So I went over to Houston with Jean, Henry, and Christian from SDA NOLA, and it was a fucking BLAST!

There were a TON of classes, including stuff on dagger, unarmed, sword and buckler, cane fighting, longsword, dussack, mantante, and lots and lots of other stuff. There were three tournaments: dussack, open longsword (which I participated in), and an invitational king-of-the-hill tournament using period Belgian rules. I got to meet a large majority of the big names in HEMA, including several guys from Europe.

The tournaments were GREAT. Dussack was tons of brutal fun, as expected. The longsword tourney was also a blast. I found out at the last minute that kicks, like take downs and obviously strikes with the blade, would actually count for a point. I knew that front kicks were allowed, but the written rules didn't specifically state that they would or would not be worth a point. So I was ecstatic to find out they would count.

I think I was the only fighter that even attempted to kick, and I actually managed to get several points from it. Jean said I stomped people about 6 times throughout the tournament, including a couple on Axel Petterson from Sweden, who is regarded as one of the top swordsmen in the North American/European HEMA scene. The kicking really made me stand out in the tourney and I think netted me some "street cred" with a lot of the veteran fighters. The spectators loved it, too. All of the tournament bouts were video taped, so I'll be anxiously awaiting the videos on YouTube.

I was surprised to hear that several people I'd never met before had seen Ordo videos and thought that what we did, while somewhat unorthodox, was really cool. Everyone seemed to have a lot of respect for our intensity and brawl-oriented fighting style. I was extremely proud to hear that from folks in the HEMA scene.

These guys are just like us - they come from all kinds of combat backgrounds, cross train in historical and modern combat systems, are generally really cool, intelligent people, and aren't afraid to get down and dirty in the ring. They know fighting, they're smart, and they're a ton of fun to hang out with after all is said and done. There are some hard-headed dicks in the crowd, but for the most part everyone is interested in hearing what everyone else has to say, trying it out to see what works and what doesn't, and giving feedback on how you can improve.

The bottom line: We have GOT to get involved, as an organization, with these guys. There is so much potential to learn and network and compete on an international level that we can't pass it up. The people are great, the fighting is actually intense, and the amount of available knowledge is astounding.

Edit:

Adding a scan of the schedule so you guys can see the variety of classes they were offering.

Sounds impressive. I would like to see some video of the tourneys.

From what I hear, it may be a couple of weeks before video from this year's tourney is uploaded.

Here's video of the final bout from last years' tournament:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZrWWqkMbJg

The format and rules for this year's tournament differed slightly from last year, but were almost identical to ours, so it was actually a very easy transition. There were three judges that would call "Point!" if they saw a strike that counted a point and would hold up a colored flag to indicate who they thought got the point. The main differences were:

• No strikes of any kind to the back of the head or to downed opponents.
• No closed-fist striking. Open hand strikes were permitted but did not score points.
• Straight front kicks were the only kick allowed, and counted for a point if they landed above the waist and below the shoulders.
• If two fighters scored 5 double kills during their match, they both lost.
• If a fighter touched the ground with his hand, knee, etc as a result of a throw or take down, his opponent was awarded a point.
• Fighters could strike an after blow to negate an opponent's point for a legal strike.
• If a fighter went out of bounds, his opponent was awarded a point.

I think it would be very easy for us to go to events like these and be extremely competitive. Not only are we familiar with the format, but we train melee striking and grappling, which most of the other guys don't do. That gives us a huge edge up on the competition.

interesting, i want more info!!

Here are some video of the dussack tournament: http://www.youtube.com/user/brywiggly#p/c/F9A1875DBA14363A

More vids from the tournaments, including some of the longsword bouts. I expect the rest of the vids will be uploaded to this account as well.

http://www.youtube.com/user/fechtschuleamerica#p/u

AWSOME