Martial Arts Karate Kung Fu Blog

Clint Leung, a NASKA champion and owner of Free Spirit Activewear, makers of high quality martial arts wear, will be competing at the World Martial Games VII in San Jose, Costa Rica, put on by WOMAA (World Organization of Martial Arts Athletes). This international event is scheduled for August 18-20. Leung will be representing Canada at the event.

“It will be nice to compete against competitors from different countries again” says Leung.

I spoke to Kim Eubanks who was the promoter of the NASKA Awards banquet as well as the Bluegrass Nationals event I missed last weekend. She will be shipping out awards that were not picked up at the banquet. So this means that I will get my NASKA award for 2005 after all. Next event is the US Open in Orlando, Florida which is one of the biggest karate tournaments.

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One of the perils of competing martial arts internationally is the travel involved. Everything from delayed flights to missing baggage are inconveniences a competitor must deal with. Yesterday was no exception. The airport parking shuttle in Montreal was unreasonably delayed as it took 30 minutes to get me to the terminal. As a result, I was 10 minutes too late for my check in. After being on hold with the airline which finally told me that there were no more flights available to Louisville, I checked with all other US carriers on the spot at the airport. It was the same story. Hoping to buy a one way ticket to Louisville was impossible. As a result, my trip to the Bluegrass Nationals and NASKA Awards banquet to claim my world title award for 2005 had to be cancelled. I called and left a message for the promoter of the event hoping that they will mail me my award but I probably won’t get any refunds for my pre-registration for the banquet or the tournament.

I will also lose the opportunity for points from this tournament on on the NASKA system, points determine overall champions at the end of the year. So depending on how things go, I may very well come off the circuit if I am behind too much. I am committed for one more NASKA event being the US Open at the end of the month and I’ll decide at that point whether to continue with NASKA or not.

Meanwhile, I have to cancel hotel, return flights and get my dogs back from the kennels after only a 3 hour stay. I spoke to the Park’n'Fly manager on the spot to voice my complaint and he said that they were unusually delayed that morning but could offer me only a free parking pass for the day as well as a few more for the future.

Oh well, at least this gives me some more time to work out my Chinese weapons forms to see if I want to use them by the time of the US Open.

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Okay, I’m off to the Bluegrass Nationals karate tournament in Louisville, Kentucky today. It’s also where the NASKA Awards banquet will be held. Will have a report when I get back later on the weekend.

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I’m preparing for the Bluegrass Nationals this coming weekend which is one of the 5 star events on the NASKA karate competition circuit. It will be my second time attending this event. I went last year and tried to go the year before but during that particular year, I made it as far as Cinncinatti because of flight cancelations due to a bad storm. Even had to spend a night in Cinncinatti before getting a return flight back to Montreal. Worse of all, the airline Continental refused to reimburse me.

I’ll still be competing with my bo form for the weapons division at the Bluegrass even though I’m exploring other forms with Chinese staff. I’ll also be attending the NASKA Awards Banquet which is held annually at the Bluegrass. I’m picking up my first NASKA World title for last year. We’ll see if the rubber chicken dinner will be worth the $25 US price for the banquet. If I’m lucky enough to win another NASKA World title for this year, I might just opt to have them ship me any award next year. It’s a weird set up NASKA has where award winners from last year will not get their actual awards until the Bluegrass which is every June. It’s certainly a bit of a wait.

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One of the new World Martial Arts events will have Mike Chat as guest. The event slated for August in Victoria, BC Canada will feature a seminar by Mike Chat. This is interesting because most of the forms and weapons events at this particular event will be traditional. There is only musical open forms but there is no non-musical creative forms divisions. Mike Chat has always been a creative open forms martial artist so this does seem to be a bit of a mismatch. Maybe the divisions for 2007 at this particular event will be expanded with more open forms divisions. Meanwhile, the WOMAA martial arts event in Costa Rica slated for the same weekend doesn’t seem to have as many restrictions as there are both traditional and open events.

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