RAF Championships 2011
RAF Cranwell, home of Royal Air Force Martial Arts, was again host to the annual RAF Martial Arts championships on 14 Jun 2011, held in the East Camp Gym. The majority of competitors had already warmed up by participating in the monthly RAF Competitive Selection session on the preceding two days before the Competition. Competitive Selection is usually held on the second Thursday and Friday of every month to identify potential RAF Martial Arts Squad members; details are posted on the RAF Martial Arts Association website. The Website is accessed through the RAF Intranet: top right drop down menu, Royal Air Force/Sports and Pastimes/Team Sports/RAF Martial Arts Association. At these sessions, the teams for forthcoming competitions are chosen.
The RAF Martial Arts Championships are open to all RAF martial artists, and include but are not limited to the narrow scope of competitive disciplines contested at the Inter-Service competitions. To include and recognise the vast number of Martial Artists, styles and disciplines within the RAF, the RAF championships contest a varied and developing series of competitions, opening the competition to more than ITF Taekwondo, and EKGB Karate competed at the Interservice Championships.
Karate Kata
Karate Kata is a sequence of pre defined techniques that demonstrate a practitioners understanding and ability in Karate. The movements should be smooth but focused, executed with precision, concentration and timing. As one of the two mainstream Martial Arts within RAFMAA, this contest was divided into Seniors (black-belts), Juniors (coloured-belts), and Ladies. The results follow.
Karate Kata –Senior
1. P Gardner.
2. J Turner.
3. P Keegan.
Karate Kata – Junior
1. J Nickless.
2. R Fisher.
3. R Davidson.
Karate Kata – Ladies
1. S Ingle.
2. R Davidson.
Tae Kwon Do Hyung
Tae Kwon Do Hyung are the Korean equivalent to Karate Kata, and contested on the same criteria. The results for 2011 follow.
TKD Hyung – Senior
1. M Robertson.
2. C Richardson.
TKD Hyung – Junior
1. P Schulze.
2. L James.
3. C Willis.
TKD Hyung – Ladies
1. H Bowen.
2. L Glen.
Weapons Forms
Many disciplines practice with weapons, such as sword, staff, sickle etc. To showcase these skills, an open Weapons category was introduced several years ago. The criteria for the contest is very similar to Karate Kata, TKD Hyung, and Open Forms.
The Weapons forms finalists for 2011 were
1. G Rogers.
2. P Keegan.
3. A Jackson.
Open Forms
The final forms category took the scores of the finalists from the individual events and ranked them against each other. This gave us an overall forms ‘champion’. The results follow.
Open Forms – Overall
1. P Gardner.
2. P Keegan.
3. J Turner.
Open Forms – Overall Juniors
1. J Nickless.
2. R Davidson.
3. P Schulze.
Open Forms – Overall Ladies
1. H Bowen.
2. S Ingle.
3. R Davidson.
Self-Defence
Self-Defence is an opportunity to demonstrate the combative qualities of a Martial Art including techniques that would not be suitable for competition. The competitor demonstrates choreographed techniques against up to 3 armed or unarmed attackers, first slowly than at a realistic speed. This demonstrates a competitors understanding of their discipline and any other styles they have practiced, the application of techniques, timing, distance and balance, awareness of what is going on around them, focus, and legal implications of their actions as the techniques executed must comply with the law. Techniques should be practical, legal and realistic. The winners of this category were:
1. L Lyon.
2. S Wetton.
3. D Clarke.
Matches
Karate Kumite, TKD Sparring and freestyle kickboxing directly pit competitors against each other. Strikes are not executed at full power but have to be ‘deliberate’ strikes. In Karate Kumite, the contest resets after each scoring strike, this is referred to as ‘Point-Stop’. In TKD sparring and freestyle kickboxing, the competition is continued to the end of the round where the scoring strikes are tallied up to decide the winner. The freestyle kickboxing competition allowed Karate and TKD practitioners to compete against each other and the other stylists contesting.
The finalists for 2011 were:
Karate Kumite
1. P Keegan.
2. P Gardner.
3. J Turner / J Nickless.
TKD Sparring – Senior
1. M Robertson.
2. G Martin.
3. C Richardson.
TKD Sparring – Junior
1. L James.
2. C Willis.
3. P Schulze.
TKD Sparring – Ladies
1. H Bowen.
2. H Preston.
3. L Glen.
Freestyle Kickboxing – Senior
1. S Martin [Army].
2. (1) M Robertson.
3. (2) D Clarke.
Freestyle Kickboxing – Junior
1. L James.
2. B Jakeman. [Army]
3. (2) J Furlong. [Canadian Air Force (CAF) – but can fight for RAF in Inter-Services]
Freestyle Kickboxing – Ladies
1. L Glen.
2. R Mulloy.
3. L Lyon.
MMA
MMA, or Mixed Martial Arts, are one of the fastest growing sports in the world, and are one of the only contests that all empty-hand Martial Artists can enter. Pure MMA athletes train in styles that are not limited to boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, wrestling and jujutsu. In the professional organisations, such as the UFC, WEC, BAMAA, and Cage Rage, competitions are full-contact and contested inside a chain-link cage. Despite media reports, the cage is not designed to trap competitors in, but prevent competitors grappling on the ground falling off the raised platform, or athletes being thrown out of the area. The fights are not ‘bloodsport’ or ‘human-cockfighting’. To introduce MMA to a wider community and allow others to appreciate the high levels of skill involved, RAFMAA have introduced MMA-lite. This limits striking to semi-contact, the amount of time you engage in grappling on the ground, and is contested on the normal mats used in Martial Art competition.
Finalists in the first ever MMA-lite contest (and therefore undisputed world champions) were:
MMA – Men
1. D Farr.
2. T Galbraith.
3. J Robinson.
MMA – Women
1. H Bowen.
2. L Glen.
3. L Lyon.
Given the present pace of operations, the turn out of competitors was excellent. All competitors got the opportunity to compete in multiple contests, increasing the numbers of competitors in each category. Once again, the RAF Championships brought to the fore some high quality martial arts practitioners and the standard of competition was high. So much so, that the teams entering the forthcoming 15th Inter-Services Championships at HMS Nelson on 16th and 17th July were able to look forward to an exciting event.