Hop, Kick and a Stomp : 5th Annual State Martial Arts Championship in Oxnard Hosts 300 Students

Michael MacDonald should have known better than to lunge at Penny Smith with a stick in his hand.

Not only did the 20-year-old Smith ward off the attack and disarm her would-be assailant, she added insult to injury by nailing MacDonald with his own weapon.

Luckily for MacDonald, who taught Smith the kung fu techniques she used in her defense, his attack was simulated, and so was Smith’s defense.

Smith’s aim on Sunday was not to injure her teacher but to impress the judges during the 5th Annual California State Open Martial Arts Championship in Oxnard. It worked, and the yellow-belted Smith took home a first place medal.

“We take the techniques from an actual form we practice, and then we try to apply its practical uses,” said Smith of Santa Barbara. “Some of it is done for looks--for the judges--and there is a little bit of flamboyance thrown in, which not all the judges like, but I think it’s more fun that way.”

The self-defense competition was one of about 160 events held Sunday during the martial-arts tournament, which drew more than 300 students of hapkido, tae kwon do, kenpo karate and other disciplines to the Oxnard High School gymnasium.

During the tournament, which was broken up into a number of age and skill groups starting with 6-year-olds and progressing up to adult black belts, contestants from Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties screamed, stomped, chopped, blocked and kicked with one thing in mind: victory over competitors from other disciplines.

The rivalry was not hard to decipher. Kung fu experts were dressed in black and students of hapkido tae kwon do wore bright red. Other tae kwon do students wore various combinations of white and other colors.

The martial artists showed off forms--set routines of fighting moves that become increasingly difficult with higher rank--demonstrated their prowess with a variety of weapons and finally donned soft rubber pads to protect themselves while they put their training to use during head-to-head sparring matches.

Tournament coordinator Manny Montez, of the Way of the Orient Martial Arts Studio in Oxnard, said the sparring competition is the tournament’s main draw, although he stressed that studying martial arts is excellent for physical fitness and confidence building.

“The majority are here for the free-form sparring,” Montez said. “They want to fight, and they want to be able to defend themselves.”

Because most martial arts students study only one discipline, tournaments such as the one held Sunday expose them to styles that they are unlikely to come up against in their studios, Montez said.

“They don’t just learn to combat one style here,” Montez said, “they open up to everything else out there.”

The sparring is as close as most will ever come to using their skills, which they are taught to only use in self-defense.

“I’ve never been in a situation where I had to use kung fu to defend myself, and I hope I never will be,” Smith said while readying herself for her sparring matches.

“If I ever was in that type of situation, I guess I’d try to use just enough force to either disarm him or flee,” she said.

Adam Heede, 17, of Oxnard, who tied for first place in his division after demonstrating the use of a thin, six-foot stick called a bo, said the practice could come in handy someday.

The bo, Heede said, is similar to the sort of weapon that he’d probably use if ever confronted in a fight. “I like the bo because it’s practical,” said Heede, a junior at Hueneme High School.

“It could be a broomstick or something,” he said. “And I’d be a lot more likely to find something like a bo than a pair of Japanese scythes if I needed one.”

Dustin Hurshaman of Ventura tied Heede for first place in their category after demonstrating the use of a six-foot spear topped with red feathers and a sharp-pointed knife.

Heede, who has studied kung fu for a year and other martial arts for about five years, said the sport can “help you in your daily life.”

“You learn to combine mind, body and spirit--to make them one. This is not just something I do for self-defense.”

Most of the contestants at the tournament, which featured multitudes of three- to four-foot-tall karate wizards, had probably not spent as much time philosophizing as Heede.

Nick Butcher, 11, of Ojai said he has fun competing in the form exercises that he has practiced for three years. Nick, who took third place in the form contest, said he would someday like to be as skilled as Jeff Speakman, who stars in his favorite karate movie, “Perfect Weapon.”

“It’s more fun to compete in forms than to fight,” Nick said as he adjusted his red headgear, handgear, footgear and shinguards.

Nick’s friend, 9-year-old Patrick Cayaban of Oxnard, disagreed. Saying there is “not too much impact when you get hit,” Patrick, a karate yellow belt, said sparring was definitely more “Perfect Weapon”-like.

“I like sparring more, because I’m more aggressive,” Patrick said.