AN
INSIDE LOOK AT WORLDS
By Eric
Haycraft
It was a
restless flight back to the USA from Spain. Our bus
left the hotel at 3 a.m. to get us to Sevilla to fly
to Madrid. Once on board the international flight I
had hoped to sleep most of the trip but my mind was
racing with thoughts of the week's fights and what it
all really meant. For the past seventeen years or so I
have dedicated myself to the sports of Kickboxing and
Muay Thai. When I started my ill-advised amateur
career there was far less opportunity and my dreams
never led me to an international tournament. Now many
years later it was very special for me to watch my
fighters competing in the 2009 WKA World Amateur
Championships. This had been a very busy year for our
team, competing in every major amateur Kickboxing
tournament in the USA, along the way qualifying to
represent the United States on the
WKA US NATIONAL
TEAM.
This was my second time attending the WKA World
Championships with fighter Lindsay Scheer. In 2007 we
attended the tournament in Germany. That year we were
the sole representatives of the USA. While it was
invaluable experience, it was not until this year that
I realized how much better an experience it would be
with a team of USA fighters and coaches, headed by the
WKA USA representative, Brian Crenshaw. TEAM USA
departed the US from various airports and converged on
our destination in Spain, a resort area known as Punta
Umbria. When we arrived we were debriefed, assigned
our rooms, and given the gear given to the team and
coaches by our various sponsors.
Fighter’s Inc. had generously supplied the US TEAM
with TOP TEN track suits and gym bags, KING Thai
shorts, hand wraps, and anklets.
CLINCH GEAR supplied US TEAM hoodies and board
shorts, and
KOBC had made custom USA t-shirts for the fighters
and coaches. Right away this year was already feeling
different.
The next day
we had a chance to meet the rest of the team which
comprised eleven fighters, 4 coaches and a camera man.
Over the week we had a chance to get to know these
guys and gals better. The team was a mix of Muay Thai
fighters and MMA fighters, and this was the inaugural
year of MMA in the WKA World Championships.
To
qualify for the World Championships, fighters had to
place first or second at the WKA North American
Championships in the Open Class division. Qualifying
this year for Muay Thai were: Chris Kwiatkowski from
Church Street Boxing in New York City, the most
experienced of the amateur fighters; Lindsay Scheer,
from
Team Haycraft/Real Fighters in Louisville, KY; Scott
Sawade also from Team Haycraft/Real Fighters in
Louisville, KY; Lindsey MacMhaolain of Combat Sports
Center in Richmond, VA; Aisha Thomas from Team Lloyd
Irvin in Maryland; and, representing Evolve Academy in
Maryland and the final member of the team for Muay
Thai was Steven Dang.
The other half of the
team, competing in MMA, had perhaps the most to gain
as well as the most to lose coming to a tournament
like this. Winning their respective brackets would
crown them the first ever WKA World Amateur MMA
Champion as well as set the standard for future World
Tournaments. However, as with many first time
endeavors, there was an inherent risk versus reward.
The risk for these fighters was to see just how many
of the European teams would show up and bring MMA
fighters. Even more, how many would back out once they
learned that they had to fight against a US MMA
fighter? MMA is still much more popular and
established in the United States. Accepting the
challenge in spite of the odds were Michael Goodman of
Combat Sports Center in Virginia, Eric Heegaard of
Shidokan Atlanta, Chris Lujan of Evolve Academy in
Maryland, Gary LaBreck of Evolve Academy in Maryland
and also Shotokan Academy in Massachusetts, and
Jeffrey Blachly of Team Lloyd Irvin in Maryland.
Standing by their team were coaches Brian Crenshaw
of
Combat Sports Center and head of the WKA in the
USA, Frank Camacho (Pro MMA fighter) of Team Lloyd
Irvin and Eric Haycraft of
Team Haycraft/Real Fighters
Gym.
I am very fortunate that in my work, I
traveled to some of the biggest shows in the world but
it is always these amateur shows with young fighters
with big dreams that remind me why I love this sport.
Watching these guys and gals train over the week and
seeing how proud they were to represent their country
made me very proud to be a part of this entire
process. It made me want to come home and encourage
more coaches and fighters to challenge themselves on
this international stage, driving up the level of all
US fighters. Each day the team would meet to train and
the coaches would run the team through basic workouts,
splitting up into groups to work padwork, light
sparring, takedowns and grappling in order to stay
sharp until their turn to climb into the ring. It was
impressive to see such an array of skills in such a
young team.
The tournament itself ran relatively smoothly, all
things considered. From day to day there were drop
outs and knock outs that would change the brackets.
There were schedule changes and time changes. But by
the end, the bouts ticked off one by one and the
fighters that remained were some of the best from each
of the participating countries. As predicted, several
of the MMA fighters did not get to fight. As one can
imagine, it was devastating for them. The sport
requires guys like these to make it work in the
future, to make this grow. With their fighting spirit,
however, I am confident that they will return, and I
am sure that future tournaments will have more and
more MMA fighters as Europe steps up and more teams
learn that the WKA is a destination for champions.
In the end the US fighters collected 5 gold
medals, one silver and three bronze medals. More
importantly these fighters had a chance to compete on
an international stage against the best amateur
fighters from across the globe. Win or lose, that
experience travels back to the USA with the team and
then disperses in each respective gym. The more times
we can make that happen the better the chances we have
as coaches and fighters of producing more and more
international champions both on the amateur and the
professional level.
With 2009 in the books,
sights are set on 2010 and the build up to next year’s
WKA Amateur North American Combat Sports
Championships. Brian Crenshaw is
dedicated
to making 2010 bigger than ever and in that spirit has
already started collaborating with international teams
to begin a dialogue on how we can all bring more and
more fighters to next year's tournament. Back home in
the USA I want to challenge each coach to build a team
and bring them to test their mettle at these large and
prestigious competitions! Make sure the WKA North
American Championships are on your calendar for next
summer—your wins could qualify you to make the amazing
trip that I and my team just returned from. There is
no reason why we cannot take a fighter—one of the best
in the country—in each weight class for both Muay Thai
and MMA to the World Championships in 2010.
