The Mayans were one of the greatest civilizations that has ever existed. They ruled central America until the eight century AD. Great structures built by them still stand. Antigua, an ancient in Mayan city in Guatemala, stands testament of their power and technological innovation. Ruins of their civilization can be seen all over central and South America. The area now known as Guatemala was later conquered by several groups until in the fifteenth century when Spanish conquistador Cortes overran the area known as Guatemala. Then in the nineteenth century the new Central American colony of Mexico took possession of the area in 1822.
Attempts to fuse the Central American isthmus into Mexico were unsuccessful and Guatemala was part of that country for only a short period. Guatemala enjoyed periods of prosperity after its expulsion from Mexico. It also went through growing pains in the twentieth century when reformers attempted to effect change. Guatemala now enjoys relative stability with the exception of a territorial dispute with Belize that was brokered in 2002 by a mediated settlement. Guatemala is mainly an agrarian society with its main exports being Coffee.
Guatemala takes their Karate seriously. With its practitioners being treated like celebrities. The last two decades has seen the rise of great champions emanating from this little country of twelve million people. Salvador and Erick Schumann were the producers of this July 21st and 22nd NBL Latin National conference event. Although it was an NBL Tournament It felt more like a Latin version of the world Games.
The event venue was at the Grand Tikal Futura Hotel’s main ball room. This place was massive with two levels and big enough for one of the sponsors to bring a half dozen cars in and park them to show for sale. Attached to the convention center ball room and under the Hotel is a three story mall that could be accessed from the convention center. A truly grand place with a classic Mayan accent.
Erick’s Shumann has one of the top sport karate schools in the world. His black belts can be found all over the Latin America with schools in Mexico and several other Central and South American countries. Erick’s influence on sport karate in the region was supported by the large numbers in attendance. You could see Schumann karate team logos on hundreds of competitors. Erick Schumann first Became involved with the NBL when he met Boice Lydell at the Pan American Games in 1990. Since then he has represented the NBL and hosted some of the best International Martial arts events in sport karate.
The runoffs during Friday night exceeded all expectations for numbers and skill of participants. Junior and adult black belt weapons and contemporary forms divisions were large. Fierce competition ensued especially in the continuous sparring divisions were every fight seemed like a war as ferocious fights had crowds getting worked up over the competition. In the adult male middleweight continuous sparring division Oscar Barrientos of Mexico and Diego Alonzo of Guatemala fought hard and battled it out with Oscar ending up on top when the smoke cleared.
Contestants from the USA were in championship form with Sage Northcutt, Colbey Northcutt, Bear Loebe, Jacob Holguin, David Coppock and Marisa Mayer taking home championships in weapons, contemporary forms and continuous sparring. Some of the Guatemalan black belt champions during the Friday run offs were Jorge Martinez, Felipe Alverez, Andres Zelaya, Andres Garcia, Sara Escriba, Juan Gonzalez, Rodrigo de Leon, Estuardo Aguilar, Jonathan Tale Francisco Tale, Jimmy Tabico and of course Edgar Cordova who had his hands full as he ended up head to head with Corky Sikes of the USA, in the hard choreographed musical weapons contest. After a tie Edgar won the point off in a close contest for the division. Corky and Edgar also took home
The team forms championship with their dynamic sword/kama form routine.
During Saturday morning it was clear that there were going to be many more people than the night before. It was hard to get around in some places. Large crowds filled the bleachers and were around the rings as participants or spectators. Traditional forms, tradition weapons, and point sparring were being ran off. Some of the Mexican Champions of the day were Sergio Calva, Marco Aguilar, Daniella Barrientos and Juan Gonzalez who represented their schools with winning form in their divisions. USA competitor Johnnie Murphy and the legendary Dann Baker ended up head to head in traditional weapons as the division ended up a USA sweep of first and second with Johnnie Murphy taking home the first place Latin National seed for the world games. Johnnie and Dann were also multiple divisional champions with wins in forms and sparring to go along with weapons wins. As the Saturday progressed it was clear that this was going to be along day. Many divisions were so big that concluding them would take extra time.
Point sparring divisions were up last. With Black belt adult and junior fighters coming out of the woodworks. One minute nobody was there then when they called that division, the ring was full. This was repeated many times before the end of the day. Fights of particular interest in the Junior black belt point sparring divisions were in 14 to 15 year old boys and 16 to 17 boys where James Davidson and Juan Carlos were finalist in a monster division were you couldn’t even see the fighters due to the number of competitors, coaches and parents gathered around the ring. The fight was intense with both fighters launching at each other. After the final seconds ran down Juan Carlos was declared the champion.
In the boys 16 to 17 boys black belt division Charlie Davidson, Brother of James Davidson, had his hands full. Another hotly contested division with Erick Schumann and Marcos Alonzo squaring off in the final matches. The last rounds were legendary with some of the best junior point fights ever. It was USA verses Guatemala in a final all out effort that pitted Charlie Davidson’s Powerful blitz combinations against Marcos Alonzo’s counter fighting tactics. Both fighters went Back and forth with a blind focus that energized the crowd. Then finally as the fight concluded Marcos Alonzo emerged victorious.
Adult point sparring divisions represented a cross section of styles and fighters. Venezuela fighters were phenomenal. Every division that had Venezuela competitors was entertaining. Oscar Gomez, Walter Luna and Ignacio Ortega ended up finalizing the men’s black belt light heavy weight division. These guys were going strong and it was a pleasure to watch world class competition by an international group of Guatemalan, Honduras, Venezuela and Mexican fighters. These weren’t ordinary fights with some divisions containing twenty competitors. This was truly a day for sport karate. Senior divisions terminated with top competitors from the USA and Guatemala exhausting every effort in their bid for first place in their divisions. David Coppock and Johnnie Murphy of the USA were first in senior 45 plus and 35 plus super heavy weight. Enrrique Letona and Jose Luis Parra were also champions in their sparring divisions. Jorge Castillo won a large 35 plus middle weight division.
The Saturday finals were attended by an estimated three thousand spectators with a number of specialty divisions and under black belt demonstrations being showcased. This was a real show covered by the local media as well as www.texas-sport-karate.com, Sport Karate International Magazine, www.sportmartialarts.com, and www.nblskil.org.
As the night progressed all the finalist from many of the black belt divisions were going head to head for a chance at the forms and sparring grand championships.
In traditional forms Edgar Cordova pulled ahead of Mauricio Valenzuela, Johnnie Murphy, Marco Aguilar and Alejandra Acuna to take home the grand championship. Edgar Cordova also won the adult contemporary weapons grand championship with a victory over Jonathan Tale, Jimmy Tabico and Sara Escriba. Contemporary forms was a contest between current NBL champions Bear Loebe, Andreas Garcia, Steve Tabico and again Sara Escriba. Bear Loebe pulled out a strong contemporary form to defeat the others and win the grand championship.
Junior forms grand champion ship winners were Juan Gonzalez in contemporary weapons, Felipe Alverez won contemporary forms and Jacob Holguin was first in Junior Japanese. Junior Korean forms grand championship was a showdown of the Gaybeck forms, as they all ran the same thing. Colbey Northcutt defeated Gene Middleton and Sergia Calva for the junior Korean grand.
Junior continuous sparring divisions culminated in a series of fights that pitted the USA, Mexico and Guatemala against each other. Adult men’s black belt team point sparring championship was a heated contest between Team Venezuela and Team Schumann 1 of Guatemala. This was the fight of the century as contestants fought on and off the stage. In the end Team Schumann’s 1 pulled ahead for a highly contested victory over Team Venezula. Team sport Karate of Guatemala won junior boys team sparring. David Coppock from Colorado USA won the senior point sparring grand championship.
Men’s point sparring grand championship culminated in a series of final fights between Jorge Lopez, Jose Eliezer, Yoskas Gomez and Hugo Dubois. This was a truly memorable tournament with top competitors from all over the world vying for a chance at a victory at the El Gran Jaguar championships and seeding for the world games.
