Brandon performed Nan Quan 2 for his Kung Fu form. There was no one else there at his age level for forms. So, he won by default. One of the issues he did encounter was space to properly do the form. This tournament took place in a gym and the only place to do it was inside an Octagon; not the best place for a Wushu Form. However, he was able to adapt and did receive a nice scoring.
Brandon also received first from point sparring. He faced 3 other opponents. He won with scores of 6-0, 5-0, and 6-1. Brandon can be very quick and usually blocks well.
Then Brandon participated in continuous sparring which he likes the best. This has been the first time he was able to do continuous sparring at a tournament. Unfortunately, it did not go as expected. I was not there, but I’ll explain from what I’ve been told.
**Before I explain this event, let me state this was the first get together from the 3 different schools and there was a little bit of miscommunication with took place on how things should be done for the continuous sparring.**
There was only one other person who wanted to do continuous sparring. He was 16 years old with some MMA training. He also wore MMA gloves and not the type worn at our sparring sessions. Most people would agree that the MMA gloves are better suited for damage over regular class sparing gloves. Brandon has been taught not to hit in the face during sparring. Brown belts and above are able to contact with the face. From our side, it looked like the kid had only practiced punching to the face. So, with all the advantages going to his opponent; gear, age, height, weight, and rules to fight by, Brandon did not do to well.
I was told the first round had some good back and forth to it. However, by the time the second round came up, Brandon wasn’t able to deal with the constant face punches. The instructors informed him he couldn’t punch to the face anymore to try and make it more sporting. However, the opponent struck him in the face again which ended up being a more devastating blow to the eye.
They disqualified Brandon’s opponent at that point and told Brandon he got first.
However, both Brandon and I, realize Brandon’s opponent was probably saying WTF? What do you mean no hitting to the face? What do you mean my gloves give me an advantage? What kind of sparring is this?
We wish it could have ended another way. The positive side of this match was Brandon realizing the importance of blocking face contact. This may be a duh moment for most people but he’s been trained with no face contact up to this point. Brandon is a true competitor. So, he’s asked his instructor to help learn about fighting at the next level as the other kid was. Brandon’s instructor has agreed to help modify instruction after this coming tournament.
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