MY EXPERIENCE AT THE 2014 US OPEN AND WORLDS

Good Morning Everyone

2014 US OPEN Championships Cobourg Tae Kwon Do Jonathan FieldWell another year at the US OPEN, ISKA Worlds, and USBA/WBA Worlds has come and gone. Spent an entire year preparing for this tournament after not performing the way I had liked back in 2013. Well this year was completely differently. That is for sure.

8 of out 9 team members flew down to Orlando Florida this past Thursday to the Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort. Home to the US OPEN and ISKA Worlds every year. We spent Thursday traveling, picking up registrations, getting our boards, team practice, and setting up for my new world record attempt. It was a pretty long day but that is all part of the game. Putting in long hours is what it takes to become a champion.

Friday was the first day of competition. Rise and shine really early to get to the main competition room. The lightweight competitors had to weigh in to make sure that yes indeed we were under the 200lbs mark. Lightweights are 199.9lbs and under and the heavyweights are 200lbs plus. I weighed in at 145lbs.  We did a rules meeting and started competing shortly thereafter.

My first event was high jump board. Ended up competing against my team mate Todd. I took 1st and he got 2nd. He did a great last jump too. Impressive. Following my first event I had to do my second world record. I was attempting 50 unspaced pine boards with a palm strike as fast as I could. Ended doing it in 10.5 seconds. Right after James Trinka attempted to beat my old record that I set last year of 107 unspaced boards in 30 seconds with a heel stomp. He was unsuccessful in his attempt so my old record still stands. He put in a great effort. Great job James. Shortly after I got to do my second event, power wood hand. Ended up second in that event. Third event was power wood elbow. Won that one. Surprised myself on that one. Normally I am not an elbow person. Following this was my fourth event which was power concrete elbow. Third for that event. Last event for me that day was power wood kick which is one of my absolute favourites as I love to kick and kick hard. Well I won that one too. Had to make up for losing it last year. So that concluded my first day at the US OPEN level and USBA/WBA Worlds. I also got to watch and support most of my team mates compete throughout the day. It’s very hard to do with so many different events running at the same time.

The second day was the ISKA World Championships for me. This being filmed for ESPN and other sports networks. Well we started early as per usual to accommodate television tapings. Started with Three Directional Power Wood. Won the first round but just missed out the second round to win second place at ISKA Worlds. Following this I competed in Power Concrete Kicking. Once again won the first round and just missed out on the second round to take third place at ISKA Worlds. This year was exciting as I got to go head to head against a legendary breaker, Shihan Larry Fields, 33 time world champion. Shihan dropped from the heavyweight divison down to the lightweight division this year. We were going head to head and the crowd really got into it. Made the competition a little more interesting.

Later that evening my team Shawn and myself helped two of my buddies, Master John Zurisk and Master Drew Serrano with their World Record Attempts being filmed at the Night of Champions and live on ESPN3. Master Serrano broke 34 out of 38 concrete patio slabs with three different strikes in less than 10 seconds. Incredible! Mr. Zurisk broke 8 out of 9 2X4’s with a side kick in 10 seconds. That’s a powerful kick. Mr. Serrano is the co-Founder of the USBA/WBA and multiple time ISKA World Champion. Mr. Zurisk runs a karate academy inIndiana and is also a multiple time ISKA World Champion. Both great guys. I am blessed to be able to hang and compete with them and call them my friends.

So sunday morning I flew back to Canada with 3 US OPEN Champions, a 2nd and 3rd at the US OPEN, 3 USBA/WBA World Championships, a 2nd and 3rd place at ISKA Worlds, and a USBA/WBA World Record Belt. This makes my stats as 8 Time World Champion, 10 US OPEN Champion, and 2 Time World Record Holder. This was a successful career so far but watch out cause I am not done yet! 🙂 I am so proud of our Team Wolverine for bringing home 20 US OPEN Championships and 5 USBA/WBA World Championships. They did awesome this year. Only going to get better next year too! With their efforts this year we brought our team stats up to 28 US OPEN Champions winning 81 US OPEN Championships in the past seven years, 4 World Champions bringing back 15 World Championships, 2 World Records, and a competition record. Way to go everyone!

I would like to thank Grandmaster Ralph Bergamo and Master Drew Serrano for running another Awesome tournament at the US OPEN as well everyone that helped. John Zurisk, Larry Fields, Clinton Murphy, Karen Smith, Elton Trower, Danielle Serrano, Danielle Perice, John Warmund, Adam Gorgin, and anyone else I missed. Thank you to Chris Lee and the other ISKA officials for an awesome ISKA World Championship day. And thank my team mates for all the hard work you put into this year’s competition and for supporting one another. Mikaela Lavoy, Charlotte Kerr, Brady Clarke, Shawn Heeley,  Todd Smelt, Eryn Smelt, Amber Smelt, and Katrina Shupka. And thanks to my parents for their love and support of me and the team. Larry and Brenda Field.

And thanks to the following sponsors.

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