GCCK - Gold Coast Chito-Ryu Karate

News: 14-09-2008
2008 Gold Coast Cup

The Gold Coast turned it on with 2 beautiful days for the Gold Coast Cup and Seminars, with great time had by all at both events.

The Gold Coast Chito-Ryu Karate dojo was the venue for the Saturday’s ICKFA seminar (all ranks) which was followed by the Brown and Black Belt seminar. Sensei Mark Snow from the Blue Mountains took the ICKFA Seminar with the assistance of Sensei Shane Ker (Sydney), Sensei Adam Higgins (Gold Coast) and Sensei Rhys Woodhouse (Sunshine Coast). Sensei Snow took the group through exercises to practise stances, and then concentrated on good wrist positions when punching. A key point of the session was having good focus by looking straight ahead. With good focuses the strength of the stances and punches increased. Sensei Snow finished the session with a number of applications of the final stages of the kata, demonstrating how the good focus and awareness must remain at all times. For many of the group this was the first time they had trained with Snow Sensei and all appreciated his warm, fun teaching style.

The Brown and Black Belt Seminar was led by Sensei Martin Phillips and saw a strong focus on Zanshin, and awareness in all directions. After a number of kata exercises to work on these points groups were formed with one person in the middle defending against multiple opponents using takedowns, this provided the opportunity to apply the lesson in a practical situation.

ICKFA Seminar Participants.

Sunday morning the competition commenced with over 50 competitors lining up for the opening ceremony. This year we were fortunate to have Kalia Baldan sing the Australian national anthem. As well as being a member of Gold Coast Chito-Ryu Karate, Kalia is a member of the Australian Girls Choir.

The kata events commenced the action, for many of the competitors this was the first time they had participated in a tournament and it was very pleasing to see that everyone was able to overcome their nerves and perform their kata in front of the referees, their peers, family and all the rest of the audience. Nathan Rossely excelled in his first tournament winning the novice adult kata division. Fantastic kata were demonstrated in all divisions with some stand out performances, many of the competitors are attending the National Titles at the Blue Mountains in October, the performances demonstrated showed that the Queensland team is going to be tough to beat this year!

The team kata was as always a popular division, it was great to see family members competing together. One (of the many) great things about karate is it is an activity that everyone in the family can do, with team kata providing an opportunity to work together. From the Gold Coast Husband, Wife and Son combination the McSwan’s took out 3rd place in the open team kata (White - 4th Kyu). With the sister combination of Nadia and Sabrina Stanghi combining with Monica Lester to go one step better taking out second place. The advanced team kata was a close affair with the Gold Coast team narrowly beating the Sunshine Coast team.

Straight up after the lunch break were the demonstrations with all the Gold Coast students combining to perform Kihon Dosa Ichi, Kihon Dosa Ni, and the more senior students performing Kihon Kata Ichi. This was another great opportunity for the students to show their families their karate skills. The Gold Coast Chito-Ryu Karate Demonstration finished with a display of Niseishi Dai by Sensei Adam and Anthony Horgan. Firstly the kata was demonstrated, followed by some of the bunkai applications of the kata, the final part of the demonstration was a display of the hard side of the kata. As Sensei Adam performed Niseishi Dai Anthony struck various parts of Sensei Adam’s body with a shinai, drawing gasps from the onlookers.

Anthony Horgan & Sensei Adam Higgins demonstrating the hard conditioning aspects of the kata Niseishi Dai.

The second demonstration was performed by the black belts as they demonstrated the multiple attacker exercise from the previous days seminar. Sensei Martin Phillips and then Sensei Mark Snow took a turn in the middle and proceeded to dispatch the multiple attackers with effortless throws. Sensei Martin and Sensei Mark then concluded the demonstration with a performance of the kata Sanshiru.

Sensei Mark Snow kata demonstration Sensei Martin Phillips kata demonstration
Sensei Mark Snow and Sensei Martin Phillips demonstrating kata.

The Queensland team to compete at the ICKFA National Titles in October was then presented to the crowd with all members of the team invited to the floor to receive their applause.

Two more special presentations were made to their very surprised recipients. Sheryl Higgins has been the treasurer for the ICKFA for the last 2 years and has been a driving factor behind establishing the professional practises now used by the association. Through Sheryl’s hard work and diligence the association is now positioned so that it can continue to move forward in a professional financial manner. Due to other commitments Sheryl has had to resign as treasurer. As a thank you a special presentation and official thank you was given to Sheryl by Sensei Martin Phillips, President of the ICKFA.

The second special presentation was to Sensei Martin Phillips. Sensei Martin is shortly going to Japan to challenge for his Shihan teachers rank. As a show of support and thank you to Sensei Martin for all he has done for QLD Chito-Ryu Karate the members of both the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast dojos banded together to raise over $1000 to help Sensei Martin get to Japan for his grading. With the possibility of our own Shihan in Queensland this was seen as a great investment by the QLD Chito-Ryu members.

The final demonstration of the day was the kids 5-7 yrs demonstration Kumite. The relaxing of the rules allowed for a lot closer interaction from the coaches as these future stars went about showing everyone what they could do. Aaron Pregun, Dylan Pike, Alexander Priala and Nathan Scavone all put on a fantastic display of their skills and etiquette with all leaving the ring with a huge smile to accompany their participant’s trophy.

Alexander Priala and Aaron Pregun 5-7 yrs kumite demonstration.

The afternoon’s events kicked of with the 7-9 years Kumite. All matches were a good test of skill and spirit with some of the newer competitors having to contend with the extra speed and power that the excitement of a competition brings. In what was a hard fought division Luke Moulden from the Sunshine Coast out pointed Dean Marincevski from Kogarah Bay to take the 1st place trophy.

The 10-11 years divisions for both girls and boys were very strong Montana Stewart travelled all the way from Kogarah Bay in Sydney to take out the girls division, with James O’Grady from the Sunshine Coast taking out the boys division over dojo team mate Viet Kass.

The tough battles continued through the remaining junior divisions where both the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast dojos well represented. The highlight event for the juniors was the 16-17 years boys Kumite were Linh Tran stepped up a division to take out the 1st place. The speed and skill of all boys in this division delighted the crowd.

The adults divisions demonstrated a great mix of experience and beginners with some of the competitors competing for the first time. The women’s division was highlighted by the performance of Sensei Sandra Phillips who has only recently returned to competition. Sensei Sandra’s demonstration of hard, fast and controlled Kumite provided everyone with a great example of where they needed to take their training. In the men’s division Duncan Bigg from the Sunshine Coast showed the benefits of his focused training to take out the event narrowly beating out Anthony Horgan from the Gold Coast. The match was very close with Anthony jumping to an early lead only to have Duncan come back at him late in the match. Anthony will learn from the experience, with both competitors continuing to build towards the national titles.

Anthony Horgan vs Marcus McSwan in the Open Men's Kumite.

The trophy presentations rounded out the end of the day with big rounds of applause given by all. The Junior tournament champion was presented to Linh Tran from the Sunshine Coast who came second in his kata division and won the Kumite after stepping up a division. Senior Tournament Champion was awarded to Sensei Sandra Phillips who won both the Black Belt Kata and Open Women’s Kumite division with very strong showings.

Junior Tournament Champion - Linh Tran and Senior Tournament Champion Sensei Sandra Phillips.

A huge thank you to all competitors who performed with a high level of skills, etiquette and budo spirit, making for a great day of action. Thank you to the officials and referee’s who were rarely noticed during the day (the sign of a great job!). And last but not least a huge thank you to all the volunteers whose efforts make an event like this possible.

The 1st Annual Gold Coast Cup was a terrific event and we all look forward to 2009 when Gold Coast Chito-Ryu Karate will welcome everyone back for the 2nd Annual Gold Coast Cup.

For full results click here.