Thursday, March 28, 2024
39.0°F

That's 'win' as in Winland

by ELLI GOLDMAN HILBERT
Staff Writer | April 4, 2022 1:09 AM

SPIRIT LAKE — Having the last name of Winland may have been a clue that 12-year-old Alannah wasn't about to lose.

Still, her instructor Mike “Ziggy” Siegfried said the karate phenom simply doesn’t realize how good she is.

At her first ever tournament in Puyallup, Wash., on March 19, Winland took home a silver medal in weapons forms and a bronze in the point sparring competition. She was competing against boys who were older and more highly ranked.

“She made a really good representation of herself,” Siegfried said. “And of Idaho. We were the only Idaho competitors.”

A student of Siegfried’s for the past two years, Winland attends Martial Arts Unlimited Karate Studio. She practices Filipino Martial Arts and Kenpo Karate and has achieved the rank of an orange belt.

Kenpo uses a ranking system that includes white, yellow, orange, purple, blue, and green, followed by three degrees of brown and 10 degrees of black belts.

Because there weren't enough female competitors in her age group, Winland’s parents and instructor decided to allow her to compete against older and more highly ranked competitors. In the karate world, it's known as “fighting up,” Siegfried said.

A retired police officer, Siegfried has been teaching martial arts for 30 years. One of his specialties is teaching “verbal judo,” or the art of diffusing conflict through conversation, he said.

Winland handled herself beyond her two years of fighting experience, he said.

“She was really good,” Siegfried said. “I wanted to share that with the rest of the karate world.”

COVID-19 put a damper on the number of tournaments being held during the past couple of years. They're just now re-opening the circuit, Siegfried said, which made the Friendship Invitational Karate Tournament a great opportunity despite the almost six-hour drive.

Winland lives and trains in Spirit Lake and will compete in multiple tournaments in Oregon, California and Las Vegas later this year.

“I came to compete. I want to compete,” Winland said. “I came to fight.”

photo

Photo courtesy of Mike Siegfried

Martial arts instructor Mike "Ziggy" Siegfried and his young protege' 12-year-old Alannah Winland. Following Winland's first karate tournament, she walked away with a silver and a bronze medal, despite competing against older, male competitors with higher ranking than she has.