The Edge 2005 Knife & Stickfighting Championships is on!

[saint]

Competitors wanted for The Edge 2005 Knife & Stick Fighting Championships!

Austin, Texas - What does nonstop action and heart pounding excitement have to do with Saturday, April 16th, 2005? The answer is simple.

Austin's only weapon based martial arts tournament, The Edge 2005 will be debuting its fourth event. There will be seven Divisions awarding 23 medals, three Team Awards and three National Title Belts! This wll also be local Champion Roberto Vallarino's first two Title defenses!

All of this action will take place on Saturday, April 16th at the Givens Recreation Center in Austin, Texas. Givens is conveniently located at 3811 East 12th Street near the intersection of Airport Boulevard just East of IH-35. The doors will open at 10:30 AM and the competition will begin at 11:00 AM and go until 4 PM.

Tickets are available to witness The Edge 2005 online for only $15 in advance and $20 at the door. When you purchase your tickets you will receive a raffle ticket for prizes from some of our best local, national and even international sponsors. You can purchase tickets by visiting www.edgefighting.com.

If you are interested in competing then get your space reserved today. Take advantage of the early bird registration special for only $60 until Friday, April 1st by calling at (512) 339-8264. You can also visit www.edgefighting.com and register online now!* Staff and Competitors will enjoy a free t-shirt, breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as an after party including a viewing of the upcoming UFC event that night as well.* Fighters will also be given a grab bag of goodies from our sponsors.* Hope to see you there.

Sincerely,

Larry St. Clair
The Edge 2005

https://www.edgefighting.com

Martial Way Academy

https://www.martialway.net

339-8264

[ccahill]

Come and Play....

We all know that there is quite a diffrence from practicing forms ; drilling with partners and actual application. I thin that most of us agree that all are essential in order to become a well rounded martial artist. Now the first two are relatively easy to come by - we can all do more practice in the privacy of our garage, and most of us attend class on a regular basis. But how many of us actually have had a chance to apply our skills against a worthy opponent? Sure you may have sparred with some of your classmates.... but us that actually application or glorified drilling?

Now to the point - I have competed in the Edge 3 times and would recommend it to any serious martial artist - not just a FM Artist. The best thing about the tournament is its diversity of styles, divisions and competitors. It is probably the closest thing to a real stick fight that one can participate in without having to go to the hospital afterward. And on top of that it is not just one fight - but at the minimum a garunteed 7 fights to learn and grow from. Even if you are hesitant to compete in all of the divisions or any of them for that matter you would be doing yourself and the FMA a favor by showing support

[GonzoStyles]

can anyone who attended or competed post? looked interesting.

[ccahill]

Fun Filled Saturday of Stickfighting

I would be happy too...

I was fortunate to be able to Judge this year and get a VERY close up view of all of the action. I am going to encourage others to recount what they saw but here were my highlights in no particular order:

A title fight for submission stick ( meaning that the #1 & champion were able to punch, kick, knee, elbow, takedown, and work on the ground) lasted 7 rounds instead of the billed 5 rounds. It was a vicious fight truly worthy of the tile belt.

Combatants from as far away as Michigan ( the tournament was in Austin TEXAS) who came and displayed some very impressive weapons skills. My favorite was seeing the open weapons division - where the tile fight was between double stick and shiled and dagger ( think about that! I had never see such proficient use of a long sword before!

I really enjoyed watching the competitors putting it all on the line - despite injuries that had them doctor bound after the fight - they kept punching, kicking, take downs and OH YEAH -- Beating the pooh out of each other with instruments of blunt trauma! I am glad I was able to see it so up close and personal!

I really respected the fighters who were able to end the day as friends even after such a fight filled day.

It was also great to see such staunch support from the tournaments sponsors - Cold Steel made many a convert by handing out prizes ( knives, sjambocks, bokkens, and DVDs) like candy! If you don't know about Cold Steel go check them out (Http://www.coldsteel.com)

Also Dan from Action Flex (http://www.actionflex.com) had the crowd particpating in all out warfare with his company's kick A** gear - they make Katana's, Filipino sticks, nunchakus, daggers, helmets, and all sort of other gear that enabled the audience to understand and appreciate all of the fights. Not to mention winning a few converts to the practice of martial arts in general.

There were many other unsung heroes but this was just a few of the hightlights from the show. Like I said I will try to get others to post what they liked as well.

[lopezma]

Hello everyone. I just found this forum as a link. I would like to share my opinion on The Edge Competition put on Larry St Claire in Austin. AWESOME!
I actually had the priveledge to be one of the competitors and test my skills against the other martial artist. I encourage everyone to attend next years competition. St. Claire takes care of all the fighters (t-shirt, a gift, and even food). There were door prizes for the audience. The judges were TOP NOTCH! They were fair and encouraging to all the fighters.
I went to see what it was all about and to see if I was going to take my students for next year. We are already training! I will be there along with my wife and a good number of our students! Train with heart and technique, and we will see you there!!!! Rock The World!