BKH Residential Program
All-Japan Tournament, November 2006

Two BKH residential students from Ligo Dojo fought in this year's Kyokushin-kan All-Japan Tournament. Robert Schnoes, currently our strongest, is still recovering from a broken foot, and did not fight this time. (He's training again; it's just too early for him to kick someone with a full-contact blow; he'll fight in Hungary in March, and in Japan in May.) This left our two newest students, Jonathan Calhoun (below) and Paul Kaminski (above). It was Calhoun's second tournament (he fought last August in Korea) and he did well to fight against an experienced black belt Japanese fighter in spite of his yellow (!!!) belt, but he did not win his first fight.

The real nail-biter of the day for us, however, was Kaminski's first fight since it was his first ever tournament, since he's only been practicing karate for 4 months (wearing a blue belt) and since somehow the tournament organizers matched him up with a fighter who was 8 inches taller than him, and outweighed him by 30 kg's (65 lbs)! See below.

This was actually the first time that BKH director entered students in the All-Japan and actually considered withdrawing one of them prior to the fight. With the weight difference, even if the heavier guy is not that strong, there is an increased risk of injury simply because of the relative body mass difference. If the leg of a 205 lb guy collides with full power with the leg of a 140 lb guy, the risk of injury is significant. Kaminski traveled all the way to Japan however for his first tournament experience -- and that's what these early tournaments are all about at this stage for these guys: experience -- and we let the fight go forward. And Kaminski fought very well!! There's no way he really could have beaten this Japanese fighter just 4 months into his training at BKH, but we're excited by the potential that he shows because he performed very well under pressure, fending off the blows by the much stronger fighter in a way that both kept him safe and allowed him to land some blows of his own.

Calhoun, below, was much better matched. His opponent was an experienced black belt Japanese fighter but he was also the exact same weight. In fact, Calhoun, might have had an advantage since he is so much taller (It's hard to say: shorter fighters often have an advantage of a different sort.) See more pictures below, and click on the Kyokushin-kan link to see what the tournament looks like in the latter rounds when the champions are fighting!! (4th All-Japan Open karate Tournament 2006). All three of BKH's current fighters (Schnoes, Calhoun and Kaminski) will be fighting this March in Hungary and this May in Japan). Be sure to follow their progress here. More photos below.