On the 14th and 15th of August 2014, a fighting seminar on experience exchange in full-contact was held in Bucharest – Romania with the participation of Master Mircea Boldea (7 Dan in Kick Box and Karate, Senior Instructor in Muay Thai, 4 Dan in Ju Jitsu, General Secretary of Romanian Vovinam Viet Vo Dao Federation, Professor in physical education), Master Vittorio Cera (EVVF Technical Director), Master Ichim Viorel Vasile (member of EVVF Technical Commission) and Master Gabriel Nechita (EVVF President). Many principles of full-contact fighting were covered during 4 sessions in 2 days. Please see the feedback of Master Vittorio Cera after the seminar:

“ In my career in Vovinam and martial arts, I had many seminars with many masters, not only from Vovinam or Vietnamese martial arts, but also in other styles and in many Fight Sports, so my experience is large enough to understand when I have in front of me someone who can really teach to me something. During my practice, I had more technical competitions instead of the fight competitions, however I have never refused to fight in some international competitions, and with many different rules compared to the new rules we are using now, so my fighting style is not exactly the right one for this kind of new fighting rules.

During the last seminar in Milan, with the EVVF President – Master Gabriel Nechita, we discussed about the Vovinam fight, about how we can have a real full-contact fight but with the Vovinam rules and skills. Master Gabriel Nechita proposed to organize a fighting seminar in Romania with the help of the Romanian coach of their Federation, Master Boldea. I knew Master Boldea only by some meetings during some competitions, but nothing more. I didn’t know about his experience as well as he was the one who follows the Romanian Vovinam Fighting Team. I found the idea very interesting, because we need to be open-minded, and not closed in our martial art. Martial arts have developed because people open to share experiences, so this is the moment, the real development in Europe, and why we talk only about the technique, Vovinam is fight also, martial arts must be fight! We tried to organize a seminar that is open to all the EVVF members, but for a late organization due to some unexpected circumstances, we could not do it. I decide to have some training with Master Boldea in Bucharest at the beginning of my holiday. Joining with me, there were Master Ichim Viorel Vasile, an assistant of Master Gabriel Nechita who is also a student of Master Boldea, and of course, Master Gabriel Nechita.

We had about 9 hours of training in two days. Of course, with many explications about the full-contact style in fight, how to approach to the real full-contact with Vovinam, so it was heavy, but not too much. Master Boldea has a so big experience that you can feel it immediately when you enter in the gym. The training I had with him was one of the most interesting and productive teaching about the fight I have ever had. We worked a lot with the punching techniques, because in martial arts, many times people think more about kicks and forget how important it is to know how to use the punches in the fight. Master Boldea arrives from martial arts, so he knows exactly which kind of work and training we have to do to teach a punch to our students. He also knows very well the program of Vovinam. When we talked together about Vovinam, he knew exactly what I was saying, so he didn’t try to change my style in fight, but he worked on me as a teacher who has to go to teach to someone who has already had a fighting style. It was one of the most important points that I liked in his lessons.

In the future, as the Technical Director of the EVVF, I hope our federation can introduce him in an official seminar for our teachers and masters in order to exchange the experience together and, of course, to learn something really interesting from a man who works in the middle of the fighters.”