Tomizaki's Champions - tomizakischampions

On Nov 22, 2010, Master Daniel Tomizaki traveled for a 10 day trip to to finalize the formation of the International Traditional Kung Fu Association.  The ITKFA was founded by Master Daniel Tomizaki of the and Master Marco Serra of .  The intent of the association is to “preserve the integrity of traditional kung fu”.    

The first stop in was for the grand opening of the 10^th school in the International Traditional Kung Fu Association in .  There was Lion Dance, speeches by Masters Tomizaki and Serra, and performances.   There are now 3 affiliated schools in Campinas,Sao Paulo; as well as schools in Salvador,Bahia; Cascavel, Parana; Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo; Concord, California and an 11^th school due to open within the next 30 – 60 days in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte.

Following the grand opening, Master Tomizaki taught classes in at the Instituto de Kung Fu Shaolin (Master Marco Serra’s school).  The classes were well attended, with over 55 advanced level students.  The students were very enthusiastic with the training.  The class lasted over 2 hours, and everyone was sweaty, sore and happy.

Master Tomizaki held his fourth international seminar two days later on the Choy Lay Fut wooden dummy.  Master Tomizaki is responsible for bringing Choy Lay Fut to  in 1992.  The seminar was attended by 52 students ranging from brown belts to 4^th degree black belts.

The grand finale of the trip  was the 1^st International Traditional Kung Fu Association Championship.  This tournament had over 350 participants from the association and sold over 1000 spectator tickets.  It was very exciting.  The event was held in and attended by members of all the schools in the association.  The San Shou division had 43 fights from beginners to advanced.  Sifu Volney from Cascavel was the center referee for the entire day and did a fantastic job.  He and the five ring judges  were tireless in their jobs.   The other rings were also well run, with Master Tomizaki providing his vast experience in running tournaments to keep the rings moving. Master Tomizaki has been training kung fu since 1980, earning the first black belt in Seven Star Praying Mantis in .  Following this, he immigrated to the and earned his black belt in Choy Lay Fut in 1989 and was promoted to sifu in 1997.  (* for more information go to www.championskungfu.com)  The rings were all judged by 1^st – 4^th degree black belts. 

The final competition was the 3 – Star Grand Champion for Instructors.  The competition was tough.   In the end, the winner was Professor Hirata, owner of Academia Wushu de Kung Fu in .

It was nice to have been able to go to a big tournament once again. I would not have been able to go if it wasn't for everyone’s help with their donations, I want to thank everyone. As for the experience it was fun, and good to go to a competition to challenge myself. The best part was to see the great results of my fellow classmates and my fellow instructors do so well. We all trained hard and it paid off. It was also a great to spend time with our sister school and meet new friends and see old ones as well. Our sister school mates have great kung fu spirit.  - sihing Mark

First, I like to thank the students for their support by scheduling a private lesson with me.  Your contributions helped me greatly toward this trip to Texas.  This was my second time competing in Texas.  Once again this competition was another great experience.  Compared to last year, there were definitely more competitors this time around.  I met with a lot of skilled martial artist from different schools, states, and countries.  All of them were competing at this tournament.   This year, we had our sister schools from Brazil competing.  They performed very well.  You can tell they trained very hard by the way they performed.  They were all very spirited and nice people, a really fun group to be with and hang out. 

In this year’s tournament, I competed in advance hand form along with a San Shou fight the day after.  The form competition was a challenge.   There were 14 competitors in my divisions.  The tournament committee eventually split the two groups in half.  I was in the first half and the very first to compete.   The result:  I placed 2^nd in my division.   Then for San Shou, I did not win again this year, however I performed a lot better than last year.  My major accomplishment this year was, I did not run out of gas.  My stamina was throughout the round.  All in all, I had a blast in Texas and I like to thank you all again for making this trip easier for me.   The date for next tournament is up, I hope that you guys can plan and join me for next year.  The experience you get from this whole trip is worth going for.   In the mean time, you can definitely gain tournament experience in our in house tournament in August.

I just came back from an awesome experience in Plano, Texas.  For the second year in a row, I competed in the Chin Woo - Legends of Kung Fu World Martial Arts Championships.  What made this year so special, was some of our Brazilian cousins also came.  We had 7 people from our Concord school compete, and 23 from Brazil.  It was so fun and very exciting.  With such a big group, we brought a new level of energy to the tournament.  Our team from Brazil brought horns, and shakers, flags and enthusiasm.  If you've ever been to a soccer tournment in another country - it was the same.  We all brought home lots of medals; but best of all was the experience.  For many of the Brazilians, it was their first trip out of the country.  For some of our students, it was their first competition. 

Master Tomizaki was invited again to perform in the Master's Exhibition.  He was received with a roaring crowd.  People came up to me and others in our group to compliment his performance - that he really knew "true kung fu". 

Sifu Serra lead the team from Brazil.  We were lucky enough to have him travel back to California to spend a few days in our school.  He also gave a seminar on Meditation that was greatly appreciated.