I seldom post on the public Forum here due to my numerous other site commitments and member tasking, but wanted to take the time to add this.
The 2011 Gathering was a blast. My thanks and appreciation to everyone who helped make this a huge success.
The learning, camaraderie, martial spirit, physical discipline, humor, courtesy, and total lack of pretense displayed by virtually everyone was refreshing and inspiring.
My sincere gratitude to all the Houston staff who worked for so long to make this happen (Kyle, Kim, Gene, Stacy, Tom, Sydney, Erich, Wes, and everyone else). Their commitment and dedication is really something to admire.
I have to offer my thanks to all the instructors and all members who came together for this.
I especially want to extend my thanks to the presenters, Tom, Miguel, and Parker for their contributions.
We had over 70 member participants among the 80+ attendees.
We will get our full report up with photos and video highlights as soon as they are ready.
The continued evidence of our curricula's impact on the overall approach and method nearly everyone employed to one degree or another was unmistakable. Again, the quality of participants and their skill level is increasing with each Gathering. And I concur with Aaron that this one was the most fun yet.
Personally, I was happy to meet so many new faces and see so many familiar ones. I wish I could have spent time with each person and possessed the energy and stamina -- mentally, physically, emotionally -- to do so. It's challenging to enjoy myself at this while being pulled in a half dozen directions and still keep an eye on matters of curricula. But I did have a lot of laughs and acquire a few insights.
The long awaited roll out of our Ringen program was beyond expectation. I was really impressed. Worth the wait. The dagger, spear, side-sword, and assorted instruction was spot on.
The group battle simulation at the end of the final day was a blast. It presented a few surprises, and with the scale of participants involved this time I even made some interesting observations beyond what I previously experienced with this. Even as silly as it got I think the core teaching value of the experienced was still maintained. Quiet a lot of fun.
I was happy to finally share some aspects of the Krump that I had been long sitting on waiting and wondering if they would be discovered elsewhere. It was good to see they had the expected impact. Same for the other elements and lessons I was excited to be able to bring. Some really good stuff there I know for sure everyone will be digesting for some time. Also, it was great to at long last share some of my specialized Schwertnemen technique interpretations, though I only got to cover one third of what I wanted to pass along.
I want to apologize for the scheduled classes that were not presented as planned, and the ones that were missed entirely. But, shields does not mean bucklers, and side-swords are not exactly arming swords, so we have to go with what we have. With event like this we are still learning as we go and sometimes things fall through the cracks or don't come off as originally envisioned. I ask your understanding. Timing is almost always the enemy (Several times I found myself with time but no students free or students ready but no time or equipment). Sigh. I think for the next one I will definitely reduce the number of sessions I teach and instead just make myself widely available for everyone in a way I can't during seminars. This should make for things to be more adaptable.
A salute must go to Keith C. and Joey M. for their impressive Prize Playing results.
Solid displays of skill before their peers. Well earned, guys. Keith played an impressive 85 total bouts in an astonishing 44 minutes with 67 wins and only 18 total losses (3 by mutual hit). His endurance seemed inhuman and his good natured spirit never faltered. Joey played a new record of 93 total bouts with 72 wins in a mere 41 minutes with 21 total losses (with about 7 of them draws). Many of his bouts were nothing short of exemplary of perfect technique and principle. (I could not help but feel proud.) Amazingly he later discovered he broke a finger in the middle of the bouts (!). Appreciation to everyone who assisted in running the Prizings.
Kudos to Erich W. for displaying astounding discipline and martial spirit in responded to a wound (for there is no other thing to call it) during the Prizing with Keith that would have reduced lesser men to whimpering. The accident speaks to him more so than any matter of safety, equipment, or control, none of which were factors in my opinion.
Let me also congratulate our teachers and our prizers as well as new scholar adepts (both full and provisional): Jonathan Lockwood, Parker Brown, Tom Augenthaller, BenMorgan, Andrew Weems, Jeremy Wells, Curtis Rochelle, and Michael Baron.
Lastly, thank you all again for your many compliments and appreciations, they are heart felt. I am happy to have helped by example. All I was doing was trying to do was "fuhlerize the fectivity of our fencerization" …or was it "fecterize the fuhlerization of our fencivity"?
Most of all I want to thank our members, attending or not, for their united interest and mutual support.
John C.
ARMA Director