wrkf

Combat ballet

Has anyone had problems with running a event because of the name of there organization or name of the style of martial arts you teach. With people assuming what you teach and basing a decision on a assumption rather than facts. I get that quite a lot. It started several years ago.
I studied 6 different arts, with my primary art being Shoto Kan, I studied Shotokan karate for over 17 years. Then finally branched away from Shotokan to teach my own art and I call it kick boxing rather than karate.
Back several years ago, might have been 2006 were there was a MMA match in Gering Nebraska. The event itself went pretty good. Had qualified officials and plenty of security. But after the event was over a couple girls were fighting. When the police went to intervene one of the police officers pushed one of the girls, knocking her head into a window. A bunch of people seen that and they did a bit of yelling because of the police using unnecessary force. But the boy friend of that girl, got pretty pissed and went on the fight because of that. What was reported in the newspaper on that is the police chief did a belly flop on the guy and he got pepper sprayed and tazzered I believe 3 times. Those three people ended up going to jail for assault. But, rumor got the best of that. And the rumor was that 25 to 30 people were in a big knock out brawl and the city banned MMA in Gering and almost had it banned in Omaha. And it was only 3 people that got out of hand. It wasn’t really anything that was something out of the ordinary. That could have happen at any event. But sense it was at a sport fighting event, they blame that particular sport, and banned it there. Eventually when things went to court, the truth of what actually happened came out and the police chief did admit that they may have over reacted and handled things poorly because it was a MMA event and said they weren’t properly trained to deal with that issue. It was good of him to say, but for martial arts as a whole in Nebraska was significantly hurt because of his exaggeration of that event. Out of 24 years of martial arts, I’ve seen maybe 2 times were there were a incident out side of the ring. That’s not to bad of a record. I’ve seen more fights at foot ball games, base ball (it was disgraceful of the poor sportsmanship that the base ball team showed at the Olympics), soccer and hockey games. And nobody has ever banned those sports. They over reacted on a issue, just because it was a MMA match when they should of treated things just like any other sport. That wasn’t one of my events, but one of my fighters did participate. But, they should of also gone out of there way to put things back into perspective.
A few months after that event, that same promoter was going to run a event in Alliance, my home town. There were going to have it at a building that used to be a school. But some people apparently didn’t want to see that done at that place. The Mormon church which is located across the street took things to the planning commission arguing that’s its nothing but human chicken fighting, with no rules, no sanctioning and did not have adequate parking. I went there to represent sport martial arts, just to make sure that if there going to make a decision on that issue, that it be a educated one. Informed them that it was running by pride standard rules, that they had the standard liability, and secondary insurance for each individual fighter and that there officials were trained and that they had plenty of security and that I also filmed the entire event. Nobody cared to see the CD of the event though. But I also had to mention my kick boxing federation and the continuous point fighting that I do, and explain the difference of the two. To make sure that when I run a event that there isn’t going to be any problems. But I also presented a write up on both amateur MMA as well as WRKF continuous point fighting. What ended up happening is it was passed that sport fighting of any sort could not be done at that place, because even though it was a school, it was also zoned residential, so they couldn’t do any events there because of that. Even though they were running basket ball, base ball and teen dances out of there. So that event was moved to the county fair grounds, but the sheriff who was based out of Alliance, threatened the promoter that if he put on a MMA event that he would arrest him for putting on the show and that he would charge every athlete with assault. That kind of stuff, was just crazy to hear about. If you have everything covered, with insurance and you have your standard rules and regulations drawn out and trained officials and a EMT there, we shouldn’t be getting the run around.
After all that issue, I was going to set up a continuous point sparring match. I went to try and set up my program in Alliance at the YMCA, but it went through to much controversy because I teach kickboxing. Putting on a continuous point fighting match really didn’t register. So they were going off about that and couldn’t grasp what it was that I was actually putting on. All that registered was kick-boxing. But the police chief from Gering called the police chief in my home town and told him that I was doing a bare knuckle fighting, with no rules or regulations. So my program had to be cancelled until after the police chief passed a city ordinance on combat sports. What he was trying to do is ban all combat sports, including karate, tae kwon do, pro and amateur boxing, MMA and kick-boxing, but when it went to the city council they turned down that ordinance, but added a different ordinance. I couldn’t believe that police chief in Gering would do such a thing. He was a old time Tae Kwon Do instructor that used to run tournaments all the time. I talked to him a week before and explained the rules of what I was putting together and he used his power as a police chief to manipulate things in another town and have the police chief in Alliance stop my program on fictitious information. And it was odd that my program was stopped, because my rules and regulations were presented to the city council for continuous point fighting as well as what I’d like to see for amateur mma. So from there , I decided to transfer that event to Chadron Nebraska. I had a meeting with the acting city manager and the police chief there , went through the rules and regulations and let them know what insurance company I use and had a place all set up to use. But the police chief from Gering called the chief in Chadron, told her the same lies, saying that I was running a program with no rules and regulations, that we compete on concrete, with bare knuckles with no insurance. So 3 days before the event was going to take place, my program was shut down. Costing me about $800. After that , I set up another meeting with the acting city manager and police chief, and went through my program word for word and assured them that I have a structured program and also showed them the insurance I use and they were ok with that.
But over the next few years I would sanction individual fights as under cards at MMA matches or main event at karate matches, as well as sanctioned some Pro-am MMA, Kick-boxing and boxing bouts. After several years of doing that, I tried to set up a Karate Point sparring match at the YMCA in Alliance, and the immediate response from the manager is that kick-boxing wasn’t within there Christian beliefs, which is what the old manager used to say about amateur boxing. I told her that when I made the request to do a karate point sparring event, I didn’t mention anything about doing a kickboxing match. But I also tried to explain to her that kickboxing really isn’t saying any thing specific as far as what type of event your running. People can assume just about anything if they say kickboxing, they could also assume the same thing if I said I was going to run a karate event or tae kwon do event. I’m not specifically saying what type of event that I’m putting on, but when I say I’m going to put on a karate point tournament, I’m being specific in what I’m going to put on. I didn’t even say anything about putting on a kick boxing event. She referred me to there Tae Kwon Do instructor and I talked to him. I explained to him a bit about the rules and regulations, but he used to compete many years ago and understood the competition rules, but when part of the program was a gi no-gi competition, he questioned that and didn’t know if he would allow it, because he didn’t know anything about it. And I told him, I know, that’s why I’m running the program and it’s why I’m explaining it to you. He said he’d have to think about it.
It sounded like a brush off, so I made a call and had the tournament transferred. Took about 5 minutes to get approval at a separate facility.
A week passed and no response so I talked to the manager and she wanted more information on the rules and the organization I’d be working with. But, I informed her that for the April event I had to move the event because it seemed like it was going to take a long time to get a for sure answer . I took that information to the YMCA, and she got all up in my face about it. Saying she didn’t ask for that and said that there instructor will be in charge of whether or not they’ll allow a karate event to be done and that she will make a recommendation to the board. And I asked if I can present the information to the board and she got real defensive and said she was going to do it. And I asked, how can you present a program that you know nothing about. You sound like you want to take charge of my program, but you know nothing about it. The best person to run my program , is me, not your instructor that’s been out of the sport for over 20 years. She got real defensive about that, saying that if I was going to talk down about her instructor that we were done doing business. I stated that I wasn’t talking bad about him, I’ve known him for about 25 years, I’m just saying, he’s been out of the sport for over 20 years and I’ve been actively participating in the sport for over 24 years. And she pointed out in the contact information that it said, kick boxing , kick boxing and kick boxing, “why does it say kick boxing if it’s not kick boxing” , pointing rather vigorously. I responded yes it does, I’m found of Bolinger Kick Boxing and I teach kick-boxing, I am author of 2 kick boxing books and I’m the owner of a kick boxing federation called the WarriorRage KickBoxing Federation. I name my style as kick-boxing because its English and we are in the USA and I don’t care to have to have my style be a Japanese name or a Korean name , because I don’t teach those styles anymore, but I do teach those types of sports. Mine is my own style, modified from everything I have learned and added out side of traditional teachings but also including some of those traditional arts. And I informed her, that within my kick boxing federation, I also do regular training to certify officials. And the response was, she brushed me off to talk to there tae kwon do instructor and discuss putting on a kick boxing event and maybe take it to the ymca board to approve or disapprove it. And she said that if I wanted to move the event to that other place then go do it. And I told her, that I said the other day, that’s what I have already done. And then she said, the next time I want to talk to her I’d have to set up a appointment, and I said, you invited me down here. She is diffenatly not the person I’d consider doing business with. I’m trying to rent space and she’s on the fight about it. It’s a simple yes or no answer.
To me it sounded like the same old run around they did years before. So it ended up being the best thing, because that YMCA manager said that we would have to set up a meeting with there Tae Kwon Do instructor and discuss the program, I even left a message on his cell phone and it’s been over a month and nothing has been done.

But, I think people would be just better off changing there combat sports name to something like Combat Ballet . Know body knows what it is, they can’t really assume anything about it, and it sounds pretty. Could probably get some flower girls throwing roses before the event starts. Then off to kick some butt.