The final day of WEKAF saw Mariah winning both her fights on the way to winning her second World title in Double Stick. Well done and well earned. 
She showed the spirit we all new she had and demonstrated all the improvements her coaches had put into her.
She jumped out to an early lead and established the superior attitude and there was no denying her this title. Make no mistake, she had to earn it.
Erin was tough and Bonnie from Australia did the Aussies proud as she was a real game fighter. Mariah did her infamous over the top drum pounding on Bonnie’s shoulders in the first round and raised one absolutely nasty lump on her that I worked out with Balur later. Seemed only fair.
Then Cole had to fight former classmate, Matthew. Their last meeting was at Nationals in ’06 where Cole dug deep and prevailed. At this circuit’s Feb. Nationals Mathew got the bye and Cole won his first fight so Matt fought the looser and lost. So they never fought. The 2nd place qualifier got hurt in training and didn’t make the trip so Matt took the open slot.
This time Cole got the bye. I’m guessing because Cole was the top qualifier from the US.
Matt fought a player from GB and did a bang up job demolishing him by constantly coming forward (as I advised him to do after watching the guy fight SS). 2 disarms on the way to a dominating win. Had to be good for his confidence.
Now it was down to Cole and Matt for the title. What Matt didn’t know was Cole was now a completely different and far more savy fighter. In the past much of Cole’s fighting prowess was from natural ability and sheer fighting spirit. That changed after some time with Bobbe, Mushtaq and Cody.
He was also heavily training in MMA and his strength, confidence and stamina was way up.
He really buckled down and trained hard for this one. We spent a great deal of time on learning how to be in the moment and deal with whatever is happening in the most superior way. Never get stuck in a plan but impose your will.
Based on my experience, we went over a lot of what if scenarios and how to turn them to your benefit. I have to say, Cole executed the plan expertly.
Used his left stick to block with extensively (few fighters do this) and then countered high and low. Constantly went for a left hand disarm. You may never get it but it rattles the other guy when you are able to come close so many times. There is one attempt at 1:17 of round #3 where it looks like Cole did a particularly hard lock to Matt’s hand and you can see Bong point it out. But if you watch closely you can see Cole hooks only the stick and turns his body to pull it away. At the exact time, Matt turns the other way, thereby badly wrenching his own hand. Well executed by both. Matt didn’t get disarmed but it had to hurt. Cole gave him little choice, disarm or pain.
He used devastating leg shots, never backed off, constantly kept the pressure on and kept Matt on his heels backing up. All things we worked on. I asked the judges afterwards and the things they saw that made them give him the win were exactly the things we had worked so hard on. I did feel bad for Matt as I’m sure he worked just as hard and you can see me tell him after the decision. Both fighters told the other how much better they were now afterwards.
But I gotta say, you can see just how much better Cole was. Thanks for helping coach Mariah.
Navadisha footwork btw
She showed the spirit we all new she had and demonstrated all the improvements her coaches had put into her.
She jumped out to an early lead and established the superior attitude and there was no denying her this title. Make no mistake, she had to earn it.
Erin was tough and Bonnie from Australia did the Aussies proud as she was a real game fighter. Mariah did her infamous over the top drum pounding on Bonnie’s shoulders in the first round and raised one absolutely nasty lump on her that I worked out with Balur later. Seemed only fair.
Then Cole had to fight former classmate, Matthew. Their last meeting was at Nationals in ’06 where Cole dug deep and prevailed. At this circuit’s Feb. Nationals Mathew got the bye and Cole won his first fight so Matt fought the looser and lost. So they never fought. The 2nd place qualifier got hurt in training and didn’t make the trip so Matt took the open slot.
This time Cole got the bye. I’m guessing because Cole was the top qualifier from the US.
Matt fought a player from GB and did a bang up job demolishing him by constantly coming forward (as I advised him to do after watching the guy fight SS). 2 disarms on the way to a dominating win. Had to be good for his confidence.
Now it was down to Cole and Matt for the title. What Matt didn’t know was Cole was now a completely different and far more savy fighter. In the past much of Cole’s fighting prowess was from natural ability and sheer fighting spirit. That changed after some time with Bobbe, Mushtaq and Cody.
He was also heavily training in MMA and his strength, confidence and stamina was way up.
He really buckled down and trained hard for this one. We spent a great deal of time on learning how to be in the moment and deal with whatever is happening in the most superior way. Never get stuck in a plan but impose your will.
Based on my experience, we went over a lot of what if scenarios and how to turn them to your benefit. I have to say, Cole executed the plan expertly.
Used his left stick to block with extensively (few fighters do this) and then countered high and low. Constantly went for a left hand disarm. You may never get it but it rattles the other guy when you are able to come close so many times. There is one attempt at 1:17 of round #3 where it looks like Cole did a particularly hard lock to Matt’s hand and you can see Bong point it out. But if you watch closely you can see Cole hooks only the stick and turns his body to pull it away. At the exact time, Matt turns the other way, thereby badly wrenching his own hand. Well executed by both. Matt didn’t get disarmed but it had to hurt. Cole gave him little choice, disarm or pain.
He used devastating leg shots, never backed off, constantly kept the pressure on and kept Matt on his heels backing up. All things we worked on. I asked the judges afterwards and the things they saw that made them give him the win were exactly the things we had worked so hard on. I did feel bad for Matt as I’m sure he worked just as hard and you can see me tell him after the decision. Both fighters told the other how much better they were now afterwards.
But I gotta say, you can see just how much better Cole was. Thanks for helping coach Mariah.
Navadisha footwork btw 
Note that Cole touches gloves here too.
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