Gathering Report
We find ourselves in a gymnasium in Bern, Switzerland. 38 fighters are listening to the magic words of Guro Marc “Crafty Dog” Denny, with which he always starts a Gathering: "No judges, no referees, no trophies. One rule only: Be friends at the end of the day! This means no one should spend the night in the hospital, and everyone should leave with the IQ that they came with."
It’s the European “Dog Brothers Gathering of the Pack”. Fighters came from Germany, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Spain, Portugal and USA. A lot of the faces were already known from the first gathering, on the other hand it was nice to see several fighters for the first time.
This time the gymnasium was smaller than at the last gathering. There was a large audience again this year, which due to the smaller gym were able to be much closer to the fights. Thanks to the superb organization by Benjamin “Lonely Dog” Rittiner and his team the technical course of the gathering was flawless.
At this gathering the fighters decided not to do warm up rounds with knives. For this reason it was truly an event of stickfighting only. Most of the fights were done with single sticks but there were also a few double stick fights. It would be very interesting if next year some exotic weapons like Nunchaku, Tonfa, etc. would be used.
Several fights were held on a technically high level. Also the fights were more intensive than at the last gathering and it was obvious that the fighters were well prepared for this event. It was also pleasing to see the increasing number of female fighters and hopefully this trend will continue in the future.
All these details wound up causing an unbelievable atmosphere that everyone in the gym felt so that even days later people spoke enthusiastically about the fights.
As the tradition goes the fighters meet after the gathering for the fighters dinner. Just as last year the atmosphere was great. Especially in the hours right after the fights when everyone was still caught in the atmosphere of the experience and the high adrenalin levels, lots of interesting discussions were to be found. And just as last year one of the highlights was the announcement of the new “Members of the Tribe”:
Ivan “Kuma Dog” Rebli achieved the well earned “Dog Brother” Status.
Marlon, Stefan and Marcus were proposed as “Candidate Dog Brothers”
Marlon “C-Red Dog” Höss-Böttger
Stefan “C-Cro Dog” Konstanjevec
Marcus “C-? Dog” Schillinger
And the following fighters were added to the Tribe:
“Dog” Christian Eckert
“Dog” Daniel Budar
“Dog” Jiri Söderblom
“Dog” Oskar Bernal
“Dog” Lars Christie
“Dog” Riccardo Bassani
“Dog” Roberto Cereda
“Dog” Michele Gemini
“Cat” Lynn Brown
All in all the European “Dog Brothers Gathering of the Pack” 2007 was a very exciting and successful event. And we look with anticipation to the next gathering in 2008.
Wuff
Guro Benjamin “Lonely Dog” Rittiner
