Nafma

Nafma, or the North American Federation of Martial Arts is a sports martial arts circuit prominent in North America. Founded by Jose Torres, the league has recently gained international attention for its regional, state, national, and international competitions. The level of competition in NAFMA is ever increasing, and participating states include New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Hawaii, Maine, and Delaware currently, but participants come and are welcome from every part of the United States. Nafma tournaments typically include a bare minimum of four events; Kata (open hand forms), weapons(weapon forms), Sparring (point, hand to hand), and Stick Sparring (point). These are the four events that are traditionally sanctioned at their international events, such as the 2007 World Championships in Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey.
Nafma holds many different types of tournaments, differing in style( tae kwon do, traditional karate, weapon sparring) and caliber(regional, state, national, international), all which have their own flavor in the martial arts community. The most abundant of these tournaments are those of traditional karate, all which consist of at least the four events listed earlier. Grand championships are also offered at state championships and up, for the first place contenders of all age divisions (13 and up)to compete against one another for a grand championship title. Other events(the most events are at the Nafma national tournament) include board breaking, team sparring, team stick sparring, Filipino forms, Filipino weapons, creative forms, creative weapons, Makoto, self defense, nun-chuck fighting, sword fighting, team demonstrations, and continuous sparring.
Nafma's executive director (Torres) employs state directors to tend to tournaments within their states, those directors include New York State director Datu Tim Hartman, Pennsylvania director Sam Chaar, Hawaii director Tyrone Takahashi, Ohio Director James Lengygel, Delaware director Craig Currington, and New York City Director Ruben Torres.
Rules for such competitions can be found on the organization's web page: http://www.nafma.org/. Rules follow most traditional karate standards, with three to five judges for form events, and Three to five judges for sparring events, which encompass light to medium contact for under belt, and everywhere from medium, to medium-heavy contact in adult blackbelt divisions. The events are broken up by age, then by sex until age 13 (sparring still separate), and in some adult divisions weight; light weight, medium weight, heavy weight(sparring).
Nafma is best known for its organization and participation of international events, in which Nafma traditionally organized a team for the United States. There have been Two different Team USAs so far, competing in the 2006 World Cup in Toronto, and The 2007 World Championships in Mt. Laurel NJ. A new team is selected each year the team participates in a different international event, as to keep the best possible competitors at hand. The requirements to be on the team include: -placing in the top three places in at least one event in a regional qualifier, -placing in the top three places in at least one event in a state championship, -placing in the top three for any event that the competitor wishes to compete in for the international event at the national championships, -placing in the top three in the Team USA team trials in any event the competitor intends to compete in at the international event.
Team Usa has won both of the international events it has participated in, and has had very strong showings in both of their appearances. Team captains include Torres, Tim Hartman, Les Kiersnowski, George Anderson, Allen Cheung, and James Lengygel. Top competitors include Steve Clark, Omar Cass, Ryan Monolopolus, Patrick Shay, Allen Cheung, Benjamin Valdes, Ben Outlaw, and Randy Chambers. All of which claimed at least one World Title at the past two year's international events.

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