In August 24 - 25, 2019, There are three members (Ian Ly, Stephanie Ly, and Ethan Wong) of our school participated in the 2019 NTD Global Traditional Martial Arts Competition. In Saturday morning of August 24th, the preliminary round for all contestants from North America started. It went on until the afternoon, then they announced the list of Semi-Finalist to be eligible to continue to compete for the next day. Our three members made it through. In Sunday August 25th, all Semi-Finalist contestants from North America, Asia, and Europe competed together until early in the afternoon that day. The event then had a small break, and shortly after, they announced the Finalist contestants list to move on, and continue competed at 2:00pm in the afternoon. At the same time, they broadcast live world wide on NTDTV channel for these finalist contestants during their competition. Ian Ly from our school made his way through the finalist list with his Yin-Chi-Pai (double shield) weapon, and competed with three others in his division (Youth Armed division). At the end, he got Silver medal along with $1000 USD for this placement, and three other youths (two from Taiwan, one from Columbia) got Bronze medal with $800 USD for their placement. The NTDTV organization put together this type of competition every two years. It will be in year 2021 for the next one. Congratulation to Ethan Wong, and Stephanie Ly who had made to the Semi-Final of the competition, and Ian Ly for Silver medalist for global traditional martial arts competition.
If anyone want to watch the competition, below is the link. If the link can not open in your device for some reason, then open YouTube and search “2019 NTD International Chinese Traditional Martial Arts Competition Finals”. If you only would like to watch Ian’s perform, then move the timer at the bottom of the screen until it shows the time 1:23:13 at the bottom left corner.
In July 27 -29, 2018 Our school participated in the 6th World Kuo Shu Championship Tournament that took place in Baltimore, Maryland U.S.A. There were eight members of our school who competed in this event.
Our school brought back excellent results. Beside several medalists from the school, there is one member (Ian Ly) had been selected for "The World Kuo Shu Hall Of Fame", and got an award plaque.
Below are the results of the medalists competed in their division:
Congratulation to all medalists! Keep up the hard work.
There are 8 members from our school competed at 2017 U.S. International Kuo Shu Championship Tournament. They won total of 19 medals back.
Congratulation to Alex (2 gold, 1 bronze), Ryan (2 gold, 1 silver), Ian (3 gold), Ethan (3 gold, 1 bronze), William (1 gold, 1 bronze), Carmen (1 gold, 1 bronze), Stephanie (1 silver), Justin (1 bronze).
Keep it up team!
Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practices, which are practiced for a variety of reasons: as self-defense, military and law enforcement applications; as competition, physical fitness, mental and spiritual development; as well as entertainment and the preservation of a nation's Intangible cultural heritage.
Although the term martial art has become associated with the fighting arts of eastern Asia, it originally referred to the combat systems of Europe as early as the 1550s. The term is derived from Latin, and means "arts of Mars", the Roman god of war. Some authors have argued that fighting arts or fighting systems would be more appropriate on the basis that many martial arts were never "martial" in the sense of being used or created by professional warriors.
For martial arts training, there are techniques which aim to strike the opponents at any vital areas of the body (head, eyes, neck, solar plex, groin, spine, hand and feet joints, etc...)which could cost serious injury, or death. The shorter the time to bring the opponent down, the better. Martial arts training involve a lot of conditioning to strength up the hands and feet, make the bone strong and hard so that it can be use for striking to the opponent at the vital areas.
Martial sports is gear toward striking non vital areas such as stomach, legs, arm, etc... Often, martial sports training would not involve conditioning. Martial sports often focus into hand forms, or weapon forms. Training without live blade for swords. Wear all protective gears when sparring. Training mostly toward how to gain point(s) for competition. Work in a lot of cardio and stamina, so they can last long for competition.
In some odd cases only, but not 100%. For example, in a street fight, there are no rules, anything goes. The purpose is to take down each other as soon as possible. People often grab any object (knife, gun, chair, stick, etc...) and use it to hit the opponent or throw at the opponent(s).
If one only focus in martial sports techniques for their training, they often used to striking the non vital areas of the opponent to gain their points for the match or game, then they would have higher chance to get hurt in a street fight. Whereas if one mainly focus into martial arts training, he/she will get used to strike the vital areas to bring the opponent down as quick as possible. They often will have a higher chance to survive in a street fight.
The individual should question themselves, do they want to train martial arts or martial sports. Both paths are good. At the end, it boils down to are you living in a rough city or a very peaceful city. For rough city with big population, you will have a higher chance defense for your life and protect your family. For peaceful city, will have less chance to use martial arts.
In my opinion, no one would know what or when things could happen. So practice martial arts techniques as your major, and practice martial sports techniques as your substitution or minor would be better. Stay healthy and look great is important, but being able to protect your life, and your loves one should be more priority on top of anything else.
The following are the results for our school from 2015 U.S. International Kuo Shu Championship Tournament held in Baltimore on July 24 - 26, 2015:
For the total score of all the events in the tournament with other schools, our school came to 3rd place for overall youth form.
Congratulation to all, and especially to Justin Ly who had won the most medals this year!
On Saturday October 18th, 2014, our competition team was participated in the 2014 Canadian Kung Fu Championship at the Canadian Coptic Centre organize by the Kung Fu Canada Federation in Toronto. The team once again got an excellent result.
Result from the Tournament:
Luc Charlebois: 1st. Place in men advance long range weapon (3 sectional staff)
Jason Webber: 3rd Place in men advance short range weapon (Miao Dao)
Patrick Marshall: 3rd Place in men advance long range weapon (Staff form)
Elaine Phan: 2nd place in youth beginner handform, and 2nd Place in youth beginner long range weapon (Spear weapon)
Anthony Nguyen: 1st place in youth beginner handform, and 1st place in youth beginner long range weapon (Spear weapon)
Stone Liu: 1st place in youth intermediate long range weapon (Horse Cutter), 1st place in youth intermediate short range weapon (Double Dagger), and 2nd place in youth intermediate handform.
Rachel Moore: 1st place in youth beginner empty hand set fighting, and 3rd place in youth beginner long range weapon (staff form).
Charressa Nguyen: 1st place in youth beginner empty hand set fighting, and 3rd place in youth beginner short range weapon (double daggers)
Sarah Thebaud: 1st place in children beginner short range weapon (double dagger), and 2nd place in children beginner handform
Sabrina Di-Chiara: 2nd place in children intermediate handform, 2nd place in children intermediate short range weapon (broadsword), and 3rd place in children intermediate long range weapon (staff form)
Donald Truong: 1st place in children beginner handform, 1st place in children beginner long range weapon (staff form), 2nd place in children beginner empty hand set fighting, 3rd place in children beginner weapon set fighting (staff vs staff)
Arthur Thebaud: 2nd place in children beginner short range weapon (southern sword), 3rd place in children beginner handform, and 3rd place in children beginner weapon set fighting
Justin Ly: 2nd place in children empty hand set fighting.
NTDTV organized their 4th International Chinese Kung Fu Tournament for senior / instructor level to compete in this tournament. There are contestants from Japan, Australia, China, Taiwan, England, Canada, and United State competed in this tournament.
Zhi-Yong Gau Lien(Instructor), and Ian Phong Ly (Advance level 1) from our school went to compete, and below are their result:
Zhi Yong Gau Lien/Instructor - $1000, and Bronze medal for men weapons form division
Ian Phong Ly - Raising Star Award for southern hand form division
Congratulation to Zhi Yong and Ian Phong Ly for their achievement!
Ly, Minh-Hung Frank
Sifu