NY Gekken Tournament
So the NY Gekken tournament has ended. It was a great turnout to say the least. First and foremost, thank you again to Mike and Sherry Femal for donating the awesome prizes. Made me want to fight in it for myself to win those prizes. Also thank you to Douglas Firestone sensei for letting us use the space. Congrats again to the winners 1st place Alex Odell, 2nd place Rob Groce, and 3rd place Ivan Slavov.
The reason why I set up this tournament was mainly because I wanted people to be uncomfortable. What I mean by this was when you practice with the same people for so long, after awhile you come to learn their habits, their tells, and utilize them. When you meet someone new, and if you got into a duel with them, I doubt you would have that long to figure those things out that fast. If you're confident, then you should be able to make your opponent do what you want to do. This is why I made this event, where the tournament part was first and after that was the practice session.
Some people fight very well in their school setting, so it was very interesting for me to watch how they did under pressure. Certain folks rose up, while others not so much. In this tournament, we made mutual hits have a negative connotation by having them work against you to get into the semifinals.
For myself, since I was judging, all I could do was watch. Watching people fight under pressure, I must say started to get my blood boiling. I wanted the tournament to end and practice begin as soon as possible so I could jump in and fight as well. When the tournament ended, I changed immediately and picked up a sword right away to start sparring. It felt quite refreshing to have that feel.
While everyone showed great spirit, one of the big stand outs to me was the HEMA longsword group that came to the tournament. They might use different techniques and are used to a different weapon but they were fine using the gekken swords and didn't complain. They used the rule set that we used and fought quite well. To me what made them stand out to me is that during practice, even if they got hit, they were not afraid to use the techniques that they learned in class. Unfortunately in many JSA styles, it's just kata and forms. I understand why this is the way it is but from my perspective, most of the times it looks empty because of this. How do practice pressure when the receiver does what they do because they have to? Sometimes, you have to see if you can make it happen through pressure like many katas teach you, and then bring that back into practice. Otherwise, it seems empty. This is why I was quite happy that the longsword guys were able to come, and display this and share that spirit.
Afterwards we went out for drinks. We drank together, chatted about technique, hardships, experiences etc and it didn't matter what school you were from, or what sword you use. We're all in this for many of the same reasons and that's what really makes love picking up my sword.
The reason why I set up this tournament was mainly because I wanted people to be uncomfortable. What I mean by this was when you practice with the same people for so long, after awhile you come to learn their habits, their tells, and utilize them. When you meet someone new, and if you got into a duel with them, I doubt you would have that long to figure those things out that fast. If you're confident, then you should be able to make your opponent do what you want to do. This is why I made this event, where the tournament part was first and after that was the practice session.
Some people fight very well in their school setting, so it was very interesting for me to watch how they did under pressure. Certain folks rose up, while others not so much. In this tournament, we made mutual hits have a negative connotation by having them work against you to get into the semifinals.
For myself, since I was judging, all I could do was watch. Watching people fight under pressure, I must say started to get my blood boiling. I wanted the tournament to end and practice begin as soon as possible so I could jump in and fight as well. When the tournament ended, I changed immediately and picked up a sword right away to start sparring. It felt quite refreshing to have that feel.
While everyone showed great spirit, one of the big stand outs to me was the HEMA longsword group that came to the tournament. They might use different techniques and are used to a different weapon but they were fine using the gekken swords and didn't complain. They used the rule set that we used and fought quite well. To me what made them stand out to me is that during practice, even if they got hit, they were not afraid to use the techniques that they learned in class. Unfortunately in many JSA styles, it's just kata and forms. I understand why this is the way it is but from my perspective, most of the times it looks empty because of this. How do practice pressure when the receiver does what they do because they have to? Sometimes, you have to see if you can make it happen through pressure like many katas teach you, and then bring that back into practice. Otherwise, it seems empty. This is why I was quite happy that the longsword guys were able to come, and display this and share that spirit.
Afterwards we went out for drinks. We drank together, chatted about technique, hardships, experiences etc and it didn't matter what school you were from, or what sword you use. We're all in this for many of the same reasons and that's what really makes love picking up my sword.
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