Last sunday, the Shinergy[battle] summer 2011 took place. Honestly, the event gets better each time. I kind of miss the fightclub-athmosphere the whole thing had when we took our fights to the clubs, but especially for newcomers, the more orthodox set up is working out fine. We're still experimenting with the rules. Since the battles are relatively small, we can do that with no problem. In my opinion, we found a great way to structure things, but the jury's still out on the decision wheter or not to keep this up: Gray-Belts (-2 years of training) compete in point-stop battles. I don't say semi-contact, because as a matter of fact, every competition is full-contact. Fights in this class are, however, interrupted every time a point was scored. This way, the boys (and girls, obviously), learn to work tactically. Rather than just brawling it out, the goal is to out-move and out-smart the opponent and score a clean shot. Blue-Belts (-5 years of training) compete in action-stop ...