Guelph's Nathan Skoufis will be out after a championship in one of the few martial arts tournaments that has eluded him as an adult.
This weekend Skoufis will compete in the annual Warrior Cup Challenge in Chicago.
“It’s the longest-running martial arts tournament in North America,” the 22-year-old said. “It’s one of the top tournaments in the world that everybody tries to win.”
Skoufis, who has competed in the tournament several times before, is the lone Canadian in the welterweight karate division and he’ll enter as the top seed.
“I’ve won my division before as a junior,” he said. “It was one of the few tournaments I did lose last year. This year I’ll be entering No. 1 from the past tournaments. Chicago was the first tournament of the year last year an d after I lost, I didn’t lose the rest of the year.
“Going to Chicago, obviously win is No. 1. It’s one of the few tournaments I haven’t won as an adult and one of my goals is to win every tournament that’s out there and this is one of the few that’s left.”
To keep fit and ready to compete in the 25 or 26 tournaments he competes in a every year, Skoufis has to balance a busy schedule. He’s a fourth-year business student at the University of Guelph and he also teaches at his own Guelph Family Martial Arts centre in the north end of the city.
“That’s the difficult thing, balancing my time with university and teaching,” he said. “I think martial arts is one of the few sports you have to be in it 100 per cent because I think if you don’t prepare yourself the right way it can have a huge impact. I am motivated to train all the time, but I think you just have to fit it in. I have my routine and I have a good team around me, a small circle I keep close – my family, friends. I just try to get everything in I need to in a day.”
That usually means doing schoolwork in the morning before classes and training before and after his teaching sessions.
That kind of a routine can develop a mental toughness, something that Skoufis feels gives him an edge over his opponents.
“The biggest advantage I think I have over everybody else is the mental toughness,” he said. “I think there are a lot of people who are really skilled and I think there are a lot of people who are really accomplished. I don’t think there are a lot of people that I see that when maybe they reach that obstacle in their way they will be able to push past it, persevere past it. I think that’s the No. 1 thing that I’ve learned from martial arts.”
You also have to stay on an even keel.
“You can never get too low and you can never get too high,” he said. “The losses are going to come, but you’re never truly defeated unless you allow it to alter your life.”
