Battle of Baltimore details

More details as promised.

The Battle of Baltimore is a big, long-running (and hopelessly disorganized) martial arts competition with everything from traditional forms competition to point MMA. Hundreds of competitors from kids to adults. 

I fought in the "continuous contact sparring". Although billed as light contact, one competitor left on an ambulance and others could not continue because of damage taken in their bouts. I was fighting as a light weight which included everyone up to 160 lbs (I arrived at 156). There were 4 fighters entered (ages 20, 21, 27, and me aged 48 long years).

First fight was against a southpaw Kung fu guy who had already won a forms competition. We spoke beforehand and he mentioned that he had been at this since age 3. My coach told me to "be first" just as we started. I took this message to heart and pursued a strategy of stalk, corner and box. Sure enough I walked right into a hard sidekick in the ribs (still sore a week later) but kept coming. This rattled him and I kept him going backwards the whole time. He had so much better technique than me, and managed to put a kick into the back of my head towards the end of the fight.. The thing was because he was running backwards nothing had much on it. So I won the decision.

Here is some video(I am in grey):

The second fight was harder. My opponent was mostly a TKD fighter but had trained in Muay Thai as well. He was fast and had watched my first fight, and taken the lessons to heart. He came hard at me to start and tried hard not to fight going backwards, that said I kept a very tight guard and he didn't put anything on my head and very little on my body. However he did have some good leg kicks and although I had some good defensive checking i was not able to develop much kicking off of it. He took some good punches from me but if he got into trouble he retreated from the fight area and we were re-set. I simply couldn't keep him cornered. If he had no easy out he'd clinch with me. Although he did not do much to me he definitely held the initiative throughout and didn't let me get in his head. I lost the decision but was not unhappy with much of my performance (okay, I do have a long list of "should have dones" but that is the way of things).

Here is a bit of video of that fight:

Learned more in 4 minutes than in the preceding 6 months and I want a three round Muay Thai fight next, but I am also clear on the difference in speed and strength of youth so we'll see what happens next.

Battle of Baltimore

I fought in the battle of Baltimore tournament yesterday. A long post on the whole thing shortly, but the short version if that I won one fight and then lost in my second. I sustained less damage than in a number of sparring rounds that I have fought in months past. And I really enjoyed the whole thing.

MUUUUUCCCHHHHHH more to follow.

Good observation

Good observation from an instructor the other day, continue to drop my left when throwing my right. He looked at me and told me that this martial arts not cheerleading.


My teep is really working for me in sparring, hoping to use it to disrupt the fancy kicks of my opponents at the tournament. That's my biggest concern, kicks that I simply don't see in Muay thai.

Fighting Sunday, I feel strong, fast and ready. Bring it on! (See what I did there cheerleading-wise)

Why fight? Today's answer

To find my Jai yen, or cool heart, that detached resolve and sense of presence that let's me stand across from the tiger in the clearing without fear or illusion.