A quick report by Martin Bastable

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Quick jump to the results here.
Quick jump to what people had to say about the nationals here.

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Firstly, many thanks to everyone who came down to Leicester for the weekend and took part! People came from all around the country including London, Newbury, Huntington, Derby and from Wales. 55 people trained and took part in competitions on the Saturday (a few less on Sunday after some people had to go home early and others were just too hung over from Saturday night!). Not bad considering the limited size of our training area, lack of mats and rather short notice of the nationals taking place.

Many thanks also go to all the Dan instructors who also turned up - Julian, James, Alan, Martyn, Kevin , Andy and Derek and to Julian's two guest instructors, Mike Clemons and Bob Deardon, who came along on the Sunday morning.

Saturday

After chucking each other around the mats for the first part of the morning our visitors got to know our nice hard mats on a personal level. Training went on till around 1.45pm when we broke for lunch.

Following lunch came the competitions. These came in 2 forms - Sumo Waza and Ne Waza.

Sumo Waza takes place within a small 2 mat area. Competitors kneel knee to knee facing each other on the floor in a rugby scrum type fashion. The object of the competition is to push your opponent out of the area - shoulders and hips. The competition is run best out of 3 matches. This competition was held for all Novice (White) and Yellow belts.

Ne Waza comes in the form of groundwork. Competitors sit back to back on the floor, legs straight and hands on their knees. The object of the competition is to spin around and pin your opponent to the floor. They must be on their back with at least one shoulder on the floor and their head in controlled.

The above competitions may sound easy, but without the use of locks, strangles etc. its pretty tough work and a lot of strength and effort is involved - not as easy as it looks!

The results of the competitions can be seen at the bottom of this page...

Matches of extra interest included

• Lindsay and Julies epic battle of strength - they were like two immovable blocks of concrete trying to push each other out of the area! Something had to give in the end, and after 1-1 Julie just managed to grab the final round away from Lindsay to win overall!
• Jason and Phu locked up in a heroic marathon of a bout during their Ne Waza finals. First things went one way, then another, Jason finally managing to pin Phu to the ground and held on with everything he had! Apparently Jason almost had an out of body experience he was trying so hard!
• A special mention MUST go to the members from the Leicester YMCA kids club, who really did put up some splendid efforts (both on Saturday and Sunday) and were beating/throwing/pinning and generally giving a hard time to people not only older than themselves but twice the size!

Any other matches you saw and I didn't of especial note, please give me the info! I didn't see my own matches so I can't really comment on them :)

Saturday finished off with some more training and finally medals were handed out to the competition winners. (Some of them had to go home Saturday night so couldn't wait till Sundays award ceremony).

Saturday Night

Much merryment was abound by all on Saturday night, with everyone meeting up at 'The Gateway' pub. Best of all, everyone grouped together for most of the night without just mixing in with people from their own clubs and got to talk and drink and be merry till late.

Highlights of the pub included

• Free food as there was so many of us there!
• Peanut and sausage roll fights breaking out at the back of the room
• Much hilarity putting peanuts/salt/etc. down peoples trousers
• Photographic opportunities not restricted to
  • Diving over pub chairs
  • Backwards break falling off a char with 2 people sitting on my knee
  • Human pyramid
• Everyone had a really good time!

Only 3 glasses got broken all night, and one of those wasn't our fault.

After the pub, some went home, some went on to drink into the early (or should I say late) hours of the morning, some went off to a party and some decided to go down to a park and start diving over fences, equipment, Welsh people and through swinging swings. Photos are in development!

All in all, everyone had a good time.

One downer of Saturday night - all the clocks went forward an hour so we all got less sleep than we should have.

Sunday

To everyone's surprise (not least his own) Andy Carter actually managed to make it onto the mat. He wasn't sick in the end so we had something to be thankful of.

After a nice gentle warm up Julian's two guest instructor friends Mike and Bob took over to show everyone something a bit different. Its great to learn things a bit different to what we are normally taught, and kept everyone's interest levels high.

Following lunch came the Open competitions - open to anyone who was training that day that is! All weights all ages (though Sarah decided not to enter after no other girls would fight her - she's scary! :)

The open took the loose form of Judo Randori style fighting with both opponents starting standing up. Its possible do get a clean throw in against your opponent and win that way, but very rare, and the fights normally go to the ground, where pins, arm locks, chokes and strangles are all allowed.

The results of the competitions can be seen at the bottom of this page...

Some of the competitors were a bit outclassed (being 1/2 the size of their opponents) - but as said before, special mention must be made to the members of the YMCA kids club who gave some people a real run for their money, and beat others!

Geoff also put in an outstanding performance beating all the big guys to get into the final.

Can you guess which body this head belongs to?

Demos

After the competitions came the demos! Demo's are only done for fun, and even though no one wanted to do them when I announced it, by the time everyone had taken part I believe everyone was glad they did!

Kevin's team won with their enactment of an ultra realistic training demo for a new member, and a special mention has to go to Kevin's well performed fall at the end, impaling himself on a sword.

The other demonstrations that took place included

• A splendid performance by Derek's team and their flower like break falling display.
• My teams spectacular demonstration of how a football match just shouldn't be played. It may have gone on for slightly too long, but that was only because it was too darn fun for those taking part *grin*
• Andy and Geoff's Sydney 2000 Olympic event where Andy didn't actually have to do anything and some of the `competitors` got a bit competitive :)

And Finally

The day was finished off with Felicity teaching people some massage/relaxation techniques, which were probably very appreciated by everyone, especially when they got up on the Monday morning, all their muscles aching and generally not wanting to work.

Finally Medals were handed out and everyone packed off home!

Overall Nationals Rating: 10/10 - A damb good time with the Demon!

Results!

Saturday

Sunday

Extra Awards

Once again, a big thank you to everyone who turned up, and I'll look forward to seeing you all again at the next Nationals, whenever that may be!

Here is what people had to say after the nationals....

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