The World Martial Arts Federation is an organization of professional martial artists. Their goal is to highlight the skills and diversity of the martial arts of today as a unified and coordinated collective, and to give it the exposure that it deserves.

WMAF conducts martial arts tournaments twice each year in May and November at the Reggie Lewis Arena in Boston. These tournaments draw hundreds of participants from all over New England and sometimes from as far down south as Florida.

The contests attract students from the different martial arts schools in the area, be they from the disciplines of karate, tai chi, or kung fu. The event opens with group demonstrations by students of these schools and by inspiring solo performances of world masters. This is followed by students’ contests that happen simultaneously in 14 rinks all over the stadium. Contests are held to test proficiency in forms, sparring, and weapons’ techniques and are organized by age-group and experience level. Each contest is judged by three masters who rate each participant and the first four winners receive trophies. There are stringent rules of behavior and sportsmanship to be followed by all participants to ensure healthy and fair competition.

Masters of Karate of Newton is a well-known martial arts school run by Senseis Matt Goodwin and Jesse Cabrera. Several students of this school won awards in the “Advanced Forms” and “Advanced Sparring” categories for their age group. Some of the winners/participants are presented in the attached photographs along with the teachers and their details are below.

1)    Simran S. Khanna (Age 11, Red belt): Placed third in “Advanced Forms” for ages 10-12.
2)    Hari Narayanan (Age 9, Brown belt red stripe): Placed first in “Advanced Forms” and third in “Advanced Sparring” for ages 8-9
3)    Raghav Kadambi (Age 9, Brown belt red stripe): Placed third in “Advanced Forms” and second in “Advanced Sparring” for ages 8-9
4)    Rishi S. Khanna (Age 9, Brown belt red stripe): Placed second in “Advanced Forms” for ages 8-9
5)    Sriram Narayanan (Age 8, Green belt): Participation trophy in “Intermediate Forms” for ages 8-9

These children have been pursuing karate since the age of 4 and attend classes three times each week apart from practicing at home. It was wonderful to see their happy smiles when their hard work paid off at the rink. Hearty congratulations to the teachers and all the winners and participants!

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