come to this. I wish we had a united team that was ready to take on the world. But, politics and pride have tarnished another form of artistic expression and lowered the standards of these artists. It would help if we had an organization that was truly interested in the growth of our sport and supported our athletes. But we don't, so we must rely on ourselves if we are ever going to make something great of SanShou. I know we all have our own agendas, and we all want our team to be the best. But together, the competition will make us greater as long as we are playing on the same field. Our common denominator is the love we share for the art under which we chose to compete, and that is greater than the hate any one person or organization can hold over us. Peace....

UsH! ( Unity Starts Here)
Rudi Ott


http://www.sanshou.com/articles/rudi-7-17-2003.html

[GeneChing]

You'll find an article on Rudi in our upcoming issue, should be on newsstands in the next two weeks. Go to your local bookstore in full Kung Fu gear and demand it. :D

Jenna Castillo from Cung's gym was by here yesterday and she had a bit to say about the team trials too. Not as critical as Rudi, she actually had more to say about her tour of the Coke factory.

[GLW]

This has been a problem for a long time.

Even prior to the 1999 split of the USAWKF that left Anthony Goh with the IWuF recognition but also a totally fractured and divided CMA community, there was disquiet in the Sanshou community.

They had been trying to get the USAWKF board and organization to put a bit more attention to promoting Sanshou...with virtually no success.

They formed the US Sanshou org...can't recall the name just now...after the USAWKF split up... with Shawn Liu having a position in it as well as Mike Barry. Mike Barry resigned from the USAWKF board BEFORE taking the position with the Sanshou group as the stated goals of the USAWKF and the Sanshou group could have put him in a possible conflict of interest situation that he ethically wanted to avoid.

Shawn Liu did NOT resign from the USAWKF. This put him at ethical odds from the beginning with the rest of the Sanshou folks.

Things have gone from bad to worse since then.

The curious thing was that about a year ago, Tat Mau Wong was appointed by the USAWKF to head the Sanshou end of things for the USAWKF. His experience with Sanshou was questioned but it was his assignment to head that aspect of Goh's USAWKF.

As such, it was his role to have coordinated the Sanshou Team Trials effort. There was no real explanation that I am aware of as to why he did not do this but Shawn Liu did.

The fact that the Big 6 are NOT happy with anything that is going on and that normally silent people like Rudi Ott are willing to speak out now say a lot.

[Royal Dragon]

Interesting, Does this mean San Shou is dying?

[GLW]

I wouldn't say that.

As with the other areas of Wushu - Traditional, Contemporary, Sanshou.... There are a LOT of problems.

First, there is the fact that just about everyone involved has their own agenda - and that usually does NOT focus on what will further the art...but rather themselves.

Then, there were problems with the USAWKF from its inception. The Sanshou folks were ignored to a large part while folks like Goh realized that there was a possibility of Wushu making it to the Olympics.

Funny how that changes peoples minds.

Goh was in charge of NACMAF *North America Chinese Martial Arts Federation* before the formation of the USAWKF. The USAWKF was a merger in effect of the USCMAC with folks like Jeff Bolt...and NACMAF. The structure and rulebook in use in the USAWKF came almost completely from the USCMAC.

NACMAF did not allow Contemporary wushu in its events. Now, Goh hobnobs with the IWuF and pretty much lets Traditional Wushu languish on its on.

The split in 1999 set the organization of Wushu (all facets) in the US back at least 5 to 10 years.

Funny thing - Olympica inclusion is NOT a done deal. AND...the amounf of money involved here is minimal...it is a small rice bowl...and so many still fight over it.

There are a lot of wannabes that are happy to take positions but do no work to move things forward. And this continues.

It will take some unification to improve things...but I don't see it happening soon.

[TonyM.]

Anthony Goh hijacked USAWKF. Iwas a member that was not asked to vote or reinlist. Goh can kiss my arse.:mad:

[GLW]

From its inception, the USAWKF had a big problem...the Board of Directors was NOT accountable directly to the members.

They justified this by saying that there were very few members in the beginning and they did not want one geographic area to take control.

The bylaws were written so that as soon as any region got up to a certain number of members, they would have some form of voting privileges.

When they were first drafted, I was given a copy of the bylaws for review. The lack of accountability was one of my biggest problems with them...and I voiced this concern.

I was told it was not a big thing and that as the regions grew, this deficit would disappear.

All well and good providing that you TRY to grow the regions. This is something that it sure appeared that Goh did NOT want to happen.

Then you had such great things as people dropping out of the org due to conflicts with Goh...James Yu being appointed to the board...AFTER a $40,000 contribution (he said loan and never got paid back)...and so on.

They could not even get their act straight on membership dues. I recall asking when I could pay to re-up...and being told that they would send out a notice when my time expired...and that was 1997...in 1999 I had STILL NOT GOTTEN a notice and HAD asked about dues and such again.

In fact, I did NOT get a notice until Goh was in a fund raising fury after the split up....which I did NOT pay to Goh but to the other group of folks.....

The current board is made up of people with little to no experience in doing actual work for the organization and many of them do NOT really have the background to serve in the capacity they are appointed to.

A board of yes-people for Goh is what it has been accused of being....

They COULD change things...quite simply by opening up and just doing the right thing. All it would take is a true committment to being accountable and open to the community.

They DID change the date of the Taolu Team Trials in response to the community... and they DID change the format...but ONLY after the IWuF changed the world game formats.

They STILL ignore Sanshou and think that Shawn Liu IS US Sanshou.

Basically, progress in organizing Chinese Martial Arts stopped in 1999.

There ARE , however, alternatives.....

[lkfmdc]

San Shou is far from dying, it is growing and because it is growing so much, the USA WKF has become almost irrelevant. The team trails were the last event that required the US San Shou community, ie the Big 6, to have to deal with the USA WKF. After the USA WKF has completely "explitive deleted" us (figure it out) it seems there is no reason at all any of us should still put up with the crap.

Cung Le's Born to Fight, the ABOC, the USWU, our New York based events (which will be expanding with the HUGE national tournament we are doing in November) are where the US teams are actually going and all of them are totally unrelated to the USA WKF. We also have single matches on IKF, USKBA and ISKA cards, again unrelated in any way to USA WKF.

Shawn's events have become a huge joke. He had 30 people at his "national", I had more than that at my local, in my gym New York event! Shawn created the federation by telling us we (the coaches) would run it and he'd be an advisor only. Then he elected himself President and CEO. He's an egomaniac on a power trip and trying to act like he runs everything.

The response was NO ONE supported either his tournament or his super fights. They only showed up for the team trials, which Shawn conspired with Anthony Goh to get. Now, after the team trials, he's once again screwed us and it's the last straw...

In a few days or so, maybe after Cung's event, a lot of stuff about who Shawn Liu really is is going to come out, and raising serious questions about why Anthony Goh would put him in charge of so many important things and conspire with him against ALL the US teams

[TonyM.]

This thread inspired me to join the US Wushu Union. Thank you. Now I can let go of my anger at the USAKWF. At least until the appropriate time.

[lkfmdc]

After all the things Anthony Goh said to us BEFORE the team trials and then how they turned out, I doubt any Big 6 person will EVER deal with him again, the USA WKF is morally bankrupt, perhaps financially as well..... Time to move on to other groups and events, like US Wushu Union