The I.C.M.A. Academy's team of 10 sport stickfighters went to give a demonstration of the full contact sport of stickfighting at the Clipsal Powerhouse Stadium in front of a capacity 5000+ crowd at half time during an exciting basketball match.

The ICMA Team members all fought with and without protective body armour, and they all fought for 3x2 minute hard rounds, and with 30 seconds rest break between.

It really was stickfighting at its best there!

When the I.C.M.A.'s team of 10 awesome full contact stickfighters walked out onto the center court of the Power House's Basketball Stadium so as to start the stickfighting demonstration

in front of the capacity crowd, the spectators did'nt really know what to expect, but when the announcer told them that that it was going to be a demonstration of the Filipino Stickfighting,

the crowd thought that it was going to be similar to that of Japanese Kendo Stickfighting, but when they saw the incredible speed of the sticks from the fighters present, they were all very surprised with what they saw, and then the crowd roared with their great approval of it all.

It was unbelievable to get such a massive and energetic response from a crowd that had never seen sport Filipino Stickfighting before, and they just loved what they saw the Stickfighters doing there at the basketball games half time break.

 The crowd gave the ICMA stickfighters a loud standing ovation of applause for appreciation when the team had completed the Filipino Sport Stickfighting Demonstrations there.

They all loved the demonstration there that nite at the Powerhouse Basket Ball Stadium, home of the Adelaide 36'ers!

Sensei Mario Pastro acted as the announcer for the ICMA Stickfighting Team, and then he explained about the the rules and regulations for Sport Filipino Stickfighting, and also told

the crowd about the truly fantastic efforts of the Australian Stickfighting Team at the games of the 2007 Cacoy Doce Pares Eskrima World Federation's Stickfighting Titles in Jakarta.  

The crowd cheered when they heard how the Australian Team won most of the Gold Medals for the full contact fighting at the 2007 World Stickfighting Championships held in Indonesia. 

Sensei Mario Pastro also spoke about the Supreme Grand Master Ciriaco 'Cacoy' Canete and Cacoy Doce Pares Eskrima which is a Filipino martial art system of Cebu, Philippines.

The I.C.M.A. Academy's demonstration team consisted of the following 'Champion' class of fighters from the International Combative Martial Arts Academy in Welland, South Australia.

• Grand Master Vince Palumbo (World Champion)
• John Moore (World Champion)
• Andrea Wheatley (World Champion)
• Vickie Simos (Silver Medalist at World Championships)
• Michael Harris (Silver Medalist at World Championships)
• Steven Sarkissian (From the Cacoy Doce Pares Eskrima School in the USA!)
• Melissa Lopresti (World Champion)
• Tony Salerno (South Australian Champion)
• Vlad Mihal (Silver Medalist at World Championships for over 50's pision)
• Barry Jamieson (Silver Medalist at World Championships for over 50's pision)

When both Grandmaster Vince Palumbo and John Moore did a demonstration of 'KULATA' stickfighting, the crowd once againroared with approval, especially when they saw these two fighters going at it without the use of any body armour, and with both using their rattan canes covered with a thin strip of foam, which is still very painful on the unprotected body of the two stickfighters, and everyone could see fast painful action over the 3x2 minute rounds.

The 5000+ crowd was in absolute awe when they saw the welts and bruises on the skin of John Moore and Grandmaster Vince's body's during the fight, and the crowd could really appreciate just how very painful this type of sparring was, so they gave these two fighters an almighty cheer and applause of appreciation for them.

THESE WERE THE BOUTS DEMONATRATED THERE:

*Andrea Wheatley and Vickie Simos fought with 2 sticks 
*Melissa Lopresti and Tony Salerno fought with 1 stick          
*Vlad Mihal and Barry Jamieson fought with 2 sticks              
*Mick Harris and Steve Sarkissian fought with 1 stick

*GM Vince Palumbo and John Moore in the 'KULATA' challenge

Below, GM Vince Palumbo and John Moore fought two of the rounds with single stick, then the last round with double sticks.

This demonstration of the Filipino sport stickfighting prompted much positive feedback to all the team of stickfighters from I.C.M.A.A. school of martial arts, and it is so obvious that everyone enjoyed the Demo.

Grand Master Vince Palumbo's International Combative Martial Arts Academy is in Welland in the state of South Australia, and now there's been appointments made for more stickfighting Demo's.  

Stickfighting is an exciting sport!

A big thankyou to GM Vince Palumbo and all his Cacoy Doce Pares Eskrima Stickfighters from the I.C.M.A. Academy, for all the hard work they are doing to promote this fine art of Filipino Full Contact Stickfighting and the martial art of Cacoy Doce Pares Eskrima too.