ComBATON to Hold 2nd Annual Championships at Disney Martial Arts Festival in Orlando, Fl

Oct. 1, 2009 - PRLog -- Developed by black belt Steve Blanton, ComBATON is a unique martial art team sport that is played on an indoor rectangular field. ComBATON is a demanding full contact martial arts team sport. Players may be experienced in Tae kwon do, Kung fu, Mixed Martial Arts, Kickboxing and so on but most practice taekwondo. There is an MMA aspect to comBATON so grappling skills are helpful.

There are two teams each with three players that defend their goal at each end of the field. The baton, a flexible cylinder tube 14 inches in length and 2 inches in diameter, is the focus of the game as would a basketball, football, hockey puck, etc. would be for their games. The team with possession of the baton is the offense. The objective of the offense is to get down field and score on their opponent?s goal. The objective of the defense is to stop them and/or force a turnover.

The offensive team gets three attacks (plays) in which to get down field and score on their opponent's goal. During each attack the baton can be thrown only one time to a teammate, but can be handed off as many times as necessary. Going down the field the game has similarities to American football, but instead of blocking and tackling, the players are kicking each other. In order to stop the player holding the baton, also known as the "shooter," a defensive player or players must kick with sufficient power to either impede, alter their course or knock the shooter off his or her feet.

If the offense makes it down field and crosses over the 12 meter line (12 meters or 39 feet from the end boundary line) into that area known as the strike zone, they will receive a full clip. A full clip is 3 attacks in which to score on their opponent's goal pole.

The game is different from other martial arts sports because they team players must work together on the field. Videos of the game may be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/combaton.

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comBATON is a Martial Arts Team Sport. It is also known as Martial Arts Football. All players are martial artists and may be trained in Karate, MMA, Taekwondo, Kung Fu, etc.