River Rudl Wins Gold at the International Traditional Kung Fu Tournament (https://itkfachampionship.com/) in Concord CA on July 9, 2023 in the Full contact San Da heavy weight division. San Da is a sport fighting event focusing on punching, kicking, and throwing. There is no ground fighting, elbows, knees, or lengthy standup grappling. The International Traditional Kung Fu Tournament is hosted by Daniel Tomizaki and His school of Champions in Concord, CA. This is the toughest and arguably the most prestigious or most worthy of bragging about event at the tournament and few people enter. Congratulations to River for his victory is his first full contact fight. Fighting full contact with kicks and throws in addition to punching is a big leap up from continuous sparring with light contact.
Rivers opponent was both larger and more experienced, so we think this was a particularly good showing for River. River was certainly looking fit and ready for the event, and it showed during the fight. River won with relentless straight punching and kicking straight down the center, like classic Northern Shaolin, often scoring points for driving his opponent from the ring. Rivers strong straight punches gave his opponent a standing 8 count. Using his low stances and push hands he countered throws and used footwork to avoid kicks.
In fact, his footwork was working great in the opening seconds of the fight. Settling into a solid, but ready “Three Treasure Stance” River took a short quick shuffle back as his opponent kicked exactly as we have practiced. His opponent completely missed the kick and did the classic big whoops fall and hit the ground hard! Good start to the fight for River. Despite this his opponent Matt from Silver Dragon Kung Fu in Pacifica was a strong fighter and brought a tough fight to River, landing his own powerful punches and kicks and successfully throwing River in the first round.
In addition to the full contact sparring event, the event also featured light contact continuous sparring and many different divisions of forms competition. All the competitors were exponents of traditional Northern Kung Fu Styles like Northern Shaolin and Eagle Claw, and the more numerous southern Styles featuring, Choy Li Fut, Hung Gar, Wing Chun and others. Divisions included empty hand, short weapons like sabers and swords, long weapons like spear and staff, partner routines, and many other specialized weapons like double sabers, three sectional staff, hook swords, and whip chains.
Most of the schools and competitors were from the San Francisco Bay Area and San Francisco and Oakland Chinatowns. Arriving from the Los Angeles area, Northern Shaolin master Ken Hui brought many of his top students and instructors Kisu Stars, a celebrity Northern Shaolin master who has done extensive television, animated choreography and stunt work arrived from Denver and judged all day long with his teacher, Ken Hui. On Monday evening Kisu Stars visited our classes in San Rafael and shared a few words of wisdom with our hard working Northern Shaolin students and instructors.
Adding their skills there was a strong showing from Brazil with many excellent and high spirited members. As a native of Brazil, Tomizaki has strong connections to Brazil. In addition, there were strong competitors from Canada and the Czech Republic. All of the international competitors were highly skilled and brough excellent competitive spirit to the event. This tournament is staffed by incredibly experienced and knowledgeable judges and the day went smoothly without any arguments or disagreements of note. There was no modern wushu or any monks from Shaolin.
This is my personal favorite of our local events because of the strong Kung Fu community spirit. After the competition finished around 3 PM there was a delightful show created by Simu Stephanie Tomizaki. There was a theme cleverly pantomimed by several students and voice over by Stephanie and team as the announcers. In the opening skit a girl plays in the school yard and is bullied. She is rescued by a classmate who knows kung Fu. Then the bullied girl asks the fateful question “What is Kung Fu?”. Poof a playful Red Lion appears and takes them on a tour of the Kung Fu world and introduces all the performers and performances with cute skits. Great family, fun show and Kung Fu masters demo all rolled into one.
After this show all of the officials and many students piled into Tomizaki’s large school and had a Chinese dinner together. Lots of great conversations and camaraderie for all. Kung Fu masters are a bit like eagles and our private schools and clubs are little like gangs. We don’t often gather or mix. When we do it is many old friends and former competitors reuniting and looking for the new rising talents. It is a joy to have these friendly meetings of the Wu Lin or “martial forest” especially with a nice dinner and time to socialize while we aren’t running a tournament.
Hope you can join us at the next one!