2020World Championships Extreme Martial Arts Weapons Event

I earned a World Champion Bronze medal for this performance at the ATA International World Championships. Tournament of Champions is an invite only competition where competitors have to qualify based on top rank or winning 1st place at Regional Championships. I qualified to attend based on being CA State Champ at multiple events but also won 1st place in all 3 XMA events I competed in at Districts. I had sprained my ankle badly in the event just prior but was able to pull out this performance!

In 2021 I won 1st Place in all 4 XMA events at Nationals & won 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze at Worlds!

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Receiving Krav Maga Black Belt & Taekwondo Black Belt Speech

Receiving Krav Maga Black Belt

Chief Master Ken Church, School Co-Owner, Co-Operator, Instructor in multiple systems, Black Belt in several martial arts, and real life ultimate badass issuing me my Black Belt in Krav Maga. I had also just received some medals in the beginning of the video from a recent Tae Kwon Do Tournament that are seen and mentioned.

Taekwondo Black Belt Ceremony Speech

As part of the Black Belt Testing process, after you pass all of the other tests, you have one final test to professionally present a speech about your personal journey to achieving your black belt in front of your instructors who are judging you throughout the various stages of tests you have to perform.

Taekwondo Black Belt Test Board Breaks

As part of the Black Belt Testing process, after you pass all of the other tests, before your speech about your personal journey to achieving your black belt you have to select several kicks to demonstrate board breaks. This was relevant to my speech as I still have my first board break from when I started as a kid.

Won 1st Place at Sparring Tournament against 3rd Competitor

Last match of the entire tournament at the end of a long day of waiting and competing in multiple consecutive events just prior to this and needing to compete in 4 more after. Had to win 2 previous bouts below against other opponents to get to this final stage with my opponent who did the same. When a white flag goes up that means Judges saw a point or two earned by me, on the left. A red flag up is the same for my opponent. This bout goes point for point until I win with the final point scored.

Sparring Tournament Round 2

First person to 5 points or the higher score earned at the end of 2 minutes wins. If it's a tie at the end of 2 minutes then it goes to sudden death, with the next point scored winning as long as only 2 Judges agree they saw the point scored cleanly. You can only strike to the chest with your hands and only to the head and chest with your feet. You get a warning for anything else or the judges can award your opponent points for poorly controlled or inaccurately targeted strikes. (Round 1 below)

Sparring Tournament Round 1

3 different judges score the bout but the main judge makes the decision as to what is awarded to whom. The judge in suit is the main judge and roams to get better angles. 2 judges in Gis also judge but from 2 different viewpoints. They all can report observing point(s), blocks or that the strike(s) were not visible, inconclusive (happening simultaneously) or not powerful enough to count as a significant point landed. There are no weight class limitations or divisions for any taekwondo events!

Tournament Combat Weapon Sparring

I won 12 points to my opponent's 5 points in this final match only requiring 10 to get first place after previously defeating my previous opponents. My opponent also had to defeat opponents to get to me in this tourney bracket. You can score 1 point to any part of the body, 2 points if to the head and 3 points if you hit the head while in the air. This is even more difficult to accomplish when your opponent's reach is that much greater than yours as in this case but it's how I got beyond 10 pts.

Traditional Forms Tournament Competition

This is a red belt form called Chung Jung Ee Jahng, my favorite of all forms which can be performed by high level color belts. Mostly it's performed by recommended black belts as it's the highest color belt form you can perform. I was a brown belt at the time yet I tied for first place against a recommended black belt who also used this form. So we both had to perform it again, which is what happens with a tied score. I won the tie breaker with my back to back second performance of the same form

Muay Thai Padwork

MT Padwork Sesh

MT Padwork Sesh with Jujitsu

MT Padwork with Ground n Pound n Jitsu

MT with Single Leg Wrestling Takedown

Longer Padwork Session

MT Padwork Session

Mixed Martial Arts Individual Sparring Rounds

Boxing

Sparring session limited to traditional boxing punches to head and body.

Kickboxing

Taekwondo Kickboxing sparring limited to punches and kicks to the head and body.

MMA

Combat more unlimited. Punches and kicks to the body. Knees and Elbows are typically allowed but we are light sparring so we don't hurt each other too much and stay healthy to do this weekly. At this point we were only showing elbows and knees as a distraction, feint or an entry maneuver to close distance and segue into another attack intended to land. Wrestling takedowns, various trips and throws are allowed to get the person to the ground. Submissions and chokes are allowed from Jujitsu.

Full Varied Martial Arts Sparring Sessions

Feel free to jump to the highlights in these full sessions and read for major takeaways from each training session.

Taekwondo, Boxing, and MMA

Be ready for the planned and unplanned

The most interesting part of this session starts 25 minutes in when we get to our MMA rounds. Able to get some nice kicks off on each other before I get him to the ground towards the end of the round which was the goal. The first time is a good example of how to plan use the environment to trap a person up against a wall from getting away from the single leg wrestling takedown. The second round takedown is a good example of always being ready for what comes unexpectedly. I come out of a landed spinning back kick and accidentally land with his back to me so I grip him up and pull him back down to the ground with me making sure to take his momentum further so I can swing around on top. From there it is a great example of Jujitsu grappling between us as he's a slippery SOB. I try to secure a rear naked choke from standing but he utilizes the textbook answering the phone defense. I transition to secure top position but he eventually sweeps me. But its a good showing of how to neutralize someone's attack even when they are on top by holding them close when you can and if they create space control their hands with your hands against your body and/or theirs. That buys you enough time to safely wait until they get frustrated and make a mistake. Once he's slightly off balance I return the favor and sweep him to gain top position and do some ground and pound avoiding being neutralized by using my head and body as a tool to put weight on him to free up the hand he tries to find and fight off.

Philly boyee rockin dat Philly Shell

Tune in to 20 minutes in when boxing rounds start to catch some nice phlying phists. It's a good demo of the effectiveness of doubling and tripling up on the jab to hit your mark. For defense this Philly boy prefers to use the Philly Shell which you see on display a lot here to cover up the head and body in a less traditional way. Then with the MMA rounds after you see two takedowns. First round is a great example of how to catch a kick and pull/push up on the leg so they fall back losing their balance before you pounce, push their legs aside to get side control. Second round is a good example of landing side by side after a kick and judo throw them behind you if their leg is in front. Also right after, a good fake low to go for the take down to connect with the jab to the face.

Entire Sparring Sesh Round by Round captured by Dynamic Cam

First Round of TWD with Taekwon-Joe

This is a typical weekly training session for us. 5 minutes each of TWD Sparring with with 1 minute break in between each round. Then 2 five minute rounds of boxing with a one minute rest in between. After a several minute break to get different gloves on, then 2 five minute rounds of MMA incorporating wrestling and jujitsu if either one of us wily whippersnappers can get the other to the ground. Watch the next section of boxing and MMA rounds below to see who gets who to the ground in what round.

Round 2 of TWD with Taekwon-Joe

I am able to pull off connecting on a Tornado Kick to help close the distance in this round.

Round 3 of TWD with Taekwon-Joe

I was able to connect on two spinning back fists in this round to help close the distance with punches.

Boxing Round 1

This might be boxing Round 1 but technically it is our 4th straight 5 minute round of sparring. We started fresh with the above rounds of TWD but are still pretty spunky for these boxing rounds.

Boxing Round 2

In these rounds I switch from Orthodox to Southpaw stance. These days I prefer to spar 3 five minute rounds of boxing, limiting myself to Orthodox stance the first round, Southpaw stance only the next round and then switch stances at will for Round 3 as it helps you get better at things by limiting your options. Even limiting not using legs with boxing improves kickboxing skills by improving your fisticuffs ;)

MMA Round 1

When sparring, fighting or competing multiple rounds it's important to conserve your energy and be aware of how many rounds are remaining. I get a trip off after a few minutes in but choose not to go down to the ground with him as it is exhausting wrestling or rolling Jujitsu. Already having almost 30 minutes of sparring in and 5 more minutes of MMA left to go after this round, I elected to leave more gas in the tank to be able to finish strong.

MMA Round 2

It's important to be always somewhat aware of the time left in any timed competition whether you are competing for points in a limited number of minutes like in Olympic Sparring in Taekwondo or are being judged like in MMA. I knew this was the last round so this time I decided I wanted to finish on top and tried to enforce my will to make that happen even when I couldn't get him down the first attempt or two at a kick trip or single leg takedown.

"Thai -Kwon Do" Sparring Session

Full Natural Sparring Flow

Since Master Suyat and I are both well versed in various styles of martial arts we have been working on various styles separately. In our more recent sessions now trusting our ability to both accurately gauge distance and control the power behind our attacks we're beginning to incorporate elements of Thai Kickboxing into our Taekwondo sparring in what I'm coining "ThaiKwonDo". This permits us to use all our available tools including clinch work, showing or using lighter contact with knees & elbows. This video is us in our natural sparring styles allowing knees and elbows but we tend to resort to our more familiar Taekwondo style and use our kicks to keep our distance from those types of blows getting too close. In order to break these patterns of habit we put limits on what kinds of kicks we are allowed to use in sessions to allow new patterns to emerge and be incorporated into more effectively when we aren't limiting what tools we can use. See below for examples of this.

Muay Thai vs Taekwondo Stances and Sparring Guards

These are two sessions back to back where you can see differences in the lower body stances and upper body's guard. The first video I utilize a Muay Thai stance which you can see is more upright tall with the legs more shoulder width apart to use knees and kicks. The guard is more straight and upright as well with the boxing gloves faced outward to parry and punch. In the first session we don't allow any high kicks to encourage us to get closer into range than we would normally allow. In the second session we only allow high kicks so I use a more traditional Taekwondo guard with one hand up to block punches and high kicks, one down to block kicks coming from below. The second session I utilize more of a TWD base with wider leg stance to jump away from attacks or propel pouncing attacks forward or garnering torque power from hips into my kicks.

Knees, Elbows, Trips & Throws

In these two different sessions, you can see that we only allow lower body kicks in one and then only upper body kicks in the other. In doing so, we are able to get in closer to allow us to work on Muay Thai clinch, trips or throws which you see me able to pull off in these sessions.

Muay Thai Boxing vs Traditional Boxing

Muay Thai close quarters

Boxing in Orthodox Stance

Boxing in Switch Stance

Master Suyat Kickboxing Match Up Mash Up

High Intensity and Fast Paced

This is a fun round to watch as it is quick with lots of action the entire session being one of our initial rounds of sparring. Sometimes we just get into the flow state which I get into here with barely taking on any damage besides glancing blows and checked leg kicks while delivering about 30 clean punches to head or body as well as flying knee and two trip throws to end the fight on literally on top. The magic was on but then sometimes it only lasts so long. The next Dynamic Video is the same sparring night but it was a much more even match back and forth. When we are sparing back to back to back the way we do with only a minute or so in between can help keep that fire going but we were training a friend that night so I waited longer between facing him again so the Mojo wore off before I got back in there.

Dynamic Video

Another sparring partner captured the action throughout in a way that allows you to see the angles being cut with slips and dips as we zig and zag around which can't be fully appreciated from a 2 dimensional viewpoint.

Smash Mashup

I spliced a minute or so from each of our 5 five minute rounds into the most active moments. Not all in perfect chronological order as I wanted the transitions to be smooth with where the fight was taking place in the space as I spliced it together. However, I did leave the last clip from the last match of the set so we are tired but you can see that even though our speed, technique is impacted at that point, we are still going hard intelligently until the end.