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Kaitlyn Brown
Kaitlyn Brown expressed interest and began her Karate career at the age of 8. She enrolled at the local dojo of Mr. Summerfield’s Family Martial Arts in Sept. 2000. It was with her Sensei’s guidance, patience and encouragement that she grew to appreciate, understand and respect the traditions of martial arts. She worked very hard through the ranks to earn all her coloured belts. She entered her very first tournament - The Arnold Battle of Columbus 2003 winning gold, silver and bronze medals. Her love, dedication and desire to excel further into martial arts have since been unstoppable.
Kaitlyn studies, trains and practices daily under the skilful eye of Hanshi Albert Mady of Mr. Mady’s Karate School to enhance her natural skills and ability. She currently ranks and holds a 2nd degree black belt in Isshinryu karate. She is also a proud member of the Canadian National Martial Arts Team under the expert supervision of the Canadian Director - Professor Tom Shamuon. She has travelled and competed with Team Canada for the past 3 years in Puerto Vallarta, Dominican Republic and in January/07 competing in Cancun, Mexico winning a bronze medal at the 2007 World Goodwill Martial Arts Games. In 2005, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico was her first world competition at the Goodwill Games Kaitlyn was a 2 time bronze medalist (weapons & kumite) and in 2006 at the World Cup in the Dominican won a gold medal in kumite .
Kaitlyn’s tournament experience all began in the Windsor and Detroit area where she began to excel in all aspects of the martial arts with weapons being her favourite event (bo) followed by kumite and then kata. With all her hard training and expert supervision she continued to advance her skills in all 3 of these events and soon was dominating any tournament she went into in all 3 events. She then proceeded to go into larger tournaments throughout Ontario and Ohio and continued to excel in her events. Kaitlyn’s highlight in tournament activity as a brown belt was winning the Canadian Championships in kata and kumite and being named Grand Champion for her division. This is when Kaitlyn was asked to try out for Team Canada , as they had been monitoring her from other tournaments they had seen her compete in . Upon trying out for the team and being selected was really the start of Kaitlyn’s karate skills going to the next level.
Kaitlyn received her black belt promotion 2 weeks before her 13th birthday after 5 years of hard but fun training. She continued her tournament routine travelling all over the U.S.A. (Florida, Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee, NY, Pennsylvainia & Ohio) to name a few states and had great success in her travels. There were also many heartbreaks in these travels but as Kaitlyn’s karate focus grew, so did her maturity in these events and she just prepared herself better for the next competition. This attitude is from the expert instruction she was receiving from her instructors especially Hanshi Mady . (more on Hanshi later)
In 2005 Kaitlyn’s tournament experience started to hit its stride. Her first big honour was being nominated and then winning International Competitor of the Year by the Universal Martial Arts Association in Houston, Texas. She was nominated by a group of her peers that had seen her compete in many events in the USA and also at the Goodwill Games. Here they also held the World open Karate championships and Kaitlyn won 2 gold medals, silver and bronze in her 4 events. Later that summer at the AOKA World Championships in Chicago Kaitlyn followed her 2004 performance of gold in kumite, silver in weapons and third in kata with second in weapons,kumite,and 3rd in kata. Also in the fall Kaitlyn was again nominated and won Junior National Black BELT competitor of the year by her peers representing the Cosmopolitan Hall of Fame in Florida . Her last major event of the year was the USA Kyokyshin Full Contact championships in Rochester NY. where she won first place in all 3 of her events and also competed in the full contact continuous fighting for the first time. It was at this time that Kaitlyn started her full contact ,bare knuckle traditional fighting career .
As mentioned earlier Kaitlyn started the new year of 2006 off with a gold medal and World championships with team Canada in the Dominican. In between this time and early summer Kaitlyn began instructing students under Hanshi Mady’s guidance and also began training in the world of full contact karate . In early summer Kaitlyn competed in Tennessee at the Isshiryu Hall of Fame tournament and at the awards banquet was honoured with Female Junior Blackbelt of the Year honour along with Junior Karate Ka of the Year. She followed this with competing at the World Karate Union Hall of Fame in Tannersville, Pennsylvania winning 2 gold and a silver metal to go along with winning Junior Black Belt International Competitor of the Year. Next was Kaitlyns most exciting tournament of the year, the AOKA ISSHINRYU CHAMPIONSHIPS in her hometown of WINDSOR, Ontario. Here with many friends and family watching Kaitlyn compete in a karate tournament for the first time, she led the opening ceremony off with her open BO routine and when bending down with her knee hit an electrical switch and dislocated her knee cap ending her day. Only enlightening event of the weekend was the night before at the awards banquet the AOKA honoured her as Junior Back Belt of the Year, and this meant a lot in front of a hometown crowd. After rehab and a doctors OK Kaitlyn competed in Florida at the Cosmopolitan Hall of Fame tournament and was also nominated for a second year running as Female Black Belt Competitor of the Year. Not only did she win as competitor of the year, she proceeded to win 5 firsts, 3 seconds and a 3rd place in the open tournament. Here she was able to do full contact, point ,continuous and, kickboxing and she took first in all these events. She also won traditional weapons and Chambra, with second in open weapons kata and grappling ,to go along with weapons and fighting grand championship. Next and last tournament of the year was the USA KYOKYSHIN CHAMPIONSHIPS in Rochester where Kaitlyn placed second in kata, first in weapons and first in continuous full contact fighting.
2007 brought Kaitlyn another award when she attended the Universal Studios in Florida and she was nominated and won Female-Form - Competitor of the Year by the most prestigious groups in the martial arts world “The World Family Sokeship Coucil”. This prestigious group is made up of the highest ranking Masters from around the world and because of Kaitlyn’s outstanding records and success in competitions world wide that she won this award.
In June 2007, Kaitlyn travelled to Tannersvile, Pennsylvania for the WORLD KARATE UNION CHAMPIONSHIPS AND AWARDS banquet. It was here that she was inducted into the competitor’s Hall of Fame as she won Female Black Belt of the Year for the second year running. Also at the tournament held here with a top field of competitors she took two - first place medals and a second place medal as well.
In June Kaitlyn was told by Hanshi Mady she was being tested for her second degree black belt by Hanshi Mady himself and what a test it was .First off everyone who knows or has met Hanshi, all know what a nice pleasant person he is ,WELL THIS IS NOT THE GUY THAT DOES BLACK BELT TESTING, and to her dad’s delight, Kaitlyn got to experience a true test of knowledge and abilities under probably the most pressure she had ever come across because right from the start, Hanshi would only accept perfection from her and nothing less. In all my time watching at the dojo and all other promotions done I had never seen Hanshi so focused on what he wanted and expected out of Kaitlyn.
The testing was so intense that on breaks for water people watching could not believe themselves the pressure Hanshi was putting on Kaitlyn to perform and how focused he himself was. People even questioned Hanshi when he came out on how intense he was, and he was not like this at previous black belt testing, and his reply was “because it’s Kaitlyn” and she is different from other black belts. She survived a total of 5 hours of testing and successfully got her second degree black belt. Also a special note is that at the club only a couple females train
on a regular routine , so most of Kaitlyns training is done with experienced male fighters who do not hold much back.
In July 2007, Kaitlyn was in Chicago for the AOKA North American/World Championship and won two - 1st place in Weapons and Kumite as well as a 2nd place in Forms. She was also awarded Grand Champion for Blackbelt - 17 and under, which included competing against the males for this honour.
August 2007 brought about another trip and competition at the Twin Tower Memorial Tournament held in New York City where she placed fourth (out of 12 overall) in her competition against 16 - 18 year old second and third degree black belt opponents.
September 21&22, 2007 Kaitlyn travelled to Newark, New Jersey where she competed in the Isshinryu Karate World Championships . She had been nominated and won the award for “Outstanding Female Competitor - Kumite”. To be selected by her peers of Isshinryu karate from around the world is a tremendous honour.
In October 2007, Kaitlyn competed in Rochester, New York and won , in particular, a 1st place trophy for weapons and kata .She also competed in the adult women’s full contact fighting for the first time (only 16 years old) and won her first 3 fights with the second ending in a 6 second knock out only to forfeit the championship due to injury. In between all these major tournaments, Kaitlyn has also attended smaller events throughout Canada and the United States too numerous to mention.
As well, October 2007 was Kaitlyn’s most treasured moment was when she was nominated and won Female Athlete of the Year at the 3rd Annual WESPY Award - Windsor Essex County Sports Person of the Year. This was a huge achievement being acknowledged among local outstanding athletes and winning this prestigious award within her own home town! It was the first time a young female athlete was recognized in the sport of martial arts to win this award. It was a great accomplishment for Kaitlyn as well as her sport of martial arts!
In May of 2008, Kaitlyn was nominated and won National Female Fighter of The Year (for the second straight year in a row) by The World Head of Family Sokeship Council with the banquet held in San Antonio, Texas.
In June 2008.Kaitlyn was again selected as a National Finalist as Competitor of The Year by The World Karate Union . However because of other commitments she was unable to attend. In between these events and from the start of the new year Kaitlyn competed in and again won many smaller tournaments throughout Ontario ,Ohio and Michigan.
In August 2008, Kaitlyn competed in the American Okinawan Karate championships in Charlotte, North Carolina where she won the female Kumite (fighting ,undefeated in 3 matches) for the second year in a row. This is the world championships for her style of Isshinryu karate - so these successes are held in high acclaim with all the Grand Masters attending this event .
In October Kaitlyn competed in the South Florida Karate Championship in West Palm Beach and in an outstanding competition won first in open and traditional weapons, second in kata and second in point fighting .As talked about earlier with tournament heartbreaks and judging in the kumite final against an opponent from Puerto Rico the match finished on time and Kaitlyn was clearly the winner on points, however the scores were mixed up on who was being given the points and Kaitlyn lost. Her reaction was oh well everyone here knows the real result , no big deal, I am still having fun. This I truly believe not only comes with maturity in competitions and what to and not to expect but is a reflection of the instructors and teaching Kaitlyn is receiving . This was followed by a nomination as Female Athlete of the Year award which she had won the previous year at our areas WESPY awards which honour the areas best athletes in all categories of sports including Olympic Athletes. She was not selected the winner this year but is a true honour to be one of the 3 finalists. The following weekend saw her in Rochester NY. At the yearly USA KYOKYSHIN CHAMPIONSHIPS where she took second in adult women black belt kata, first in open weapons and first in continuous full contact fighting. Hense the end of the 2008 season.
Kaitlyn is a respectful, studious, dedicated, compassionate and caring young woman who volunteers her time, energy and skills to work with young children. She encourages them to be the best they can be and instils confidence and self esteem in themselves. Kaitlyn has been invited to attend and perform demonstrations at numerous community events and festivals as well as various charities to help raise funds for sick children. Kaitlyn is always ready to lend a helping hand and gives of herself for the enjoyment, and satisfaction of helping children and promoting her sport.