The North East
Open is the only event of its kind in the Capital District as
well as in upstate New York. This annual event brings together
martial artists & enthusiasts of ALL styles for one big weekend
of competition, demonstration and enlightenment.
Now in its
third year, The North East Open is the most anticipated martial
arts event in the region for 2009. While most new events take
years to build a rapport, the extensive planning and community
effort that went into last two years event set a standard that
can now be looked forward to each and every year.
Many
events exist for athletes of specific styles of martial arts,
but few events bring athletes of
different training backgrounds together. Open tournaments have
been around for years, but the
North East Open is the only one to currently take place in the
upstate New York area.
In this
day and age, there is an overwhelming amount of ego associated
with the martial arts. Students tend to have almost too much
pride in their school, style and instructors. Rather than
offering a competition with the attitude of “finding out who is
best”, our tournament’s goal is to open up competitors’ eyes to
the beauty and strength of all different styles of martial
arts.
With an open-minded approach, we have already started to change
the way we think about martial arts training. All martial art
styles, regardless of focus and origin, are a family. Martial
artists focus on improving their character through physical and
mental practices while building self defense skills. Each style
just has its own approach, different ways and philosophies of
accomplishing these goals.
All martial artists regardless of style, strive to build
self-confidence, courtesy, modesty and better character. What
better way to illustrate these than by meeting and performing in
the presence of a diversity of martial artists.
Statistics indicated a rapid growth in children turning to
individual-oriented sports such as snowboarding, bmx biking,
rollerblading and MARTIAL ARTS. With this steady surge in
participation, this event will be one avenue for growth of
traditional martial arts styles as well as modern creative
evolved styles within our area and surrounding.
