Local full contact karate club athletes first and second in home tournament
Karate clubs put their skills and their bodies to the test last Saturday at Spirit Whistler 2003, the second annual full contact Karate Tournament hosted by the Full Contact Karate Association and Shinseikai Karate.
When it was all over, two Whistler Shinseikai fighters were standing tall – a little sore, but tall.
Catherine Bachelor, who has been training with Joe Rankin and Whistler Shinseikai for two years after moving here from New Zealand, won two matches to take the women’s title for a second year in a row.
A black belt who fought competitively with another karate discipline in New Zealand, Bachelor dominated both of her fights.
She regularly spars with guys during training, and says that has given her a psychological edge. "There’s a psychological thing, battling guys. You hit them but you don’t seem to hurt them, so you’re always going a little bit harder and harder until you’re used to it," she says.
It was only Bachelor’s second full contact tournament, and she says she is looking forward to attending more in the future.
"It’s great. You train and you train right up to the minute you get in the ring, and it feels pretty good, like this is exactly what you trained for," Bachelor says.
Judging by the reaction of her opponents, Bachelor punches and kicks pretty hard, and she likes to own the middle of the ring. "You have to know where you are in the ring all the time. When we get close to the edge, I pile in on and push (my opponent) out. It’s good for the judges because it makes you look like a strong fighter."
Bachelor’s first fight went the full three rounds before winning the decision, but she ended her second and last fight against Christianne O’Carroll of Enshin Victoria early in the first round with a strong kick to the side of her opponent that left her winded and shaky.
Although she had a few bruises to show for her day, Bachelor says she would have liked to have kept going. Next year she hopes that more women come out for the tournament.
Although the fighters don’t pull punches or kicks in the contests, she says there is a good camaraderie among athletes. "We don’t take anything personally. That’s part of our training. I also think it has to do with your personality – hotheads don’t last very long. You have to have a level head."
In the men’s light and middle weight division – competitors fight according to weight, not belt level, Whistler’s Eric Hould made his way to the finals after two long and intense fights went his way.
In the finals he faced Jason Teitelbaum from the Eastern Sun Academy of New Jersey. Although Teitelbaum was shorter than Hould, he outweighed him by almost 30 pounds.
It was a good fight, and Hould looked to have the edge on Teitelbaum in the sparring, landing strong punches and kicks. Teitelbaum, a brown belt, has a strong head kick, and managed to catch Hould off-guard a few times.
Hould managed to land a solid head-kick of his own, but the momentum in the finals went to Teitelbaum in the final round with two head-shots landed in a row.
"At least I didn’t go down," says Hould, who finished in third place in the tournament last year. "I think I have to work on my head blocks a little, and then maybe I could beat him."
Although he looked pretty battered and bruised, with a few cuts over his eye from illegal head punches, Hould says he felt pretty good after the contest.
"On a pain level, I do feel a lot better than I did after last year. I have been working out a lot more, and feel better all the way," he says.
The fighters were stronger this year, Hould says, but with another year of training, and two more tournaments under his belt over the winter, he was definitely ready for a higher level of competition.
Unlike Bachelor, Hould moves around the ring a lot, trading punches and kicks, and looking for a weak spot. He’s definitely not afraid to take a shot, and is patient, waiting for his opponents to leave an opening.
"At the start, you fight but you don’t want to go too hard. You analyze their technique, keep your stamina until they start to look tired. You land a few kicks and punches here and there, and at the end you give it all you got," he says.
"I’m starting to learn that stamina is the most important thing for me. Training is big, and technique is, too, but I’ve been working on my stamina a little bit, and I felt ten times better out there."
Hould has been with Rankin for two years as well, and is currently a yellow belt.
In the men’s Heavyweight division, Berk Christensen from Enshin Victoria was fast and aggressive in the ring, landing a lot of quick, hard punches to the chest, arms and shoulders of his opponents. His kicks were pretty solid as well.
He faced Brian Wright of Eastern Sun Academy in the finals, and was definitely the stronger fighter. However, he did land a few illegal punches, including one to the chin and one to the throat.
The decision went his way in the end, but Wright felt that he should have been disqualified for the illegal moves.
The tournament featured fighters from Northwest Kyokushin in Seattle and Pullman Washington, Enshin Victoria, Eastern Sun Academy in New Jersey, and Shinseikai Canada.
