2012 Fechtschule America Wrap Up & Discussion

[A Froster]

This is to all the Men and Women who went to Fechtshule America this weekend and put themselves on the line to compete, contribute and represent their clubs & the HEMA Alliance:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
Teddy Roosevelt

[A Froster]

Here are some of the highlights of the event from my perspective.

1) We had fighters from the US, Quebec, British Columbia, Mexico, Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Britain, Japan and Finland as far as I can recollect.

2) As usual the Swedes (and now the Finns) were the life of the party with their good humor, great fighting and athleticism.

3) Jay Vail's three grappling throws in the longsword tournament. Man I was glad to see THAT! We need more grappling at HEMA events!

4) Jean Chandler fighting some of the top fighters in the world and advancing all the way to the longsword semi-finals. That was sweet Jeanry.

5) The cool and interesting conversations with Luis Preto about Jogo Du Pau and also to watch him fight longsword from that incredibly low stance that he if famous for.

6) Meeting Christoph Amberger whose writings and research inspired many important people into HEMA. Also listening to his stories about Mensuren. The test of nerves with sharp swords that still goes on to this day.

7) Matt Galas's lecture on the Fechtschules of the Netherlands Belgium and France. Also his class on the secrets of thrusting.

8) Meeting some really cool guys and great fighters from Schola Saint George.

9) Getting my A** handed to me in the longsword tornament by the fearless Amanda of Spokane Valley. She fought the whole weekend with skill, precision and technique.

10) Watching Jeff Tsay have his hands full while fighting Marianna (I think that's her name) who I will now refer to as "The Little Lion of Mexico".

11) Watching Eric Wiggens and Jason Taylor simultaneously kick each other flat on each other's backs in what could only be described as a cartoon train crash from Looney Toons

12) Seeing our Mexican friends demonstrate techniques from the newly discovered Historical document, thought to be the source of the World Wrestling Federation.

13) Attending Maxime Chouinard's class and learning how to box with an Irish Bata in my hand. This is one cool martial art that everyone should check out. Also having some excellent meetings and conversations with Max on historical stick fighting. He’s a class act.

14) Watching the elegant swordsmanship and skillful precision of standouts like Eric Wiggens, Nathan Grepares, Ben Floyd, Axel Pettersson, Simon & Christian, Arturio, Jon Wolfe, Matt Galas, Jeff Basham, Lee Smith and Jay from Japan. These are the ones that stuck out in my mind, but there were a lot more.

15) Watching Lee's Smith's well prepared contingent from British Columbia fight hard as usual and for Lee, Inc. keeping the St. Patrick’s Day celebration going until 3:00 am in the morning.

16) Riding around completely lost in Houston with Keith Myers and Bennett Chabot.

17) Seeing an already strong bond grow stronger between the WMA Coalition and the HEMA Alliance. It is a testament of what can be accomplished when HEMA works together.

18) The large Louisiana contingent who happened to produce the first and third place longsword champs.

19) Jon Wolfe performing a parat in the middle of his match by flipping his dussack in the air and catching it just before attempting a two handed strike. That was Weird.

20) Attending the best HEMA I’ve been too. Scott Brown and the Houston guys from Schwert Am Schwert left no detail undone in the best organized and executed event I've seen. Let me say that without Scott Brown, this event would have never gotten off the ground. Kudos to Scott.

[Jean Chandler]

repost from my other thread in another subforum:

This was the most intense HEMA experience of my life so far. The lead-up on Friday was the most brutal crushing grind I've been through since going through boot-camp 26 years ago. The fighting itself and the party afterword were the best fun I've had without being in the immediate presence of a naked woman in probably at least 5 years. What a fascinating group. All of the people I talked to were folks I've love to be able to spend 3 days with just socializing. Also, the introduction to the new martial art by Carlos and Artouro was not to be forgotten.

I'd like to give shout-outs to Michael Edelson, Jeff Tsay, Jay Vail, Maxime Chouniard, Carlos Chavez, Omar Zaragosa, Sam Street, Luis Preto, Lee Smit, Axel Petterson, Hal Siegel, Richard Taylor and Wayne Heinz, all of whom I had particularly interesting, engaging conversations with this weekend. I'm proud to call these people my friends.

I'd also like to thank Scott Brown, the Darce's, Dakao Do and Matt Galas for all their efforts in putting the event together.

And Eric Wiggins and his Ordo goons, Christian Trosclair, Lenny Zimmerman and Bily "Sword Cop" Tregel for bringing so much honor to Southeast Louisiana.

Jean

EDIT: I'm sorry I missed the fights you described, I wanted to see the girls fighting longsword, I was fighting in the other ring. Sunday I was judging for a while in dussack and saw Amanda fight there, she clearly has some skill. Wish I could have seen Jay throw those guys too.

It was great to see you this year Alan and to know that that you won some fights.

[zarlor]

It really was a great event. Being up and close and personal refereeing that double-kick described above almost had me on the ground laughing. I had a hard time catching my breath to asking the judges for a score on it!

Overall everything went fairly smooth, although some of the tournaments certainly went a bit long. Mainly that was just due to how many people had entered so that's not the kind of problem I consider to be a bad thing! Overall it was fantastic to see so many people of varying levels of ability out there. It's always great to see the top fighters show their form (some of which I've long been on the receiving end of) but it's also heartening to see so many new faces putting it out there, showing what they've learned and figured out. It's been my experience that even the newest person getting into HEMA has something to teach us and I was so incredibly happy to see everyone well embraced in camaraderie. This being the first large HEMA event I've been to (I can't help it, other things keep coming up!) that was truly heartening to see.

A big highlight for me was also seeing some of the great gear coming out. PurpleHeart IIIs may almost be old news now, but they speak to only the beginning of seeing some top notch gear aimed straight at what we do. I was very stoked to see some new options for fencing jackets/gambesons and the prototypes of new gloves, especially. All of which also helped to add to the atmosphere of just how legitimate and growing this sport really is.

I have to admit I'm not much of a tournament kind of guy (I did plenty enough of that in the '90s fighting rapier) but I was starting to regret not jumping into at least one of them at FA. Everyone really seemed to be having a lot of fun and that, and a good learning experience, are what I really look to get out of fights like those.

All of the classes I attended were also very well done. Nice selection of teachers and material. (Now get even more Bolognese classes in there for me, next time! )

Great job and big kudos to Scott Brown and especially to Dakao and the folks at Schwert am Schwert for hosting this event.

The biggest kudos have to go to Jean Henri Chandler however. Not because he won the highly coveted 3rd place in the Longsword Tournament or anything, but for being the driver the whole way there and back! (What can I say... I hate driving. )

[Myles Cupp]

All of the classes I attended were also very well done. Nice selection of teachers and material. (Now get even more Bolognese classes in there for me, next time! )

And more rapier classes!

I have to say that the Bolognese class was instrumental in being able to be king twice in the S&B tournament. So, I owe a great deal of my success, as modest as it is, to Steve's excellent instruction and drilling.

[zarlor]

I wouldn't be too averse to more rapier in general. I'm just sorry I never really got to do any rapier work with anyone while I was there. I was going to get Dakao to do some sparring with me (and wipe the floor with me, at that) but we never found the time. I didn't see too many other folks with rapiers there, but I did talk to quite a few folks who were really interested in doing more rapier, which I was kind of surprised by. I've had rapier on the back-burner for so long I just never noticed that a lot more people seem to be getting interested in it again. I may have to shake the rust out of my rapier skills and see if I can even get back just a good hint of what I could do 12 years ago!

[Steven Reich]

I have to say that the Bolognese class was instrumental in being able to be king twice in the S&B tournament. So, I owe a great deal of my success, as modest as it is, to Steve's excellent instruction and drilling.

Music to my ears! Seriously, it was great having you (and everyone else) in my classes. I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to cross swords--I really didn't figure all of the time and logistics of freeplay at this event and ended up not having time to do any. I promise to rectify that next time we meet, then you can make me feel like a fantastic instructor by using all the material I teach you to kick my ass.

Steve

[Jean Chandler]

There was a beautiful moment on Sunday in a break between the pools and the finals in the Dussack tournament, I snuck outside to rest my weary legs and a bunch of us were laying on the grass. Lee Smit and somebody were fencing rapier, and then Amanda and Percia were fencing longsword, and then a couple of other people were fencing rapier agian. The skill level was really good, but the fights were friendly rather than intense and brutal like in the tournaments... the weather was beautiful, it was under this lovely tree. My sore knees didn't hurt at all, and I barely noticed my bruises. It was like some dreamy fencing heaven. Then Scott made me go back inside and judge the finals which was horrible* though I guess necessary.

* judging was horrible, the finals were great. But it's hard to enjoy them when you are judging. (but I realize it's a responsibility to do it.)

J

[Steven Reich]

judging was horrible, the finals were great. But it's hard to enjoy them when you are judging. (but I realize it's a responsibility to do it.)

I must be the only guy who feels this way, but I actually enjoyed judging at FA. I guess that saying that dooms me to judge at every event I go to from now to eternity...

Steve

[JohnPatterson]

I really feel like I missed out on something exilant. Anyone have tournament footage up?