Yudh
Writing by shinda on Tuesday, 14 of March , 2006
Sure, its still months away, but Yudh 2006 is slowly approaching.
Every year Yudh has gotten bigger and better. With an increase in attendance ever year, not only of Sangat that comes out watch and support the event but also with the number of competitors coming from outside of the GTA to compete. Last year probablly featured the most competitors from outside Toronto, with them coming from as far as California, Texas and even B.C.
Sadly enough no one from Toronto has ever won a single Yudh tourney yet, although they always do seem to come close, all years finishing second.
Refereeing and judging has always been an ongoing problem and complaint that most people have had, but being that it’s hard to find an experienced Gatka referee (actually it’s hard to find anyone who’s ever refereed before), it’s understandable that theirs no easy or quick solution, rather to just try someone else next year. Often times, those with experience more often then not get their VISA’s rejected, so you’re stuck with training referee’s a month or two prior to the event, which again results in an amateur referee.
The idea of having multiple referee’s from last year seemed to be a good one, but it didn’t really work in practice. The main things that needs to be changed there are that the outside referees need to be able to make calls and fouls also, rather then just be there to resolve conflicts. Pass the conflict resolution part to the judges. Or even better like boxing or MMA, have a panel of judges who watch for and track the points and make the referee’s soul job to watch for fouls i.e. Sanjha Vaars etc. I think this would not only improve the flow but also result in fairer scoring. The problem that you get when you have only one person tracking score is that it opens the possibility of a bias towards a single opponent.
Also some sort of age/skill cap needs to be placed. I’m all for the Grassroots of Gatka, but there’s nothing that takes away from the legitimacy of the tournament then having players who just don’t belong, well at least not for a year or two. This really hasn’t been a problem yet, although I would debate that players from 2004, may have had more then enough skills to compete, but were just not physically ready to take the hits. And in 2005, Jujhar; do I really have to say more? (Not trying to call you out, but come on now). If anything maybe in the coming years setup separate divisions or pools, grouping people by skill levels, or having a separate thing for 8-12, 12-16, and then 18+ year olds.
The Kirpan demos was a good addition to the tourney as was the Damalla competition, but again maybe have a tourney for separate age groups, that way you don’t got everyone picking the little ones to win, because of how cute they might look.
Although Yudh still isn’t as big as Gatka tourney’s in India, hopefully it’s only a matter of time before you can start doing Akhara tourney’s, where you get the whole Akhara vs Akhara type match’s going rather then just individuals. When you can get 4, 5 Akharay of 4,5 fighters you can then add a Gatka Demo’s challenge awarded to the Akhara with the best demo, but that still seems years ahead of its time.
Anyways that’s enough talking about Yudh until we get closer to the actual event so until then here’s a video of Yudh #1 (2003), that happened in Scarborough.
Until then, peevho dudh jitho yudh!!
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gaffer from 
Made Tuesday, 14 of March , 2006 at 2:44 pm
watch out for spidy this coming yudh, hes taking the crown
Anonymous from
Made Wednesday, 15 of March , 2006 at 1:53 am
it be good to do it like akhara vs akhara even though its all guru dey singh in the end. itd be cool 2 watch that
Anonymous from
Made Wednesday, 15 of March , 2006 at 2:48 am
what with the music , damn
sounds like lord of the rings or something
Anonymous from
Made Wednesday, 15 of March , 2006 at 10:09 am
what movie is that song from?crash?
Anonymous from
Made Wednesday, 15 of March , 2006 at 10:12 am
LOL…..akj.org???? shinda you sellout
Ranjit Sion from
Made Wednesday, 15 of March , 2006 at 12:58 pm
its from gladiator, how does sangat feel about moneh entering yudh, kull keh bolo, speak open mindedly, no offense will be taken…
Just for the record I didn’t make the video, I just found it on the net, and coped it, so I could put it on the site.
you know your watchinga shinda classic because I’m sick of the gladiator music and tunes, those have been outdown and played out long time ago still.
Anonymous from
Made Wednesday, 15 of March , 2006 at 3:29 pm
Why not setup cameras, etc. so that if there’s an objection to a move the referee can always playback the vaar, etc. you guys are all high tech I’m sure it could be possible.
Anonymous from
Made Thursday, 16 of March , 2006 at 12:34 pm
>>>>LOL…..akj.org????
>>>>shinda you sellout
That’s right AKJ are dusht eh?
Learn to stop hating before calling uselvs sikhs of Guru Nanak.
Anonymous from
Made Thursday, 16 of March , 2006 at 3:02 pm
akj waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat
yeap judging is real hard - I’ve seen it where there are two judges and even then they both read a vaar differently (ie was it a good hit, a glance, a miss).
Quite a tricky art esp. when you have two very skillful and fast fighters up against each other.
Also the rules seem to vary between competitions, ie are dhals in use, time lapse between sanjah vaar’s etc.
I wouldnt want to be a ref.
Sukh from 
Made Monday, 1 of May , 2006 at 7:54 am
hi,
to be honest , compared to other weapon based tournaments like fencing, escrima, and kali.The gatka rules really limit the participant from using and exposing there true skill.
compared to kabaddi, which is an unarmed sport, Gatka should be more lethal and entertaining to the crowd.
also compared to one particular shastarvidiya teacher i have seen teach in the uk and states, and who has refereed in-house Akhara tournaments. there rules appear to be more safer and unlimits the fighters to go all out medival with out really hurting each other. there bouts appear to be based more on control of a strike than how fast and wrecklessly you can hit your oppenant whilst getting hit yourself.
for the development of future tournaments and the production of better punjabi weapon based fighters. some of the organisers should consider asking this shastarvidiya school for some unbiased advise in fighting. or other wise gatka may get diluted with gatka fighters mixing there art with other styles.
this is just my 2 pence, i am not a gatka fighter but i do study other arts and apoligise if anyones offended.
Paneet Singh from
Made Monday, 26 of June , 2006 at 3:41 pm
No offese taken Sukh. I think the reason there are so many rules in Yudh is because it is for the protection of the people. ALSO, don’t stop reading yet. It really helps show a fighter’s true skill. Counting vaars that aren’t properly hit, face shots, hand shots, and groin shots is just not right. With these rules, it is more clear on who’s a better fighter and who’s just cheap.
aj from
Made Thursday, 12 of October , 2006 at 5:55 pm
check out this website and i beleive this is a great way to hold yudh. http://www.dogbrothers.com
