The International Jugger Blog

Gott nytt år, frohes Neues und happy new Year 2013!

Last year, quite a bit happened with Jugger, again:

Mexico
While the state and background of Jugger is unknown there, a video turned up on YouTube showing Jugger probably played in Mexico.

See also this clip with an explanation and their Facebook page.

Colombia
News have reached us from Colombia:

- Now we are an official (legal) sports association, and we have some support from the government.
- We have a lot of new members and some new teams that play Jugger every Saturday.
- We have a new ranking system.
- The Colombian Jugger League is a reality; we are beginning with the team sing ups on 1st January.
- We are improving a lot our training scheme, and the results are notorious.
(via e-mail from Speculum Alae)

Keep it up!

Sverige
We are working hard since September in establishing Jugger in Sweden as well, under the "working title" Järnfalkar Projektet. The start sounds quite promising:

• We are invited to have the first full-scale Jugger games at all in Sweden at the Metalsvenskan metal festival in Örebro,
  
• a Historic Fencing group is already preparing to make their own pompår,


• and regular trainings are held in the village of Järnboås every monday and at irregular intervals at sundays as well, for adults.


• Furthermore, new Jugger teams and activities can be coordinated via the Svedish Jugger platform http://www.jugger.se.

Espania
The Spanish Jugger community is strong as ever – they are quite young but already made an impact. They even participated in the 3rd German Open with many teams and gained high respect for their well-trained style of playing.
Furthermore, some German teams will participate in their 2nd International Tournament in 2013.

Australia
Jugger is also spreading in Australia. Of course, they visited us at the 3rd German Open as well!

Eire
Irish Jugger are still in full go. They also competed in Berlin.

Nederlands
Jugger has also been started in the Netherlands. It will be interesting to observe their development!

U.S.
It is hard to say something precise on the development in the U. S. There are very active groups of the post-apocalyptic branch with the CUJL (see flickr), juggersalute is down, and it is unclear how far the sports branch got until now.

(Not so) finally, Deutschland
Jugger is still growing rapidly in Germany.

• It is reported that more and more schools and youth projects are starting Jugger groups. New independent teams are popping up almost every month now.


• Therefore, the 3rd German Open / 15. Deutsche Meisterschaft, held on the Tempelhofer Feld (former airfield) in Berlin, was the biggest tournament in history, and even exceeded its predecessors by one third: 62 teams plus 4 youth teams came together for this huge traditional Jugger Championships, and considering the many hundred players on the fields, it is reported to have worked exceptionally well.


• Also, towns are already competing for the best week-ends to hold tournaments – there will be many week-ends now which are double- or triple-booked for tournaments.


• Berlin, one of the first Jugger towns, might now possibly have even four big tournaments, after a branch left the Jugger e. V. to form their own group: The traditional Berliner Juggerpokal; possibly the traditional Deutsche Meisterschaft (if Berlin applies this year again and is elected); maybe the Freundschaftliche Winterspiele (not confirmed yet); and the new new Jugger Masters 2013 - Der Kessel von Berlin, a special tournament.


• At the end of this entry, enjoy the expectional clip from the Hallesche Doppelsöldner, and below the famous ambient clip from Falco jugger Freifalke Linus.

I would like to recommend a look at the German Jugger forum, which is very detailed.

Other countries
There are other countries like Polska (see former entries in this weblog), but I don't have first-hand news on them now.

Uhus News
In other news, Uhus Jugger weblog, the most detailed weblog on Jugger until then, is closed now, since I am changing weblog software and will probably blog mostly on Jugger i Sverige after relaunch. The old blog will be still available, though.

Uhus Rulebook Comments (Das Juggerregelwerk – Uhus Kommentar)
After I have quit my "assignment" as Keeper of the German Jugger Rules in 2012 which I had since 2007, I have compiled Uhus Comments on the Jugger Rules (updated just in the last days). Many questions came up in the forums, some things were misunderstood, some phrases are not exact, and some details are better explained in an external comment instead of in the official rules document itself.
While the Jugger Rules are "officially" legitimated by an election process by the whole active German Jugger community, this comment barely shows my personal views and opinions on the matter, but makes it possible to point out potential flaws or misunderstandings.
Uhus Comments on the Jugger Rules ⇒ can be downloaded here in German.

A new Jugger book
Furthermore, I have just finished the work on a new Jugger book, my fourth now (not counting the free PDF ebook in English). I have highest expectations for this one for it could become the best book on the topic I was able to publish yet:
Thanks to my fellow Juggers from Berlin, Greifswald and Jena, I could take many hundred "stop-motion" photos on basic fighting techniques. The book will be a bit like those Judo/Karate factbooks where every move is shown, to enable unexperienced players to quickly grab the basics of Jugger duelling and play. Even more experienced players might find interesting bits, for I could win some of the most experienced German Jugger players for the job. Every (German) Pompfen type will have it's own chapter and also chapters how to fight against other types. And of course, strategy and teamplay also get their due share.
I am now waiting for the preprinted proofs from the publisher, so i hope the book shall be released this spring, at Zauberfeder Verlag: Ruben Philipp Wickenhäuser: Die Jugger-Schule. Training, Taktik, Teambuilding, Zauberfeder 2013.

If you learn of Juggers in other countries, don't hesitate to contact us! Thanks!

So now, a happy new year with tons of Jugger games!
Time for the Videos – cheers!

//EDIT: Uhu has just finished the translation of the How-to for ironing patches to shirts. Load the PDF ⇒ here.//

First, I did them just as little symbols for my personal, more general use in Jugger-related topics.

But then I made patches out of the graphics that could be ironed on jerseys ... and they became quite well! A team already asked for a set of those and it worked fine; so if you want some as well, just send me an email.

See also the updated symbols for Juggermasters (5 or more years of experience plus some more things).
Here are the motifs:


Upper row: Qwik, Staff, Q-Tip, Longsword, Shield, Chain.
Middle row: Captain, Head of team, Juggermaster (distribution restricted), Wardrobe carrier.
Lower row: Trainer, enforcer in general, "weaponsmith".

(See Uhus finest-assorted Weblog Droppings for more details in German and a guideline for ironing-on.)


EDIT: Some designs have made it even on a mexican poster (see facebook) and on the tröjor of two teams in Germany. Fine!

The first training in Jugger in Sverige known to me will be held at the upcoming monday, September 24th, by Järnboås IF at Järnboås fotbollplan, kl 18.00.


It will be just an easy little "what is this??", and hopefully will spark some first enthusiasm about Jugger in the Swedes, ancestors of the good old vikings ...
Interested people from Örebro eller Nora är välkommen.

Bring gloves.

Addendum: Success! It has been a nice session indeed.

Träning är i varje måndag, kl 18.00. Järnboås fotbollsplan eller skola.

2011 passed like a flash. Yet many things have happened that I would call remarkable in the Jugger world:

Item. Development in Spain.

The Spanish community is growing even stronger. Spain held an International Tournament. Galicia has posted a nice intoduction on its Association on Jugger at the IJB, showing the high spirits for the sport.
Also there had been an unpleasant, yet important discussion on a spanish team that had symbols and names associated with the fascist movement Falange, leading to a declaration at the IJB and at other places against such ideologies.

Item. Development in the U.S.
U.S. Jugger developed further to a stable sport Jugger community, also it might be the country with the most different ways of (current) Jugger styles.

Item. Development in Germany.

The re-formed Jugger League has made its second year now.

For the first time, the German Championships have not been held in Berlin, but in Waidhaus, Bavaria.

The Ostdeutsche Winterliga has started (East German Winter League games). For a detailed description, see Jugglers Jugg.

The Jugger e. V. Berlin has now its own official training grounds at the former Tempelhof Airport airfield.


Item. Miscellaneous Jugger stuff in Germany.

The Jugger-Wiki has been set up by Nalf and Uhu and is expanding as a good resource on the sport (only in German yet, sorry). Editors welcome.

Inspired by Munchkin(r), Falco jugger player Leo initiated an own card game called "Pompfkin". Get it for free at the web page of team Falco jugger.

The (up to my knowledge) first printed issue of a fanzine has been published and released at the 14th German Championships. It is still ready for download.

A patch was made by Falco jugger for those teams who expressively do not want to play in a highly structuralized Leauge but have sportive ambitions nevertheless, "Jugger libres".

Item. Uhus stuff.

The team I founded in January 2007 has had a very successful year, in all tournaments except Hamburg we got ranks 2-4. And even in Hamburg, we were part of the top one-third. The falcon is flying high!

Last, the first factbook on Jugger has been "freed", thus becoming a free-to-download ebook/PDF in English at uhusnest.

My personal favorite as Jugger photo of the year 2011. Taken by Linus.



And here, the truly awesome video Linus made at the Berlin Masters this year (iframe):

Finally, it is done: After having prepared a layout for the Jugger fanzine, I decided over night that it might be just the time to do what I had planned long before: To publish the English translation of the first Jugger book for free, as a PDF file.

→ Free download of the Jugger book, beta version

What you will get right now is a quick-and-dirty beta version of the book.
I wanted to make it available now, so please forgive me
spelling and translation errors. The content will be revised at the next update (including the history section).

Yet I depend on your help. It would be great if you could contribute details on your different ways in playing Jugger compaired to the German version, so I can include your "national" rules into the update of the book and make it more international. The book is not meant as a "so you have to do it", but just to give an insight on German and other countries Jugger and inspire own ways of playing.
So, the International section is designed to grow, but since I simply lack time, it is still quite small at the moment.
Also, any reviews are very very welcome! Just keep in mind that it is a beta "quick shot", since I had to re-design the complete layout (due to legal reasons).

Please refer to http://jugger.uhusnest.de/en_juggerbook.shtml as the download location, since I haven't decided about a final publisher for the free version yet (the link at uhusnest will be updated while the deep link to the file itself will soon be out of date).

If you have good experiences with a publishing platform for such an English handbook, please drop me a note! It must be free to use, and must accept PDF files as well as file revisions (deleting the old file and replacing it with the update). Also, copyright has to remain by me re. the photographers.

After the first Fanzine (a fan-made, noncommercial magazine) on Jugger has just arrived here from the printers and just looks awesome (I mean the print quality, the content is up to you to judge) I decided that there has to be a second issue at the 3rd German Open next year!

I would like to invite you to write an article about Jugger, or aspects of Jugger, or a great tournament in your country, or on your way of playing, Pompfen making, whatever! Just grab the pens!

As for the length, it should be less than 3,000 characters, something like 1,000 would be perfect – yet more or less will not be a problem. Also, I would love to include pictures to your article (even if it may be just one).

If you could write a short synopsis in English (just some sentences), the rest of the article may well be written in your own language!

So, I would love to get your articles, the sooner the better. Just send them to me, and if you don't have my mail adress, look up the user Ein Uhu at http://forum.jugger.org and contcat him