Fresh off of a strong performance at last month’s AAU Super Regionals, Chris Welbon’s karate team is ready for an even bigger stage.
The team will go to the AAU Karate Nationals July 3, in Fort Lauderdale, and look to recapture last year’s success.
“Every year, we come back with lots of medals,” Welbon says. “Last year, we had several national champions. I don’t expect this year to be different.”
Last month, in Fort Pierce, head coach Brian Warren led the team to several medals and event wins. One competitor, Julie Karlson, was even named first overall in her division. Warren chalks it up to everyone’s great individual efforts, and a lot of hard work.
“Every other week, we have training on Friday nights or Saturday mornings,” he says. “Three hours of sweat, tears, blood. Jump rope, ladder drills, pad
drills, sprints in the parking lot, kata training, hard fighting.”
And, from the kids, the excitement is visible. Just watching them practice at the school, one can practically feel the energy from the other side of the room.
“I think anybody from the team can make a big splash here,” Warren says. “They’ve been training hard. Anybody can do well if they put their mind to it. They’re talented kids. They all may medal gold — you never know.”
Warren and Welbon expect big things from the entire team, and a few of the competitors are especially excited for the upcoming tournament.
STAYING ON TOP
Julie, 11, a brown belt, enjoys competing in all events. She’s most familiar with kata, or a showcasing of form, and kumite, which is standard sparring. Last month, her first-place finish in kata helped land her the title of best in her division.
She’s now up for a fairly new challenge, though. Julie began training with weapons about two months ago and, coming off of a win at Super Regionals, now will test her skills against many more kids.
“There was only one other person in Fort Pierce,” she says.
Now, with around 2,000 people expected to compete in Fort Lauderdale, she has been studying film of her past fights to perfect her form.
“I just prepare with my coaches,” she says. “They work on the stuff that we’ve done in the matches. They see all the mistakes, and we just work on it over and over again.”
As a first-level weapons user, Julie will be using a bo staff — the long, wooden staff most famously used by Donatello, one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
“You go up in different stages as you get into higher belts, and then you use different weapons, like nunchaku and sais,” Julie says.
Her main goal is to win some gold, but she also hopes to learn a thing or two from the competition.
“I’m looking forward to seeing new people and seeing how they fight,” she says. I was used to, like, four people, and now there will be 20 people.”
Although Julie likes competing in every event, two of the other big winners at Super Regionals — the Padron brothers — are all about the kumite.
BASH BROTHERS
Alvaro and Sebastian Padron were used to wrestling with each other at home when they found karate two years ago. A year after Alvaro, 14 and the older brother, started taking classes at Chris Welbon’s school, Sebastian, 10, knew that he wanted to jump right in.
“I just wanted to get (Alvaro) back for hitting me every day,” he says.
No, they don’t hate each other — it’s just boys being boys, and they felt that channeling that energy into karate could be useful. And, they were right — both boys came out on top of their divisions in kumite at Super Regionals.
“I like it,” Alvaro says. “You get to hit people. Kata’s not really my thing. After I do kata, I’m like, ‘Time to get my game on.’ I like fighting.”
Alvaro also said Sebastian could really make some noise in his division next week. As a left-handed fighter, the younger Padron often takes his opponents by surprise to win his matches — just like he did to win last month.
“Nobody thinks he’s left-handed,” Alvaro says. “So, when he fights, all he does is just roundhouse kick them in the back, and he wins.”
“I made two kids cry,” Sebastian adds.
For two kids competing in a national tournament seven days from now, the brothers could not be more calm. One only has to talk to them for about two minutes before it’s clear they believe they will win.
“I’m looking forward to getting my game on,” Alvaro says.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
THE ROSTER
Of the 13 competitors, 11 have been on this stage before. Only two — both in the Beginners divisions — are newcomers.
Nick Gorman, 18 (Advanced)
Peter Nguyen, 15 (Advanced)
Emmarie Gaudet, 13 (Advanced Female)
Ryan Bjelke, 15 (Intermediate)
Jakob Arnold, 15 (Intermediate)
Alvaro Padron, 14 (Novice)
Julie Karlson, 11 (Novice)
Joey Spitler, 11 (Novice)
James Timberlake, 11 (Novice)
Nick Karlson, 10 (Novice)
Robbie Spitler, 9 (Novice)
George Humphrey, 21 (Adult Beginner)
Sebastian Padron, 10 (Beginner)