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The Warrior Within was unleashed the weekend of Sept. 20th at the ATA Regional Tournament at the University of Delaware’s Bob Carpenter Center. OVER 600 competitors ranging from “tiny tigers” to adults came to take part in the competition,and enjoy the XMA Team seminar. Along with the competitors, more than 2,000 spectators came from all over to watch their sons, daughters, nephew, nieces, grandchildren and friends exhibit their skills.

These skills were awarded with the 1,200 trophies that the tournament promoter had prepared to give out. Every tournament participant went home with at least one 24 inch trophy and some even left the tournament earning up to six trophies.

Another great part of the tournament was the XMA Tricks Battle/Demo where the XMA Team: (Matt Emig, Vince Johnson, Jeremy Marinas and Anis Cheurfa) participated. The Team would go on to teach a seminar at the ATA Martial Arts of Maryland School where over 40 students and instructors on Sunday, Sept. 21^st. After the seminar, all of the participants and the XMA Team got together to take some pictures. Check them out below!

The ATA Regional Tournament was a great success due to all of the support from everyone that took part in setting up and making the tournament run smoothly, all of the competitors and the spectators.

KICKgen is proud to be one sponsors of the ATA Regional Tournament!

Hey everybody! This is Adrian, bringing you a report on what I saw this past weekend at the Pan American Internationals in Miami, FL hosted by Manny Reyes.

I actually made my way down to Miami from my home base of Orlando with someone that everyone knows, Sammy Vasquez! Upon arriving at the tournament hotel, the Miami Mart Airport Hotel & Convention Center, we waited in the lobby for the venue to open. While we were waiting, I was able to meet the double sword wielding phenom - Kalman Csoka, as well as a very enthusiastic Venezuelan Team. Once we got into the tournament venue, I started seeing the familiar faces of top competitors from Teams Paul Mitchell, AKA, Prorank, Straight Up, Full Circle, etc. Many of the competitors were just getting in at around the same time and started warming up to get ready for their divisions.

Friday night’s excitement peaked in the younger divisions with nerves, pressure and an air of excitement. The quality of competition showed in the performances of the competitors, but true sportsmanship (what we all love) was seen when competitors cheered each other up with hugs and high fives.

As the day winded down, competitors and spectators made their way back to their hotel rooms to rest up for the following day's events. I spent the rest of the night hanging out with Sammy Vasquez and Danny Graham, learning some of the history behind numerous events as well as the evolution of today's competitors.

Saturday brought another day of competition that lead up to the night time show. The show started off with a couple self-defense demonstrations, which lead up to the 13 and under forms competition that pitted David Pedland (traditional), Austin Crane (extreme), Mackensi Emory (extreme) and Tiffany Larsen (traditional) up against each other. David and Tiffany's traditional forms were very intense while Austin and Mackensi went on to show their phenomenal acrobatics. Judging must have been tough, but Austin Crane came up on top.

Next to go on stage was the 14-17yr old forms, where Jennifer Espina, Gio Gonzales, Joshua Quartin and Becca Ross. Jennifer and Gio both performed traditional forms while Joshua and Becca performed extreme forms. Now, while the extreme forms won over the judges in the younger division, Gio Gonzales' shirtless traditional form was the victor.

13 and under weapons were next with Mackensi Emory beating out Ricky Morris, Sammy Sudith and Cole Eckert with her extreme weapons form. In the 14-17 division, Becca Ross prevailed with her extreme bo form even though there was stiff competition with Josh Quartin and Audrey Donahoe's sword forms and Gio Gonzales' bo form.

After all of the excitement from the forms and weapons, the night show took a change of course with team and individual sparring, with the highlight being Team USA vs. Team Venezuela. In the individual sparring division, there were some issues with judging/refereeing over points which led to the disqualification of one of the competitors. After that little scuffle, the fighting continued in a different way with a grappling match between Freddy Trillo and Juan Ramos. Then came the continuous fighting event where tournament promoter Manny Reyes Sr.'s son, Manny Reyes Jr. battling it out with Paulo Craman of Team Inferno MMA, with Reyes winning.

Shortly a break, the show came back with the seniors, where some of the competitors showed that they could keep up with some of the younger athletes with their forms and weapons. The main highlight though came with the event I was looking most forward to, the 18 and up divisions. All of the competitors wowed the audiences with their high flying acrobatics and complex weapons forms. In the end, it was Sammy Vasquez who took the forms title and Kalman Csoka's double sword form winning the weapons division.

In the end, the tournament was enjoyable to watch during the two days, just seeing how everyone's forms were changing and what new tricks were being thought up was exciting. Another thing that I enjoyed was being able to meet and interact with some of the competitors and their parents/coaches, because they are the people that make KICKgen what it is and their support is what keeps us doing what we do and make us look forward to come out to the tournaments and spread the word on how everyone is doing.

So, if you've got a tournament coming up and are interested in getting in contact with KICKgen about doing a possible KICKgen LIVE! Broadcast of the event or would just like know more about us, KICK an email to me at the email address below. Thanks!

Adrian Tunaya

Buzz Director

adrian@kickgen.com

TWIN TOWERS CLASSIC

First and foremost, we at KICKgen would like to thank everyone that joined us in watching the competitions as they took place in New York as well as taking part in our live chat on our KICKgen LIVE! channel. It was great being able to interact with the members of KICKgen, competitors such as Lauren Kearney, parents of competitors like Mr. Lutkus and school owners/tournament promoters as well. We couldn't have made the event as successful without your support and interaction!

KICKgen's very own Tracy McCoy (wife of U.S. Open's Mike McCoy) were both in attendance at the tournament and were the one's that provided the LIVE feed to all of us that were not able to make it to New York. So, a round of applause to them and their hard work in bringing this event to us and the opportunity to watch the competition as it happened. As we all saw, at least everyone that watched the live feed, the Twin Towers Classic was a great tournament, that showcased established as well as up and coming talents. We were also able to watch some entertaining demos from the Chinese dragon dancers as well as a group of break-dancers. Hopefully all of you enjoyed the experience as much as we did!

Well, thanks to the success of the broadcasting of the Twin Towers Classic, KICKgen is working on bringing to all of you members more chances to watch such events which may include COMPETITOR INTERVIEW/CHAT SESSION, TOURNAMENT FEEDS & SCHOOL PROMOTIONS. So keep your eye out for these events at KICKgen.com!

A PERFECT KNOCK OUT!

Story contributed by Tracy McCoy

In case you were interested….This picture depicts something that doesn’t happen every day in sparring – it is a true knock out. A knock out is a perfect strike to the base of the jaw bone that temporarily knocks the jaw out of alignment and causes the inner ear to become unbalanced. When this system is knocked out, the person doesn’t know which end is up, which is why they fall and their eyes roll back in their head temporarily. After a few minutes the inner ear corrects orientation and the fighter is just fine. This can be confused with a concussion but it is not at all the same. However, it is strongly recommended that anyone who is knocked out to avoid fighting for 30 days. We don’t know who the young fighter is but would like to – so if you know his name, please reply to this post.

This shot was taken at the Twin Towers Classic, Sept 6th 2008.

SAY HELLO TO TEAM FULL CIRCLE
Story contributed by Tracy McCoy

If you have hit the tournament scene at all this year, you may have noticed those “bold gold” shirts of the Full Circle team from North Florida. It is not just the color of their shirts that stand out but they are a serious up-and-coming team.

They have participated in around 30 individual divisions and of those 30 divisions they are in point contention in 16. So far they have rated points in 20 - not bad - for a first year team!

Team Full Circle, an all black-belt team, is a very diverse group in terms of age, background and styles, including: Shotokan, American Freestyle, Shor-Rin-Ryu, Yoshukai, Wado Ryu, and Goju students.

Have a look at their current roster and stats.

-Ronnie Smith, 10 Gainesville, Fl - Dynamo
-Daniel Pickard, 14 Jacksonville, Fl - Thumbs the text-a-holic
-Mia Kelly 15, Jacksonville, Fl - Text-a-saurus Rex
-Melanie Ortiz, 16 Orlando, Fl - Twizz
-Houston Thomas, 17 Orlando, Fl - No problem
-Cory Hester, 18 Jacksonville, Fl - Hello Kitty
-Robert Ingram, 23 Jacksonville, Fl - Chuckles
-Dakeyan 'Dre' Graham, 24 Gainesville, Fl - Cold-blooded
-Drew Derrick-Bisbee, 40 Jacksonville, FL - Dre-dub
-Rick Rosenbaum, Coach - Rickman
-Tom Kelly, Owner and Bus Driver

The KICKgen team had a chance to chat with the Full Circle coach, Rick Rosenbaum, who said, “We are a young team, but we're hungry. We love to compete and have a blast when we are together. You can expect big things from the Gold in the future."

As their first year in full national tournament circuit competition is coming to an end, they feel their success is due to their diversity and family environment. Rosenbaum stated, “This has been a learning process for all of us, from team owner to coaches to athletes. We are having the time of our lives traveling to some new and some not so new tournament cities. Our tour consists of the local Jacksonville circuit (NFMAA), Florida circuit (FAME2K) and the NASKA World Tour.”

Rosenbaum is proud of the entire team, but wanted to spot light four young athletes who are about to go on the journey of their lifetime: Mia Kelly, Daniel Pickard, Melanie Ortiz, and Houston Thomas who are headed to Naples, Italy September 19th-28th to compete for the 2008 World Championships. They will be competing in both point and continuous fighting competition. Team coach said, “I am very proud of the hard work and dedication these young athletes have displayed all while being full time high school students.”

The picture you see is from the Twin Towers Classic Sept 6th in NYC. The team was gracious enough to include me in their picture as well as allow us include the additional candid shot. Good luck Team Full Circle!

UPCOMING TOURNAMENT

ATA Martial Arts of Maryland will be hosting our second American Taekwondo Association regional championships on September 20th, 2008. Location: University of Delaware’s Bob Carpenter Center.

It is their goal to make every child competitor feel like a winner! They will have quality 24” inch trophies for each event.

Highlights include: Zebra mats will cover every competition ring. Professional photographers will be on site capturing competition highlights. Online video broadcasting will allow your friends and family members to view competition from anywhere in the world.

Opening ceremonies will include the XMA Tricks Exhibition from World Class Martial artists including Anis Cheurfa, Jeremy Marinas, Vince Johnson & Matt Emig. Details on the XMA Camp (Sunday Sept 21^st) can be found here: www.ATAwarriorwithin.com 410.392.2229

Spectator Admission $8

XMA Seminar Registration $150

OPRAH SHOW TO FEATURE WORLD CHAMP TYLER WEAVER

(CLICK PIC ABOVE TO WATCH THE SEGMENT)

Tyler Weaver Jr., who emerged just three years ago as a phenomenon in youth martial arts forms and weapons competition, will appear as a featured guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show on Tuesday, September 9th.

Tyler, 12, holds the current ISKA World Title in the Black Belt Advanced Skills (Tricks) Demonstration Division, for youth competitors 13 years & below. He captured the title at the 2008 ISKA World Championships, held at the US Open in July at Walt Disney World. He is expected to defend the title next year at the US Open, his last year before graduating up to the 14-17 year age group.

Tyler previously held the 2006 World Musical Forms and 2007 World Weapons titles. He caught the attention of the show’s producers after viewing footage provided by the ISKA and KICKgen.com in response to an inquiry from the show. Clips of his title-winning performance are expected to air on the show as well, with the full recording airing as part of the two-hour ESPN2 special on the US Open scheduled for broadcast on November 26th of this year.

Not bad at all for a young man who, at the age of one, was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, a rare illness of unknown cause that strikes children under five with a high fever and potential cardiovascular damage. “We were advised to keep Tyler out of strenuous activities as he grew up,” says Tyler Weaver Sr., “but we knew what martial arts could do for him, and he just took to it like it was second nature.” Not surprising, since his father is a 25-year practitioner and chief instructor at the family’s martial arts studio in Denver. According to his mother, Stephanie, the turning point for his interest in competition came in 2003, after seeing Taylor Lautner win the US Open on ESPN. “After that it was all he could think about,” says Stephanie. “He wanted to follow the same road Taylor had, so we enrolled him in Mike Chat’s camp at the US Open in 2005. A year later he had his first world title, and there was no turning back.” (Lautner is now a full-time movie actor, appearing in 2005’s Shark Boy and Lava Girl and Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and is cast in this year’s Twilight, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer).

Despite his busy travel schedule for competition, Tyler excels academically as well, studying mathematics at a high school level even though he is only in the seventh grade. So with all this success, how does a 12-year old stay humble? “I just remind myself that though I have the title now, in a year I’ll be defending it, and there’s always someone just like me working just as hard for it. I have to continue to earn it.” Adds his dad Tyler Sr., “He’s very disciplined for someone his age, and he knows what kind of effort it takes to be the best. Tyler understands that being a martial arts world champion is a journey, not a destination.”

Give KICKgen YOUR Stories!

What's up KICKgen members?!?!

We're looking for martial arts competitors, families or supporters who want to contribute to by submitting articles, pictures and videos from the tournaments you attend for publication for our blogger page here! So email me, Adrian aka KICKgen's Buzz Director at adrian@kickgen.com, and we'll be sure to put it up for EVERYONE to read!

This is dynamic page that we will update during the month, so be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates and save to your favorites.


KICKgen team