Now ain't that a mouthful?

Good Luck to everyone and anyone competing at the NAS Nationals in Queensland this weekend!

National All Styles Nationals.

*shakes head*

It's almost as bad as Automatic teller machine machine.


We'll be there, in our bright yellow jackets.

Hope to see some of you other guys there as well!!!!!!

A trip to Queensland would be wonderful....
Good luck guys - dont forget the report and piccies!!

Good Luck Folks, Let us know how you get on!

3rd in the Female Advanced Continuous Sparring (5th kyu - Black belt) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was clobbered by Claudine C. from sydney in the process, and had my last opponent pass out from exhaustion, but it was an amazing experience.
I was so overwhelmed with the magnitude of my achievement, that I almost started crying a couple of times.
It was an amazing expience, especially considering I was the lowest grade in my division, and still managed to get Claudine on the back foot a couple of times.

Am an extremely happy girlie even still today.

Ben Sledge from the ACT made the saturday night heavyweight BB point sparring finals! We were soooo proud of him, especially as the ACT hasn't had anyone compete on the saturday night for many years.
We screamed our lungs out for him.

That's excellent news Goyle...

Sounds like you had a blast and achieved a few personal goals...

Keep it up

Thanks

The weird thing was that the Continuous sparring was the event I expected to go the least well in.

I was pretty happy with kata.. got scores a decent amount above average, but was outclassed by all the brown belts / Kung fu people.

Point sparring - decided to be agressive, and got my 2 points within seconds of the bout starting. However, the other girl was faster than me, and began to pick off my attacks. So knocked out first round by her.

Continuous sparring - NEVER EVER EVER expected to get as far as I did.. there were all these BB's and brown belts in the division, and I think I was about the lowest grade there.
Decided not to be intimidated though, and just went for it... with the amazing result of third!!!!

Great news Goyle!
Congratulations!!

(now how was the after party )

he he he he he... the after party?

After we got back fro the tournament, we went out to dinner at Lone Star, which is a texan themed steak house. Then we got some alchohol, and headed back to where we were staying for a few quiet ones.... which turned into a game of crash tackle soccer/football played at 3am with a volleyball.

That's wicked, you should've checked out shooter's nightclub though, that was a blast last year.

Did you go this year bradt?

We were looking at the SA team, but didn't see any one that might be you.

*shrugs*

Unless you're really a girl?

No and definitely no.

Unfortunately the general feelinjg from those who went over there was pretty negative. Basically they weren't impressed by the dominance of the acrobatic "kung fu" styles, which happened in my div last year. Personally I'm not interested in competing against gymnasts.

there was apparently a GKR Black belt who tried to do a backflip in kankudai and landed on her head yet still scored fairly well, is that true?

Apparently the saturday night "spectacular" was pretty lame as well. I was surprised to hear this because the aikido and kendo demos were amazing last year.

Pretty much the coach was left with the feeling that next year our main goal will be the GKR nationals. That made me slightly relieved that I didn't go, and I think the emphasis is that we will now be the "SA tournament team" instead of the "SA NAS tournament team"

Maybe if I went I have more positives to mention...well we got2nd in team sparring (sparring teams average age = 40 ). And one brown belt brought back one giant trophy (she stole it i think )

If true it seems NAS is indeed degenerating into a posers show. Its a flaw in the otherwise admirable concept that no judge can possibly know kata from all the competing styles - therefore what else can they judge it on? If this has led to people being forced to do backflips to impress then ye gods what have come to?

It finally looks like Kata is now a tool for winning tournaments rather than for any practical purpose
But well done to all who entered, I've always lacked confidence when it comes to tournaments and stuff, so anyone who can step up and perform kata in front of god-knows-how-many people is ok by me!

imagine if you were asked to show 3 applications at random at the end of your kata. Of course if no one knows your kata amonst the judges it would be hard but with three judges and three applications hopefully the judges are from different styles.

It could even be show me where this move fits in a application, if its the third part of a application you do the entire appliation with a previously nominated partner etc

people might then start learning less kata in more detail. also kata's would stop being prettied up so much to win competitions especially if you were asked to demo some dodgie backflip or pretty hand twist.

cheers

Actually I would much prefer to have that as part of the competition because it would not only teach GKR students a few lessons but it would do the same for everyone else as well.

Yea, there was a GKR black belt who did a backflip in Kunku dai. That was me. I didn't land on my head. I landed correctly on my feet but we worked it into the move where you land on your feet with your hands down on the ground after the balance on 1 foot. So it was done to land in this position and it did. Do you think I would have scored that well if I would have landed on my head. Or be silly enough to include such a dangerous move if I couldn't do it safely.

Okay this confuses me a bit. Since there is no actual backflip in that kata shouldn't you have been marked down for not doing it properly?

The introduction of the creative forms division in this years NAS means that the standard form division may only have "standard" club approved kata, and anything different like Kristels' Kanku Dai will fall in the creative division.

I think this will make the creative forms division quite interesting to watch..

In the forms division for NAS 2005 you could compete any Kata in any way you liked. You could make up your own Kata if you liked. Or mix two Kata's together, or change a Kata. The only rule is it must be between 20 seconds and 3 minutes and performed with in the confines of the ring. So you would get marked down for any additions or changes.

Does this apply to weapons kata as well?
(serious question - need to know)

Remember though that we discussed the size of the ring and the reach of the weapon

It won't apply to weapons Kata in any NAS event. In the weapons demonstration division you can do either a traditional form or a more creative form. The only event it applies to is the WASO world championships. In the worlds there will be two separate weaponry divisions. A traditional weaponry forms division and a creative weaponry division.

What about having to stay with in the confines of the ring?

i know of many weapons forms or katas that do not allow for staying with in such a small area... how are these styles to compete if the rules state you must stay within the ring?

When the rule initially came in that you had to stay with in the confines of the ring it was only the 6 x 6 m ring. And a lot of complaints went out so it was extended to the 8 x 8 M ring. If your form goes outside the ring, you have to adjust it. I agree with the rulle particularly in a weapons division because a weapon travelling outised the confines of the ring can cause a serious injury to a competitor or a judge. Jim casy had to have a serious operation on his groin after it was hit by a flying nunchuke while judging the weaponry.