Last night I watched on british eurosport the Shinkyokushinki championships from November, it was great to watch.In the past I have trained at a Kyokushinki dojo in London and have great respect for their style of training. The only thing that spoiled my viewing was the commentator, he is called Will Vanders I know he also commentates on K1, I don't know anything about him but he refers to himself as Sensei Will Vanders, for me you should not have to tell people that you are sensei. :woo:
I watched the coverage and found it very interesting as I haven't seen Kyukushinkai fighting before. It was much more entertaining to see a bout go to 3 minutes before a decision, rather than the fights you normally see on TV which are stopped as soon as one technique is landed. In my club a bout goes either to 3 minutes or to a submission, as our sparring incorporates take-downs and groundwork as well. I was pleased to see the tournament won by Kunihiro Suzuki after he made it through a titanic 3 round semi-final, but I found the most entertaining fighter to be Norichika Tsukamoto, the one who kept being described as 'unconventional'. With such a fantastic array of kicks, I'm sure he must have done some TKD. You've almost got to cheer when someone lands a double sacrifice kick to the head!! This was the best MA programme I have seen on Eurosport, and I hope the can put on some equally good stuff in the future. (But change the commentator)
Kgirl the Dojo was in Tottenham, North London, called the Seven Sisters club. The Sensei was a man called Cyril Andrews he was a great guy. He used to pick the Karate team for an event called the London Youth Games, this is like a mini Olympics for the London Boroughs and is made up of all kinds of sports. I was picked twice to represent my borough, but this was about 20 years ago, but the club is still running.
