2016 WKA Nationals - Queens, NY

[NewThai]

Anybody from the forum registered to compete?

 

My team and I will be there. I'm personally registered in the women's 147 bracket in both Full Rules Muay Thai and "Thaiboxing (No Elbows)". It'll be my first time at the tournament. I'm pretty excited to see how it all goes. :)

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Anybody from the forum registered to compete?

 

My team and I will be there. I'm personally registered in the women's 147 bracket in both Full Rules Muay Thai and "Thaiboxing (No Elbows)". It'll be my first time at the tournament. I'm pretty excited to see how it all goes. :)

Good luck! Chok dee!

[threeoaks]

Awesome.  I will go and watch, and try and register next year.  I remember reading somewhere about some truly ancient (ok my age) fight classes at a tourney and I thought it was WKA Nationals but now I only see weights and experience levels.  Can somebody explain/point me to the elder novice zone?  I am working towards a smoker first but I train all the frigging time and really adore sparring (I have a looooonnnnng way to go at it still and no I am not putting it off - as an older athlete I gotta prepare to spend my injuries wisely as I don't want to be put out of the sport permanently - in other words I have to be sure I am somewhat coordinated in regular sparring before I attempt the next step).  Anyone?  In fact anyone old and novicey in the 145 zone want to just weigh in so we all can arrange to meet/spar whatever?  Maybe this is a separate thread but I am tired of administering the old lady sh*t lol...

[NewThai]

It's iver 18 or under 18 for WKA, and if you're 35+ then you need a more comprehensive pre-tourney physical to make sure you're okay to compete. As far as I'm aware they only separate the juniors by age for this tournament. One teammate is 37 and he is in the same mix as the 18-20's on our team. I'm under 35 still so definitely part of the mix.

[threeoaks]

It's iver 18 or under 18 for WKA, and if you're 35+ then you need a more comprehensive pre-tourney physical to make sure you're okay to compete. As far as I'm aware they only separate the juniors by age for this tournament. One teammate is 37 and he is in the same mix as the 18-20's on our team. I'm under 35 still so definitely part of the mix.

Yeah I saw the physical form.  It must have been another context I saw age classes... dangit wish I could remember.

[NewThai]

Well they consolidated weight classes because of the small turnout so now I'm in the 154 bracket for both elbows and no elbows, which is slightly less exciting. I'm going to experience a bit of Sylvie's life in the ring with larger opponents LOL.

[NewThai]

Excuse my French, but what a fucking shit show.

 

 

One of my divisions was cancelled due to clerical errors,and the second was cancelled because the event ran 8 hours past its contracted end time and security shut it all down. I could write a book about how completely and utterly mismanaged this all was.

 

I would not recommend this to anyone.

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Excuse my French, but what a fucking shit show.

 

 

One of my divisions was cancelled due to clerical errors,and the second was cancelled because the event ran 8 hours past its contracted end time and security shut it all down. I could write a book about how completely and utterly mismanaged this all was.

 

I would not recommend this to anyone.

 

So both of your divisions were canceled, one way or another?!

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Excuse my French, but what a fucking shit show.

 

 

One of my divisions was cancelled due to clerical errors,and the second was cancelled because the event ran 8 hours past its contracted end time and security shut it all down. I could write a book about how completely and utterly mismanaged this all was.

 

I would not recommend this to anyone.

Wow, that SUCKS. It's kind of a joke that every year the people who go to the WKAs say "this is the worst year yet and I'll never do it again," but, you know, they say it every year. It's always really poorly organized but this sounds like unprecedented shittiness to cancel entire weight divisions due to time constraints! I assume they didn't refund your application fee either...

I'm sorry you had to have that kind of disappointment and frustration. It's hard enough finding fights in the US.

[NewThai]

I paid to fight in two rules sets. One never happened because I was the only one that actually registered for it. They said online when i registered if there were no opponents in a bracket that they'd close it and refund - but they had names on the bracket sheets. Turns out they were random fighters from other classes and weights who they also posted in that division without telling them until they got their 60 second On Deck warning. They ended up scrapping that division when the first fight got called and the coaches realized the girls were different weights and rules. I feel I definitely deserve that fee back.

 

In full rules we had a four girl tournament. They other three were bigger than me, but I was happy to fight up in weight if I could fight. We had the first two bouts Saturday. Never got to fight for the belt. Even walked around WITH my opponent on Sunday to each officials' desk asking to please let us fight. We waited for over 14 hours that day alone. I feel like I deserve at least half of that fee since it was their mismanagement that kept me from having the second fight.

 

My team had ten fighters each in two divisions and NONE of us fought Friday. The event started four hours late and even then they often had one fight happening at a time when there were three full rings. Started 90 minutes late in Saturday, though they did have some forward momentum. Sunday some of my teammates had to fight 5-8 times because they were so far behind with brackets. Some had brackets of 10-12 guys and they didn't start ANY of those until Sunday and made them bash out multiple rounds.

 

Never again.

[NewThai]

Our first and last, btw. Had heard it was bad, but they moved from Virginia to Queens and seeing it was 9 miles away we thought we'd try...

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

I paid to fight in two rules sets. One never happened because I was the only one that actually registered for it. They said online when i registered if there were no opponents in a bracket that they'd close it and refund - but they had names on the bracket sheets. Turns out they were random fighters from other classes and weights who they also posted in that division without telling them until they got their 60 second On Deck warning. They ended up scrapping that division when the first fight got called and the coaches realized the girls were different weights and rules. I feel I definitely deserve that fee back.

 

In full rules we had a four girl tournament. They other three were bigger than me, but I was happy to fight up in weight if I could fight. We had the first two bouts Saturday. Never got to fight for the belt. Even walked around WITH my opponent on Sunday to each officials' desk asking to please let us fight. We waited for over 14 hours that day alone. I feel like I deserve at least half of that fee since it was their mismanagement that kept me from having the second fight.

 

My team had ten fighters each in two divisions and NONE of us fought Friday. The event started four hours late and even then they often had one fight happening at a time when there were three full rings. Started 90 minutes late in Saturday, though they did have some forward momentum. Sunday some of my teammates had to fight 5-8 times because they were so far behind with brackets. Some had brackets of 10-12 guys and they didn't start ANY of those until Sunday and made them bash out multiple rounds.

 

Never again.

 

That is absolutely incredible. Organizing an event like that seems like a logistical nightmare, I'd think. But that is way, way out of control. Imagine, walking around with your opponent begging to fight for your championship match. You guys should have gone outside and fought, and filmed it. And awarded yourselves your own belt of some kind to the winner.

[threeoaks]

That is absolutely incredible. Organizing an event like that seems like a logistical nightmare, I'd think. But that is way, way out of control. Imagine, walking around with your opponent begging to fight for your championship match. You guys should have gone outside and fought, and filmed it. And awarded yourselves your own belt of some kind to the winner.

So sorry New Thai.  Our gym (as I told you in PM) also said "Never Again".  That story about walking around with your opponent talking to judges says it all.  Just goes to show you how desperate people are to fight in the US if this has been going on for years.  This one is supposed to be better (and not incidentally for me has a senior novice class that actually seems to have some fighters in it):  http://www.tbasanctioning.org/MTC_Benefits.htm

But again New Thai - just appalling.  I have seen kid's karate tournaments where 8 year olds are fighting at midnight (I get from Thailand that seems like no big deal but as a parent I'd kill someone for making my kid wait that long and I am happy to be that parent because privilege yay), and I personally have worked at a tournament a couple times - incredibly confusing stuff but definitely no excuse to waste people's time, money and training like that. I went to a massive fencing tourney on Long Island a few weeks ago which was run incredibly tightly using bracketing software and screens to show what lane your bout was in (my son's bout).  There is probably more money in fencing, you don't have weight classes, and there are the Olympics to shoot for (unlike MT), but there were 28 bouts going on at once, with judging on ALL of them. Seems to be a gaping hole in US Muay Thai. I hope Lion Fight does not go down too (the van Soest no-pay thing was a bad sign). 

[NewThai]

Well she was looking for an opponent on a local promotion this summer so we're hoping to make that happen despite the weight differences. It would feel nice to "finish" my tournament.

[NewThai]

Well, in a surprising move they refunded my registration fee (I sent emails and opened a Paypal dispute that they closed on their own via refund). So I feel better about that at least.

[ilikethai]

According to the brackets they had online they didn't finish almost 50 divisions! That's insane

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Well, in a surprising move they refunded my registration fee (I sent emails and opened a Paypal dispute that they closed on their own via refund). So I feel better about that at least.

That's great! Kevin and I have been talking about this and how the move from VA to NY likely involved a whole new group of organizers. It's bad every year in VA but it must be getting some kind of streamline over years and years of doing it. When I talked to Paul Banasiak the other day he said that the venue was just too small and there was a higher number of people registered. 

[NewThai]

Those were big issues for sure. Not having an identifiable schedule or bracket system were the most traumatic for me as one of the fighters. The cramped waiting spaces weren't fun, but we made some new friends in the cuddle puddles. I was there waiting to fight for 12 hours on Friday, 12 hours on Saturday, and 14 hours on Sunday. I had no idea when or if I would fight, when I could eat or when I should find an empty space to hit pads. It was mentally and physically exhausting.

 

It's over now and I got my money back, so all I can do is warn others about what my team and I experienced, and for them to consider registering for future events very carefully.

[ilikethai]

What about reporting this to the WKA World Headquarters? I find it inexcusable that this happens every single year - some years are not as bad as others but you would think if the person in charge is competent, parts would at least get better...

I found this link online: http://www.wkaassociation.com/contacts/and plan to submit a complaint. Maybe it's time to put someone else in charge that is capable of running this.

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Those were big issues for sure. Not having an identifiable schedule or bracket system were the most traumatic for me as one of the fighters. The cramped waiting spaces weren't fun, but we made some new friends in the cuddle puddles. I was there waiting to fight for 12 hours on Friday, 12 hours on Saturday, and 14 hours on Sunday. I had no idea when or if I would fight, when I could eat or when I should find an empty space to hit pads. It was mentally and physically exhausting.

 

It's over now and I got my money back, so all I can do is warn others about what my team and I experienced, and for them to consider registering for future events very carefully.

 

Sounds like such a complete and utter nightmare. Even in just local shows in NY the weirdly cramped aggravations somehow all felt inhuman in fight shows to me - a reason why we really wanted to move to Thailand - this sounds like that x100.

[NewThai]

Just gonna drop this here:

 

http://www.bruisebrother.com/?p=182