The International Jugger Blog

The famous actor Rutger Hauer, who was the first Jugger ever since he acted as Sallow in "Blood of Heroes" and has played the ancient Jugger legend there, has died.

Condolences.

Hello, dear juggers!

My name is Arturo Pérez Amores and I work as Commissioner of Communications for the Spanish Jugger Federation. You may remember my post at Jugger Worldwide on the creation of an online debate assembly by gathering up to three representatives from each 'jugging country' and then discussing common issues and goals until we reached agreements and resolutions. The comments at Facebook showed there was support, but also that some of the proposals were not very clear. Nevertheless, we saw no impossible obstacles and decided to ask every country if they would join, and this was the result:

• Interested: Spain, France, England, Netherlands, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Uruguay. Total: 23 countries.
• Didn't feel ready to join yet: Argentina, Italy. Total: 2 countries.
• Never answered: Ireland, Germany, Belgium. Total: 3 countries.
• Other countries (Peru, China, Denmark, Israel, Poland) are starting to build their first jugger teams, so it was considered it was too early to have them join yet.

During this process, several important questions were repeated by many different organizations, so my colleagues (Miguel Alvarado [USA] and Rickhard Nilsén [Sweden]) and I decided it was best to post out our official answers to these FAQ at this blog (there's a Spanish version at the FEJ's Bitácora). We hope they'll help everyone understand what we're trying to build and pave the way for the creation of the International Jugger Council, as we'll be sending out the invitations to the interested jugger groups in the next few days.

... Read more: Continue reading "International Jugger Council - some Frequently Asked Questions"

So you are very fond of Jugger and put time and love into this wonderful sport. You spread the fascination to others, educate them how to play or how to make good spars. Or you struggle organizing that one big tournament every year that the community loves to attend. Yet, what about motivating your team mates to get a bit more involved in the organizational hassle of Jugger themselves, by making their engagement a bit more visible, so that their work may be appreciated by others? To achieve this, I thought about creating these Jugger merit roundel. They offer a way to show the merits you earn during your Jugger life with an »evolving« emblem, without having to change the roundel itself. So you can print the basic roundel on your jersey in your first year and than just add all that which you achieve over time. [Download the PDF with all the definitions here.] [Download hi-res PNG elements here.] Continue reading "Show your Achievements: Jugger merit roundels"

In the words of Maka: "We gathered some testimonies of female players of Jugger, regarding their experience as women in the sport. This is what they had to say." This is not only a brilliant video, it also fits perfectly: I am currently planning an Uhus Jugger Tutorials about training aspects in regard of teh specific needs of women. If you have any expertise on that, you are welcome to share your knowledge for the UJT.

Wonder how to make your own Jugger Pompfe/spar?

At Uhus Jugger Tutorials, a playlist on spars making has been launched.
Featuring a step-by-step guide on solid rod core spars (shortsword, longsword, Q-Tip, staff), shield making, including different shield core materials like plywood, plastic, EPP and basics on suitable materials, grip and chain making and more.

I have prepared a poster for Projekt: Jugger i Sverige which offers an overview over some basic training techniques. It also fits well to my Uhus Jugger Tutorials IIX: Training techniques YouTube video.
The draft version, available here, is in English, while the final will be in Swedish and available at the Swedish Jugger Association Svenska juggerförbundet.

Download the PDF version here.

Fellow German Jugger Gnome has started a blog specifically about training questions in connection with Jugger, for example "How to avoid injuries".
He recently published an article about warm-up techniques with some tips that you might consider quite helpful.

Go ahead and have a look (and don't fear that bit of sweat you might get):
Jugger Coach: The Art of Warmup

The Projekt: Jugger i Sverige, together with the Swedish Jugger Association, has recently published training material for spars makers (Baumeister/byggmästare) and for team leaders and referees.
They will be used as hand-outs and as a base for the project's workshop in End of September, which will be held at the Största Älgen Svenska Mästerskapet.

Merits for active players

To motivate people to get involved into the organizational aspects of Jugger, a merit roundel may be of help to show their personal achievements. ⇒ The player position symbols/icon set with eps/png downloads can be found here../p>

[ Read more about their meaning and downloadable files ]

 

Hall of Fame: The First Ones

Jugger often starts thanks to the attachment and sweat of one or a few persons who, against all odds, hold to the thought that there must be Jugger in their country (and, most important, close to them). When Jugger starts rolling in their country, they have rightfully earned a shining title for their achievement: That of the "Jugger zero", or "Juggermaster zero". The name is inspired by their wish that Jugger will spread through the country like a positive kind of epidemic. And first sources of those are also called the "Number Zero".

To honour those first ones, here comes the list of Jugger zero's around the world. It is, of course, incomplete and needs your help to be continued—contact us if you know one more, or detect an error or inaccurate report!
Also, this "Hall of Fame" will be completed with photos and a more appealing layout, of course.

Hall of Fame: Jugger zero

Alpha Jugger	David Webb Peoples	1989
~~~~~~~~::~~~~~~~~	~~~~::~~~~	~~~~
HH/HD/KA	Deutschland	1993
Lester	Deutschland	1993?
Gavin	Australia	2000
Mark Hill	Eire	2006
Santi	España	2007
Errol Solano?	Costa Rica	2008
Pedro	Colombia	2011
Ruben the Uhu	Sverige	2012
Regan Morgan	New Zealand	2015?
?	USA	2015?
Arkady "Shaman" Shamanovsky	Russia	2016
Alex	Schweiz	2018

Juggermaster Arkady "Shaman" Shamanovsky, Juggermaster zero of Russia

Quite cool web comic project on Jugger, with excellent drawings of the teams Wild Geese and Drop Bears, is offered by Schwartz and merc. There is also a comic story ongoing.


(© Schwartz & merc)