It's that time of year again.

Where I both curse and celebrate Matt and Lucy Easton's hard work and dedication.   Fightcamp tickets went on sale at around half 9 this morning (after a good half hour of frustrated refreshing and panicked co-ordination) and sold out before lunch.

The lineup hasn't been finalised-  there's still a lot of open slots, but in a way that's not really all that important. The instructors will be good, regardless. The people will be fantastic. Competitions friendly and intense. Beer... drunk.  And it marks a passing of time.

Last year we had to get things in place very quickly due to a bastard. We had classes cancelled, which we'd found out was due to non-payment to the venue, despite everyone paying money in and the club being, theoretically, well in the black.  Bluntly, we were chronically fucked over.

It's been a year since the great embezzelment that almost cost us the club.  We had no instructor and although the club was ours in spirit- the name was dragged so far through the mud that we could no longer use it. Hence the complete change of branding.  The club image was taken along with.. some thousand pounds which should have been used to invest in the club and other little things like pay the venue. Kit that was stored at the defrauded venue is still unavailable to us.

I am still furious about the embezzlement, but fortunately, it was only material things. In the long run getting rid of the thief was really good for us. I feel I'm going from strength to strength as a teacher.  The past year there's been so much growth and engagement from the guys. The fencing has got tighter, the questions harder to answer. It would be nice to open up some time to free study but there's not enough room and we can't really start earlier due to boring stuff like work and travel. There's talk about holding different kind of event, which I'll cover in a later post- when we have more than just an idea about what we want to do. (I'm pretty excited about it, and think it fits well with my vision of the club).

It's nerve wracking bringing people to these events as an instructor, I really care about the guys doing well (not necessarily winning, but being brilliant, difficult and fun opponents) and loving the event. Their failures are more mine than their successes.  I know they will do well, even the newbies who have managed to get tickets. But... there's always the nerves if you care about something.