Recent changes in New York State law have made ALL martial arts competitions which include any form of application event (point sparring, continuous sparring, kickboxing and San Shou) ILLEGAL! unless sanctioned by a small group called the "approved list"

The law is available online at:
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?ul=11

The ammendment to the current law (Section 5A) states that the only legal "martial arts" competition will be ones sanctioned by organizations on the New York State Athletic Commission's (NYSAC) "approved list".

According to Hudo Spindola, General Counsel for the New York State Athletic Commission, only these organizations can legally run events in NY State. Furthermore, the commission has not established any process by which other organizations can be added. If you are
not one of the above organizations, they will send police to shut your event down!

Voice your opposition to this ridiculous list and the fact the commission will not add any new martial art organization to the list. You can do any or ALL of the following.

Call and write the commission, including sending emails.

New York State Athletic Commission

123 William Street

20th floor

NY NY 10038

(212) 417-5700

fax (212) 417-4987

Email: HSpindol@dos.state.ny.us

Sign an online petition

http://www.petitiononline.com/sanshou/petition.html

Please be professional and factual when contacting NYSAC. Thank you!

I signed the petition, but I don't agree with the way the petition was done. It is presented from a San Shou persepctive. As a result, there are people on the petition who are claiming that the actions of the state athletic commission are racist. They think this because they believe that only Chinese martial arts competitions are being outlawed. The ruling of the athletic commission has nothing to do with race because they are not just singling out chinese martial arts competitions. The problem is larger than just San Shou or chinese martial arts. It affects all combat sport competitions outside of Boxing. The petition would be more effective if it were presented in a more diverse way.

i have no problem with the race card being played. at least to break the inertia. right now they are saying "no. and that is final. no reason. just no. by the way, no comment."

the race card might force them to say a little more like "we're not racists. we're just idiots."

if anyone is playing dirty pool, it is the NYSAC.

once the snowball is rolling, then we can think about diversity.

Brian, I chose San Shou specifically for several reasons

1. YES, the race card, sad but true, when you call a government agency racist it has an effect. Also, the race issue can (we are trying) get the Chinese consulate involved, as they have involved themselves in similar issues in the US in the past (the CA laundry laws for example). That kind of pressure can work wonders

2. We chose san shou because currently it is IOC recognized and possibly a demo sport in 2008, that also carries weight

but the reality is, once the law is challenged successfully, it opens the doors for other challenges, so everyone should support this, even if they don't care at all about San Shou

I am hearing that this law is now getting challenged from all over the place, man, it's a mess :)