23nd Annual Great Lakes Kung Fu Championships

Friends,
Don't forget the 23nd Annual Great Lakes Kung Fu Championships will take place on April 18th in Cleveland, Ohio.

"For Over 20 years the Great Lakes Kung Fu Championships have been the regions spot for traditional Chinese Martial Arts action. Over 150 divisions of traditional northern, southern, internal, weapons, light contact sparring and Shuai Chiao (Chinese Wrestling). You can call John Ervin at 216.431.4991 or 216.410.8785 for any questions or registration information. You can also go to my website for more info: http://shaolininstitute.com/institute/events.shtml "

On Sunday, April 19th there will be three seminars for those interested in attending:

Hung Gar - Onassis Parungao 8:30 AM https://www.facebook.com/events/330264723829843/

Bagua Zhang - Marc Black 10:00 AM https://www.facebook.com/events/735824636532415/

Taiji Meihua Mantis - Richard A. Tolson 11:30 AM https://www.facebook.com/events/1569484933308252/

Two of my students will be fighting in the adult division.
I hope to see others from this forum there. Please introduce yourselves if you come. :)

Best of luck to your students, Richard.

Thank you! It will be a their toughest competition yet. Belfiore, Ervin and Black all have some good fighters.

Hi Richard, just a few questions if you mind:

Is this the usual time of year it occurs? I don't know if I could make it in future years (certainly not this year), but I might be interested to put together a google calendar with all of the eastern US/ regional events that people could look at if there isn't already one. Let me know if there is such a calendar already though.

Are there other eastern US/regional events that regularly occur also?

Matt,
Yes, this tournament is always in April in Cleveland, Ohio. In August Master Tony Yang always has his tournament in Akron, Ohio. In February is the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio.

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Originally Posted by mooyingmantis

Matt,
Yes, this tournament is always in April in Cleveland, Ohio. In August Master Tony Yang always has his tournament in Akron, Ohio. In February is the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio.

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Thanks for the info.

So I went to the http://shaolininstitute.com/institute/events.shtml website about the event, but the information was really scarce. There's almost no information about the requirements for sparring (e.g. level of padding required, format, etc.) Do you know if there are any videos of the type of sparring they do there? I found plenty of wrestling videos from Great Lakes 2014 on youtube, but not a single adult sparring video from it.

The wrestling looks good enough to generate some interest though. In fact the rules on their site seem like even light/medium contact might be allowable in the wrestling?? Which makes me wonder how their sparring division looks

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• Utilization of all parts of the foot for kicks and sweeps (not just the insole).
• Allowance of reasonable kicks, strikes, and joint locks in conjunction with throws.

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Sorry, just saw another part:

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7. No striking of the opponents face, head, arms, or body will be tolerated except pushing and "breaking off."

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that disallows striking for the most part

I found a little more information about the Akron tournament you gave too, which seems like it requires full body padding (except thights/arms/face) for only light contact. Any idea if there's more information or videos specifically on sparring available from either events of these one could take a look at?

I know a number of people who have gone to the Arnold Classic like you mentioned, which has more lax sparring requirements IMU.

Matt

EDITED: correction on the wrestling part

Matt,
We have been getting hassled by the AAU in Ohio when it comes to sparring.
Gino Belfiore, the co-sponsor of the tournament goes by Ginosifu on this forum. You can direct private messages to him for information.
As far as the Akron tournament is concerned, head gear, boxing gloves and full foot covers (along with cup and mouth guards) are acceptable.
Most of us think less is more in Ohio, but a representative from the AAU usually shows up at the tournaments to monitor/hassle us. :mad:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mooyingmantis

Matt,
We have been getting hassled by the AAU in Ohio when it comes to sparring.
Gino Belfiore, the co-sponsor of the tournament goes by Ginosifu on this forum. You can direct private messages to him for information.
As far as the Akron tournament is concerned, head gear, boxing gloves and full foot covers (along with cup and mouth guards) are acceptable.
Most of us think less is more in Ohio, but a representative from the AAU usually shows up at the tournaments to monitor/hassle us. :mad:

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Interesting - thanks for the insight.

I guess I really don't understand. If people can spar medium contact at their own schools under their own liability policy, couldn't there be a blanket liability policy that allows this at an event?

Or couldn't the event just be run under the auspices of an individual school's regular activities such that it falls under their normal sparring regimen?

I guess I'm asking in general, does making it a public-invite event change the conditions upon which liabilities are distributed? (even if it's one school sponsoring the whole thing?)?

I mean, it looks like medium contact events are happening in ohio if I do a brief youtube search: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Q_woYVQy8

Don't mean to stir up anything here, just interested to learn more.

Matt,
Since I am not a tournament sponsor or promoter I really don't know the laws concerning tournaments.

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Originally Posted by Matthew

Interesting - thanks for the insight.

I guess I really don't understand. If people can spar medium contact at their own schools under their own liability policy, couldn't there be a blanket liability policy that allows this at an event?

Or couldn't the event just be run under the auspices of an individual school's regular activities such that it falls under their normal sparring regimen?

I guess I'm asking in general, does making it a public-invite event change the conditions upon which liabilities are distributed? (even if it's one school sponsoring the whole thing?)?

I mean, it looks like medium contact events are happening in ohio if I do a brief youtube search: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Q_woYVQy8

Don't mean to stir up anything here, just interested to learn more.

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It probably is more about the money. You know, being a non profit and all. Competitors will have to pay a yearly fee. Probably 20 bucks. The teams will have to pay one as well. Probably a grand. Oh, then they will make you buy their acceptable gear. Even if they don't sell it they will get kick back. Then they will come in and rewrite your rulebook for you and you can forget your style all together. They probably miss controlling amateur boxing.

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Originally Posted by mooyingmantis

Matt,
We have been getting hassled by the AAU in Ohio when it comes to sparring.
Gino Belfiore, the co-sponsor of the tournament goes by Ginosifu on this forum. You can direct private messages to him for information.
As far as the Akron tournament is concerned, head gear, boxing gloves and full foot covers (along with cup and mouth guards) are acceptable.
Most of us think less is more in Ohio, but a representative from the AAU usually shows up at the tournaments to monitor/hassle us. :mad:

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I competed in the last two of the big Tat Wong tourneys in San Francisco back in the '90s, and it was fun.

But a few years ago, I spectated at an AAU CMA tourney, and watching the fighting was frustrating. I hadn't been to a kung fu tournament in a long time. They were being *overly* cautious. They spent a bunch of time explaining the rules to the fighters beforehand (hadn't they read the rules beforehand and trained accordingly)? Then when they finally started the fighting, the ref would break it up every other second, it seemed. Then the judges would confer for lengthy periods. WAY more time was spent talking than letting the competitors fight. This particular tourney was also very sparsely attended.

At those old (non-AAU?) Tat Wong tournaments, you had to wear headgear, gloves (but not necessarily boxing gloves), cup, mouthpiece, and footpads. Chest protector was optional. Sometimes the judging was biased. The sparring could be wild, and a fair number of people got hurt. But at least they let you fight harder with less interference. The Tat Wong tourney was very big and full of competitors and spectators. Parts of it were even televised locally in the Bay Area. I think those big-production types of CMA tourneys ended after the '90s(?). At least here in CA. Probably at least partly a combination of AAU and liability issues, plus MMA's popularity. Probably also the expense of putting on big tourneys isn't worth it anymore, at least for CMA.

Attachment 9401

Thanks Richard for putting those links up. :)

Tournament and seminar results:

One of my students took first place in adult intermediate sparring.

Subitai and Marc Black had great seminars. I watched a little of both their seminars and really enjoyed seeing how they taught.

Sifu Black took first place in adult advanced sparring.