Nordschlag 2016 a Success

This past weekend was our tenth annual open Western Martial Arts tournament and workshop, Nordschlag. Some excellent practitioners from around Western Canada and the world showed up for this competition, thirty-eight competitors overall, displaying not only fine athleticism, but also some fantastic sportsmanship.

The weekend began with Saturday’s tournament, which five events were held: synthetic longsword, synthetic sword & buckler, junior knife, steel longsword, and steel sword & buckler.  It was the intention to also have a senior knife division, but as we were running quite late, the tournament didn’t end until 21:00, this event was dropped. Sorry to those who were looking forward to it!

We had some new competitors this year, including one person who practiced Kali in the synthetic division, and some new players in the steel events. None of our events are gender specific, as there are typically too few women competing to have separate women’s and men’s events. Lindsey Goodwin, from Saskatoon Historical Fencing is our one female veteran who fought again, showing great spirit as always. A new female competitor, from the Forge Western Martial Arts, was Thora Jensdottir. Her skill was surprising to many, and with the level of athleticism she has and the progress she is making, people had better beware in years to come. She will be winning medals!

We had several new competitors this year in all events, but especially in the Junior events, where all but one person was new. This is not unusual, due to the experience level and people wanting to move on to the steel events after they’ve had some experience. However, there is one that is certainly worth mentioning. The Junior Knife event, the only event this participant was permitted to join due to age and size. Daveed Haidner, 11-years-old, weighing a full sixty pounds, showed great spirit by competing against opponents who were considerably older and larger than him. And he managed to win a bronze medal! In one of his fights he disarmed his opponent, then managed to strike with both knives, earning a very clear victory. Wait until he’s 18 and imagine where he’ll be going, if he keeps it up.

As with all judging, calls were missed by some, and it always seems to balance out as to who for. But Daveed deserves special mention, as there were a few people, fighters and spectators, who mentioned that he was seeing more than any of the other judges. This is hard to do! For someone so young, it is especially heart-warming to see that kind of fairness and such a good eye.  Let’s have everyone learn from him!

Some of the fights were very close, with wins often being by only one point, particularly in the medal rounds. The level of fighting was so much higher than we’ve seen in prior years that I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few of these people winning at larger tournaments in the next year or so.

This year, we had champion trophies for the competitors to take home for first time [show pictures]. The snow flake represents the Great White North, of course. And this is probably only the second time we’ve had a tournament that didn’t have snow. But that may be because we used to have them in March or April, and have now moved to May.

I expect that future years will show as much sportsmanship, camaraderie, and professionalism as this year did. And that they are at least as fun! And that we get even more volunteers so that we can actually run two rings at the same time… That’s one thing we’re working on now, and I expect to be solved for 2017.

Our results were:

Junior (synthetic) sword & buckler
Bronze: Cale Rainkie – The Academy of European Swordsmanship, Edmonton
Silver: Eric Dalshaug – Saskatoon Historical Fencing
Gold: Robin Burns –  – The Academy of European Swordsmanship, Rimby

 

 

 

Junior (synthetic) longsword
Bronze: Jacob Fleck –  – The Academy of European Swordsmanship, Edmonton
Silver: Kyle Van Camp – The Academy of European Swordsmanship, Edmonton
Gold: Eric Dalshaug – Saskatoon Historical Fencing

Junior Knife
Bronze: Daveed Haidner  – The Academy of European Swordsmanship, Edmonton
Silver: Connor Burns Jacob Fleck –  – The Academy of European Swordsmanship, Rimby
Gold: Milan Kobalcik – The Academy of European Swordsmanship, Edmonton

 

Junior Champion: Eric Dalshaug – Saskatoon Historical Fencing

 

 

Senior Knife was cancelled to save time (sadly).

Steel Sword & Buckler
Bronze: Steve Cullen – The Academy of European Swordsmanship, Edmonton
Silver: Michael Adams – The Academy of European Swordsmanship, Edmonton
Gold: Ties Kool – Historisch Vrijvechten Nederland

Steel Longsword
Bronze: Lars Le Gras – The Forge WMA, Calgary
Silver: Michael Adams – The Academy of European Swordsmanship, Edmonton
Gold: Ties Kool – Historisch Vrijvechten Nederland

 

 

Senior Champion:  Ties Kool – Historisch Vrijvechten Nederland

Congratulations to everyone who came and the fantastic effort they put in.

I look forward to seeing many of the same faces again, and several new ones. While there may be one or two bigger events in Canada, this is the most widely attended tournament. We’ve already had inquiries from competitors in the USA and from further away in Canada, so expect Nordschlag 2017 to be the biggest HEMA tournament in Canada once again!

Video was taken, and a link will be posted once this is available.

 

 

Sportsmanship Prize

Every year the most valuable prize is given for sportsmanship, which is valued a lot in our Academy. It is always a hard decision to make. There were people from four different schools in the running for it this year, and we’re proud to say that the final decision was to award this to Steve Cullen, from The Academy of European Swordsmanship, Edmonton. SGT Blades Inc. in Airdrie, Alberta provided us with this prize, for which we humbly give thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our other sponsors includes HEMA Supplies and SPES Historical Fencing. Thank you!

Photo credits: Donna Sherbert