An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 33 WOMAA 2016 WOrld GAMes by SGT SEAN HACKETT, 27 INF BN O n 30th July 2016, two Kyushoshin ju jutsu teams from Romania and Ireland came to- gether to compete in the WoMAA 2016 World Games in Essanbach, Germany. As a senior instructor in the art and the administrator for Kyushoshin Renmei International, I attended the games as an invited official along with Joe and Martin Carslake, the two founder members of the system. I am a Yondan (4th dan) black belt in Kyushoshin ju jutsu and I travel regularly to Sweden, Romania, Great Britain and Sicily to teach at international seminars. As well as officiating and refereeing at the WOMAA games, I also entered the Masters katana (sword) kata event in the Classical Traditional section, which is very different to the super-fast weapons spinning and screaming that many people are familiar with, in that it deals with real situations that occurred on the battlefield when these weapons were foremost. The katana kata that I entered was one I designed myself, and it won me a gold medal. A fellow team mate took the silver medal, and in total Team Kyush- oshin took a total medal count of 128, with 78 golds. about the author: Sgt hackett has nearly 27 years' service. he was with 29 Inf bn until it was disestab- lished in 1998 and has since served with 27 Inf bn. Sgt hackett has a broad range of military qualifications and expertise, including the Javelin, LFtt and recce. he is currently Pl Sgt in the Anti-Armour Platoon, Sp Coy. he has served overseas on several trips to Lebanon, bosnia, Kosovo, Liberia and Chad. made up Team Ireland. To Matthew's surprise, Andy approached him to fill one of the places and in April he started training for the event, firstly by checking out videos of the previous year's finals. "At first I was intimidated by the quality of the fighters," Matthew says, "but when I looked around at the quality of the team I was with, the best in Ireland with many Irish/UK titles, I started using their quality to train myself to their level. Team Ryano has a lot of European fighters who do a lot of groundwork as that's part of their schooling, so sparring sessions with them was a help. It was hard but I hoped the results could be great for club and country." In Las Vegas there were 32 competitors in Matthew's weight class, which meant a lot of matches over the next six days to get to the finals. He also had to weigh in every morning and pass a prefight medical. In his first fight he beat his French opponent by rear naked choke before getting a unanimous decision over a Polish fighter in his second fight. Next up was a New Zealander, who he beat to reach a semi-final against another Polish fighter. "This was going to be my most difficult fight so far as he knew a lot about me from his fellow countryman that I had previously fought," Matthew said. "I had also picked up a shoulder injury that prevented me from throwing left punches." Despite this, Matthew emerged victorious and earned his place in the final where he was considered the underdog, coming up against a highly experienced Bulgarian fighter with World silver and Euro- pean gold medals, and with 20+ fights under his belt, a lot of them at World level. The final, fought over three three-minute rounds, saw the Bulgar- ian looking to pin Matthew to the canvas and go for the submis- sion. However, Matthew used his jiu-jitsu to get out of the hold and sweep his opponent, taking the back position and winning by technical knock-out in the third round. Matthew is now the World Amateur Light Heavyweight Champion at 93kgs. Like Steven Carr, Matthew also expressed his gratitude to his col- leagues and superiors for facilitating his training regime. L/R: Matthew Sheenan, Andy Ryan and Steven Carr

• Cover