To All Players and Friends! Nimen Hao!
I thought I'd let you all know about Magic Tortoise's recent experience at the 5th Annual, Dragon Year, CACMA (Carolina Association of Chinese Martial Arts) Tournament. CACMA, a federation of schools in the Charlotte, NC area, sponsors two regional tournaments a year, and we in the Magic Tortoise Taijiquan School have been, for the past three years, responsible for organizing the taijiquan, weapons and push-hands events in both the Spring and Autumn competitions. This "Fall Classics Kung Fu Tournament," held on Nov. 18, 2000 in Mooresville, NC, and hosted by the Si Lum Pai Hung Gar Kung Fu Academy was a splendid event and very successful by all Magic Tortoise standards.

We were able to refine our new form competition format and implement our even newer limited-step, single hand push-hands event. Dr. Jay devised both these new formats which were based on the understanding Master Jou left us as his legacy.

We began the tournament activities by organizing all the participating taijiquan schools and competitors in a grand, multi-form demonstration of various styles of quan, weapons and two-person sets that covered the auditorium floor in a moving taiji spectacle! We then went on to a full day's worth of events divided into beginner and advanced categories, weapon divisions, and four push-hands events, two each of men and women's divisions. We ended the day with a demonstration of soft-sword sparring that will be included in the Spring Tournament, scheduled for downtown Charlotte in early May (CACMA plans for this tournament to be a 2-3 day event meant to coincide with a city-wide Asian Festival...).

I'm very pleased to report that our Magic Tortoise students, 6 in an overall field of 40, conducted themselves with pride in the competition, garnering 8 medals overall, 6 first place and 2 third place. Gabrael StClair won 1st place in beginning quan; Kathleen Mottus came in 3rd in push-hands light division; Nina Maier placed 3rd in advanced quan as well as 1st in push-hand light division; David Jenkins represented our school with excellence placing 1st in advanced quan, weapons and push-hands light men's division; and Ron Thrower gained 1st place in push-hands men's heavy division! Congratulations to them for all the hard work they put in the weeks leading up to the tournament. I'm also very proud of the job done by Allan Rosen and Keith Hoover in their first tournament appearance, and both Gabrael and Kathleen in their first push-hands competition.

Lastly, I want to thank our senior students who volunteered their time as judges: veterans Dan Pasek and Bo Strain, and Bob Roth and Frank Chandler, making their judging debut. Also appreciated was the heavy lifting done by score keeper Chris Friedrich and time keeper Bob Hassett. I also want to extend a special thanks to Eric Sbarge of the Hall of Peaceful Dragon School and Tom Efird, the good AiPing of Waxhaw, for their judging assistance.

So, that's the brief report I wanted to share with all of you on the weekend events just past. Let's get more Magic Tortoise students involved in the next CACMA tournament...as well as push-hands and weapons study!
  ---- LaoMa