WEKAF Championships

[Planktime]

For those FMA kids out there this is coming up. I have never been to one of these but I plan on going to the Denver one to be a Spectator. I will let you know if it is the typical game of whack-a-mole that most FMA competitions are. It should be fun to check it out

Info From Eskrima Digenst.

For all Stickfighters - Information on all W.E.K.A.F. (World Eskrima,
Kali,
Arnis Federation) Regional Championships:

-Western Region USA Team Qualifier
Oxnard, CA
November 5, 2005

- East Coast Regional
Jersey City, NJ
November 5, 2005

-Rocky Mountain Regional Championships
Denver, CO
November 12, 2005

-Southwest Regional Championships
Georgetown, TX
November 12, 2005

All followed by:
2006 WEKAF National Tournament
Four Points by Sheraton Milwaukee Airport - Milwaukee, WI
February 17-19, 2006

9th WEKAF World Championships
Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort
July 2 - 8, 2006

For more specific information regarding all of these events, please
visit
www.wekafusa.com

[Griefy]

Wekaf is decent enough, i've competed a bit in it and its pretty fun. Its full contact continous sparring, usually 3 rounds of 1 minute each with a light rattan stick and a padded jacket, helmet and gloves. 10 point must scoring based on aggressivenes, ring control, defense etc. Good stuff if youre just getting into full contact stick fighting.

[Planktime]

Sweet thanks for the info Greify.

[Ryno]

Should be fun. I've fought in a couple of their matches before. They tend to reward raw aggression, which often leads to a sloppy pillowfight, but I know that they were thinking of grading defensive skill more highly. This would definitely be a good thing.

[Planktime]

Ok so I attended the Denver session of this event as a spectator. Yeah I am a pussy…..But I wanted to get an idea of what I was in for before I decided weather or not to compete. Here are my thoughts. Over all I was impressed. The fights for the most part were good solid contact with medium to full strength strikes of the Apuniqu (spelling anyone?) variety. Competitors were protected by helmets and padded coats. Fights lasted three rounds of one minute each, with about 15 seconds between rounds. Scoring was based on attacking targets on the upper body and head. There was no tripping throwing or ground work involved. Disarms were allowed but were use in a very basic yank your opponents weapon away. For the most part the action was fast paced and kept my attention. A highlight for me was when one fighter disarmed another and then hit the disarmed man with his own stick. :eusa_clap :eusa_clap (Fucking sweet I wish I had video.)
There seemed to be very few of the standard angles of attack performed with the power produced by some of the basic stepping in the version of Arnis I study. This is probably due to the fact that sparing is very fast and attacks are not designed to cripple/kill/maim. The fighters did use the basic angles of attack in most cases with the exception of the strikes to the knees, and the thrust attacks to the eyes, solar plexus, and brachial plexus. This made it so there were 5 attacks being used. I did not like this since Arnis/Kali/Escrima depending on where they are taught have attacks on both upper and lower body targets. I am not sure if these attacks disallowed by WEKAF rules. I could not find specific rules against these attacks on their web site. It is also possible that these attacks are not as effective in this environment and so are not use by default rather than being banned. I doubt this would be the case since hitting the knees if they are protected can be both effective and safe.
The fighters seemed to train only for this type of competition from what I could drag out of them. Many of whom were friendly enough just busy getting ready to fight or helping another fighter. I see this as a double edge sword; they get good combat experience with these competitions. Second they miss out on a large part of the FMA’s combative aspects.
I also have a problem with some of the adaptations made to the art for sport reasons. The first is just me being a snob, the stick is held higher up in order to keep it from slipping out of gloved hands. I have had very bad experiences with holding a stick this way since at my school if you are working and you have a length below your fist you will most likely be disarmed/locked and thrown. Second there is the lack of defense in these fights they usually are two people hitting each other as often as possible with less concern for the blows they are taking. FMA have a great deal of evasion and defensive tactics that I feel are not being used in these competitions.
I think I may start competing in these competitions but I will have to think about it. I think it would be fun, but I am not sure how helpful it would be to the rest of my training. If you have competed before in these please let me know your thoughts.
Last thought, I missed the forms competitions and the two stick fights. I guess there is good with the bad.

[Griefy]

Thrusts are disallowed in wekaf, and as Ryno said they do tend to reward raw aggression. Which isnt necessarily a bad thing, you just have to keep yourself honest with the defense.