Three more victories for CARISMA

(L to R) Robin, Georgios, Andrew, Heley, Andrea, Nas, Linda and Massimo

Participants at Thurston September 2009

3 victories, 1 draw and just one loss is an amazing result for the 5 fighters that entered yesterday the tournament in Bury St. Edmund:

  • Heley Matthews (20), a 1st Dan black belt instructor for CARISMA and coach for the Varsity Team of the Cambridge University Kickboxing Society, managed to dominate her opponents during all of the 3 rounds.
  • Andrew Gilham (26), a green second belt with several years of experience and a number of successful fights and victories in his past, managed to easily dominate his opponent on both technique and ring strategy.
  • Andrea Cristofaro (37), a martial artist with many years of experience that started kick boxing early last year, also managed to impose his own technical expertise onto a less technical opponent; Andrea was at his second official fight.
  • Georgios Evangelinos (30), a blue belt with less than 3 years experience,  managed very well his skills and energies controlling a technically less capable but more aggressive opponent, finishing his first official fight in a draw.
  • Nas Salmi (39), a green belt with 15 months experience, was fighting his second tournament although he recently suffered an injury and he was surely not at his best.

Once more an obvious observation should be made: apart from very few exceptions the average technical skill from other clubs is pretty low and CARISMA’s members even when beaten because of other reasons, always demonstrate superior technique, posture, guard and repertoire.

We would like to thank all fighters for their committment and dedication in representing CARISMA in such a tournament, Robin Turner for his precious assistance and for coaching Andrea to his victory and Linda Silvestri for her help in filming the event.   We are missing Andrea’s video because of technical difficulties (two fights happening at the same time and just one camera) but please have a look at the others and leave a comment:

Competition in Thurston September 27 – last call

As previously annouced the Combat Kickboxing Academy has organised a Light Contact Continuous competition in Thurston (near Bury St. Edmund) for the 27 September 2009.

All members interested in participating should notify Massimo by Email,  by 10 September 2009, indicating their weight, date of birth and number of fights to date.  Each participant must be prebooked and he/she will be prematched with opponents of similar weight, ability and experience in order to maximize fairness and the quality of the competition itself.

Cost of participating to the competition is £12 to be paid in advance: visitors can pay at the door £6.

Please find enclosed the rules (directly copied from the organizer’s letter) that apply:

  • NO SPINNING BACKFIST
  • NO BACKFIST
  • NO TURNING BACKFIST
  • NO DROP SWEEPS
  • NO SPIN SWEEPS
  • NO FACE CONTACT FOR UNDER 16 YEARS OLD (HEADGUARD ONLY)
  • ALL KICKS ABOVE THE WAIST
  • BOOT TO BOOT SWEEPS ONLY
  • NO BELTS TO BE WORN
  • LONG TROUSERS ONLY: NO SHORTS
  • SHIRTS TO BE TUCKED IN
  • GROIN GUARDS TO BE UNDER TROUSERS
  • HEAD GUARDS TO BE WORN BY ALL
  • CORNER STAFF TO BE SEATED, NO LEANING ON THE ROPES
  • ONLY 2 CORNER STAFF
  • NO ADMITTANCE TO FIGHT AREA WITHOUT A PASS: BE READY WHEN YOU ARE CALLED TO FIGHT
  • ALL BAGS TO BE LEFT IN THE WARM UP AREA
  • SHOW GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP
  • TOUCH GLOVES WITH YOUR OPPONENT
  • RESPECT TO OTHER CORNER STAFF
  • NO WARNINGS WILL BE GIVEN
    • CORNER STAFF HAVE THE CORRECT EQUIPMENT
    • WATER IN A SUITABLE SPRAYER
    • BUCKET
    • TOWEL FOR FIGHTER & THE FLOOR FOR SPILLAGES
  • LIGHT CONTINUOUS ONLY
  • EXCESSIVE CONTACT WILL RESULT IN DEDUCTED POINTS OR DISQUALIFICATION
  • DISRESPECFUL BEHAVIOUR BY CORNER STAFF FIGHTERS OR SPECTATORS WILL RESULT IN DEDUCTION OF POINTS OR DISQUALIFICATION.
  • BLOOD RULE APPLIES

Competition in Thurston September 27

The Combat Kickboxing Academy has recently announced a new Light Contact Continuous competition in Thurston (near Bury St. Edmund) on 27 September 2009.

All members interested in participating should notify Massimo by Email,  as soon as possible, indicating their weight, date of birth and number of fights to date.  Each participant must be prebooked and he/she will be prematched with opponents of similar weight, ability and experience in order to maximize fairness and the quality of the competition itself.

Please find enclosed the rules (directly copied from the organizer’s letter) that apply:

  • NO SPINNING BACKFIST
  • NO BACKFIST
  • NO TURNING BACKFIST
  • NO DROP SWEEPS
  • NO SPIN SWEEPS
  • NO FACE CONTACT FOR UNDER 16 YEARS OLD (HEADGUARD ONLY)
  • ALL KICKS ABOVE THE WAIST
  • BOOT TO BOOT SWEEPS ONLY
  • NO BELTS TO BE WORN
  • LONG TROUSERS ONLY: NO SHORTS
  • SHIRTS TO BE TUCKED IN
  • GROIN GUARDS TO BE UNDER TROUSERS
  • HEAD GUARDS TO BE WORN BY ALL
  • CORNER STAFF TO BE SEATED, NO LEANING ON THE ROPES
  • ONLY 2 CORNER STAFF
  • NO ADMITTANCE TO FIGHT AREA WITHOUT A PASS: BE READY WHEN YOU ARE CALLED TO FIGHT
  • ALL BAGS TO BE LEFT IN THE WARM UP AREA
  • SHOW GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP
  • TOUCH GLOVES WITH YOUR OPPONENT
  • RESPECT TO OTHER CORNER STAFF
  • NO WARNINGS WILL BE GIVEN
    • CORNER STAFF HAVE THE CORRECT EQUIPMENT
    • WATER IN A SUITABLE SPRAYER
    • BUCKET
    • TOWEL FOR FIGHTER & THE FLOOR FOR SPILLAGES
  • LIGHT CONTINUOUS ONLY
  • EXCESSIVE CONTACT WILL RESULT IN DEDUCTED POINTS OR DISQUALIFICATION
  • DISRESPECFUL BEHAVIOUR BY CORNER STAFF FIGHTERS OR SPECTATORS WILL RESULT IN DEDUCTION OF POINTS OR DISQUALIFICATION.
  • BLOOD RULE APPLIES

Competition in Thurston Mar 2009

9 fighters, between CARISMA, CUKBS and ARUKBC, participated in a Light Contact Competition organized by Pete Dunnet and the Combat Academy Kickboxing in Thurston (near Bury St. Edmund, Suffolk).

The overall results are extremely encouraging:

Andrea Cristofaro(*): second
Andrew Gillham: winner
Carlos Virvez(*): second
Heidi Holmes: winner
Ian Chau: second
James Waddell: winner
Nas Salmi(*): second
Robin Turner: second
Sam Goldsheider: second

(*) people at their first kickboxing competition

CARISMA fighters showed once more to have a distinct style, good technique and all those qualities that a martial artist should have by definition: even those at their first experience entered competently the tournament and stood their ground with good performance.

Please have a look at the videos:

Andrea Cristofaro

Andrew Gilham

Carlos Virvez

Heidi Holmes

Ian Chau

James Waddell

Nas Salmi

Robin Turner

Sam GoldScheider