WKA martial arts world championships

[renatzu]

I went and I'm back, yeah \o/

It was amazing. 3500 competitors from 57 countries in a 10000 seat hall for 5 days. I got to chant Austrian fight songs, see an Algerian kickboxer knocked to the floor, meet Turks, and fight an Englishman.

There were people from every continent, here's the countries I can remember: Algeria, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada(who by the way will be hosting it next year), Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, North Ireland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and U.S.
There were obviously more, but I can't think of them.

Basel has got to be one of the greatest cities on the planet. If you live there I envy you. Usually traveling is great, but coming home is better. Here I really didn't want to leave and I wish I was still at the Hotel Munchnerhoff (which has an awesome elevator).

Oh yeah, and I learned how to say "cool beans" in german.

[gxfu]

\o/

Welcome back.

[Mittwoch]

Wow, sounds great! I wish i could've gone :(

But on a better note, we now have an ex England fighter teaching us Taekwondo :D

[Cucumberfingers]

pfffff tae kwon do is for pussies real men do kickboxing, not once have i lost a match against a tae kwon do pussy

[Cap'n Zola]

probably because you were competing in a sport against someone who studies a totally different sport...:/

[JaggedG]

Normally, I would defend my chosen art, but Mr. Fingers is banned anyway :)

dark ninja, where did you place in your... league... or whatever?

[thecaterpillar]

That is so cool dude!

Welcome back!

[renatzu]

I think mr. cucumber up there failed to see the "martial arts" part. There was kickboxing, as well as thaiboxing, full-contact, light-contact (which actually isn't light in contact. It's just light in the sense that you can't hit to everywhere on the body. No hits to the spine, kidneys, or thighs), point-fighting (my event, all about agility), soft style, hard style, korean style, and open forms.

I wasn't expected to do well, since I only starting seriously fighting 4 months ago and haven't been in a tournament since then, but i did better than anybody thought i would. I lost in the round of 16 in my weight class, which was fly weight. Had to weigh in in my boxers just to make weight (44.9 Kg. The scary part is I'm 5'6", work out constantly, eat about 3500 calories per day, and still weigh nothing).

I jumped out to a quick lead in the fight (saw the tape, I've never been faster), but then the ref called me a warning for hitting the other guy to the side of the head (which is a perfectly legal hit. Fucking anti-american judges). That got to my head a little and I let him get ahead. After that he started running. He was practically sprinting away from me, and I didn't know what to do. I've never seen this happen at an American tournament, and the people I train with would never run like that. I ran after him, and when i was tired he just stopped and threw out a sidekick. After that it was over, I didn't have time to think about how to handle it and he won the fight and went on to a silver medal. Congratulations, Ryan from England on your medal in the junior boys -45 kg pointfighting division.