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Saturday November 2,
2002 The United State Karate Alliance held its annual State Championship event in Belen, and, naturally, Martial Artistry was there to represent the most exciting and challenging of the martial arts: Chinese wushu and kung fu. And here, in no particular order, is how our gang did... (right: Jonah Donnarumma (orange) goes for a side kick point in fighting) |
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Assistant Instructor Monique Cordova had
one-of-those-days. You know, where nothing -- just NOTHING -- seems to
go right. A major oopsie in open hand forms cost her the division that
she had dominated for years, and while she was aggressive in sparring, her
lack of defense cost her dearly. Even the team form went awry, with a wrong turn that cost Monique and James the State Championship title in that division, too - although the set still was judged so outstanding that they almost won anyway! (left: Monique Cordova executes a wushu front kick with push palm in Shen Yu Changquan.) |
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But the real heartbreaker was weapons.
Monique was obviously the crowd favorite, and the mathematically gifted on
the sidelines, doing tallies in their heads, all agreed that she'd won, so
when she was called for third, there was open shock. Even her
opponents insisted something was not right, and asked that the scores be
checked.
(Right: Monique, in black, gets one in on her opponent in sparring.) |
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We did so, but the math seemed fine. Alas,
we had checked the scorekeeper's math, but not the numbers themselves. It wasn't until later,
when the videos were reviewed, that it was revealed that the scorekeeper had
written down an incorrect, and much lower, score, substituting a 5 for a 6.
Oh, well -- at least we kept the adult weapons division in the family.
Martial Artistry won the entire division, from 1st through 4th. (left and below: Reserve National Champion Monique Cordova competes in Adult weapons with double head spear.) |
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The final tally for this Martial Artistry
Assistant Instructor:
MONIQUE RENEE CORDOVA |
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The flooring at State is always bad news for us
wushu stylists. Wushu is typically performed on carpet, thus our shoes
are designed for that surface, with little tread. Put those shoes on a
slick and dusty surface, and it's the equivalent of kung fu on ice -- but
without the benefit of skates! Especially affected are those of
our school who tend to the more athletic and acrobatic styles, like
changquan or ditang quan. Everyone was astounded that Jonah Donnarumma could possibly get enough air to pull off a butterfly twist, but here's the photographic proof. Still, his go wasn't quite good enough to rate the State Championship in forms, but don't worry. We kept that title in the Martial Artistry family, too . . . |
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Now here's something you don't see every day: monkey staff! That's Instructor's Aide Jonah Donnarumma. |
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Wild and crazy Jonah has the perfect personality for this difficult and seldom-seen system. |
| As you can probably guess from the photos, Jonah attracted a lot of attention with this routine. |
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Dang! Missed his foot. You can tell the surface really threw Jonah off -- he's usually fully vertical and at the top of his staff in this technique. Still, the audience and the judges thought it looked mighty fine. Good enough for a Reserve State Championship. |
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It's always interesting to watch our students
in fighting competition. Most of them never spar, except when they are in the ring at a
tournament. So how is it that they always manage to do so well, even
against schools who spend several hours every week concentrating on sparring
alone?
Heh! Heh! Got kung fu?
(Right: a little higher there, Jonah...) |
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Still, this is one of those things that got us
into trouble. We train hit to the face. But, tournament
fighters, at least in the underbelt division, do not. This cost Jonah
(left, in orange) heavily, as he was penalized (and
rightly so) for striking a non-target area. It's hard to break those habits... ... yes, really, REALLY hard. (below, right) Yanking someone into a groin strike while going for the face works great in real life, but it's not so polite in competition. Bad Jonah!!! Boy, did he ever do some serious apologizing! |
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Jonah also entered Chanbarra, which is a fun division in which one fights with foam weapons. Unfortunately, nobody bothered to tell him that one must yell while striking in order to score a point. It's rather hard to understand the function of alerting your opponent to your attack, but, oh well. He'll know better next time. Here are Jonah's winnings for the day. JONAH DONNARUMMA |
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Martial Artistry Assistant Instructor Chris Baca combined Xiao Hong Quan, or Small Red Fist, a classical Northern Shaolin form he learned while at the school training trip to the Shaolin Temple in China, and a bit of snake, tiger and ditang quan to concoct this year's State Championship Men's Form. |
| He snagged the State Championship in the Adult Weapons division as well, with another set he learned on the training trip: Shaolin Shuangdao, or Shaolin Double Broadsword. |
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The one disappointment turned out to be fighting,
Usually aggressive and mobile, Chris (left, in red) was
strangely flat-footed, linear and entirely on the defensive. He would
back up, straight up (big no-no!) the second his opponent came after him.
We in the bleachers all looked at one another, trying to figure out just
what the heck had happened. It did NOT look like Chris in that ring .
. . The bout was very brief, although it must be said that Chris's first and only match was with the guy who won the division. |
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Chris did manage to slip one in there, though,
and overall, he had a pretty good day.
CHRIS BACA State Champion - Men's Forms State Champion - Adult Weapons |
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Instructor's Aide James Cole (left)
also had a successful outing, although he was somewhat hesitant in his
first go in the forms division. It's that shoe thing again. . . Still, as you can see from the photo (below, right), James managed to get some serious air in his wushu jump front kick, even without a momentum-building run. Alas! I did not get a photo of his State Championship winning weapons form, a wushu broadsword routine. |
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Anywho, here were Mr. Cole's results for the day: JAMES COLE State Champion: Youth Forms State Champion: Youth Weapons Reserve State Champion: Team Forms |
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Toby Baca competed in two divisions, forms and fighting. Here (left) he's shown rising into a scale, or side leg balance during his changquan, or long fist, routine. |
| It's always tough when one has to face a much-smaller opponent, and you could see that Toby (right, black pants, blue sash) felt uncomfortable having to fight this youngster. The little one was a tiger, though, so kudos to him, even though Toby won the match. |
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Toby (left, black pants, blue sash)
fought a total of three matches to get his final score of fourth place.
He was a bit more reticent in the ring than he usually is, but still managed to do well in a big field. |
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Final results for the day for this young man: TOBY BACA III Reserve State Champion - Youth Forms 4th Place - Youth Sparring |
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We're not sure if it was the slippery floor or
just plain nervousness, but Assistant Instructor Amir Shirkhorshidian
(right, performing Xiao Tang Lang) not nearly so strong as
usual in his Northern Mantis set. Still, even on an off day this young
man is powerful, precise, and a great crowd pleaser. Oh, and he won
the Reserve State Championship in the Advanced division. But, it was his straight sword that blew everyone away. Even another group of competitors didn't watch their own division (below). |
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They don't call Mr. Shirkhorshidian "Li Mu Bai"
(the hero monk of CROUCHING TIGER/HIDDEN DRAGON) for nothing. Eddy
looks worried. He should. Only a slight bobble as Amir landed
into splits from a leap and 180 turn kept Amir (below, in black)
from winning this division -- he lost by 1/100th of a point. And,
the math wizzes pointed out that three out of five judges had actually given
Amir higher scores than they gave Eddy, which, if so, means, had there been
a show of hands, Amir would have taken the crown! Quite the Cinderella
story, when you consider that Amir takes only group classes, competed with
only a school form from his level, in a school uniform, with a jian
that had been broken and welded back together because he couldn't afford a
new one. You just gotta love the underdog makes do and yet still seems
to do it all... AMIR SHIRKHORSHIDIAN Reserve State Champion -
Advanced Forms |
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Yeesh! Look at that glare (right)!
Junior Instructor's Aide Kris Klarer gives the judges the ol' intimidation
stare. It must have worked, because the judges gave him big-time
scores! Kris competed in the open hand division with a modified version of the classical Shantung Shaolin form, Xiao Hu Yan, or Little Tiger Swallow, and in the weapons division with He Shan, or Crane Fan. KRIS KLARER State Champion -
Beginner Youth Forms
P.S. Kris!!! Button your yifu!!! |
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Well, at least Kris comes by it honestly. His dad didn't fully button his uniform top either. At left, Paul Klarer competes in the Beginner Men's Open Hand division with Kung Lik Kuen, or Power Fist Form. |
| Like his son Kris, Paul competed in the Adult forms division with a modified version of He Shan, or Crane fan. At right, he stabs at his imaginary opponent with the closed fan. |
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At left, Paul reaches out to intercept his
opponent's strike. Paul helped the Martial Artistry crew sew up the
Adult Weapons division, by bringing home the 4th place trophy. PAUL KLARER 4th Place - Adult
Beginner Forms Congratulations to all our Martial Artistry competitors! Questions? Comments?
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