The Manor Community College is closed on bank holidays therefore the sparring session on Monday 27 May 2013 will be cancelled; an alternative sparring session at the Histon Road Recreation Ground will take place in case of good weather (e.g. no rain during or before the session) between 4 and 6pm. Keep an eye on this page for last minute updates.
The Manor Community College is closed on bank holidays therefore the sparring session on Monday 6 May 2013 will be cancelled; an alternative sparring session at the Histon Road Recreation Ground will take place in case of good weather (e.g. no rain during or before the session) between 4 and 6pm. Keep an eye on this page for last minute updates.
The next CARISMA beginners course will start on Thursday 21 May 2013, to run for 4 consecutive Tuesday and Thursday classes (e.g. 21, 23, 28, 30).
Our club is very popular we are usually very close to a saturation point. If you would like to join us please do it on 21 May.
Please notice: you must join the beginners’ course just if you are a total beginnner. Any previous experience in striking martial arts (kickboxing, muai thai, karate, tae kwon do, kung fu, etc…) is appreciated and will allow you to join without going through the beginners’ course. Please get in touch with us if in doubt.
If you’d like to check our prices please look at this page. Please notice that Kelsey Kerridge charges a day entry to every non member entering their premises.
There is no need for booking for beginners: please just turn up at 6pm at Kelsey Kerridge.
(L to R) Luca, Phil, Charlie, Ollie, Alex and Massimo
Glorious day for CARISMA on Sunday 14 April, at the ICO National Kickboxing tournament organised by Peter Dunnett of CKA in Bury St.Edmunds. CARISMA secured, with five of our athletes taking part in the tournament, two national titles (Olaoluwakitan “Ollie” Osunkunle and Luca Senatore), and 2 second places (Phil Richardson and Charlie Gilmour).
Phil Richardson, category men -70Kg, (part of Cambridge University Kickboxing Society CUKBS and member of the Varsity team 2012 that won against Oxford on 2nd of May) fought the final with his usual rich arsenal of punches and kicks but could not avoid being hit several times by an opponent with very fast legs, securing a second place.
Charlie Gilmour, category men -75Kg, (also part of CUKBS and member of the Varsity team 2012) did a very good fight, against an opponent that on paper looked very good but resourced to simple combinations of simple kicks and punches. After an initial draw the judges decided to have an extra 30 second-round where Charlie’s opponent managed to play that extra bit to secure a victory leaving Charlie with another second place for the day.
Ollie Osunkunle, category men -85Kg, (also part of CUKBS and member of the Varsity team 2008, 2011 and 2012) fought the semifinal against a tough opponent, who was convinced that blocking punches with his head was a good idea. Despite Ollie’s very controlled techniques his opponent felt dizzy after a few strikes and the referee penalized Ollie with a point deduction for excess of contact… Despite the disadvantage Ollie secured this first victory and went on to fight the final. In the final Ollie demonstrated a great level of control of the ring together with a broad variety of techniques applied at different ranges. He totally annihilated his opponent, who had to be stand counted twice during the fight, and secured the first belt for the day.
Alex Kravetz, category men -90Kg, with just 6 months experience in kickboxing and at his first external fight, fought the semifinal with good technique but his lack of experience allowed his opponent to secure the victory.
Luca Senatore, category veteran men 80+Kg, the most experienced CARISMA fighter at this tournament, went straight into the final against a very heavy handed opponent whose strategy was to pin Luca against the ropes and punch him. Luca showing great foot work and evasive strategies managed to score endless times with both punches and kicks, achieving an undisputed second victory and belt.
Once more CARISMA has demonstrated that good technique and strategic work, combined with regular and consistent training, keeps delivering great results and this event is there to prove it.
Videos of the event will follow in due course.
The next CARISMA beginners course will start on Thursday 18 April 2013, to run for 4 consecutive Thursday and Tuesday classes (e.g. 18, 23, 25, 30).
Our club is very popular we are usually very close to a saturation point (see picture). If you would like to join CARISMA (or you know somebody who would like to) please do it on 18 April as we might not run another beginners’ course for while after this.
Please notice: you must join the beginners’ course just if you are a total beginnner. Any previous experience in striking martial arts (kickboxing, muai thai, karate, tae kwon do, kung fu, etc…) is appreciated and will allow you to join without going through the beginners’ course. Please get in touch with us if in doubt.
If you’d like to check our prices please look at this page. Please notice that Kelsey Kerridge charges a day entry to every non member entering their premises.
There is no need for booking for beginners: please just turn up at 6pm at Kelsey Kerridge.
CARISMA wishes a warm Happy Easter to all members, their families, friends and relatives as well as to all readers of our blog.
The club will be training until Thursday 28 March and then start again on Tuesday 2 April. Most years we had some unplanned outdoor unofficial lessons during Easter break but weather forecasts are awful for this year.
Here the remaining 6 videos of the event in the same order the fights were held:
Here the first 6 videos of the event in the same order the fights were held:
Another succesful grading session on Sunday 10 March. One Green Second, One Green, 3 Orange and 6 Yellow belts awarded to members of CARISMA, ARUKBC and CUKBS.
Image courtesy and copyright of Duncan Grisby 2013
A kickboxing bout can be regulated by different rules and levels of contact; what seems to be growing fast and well applying to amateur athletes is the so called Light Contact or Light Continuous. In my experience the term light probably had a different meaning when this style was first defined 20 years or so ago. Light contact was originally created as a softer version of a continuous full contact bout but, in 2013, light contact kickboxing is not as light as its name suggests.
To the contrary to what inexperienced people might assume winning a light contact fight is not about knocking somebody down but applying a strategy that aims at scoring more points than your opponent. In fact a KO victory is just possible by accident and anybody trying to finish a fight early by KO, as it could be applied when fighting in other styles, will be subject to disciplinary actions.
In light contact the winning strategy is about keeping a nice level of pressure with attacks that actually score and a guard/defence that avoids much scoring from your opponent. Judges will score all attacks landing in scoring areas but also take into account who is actually attacking most and who is dominating the fight. It is always preferable for you to set the pace and the style of the bout you are fighting but, if your opponent starts very aggressively since the beginning and tries to impose his/her strategy, you might need to quickly control his/her enthusiasm.
As we are talking about kickboxing fight we should remember that a good looking fight should have attacks that combine and alternate both punches and kicks.
Here a few strategies that could help you winning:
If you have lots of stamina you could simply keep attacking and putting positive pressure on the opponent; if you are facing a less fit opponent he/she will soon close into a defensive guard and you’ll have an easy victory. If your opponent is as fit as you or more you might need to adapt your strategy to one of the next ones.
It a simple strategy based on keeping the distance and launching attacks based on combinations of kicks and punches; you blitz into reaching distance, hit a few times possibly scoring once or twice and get back out of range. If you manage to impose your own attacks and force the opponent to accept your strategy you will look as the dominating fighter in the ring and, as long as you land a few scores per round while keeping a decent guard, you will win. This second strategy works well if your fitness is good but not enough to implement and maintain the machine gun attack
This strategy requires excellent timing skills so that you can intercept or anticipate your opponent’s attacks and score while he/she is attacking you. You should have enough speed to catch them unprepared and enough power to disrupt their strategy when they are trying to implement a machine gun or blitzing attack. This strategy could be the one requiring the least amount of stamina but you should never underestimate how fit and powerful your opponent might be and where he/she will be pushing the fight.
I cannot think of a fight where just one of this strategies could be applied on its own; also you can make all plans of this world but if they do not fit with your opponent you must be prepared to have a plan B.
