This year’s November 19th , 20th and 22nd 2023 TKO State championship were held at the Sheraton Houston Brookhollow Grand Ballroom. The TKO martial arts organization has been a force in Texas for over 25 years serving the martial arts community with quality martial arts events and for all those years it has grown to become a banner karate organization with a host of high end tournaments attended by the best competitors in Texas and the world for that matter. Wayne Nguyen, founder of the Texas Karate Organization had to scramble for an alternate location after the Galveston San Luis Convention Center became unavailable. Eventually another premier site was found, and it served the competition well.
The first day of competition consisted of the grappling and kickboxing portion of event. Many of the top grapplers and kickboxers in the league were in attendance. Since the grand ballroom was insufficient for the large crowd in attendance other ballrooms were utilized for the breaking and specialty events. The Friday crowed was dwarfed by Saturday’s main events. During Saturday’s event there were large numbers of top junior, adult and senior competitions packing the main ball room. All the TKO producers were there to officiate and finalize the many divisions on the roster. I was also competing and since I was one of the TKO Top Gun Hall of Fame winners, I can confirm this was a year of the best Sport Karate possible at these events. Every event in 2022 I went to was well attended and run by a host of skilled and fair black belt judges.
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The whole event had a festive and holiday atmosphere because that next Thursday was Thanksgiving Day. That did not stop the heated competition especially in the many divisions that were slated for the nighttime finals on Sunday night. All the grappling, kickboxing, Breaking, continuous sparring and stick fighting divisions were finalized in their designated rings with the champions to receive their state champion rings on stage Sunday night. The rest of the events had their divisions ran off in grand championships during the day’s tournament. The black belt junior and senior first place champions were to be finalized in traditional and contemporary forms groups on Sunday night along with the black belt sparring grand championships that were to be completed at the Sunday nighttime finals.
The Nighttime finals and show was a collage of competition and revelry with breaks for awards to the producers and judges and the Top Gun Competitors. This was mixed with the competition for the 1st place black belt grand championship competition. Don’a Pettaway was awarded a 7th degree black belt after an amazing attempt to break an enormous stack of bricks. The grand ballroom was totally packed and the grand championship competitors were focused on preparation for their shot at the money and Grand Championship rings. I was also one of those in the adult traditional grands and I can tell you it never fails to energize me to be on stage. The exhilaration you feel is nothing less than electrifying. The hidden nervous tension does things to you, so you must intensify your concentration on your techniques and pray the thousands of hours at practice will pay off.
Wayne Nguyen attended all the TKO events to ensure that they were ran to the highest standards. My observations throughout the 2023 year were that the rules and standards of all the events were some of the best I have ever attended. The TKO 2023 state championship was no different with the same attention to competitors and standards that had been adhered to all year long. The whole event topped off a year of great championship martial arts.
