SELF DEFENSE

Junior Choreographed Fight (N-57)
Kevin Nebeker and Alexandra Pyles were the main contenders again this year. Pyles with her Star Wars themed skit trounced Nebeker in the elimination by an incredible two tenths of a point, the biggest scoring difference between first and second in the eliminations in any division. But in the Grand Finale the reigning champion came through once again as Nebeker with his Matrix themed performance earned the highest scores from all seven judges leaving him on the championship throne. Nebeker trains at Allstar Karate under Darren Cox while Pyles trains at Elite Combat under Heather and Dean Pyles. Joanne Coady of Black Dragon in Ireland took third.

Adult Choreographed Fight (N-58)
Whatever little Alexandra Pyles didn’t accomplish her dad did. Dean Pyles of Elite Combat in Virginia went to the Finale stage against the Black Dragon Team of Ireland where skit leader Gary O’Farrell performed a barrage of aerial attacks on his opponents ending with some flavorful Irish dance. Despite the luck of the Irish, the good versus evil skit by Pyles won the division and his first title. Joanne Elliott of Niagara Falls, Canada took third.

Junior Traditional Self Defense (N-59)
Black uniform versus white, Kenpo against Japanese, Sasaki’s team led by Ernie Robledo tied against NBL rookie Ryan Shields of Savage Sport Karate in Canada, not once, but twice in the eliminations with a deciding vote taken by a show of judges hands. Robledo won the show of hands. In the Grand Finale scoring was again close to even with Shields taking a one one-hundredth higher score to win his first NBL world title. Jamie Nakamura, also from Sasaki Kenpo, took third place only missing the tied first place in the eliminations by one one-hundredth.

Adult Traditional Self Defense (N-60)
Only one one-hundredth of a point separated each of the winners from second to eighth place, but David Denov was the run away victor of the eliminations placing four one-hundredth above second place. Denov never skipped beat, mutilating, mangling, beating and crushing his poor uke into submission to top Marilen Cruz of Sasaki Kenpo who wasn’t quite so rough on her victims. The sad part is that Denov’s name is going down in history while his abused partner will probably never be remembered. In fact we don’t even know who the poor soul was. Denov runs Kingsbridge Martial Arts in North York, Ontario. Dean Pyles of Virginia was third.

BREAKING

Junior Breaking (N-61)
It seems this title can end up in almost anyone’s hands each year. Sometimes it just depending upon whether those darn boards and bricks want to break or not. This year the title reverted back to the 2002 champion, Jerry Duncan from Doug Armstrong’s Mountain View Karate Center. He popped cement blocks as if they were styrofoam. Runner up was last year’s champion, Mike Spizzuco, of Egg Harbor, New Jersey. Third place was taken by Vaughn LaVoice of McKenzie’s Lions Den in Pennsylvania.

Adult Breaking (N-62)
Armstrong’s MVKC made a clear sweep of the junior and adult breaking world titles this year as Mark Johnson took the adult division topping last year’s champion David Cantrell of Tennessee. Sometimes I think that some of these contestants are either crazy or mental cases. They break concrete slabs with their head, bend metal rods with their neck and plow threw piles of concrete with their bare hands. No thank you – I’ll just watch, I’ve only got one head and it’s wearing out fast enough with less physical challenges. Steve Shockley also of MVKC took third.