by Jonas Stock
This year the 11th Benkei Cup took place in Leverkusen Germany. For those who don’t know or may need a quick reminder: The Benkei Cup is a tournament for beginners. On one hand Naginataka who are Shodan or below have the opportunity to experience Engi-kyogi as well as Shiai-kyogi in a tournament setting, possibly for the first time. On the other hand, more experienced Naginataka have the opportunity to gather first experiences in being a Shinpan, so everyone has something to learn or practice.
Before the tournament I briefly visited the city of Cologne, meeting up with Philippa and Kirsi from Sweden to explore the Cologne Cathedral and having some authentic German food.
This year’s seminar was led by Kirsi Nording Cronsten sensei from Sweden, Andreas Nicol sensei from Germany, Ivan Kuzminski sensei from Germany and Joren Zandstra sense from the Netherlands who instructed a seminar group consisting of German, Swiss and one Swedish Naginataka. After warming up and doing kihon with the entire group the seminar focused on Yuko Datotsu – the criteria for a proper strike in Naginata. After covering the theoretical requirements everyone tried hard to put theory into practice, getting various points of advice to improve their technique. We spent the time before the lunch break with some individual strikes and eventually put them together into the strikes used in Nihonme, Sanbonme and Gohonme, the forms for Sundays Engi tournament. In the afternoon we built the Shiaijo for the Tournament, tried to apply what we focused on earlier to Bogu practice, once again trying to make proper strikes. After each section of the seminar, we practiced the proper etiquette for a tournament by having a mini practice tournament and eventually finishing our practice with some rigorous endurance training.
In the evening we went to a typical German Brauhaus and had a very well-deserved dinner alongside nice conversations, forming new friendships and renewing old ones.
Then it was finally Sunday which means – after having everybody’s Naginata checked – it was finally time for the tournament:
The Engi tournament was one round robin pool of five teams who went up against each other in order to determine a winner. Some teams were composed of fellow dojo members while others were either impromptu pairs or, in my case, a half-joke about “just coming to Germany for a tournament” turned into action. Every team did their best to show off the forms to the best of their abilities and after the pool was over there were clear results.
After a short break for putting on Bogu and warming up the Shiai tournament commenced in which two round robin pools of five or six people respectively fought for the spots in the semi-finals. While Pool A had rather clear results Pool B ended up being decided by tiebreakers, but no extra matches were necessary.
Finally the knockout stage began and after intense semi-finals, a great 3rd place match and a final that went on to Encho (overtime) the tournament concluded with the following results:
Engi:
1st Place – Jonas Stock (KuS Dellfeld) & Philippa Odenbring (KFUM Uppsala)
2nd Place – David Storms (PostSV Opladen) & Andre Götz (PostSV Opladen)
3rd Place – Valentin Stahl (USC Mainz) & Lukas Schuth (USC Mainz)
Shiai:
1st Place – Andre Götz (PostSV Opladen)
2nd Place – Jonas Stock (KuS Dellfeld)
3rd Place – Lukas Schuth (USC Mainz)
Fighting spirit: Felicitas Grundl (WEMAC Schaffhausen)
Once again thank you to all the helpers, Sensei/Shinpan and participants for making it another weekend full of sweat, fun and fighting spirit!