Spirit of the Arts Open Tournament

On October 21st, 2012 I stepped into The Clyde Park Event Center located in the Clyde Iron in Duluth, MN.  As I walked into the room, covering the floor was what looked to be tumbling matts on two sides of the room, and a table lined with trophies on the back wall. This was going to be the first time I was going to shoot a Martial Arts tournament. I was pretty excited I hadn't been around this sport or their tournaments since I had last fought in a Martial Arts tournament myself when I was 10 years old. There was easily 100 kids under the age of sixteen and a lot of adults as well, and I believe most of the crowd was made up of parents of the participants. They were all  wearing different colored belts from a beginners white, to a Grand Masters black belt, these belts represent their status in their academies. Stefan & Stephanie Stein of Mattevi Martial Arts Academy and their two children, their son Colin age 13, and daughter Daniela, age10 were the organizers behind this event.  All four of them wear their black belts very proud and I could tell by watching their children perform that they had defenitely worked hard to earn them.

Daniela and Colin Stein

The tournament started at about 10:30 am and was finished at 5:00 pm, but there was so much to watch and learn from that it was hard to ever put my camera down. They started with Adult Black and Jr Black Forms, then all Belts Weapons, Team, and Creative Musical Forms. After that we had about an hour lunch break in which this time I tried to spend time deleting photos and taking photos of some of the kids that had placed in the tournament up to this point and had trophies awarded to them. 

Jumping Jim Bussen Grand Master Black Belt performing his Black Belt form.

A 17 year old black belt  performing a weapon form with his sword

After a break for lunch we moved on to the Opening Ceremony, Color Belt Forms, and then some Single sparring and Team sparring to close the tournament. During single sparring I met this woman's father and learned that she had come all the way from Thunder Bay, Canada to participate in this event and that she had some rather high credentials. Sydnie Wolotko age 18  who wears a brown belt had just recently competed at the World Kickboxing/Karate Competition in Montreal, Canada and in her weight class -60kg she had won the bronze medal. So after hearing this I was even more anxious to see her spar.

 Syndnie Wolotko preparing herself to spar whoever they put in front of her female or male she told me she  did not care.

Syndie Wolotko sparring against Jumping James Bussen and defenitely holding her own, unfortunetaly she was out pointed but it was a close match. But at the end of the day she still took back to Canada with her two 1st place trophies and one 2nd place trophy, so I guess you would have to say the trip was worth making it down for. 

If an event like this interests you or you would like to take up this type of sport you can contact 

Stefan or Stephanie Stein at Mattevi Martial Arts Academy

102 Belknap St. 

Superior, WI 54880

(715)-394-5425