As you may know VX is a member of the Sport REcognized Association. RAcketlon is also an SRE member and made the kind offer that any other SRE member sports could attend the Racketlon World Championships, that Racketlon would film and then produce a promotional video for SRE.
VX and Nanbudo were the only two sports that made the journey. From VX Paul, Tom and Dan made the trip. We also hoped to have two top Indian players, Gursewak Singh and Pawan Tanwar joining us but sadly the bureaucrats again got in the way.
Despite having all the relevant paperwork, invitations from Global VX and invitations from Racketlon Austria, Gursewak and Pawan were denied visas - and yet there was an Indian Racketlon team at the event. We hate bureaucrats.
Tom, Dan and Paul arrived late Thursday evening and expected to have three full days of demonstrating and had been assured they would have access to time on the squash court. They had also been told this was a city centre location and there would be a lot of people seeing the demonstrations. It didn't turn out like that. We were in a suburb and there was one path passing by the racket sports centre. VX was told they would be on the outdoor handball court. We thought, yeah we can make this work. We can get people to try the basics and then play a match. There were not many passers-by but eventually we got a handful of Racketlon players for a timed demonstration - plus three local kids who had seen us setting up and wanted to play. Unfortunately by now an inflatable had been set up, and then, just before our timed slot table tennis set up and then badminton *sigh*
We managed though - we played on a tennis court. Later on we got 8 minutes on a squash court. Guess what though - even though we hadn't done as much as we expected on day 1, we had a major impact! such is the power of VX. When we got our 8 minutes on the squash court there were about 4 people watching when we started - but by the end the spectator gallery was rammed with enthusiastic spectators. Afterwards a young lady (Mathilda) a GB Racketlon international, came dashing up to talk to us, delighted to have seen VX because, wait for it, she used to play at school in Leeds!
On top of this Racketlon were delighted with the footage they got including a very enthusiastic interview with one of their youth internationals. A chat with Peter from Racketlon Europe who was co-ordinating the demonstration sports and the video revealed that he was very excited about VX having tried it in the demonstration and would like to use it in schools as part of the Racketlon introduction!
On day 2 Paul had to attend the General Assembly of SRE which went on longer than expected so there was no chance to demonstrate. On Day 3, Sunday, it was finals day so there was less demand on the squash court and we got a decent amount of time on there to get some more footage, and we took the opportunity to get some more interviews.
All in all, this was a very worthwhile trip - perhaps more quality than quantity and we look forward to seeing the final video.
Thank you very much to Racketlon for this opportunity and for their help in getting it organised