(La traduction française viendra bientôt - deutsche Version in Kürze)
Who is Franz Virtual?
Pottenstein in Franconia, September 2005
Friends of the sharp blades!
I am the chairman of the European Throwing Club Flying Blades e.V. Many of our members don't know me at all - and I don't know them. How this? Here my story:
I love throwing and I love sharp knives. As a child, I tried knifethrowing every now and then - with not much success. Often I gave up, for some years later to try again. In 1999, I finally wanted to know it: Is knifethrowing possible, or is it just a crazy idea? I bought dedicated throwing knives and exercised systematically the whole summer. Then I knew: knifethrowing is possible!
In 2000 I opened http://www.axtwerfen.de. At this time, knifethrowers hardly knew one another, and there was much demand for information and communication. Christian Thiel and me were the first to represent knifethrowing in the European internet.
In 2001 I invented the mailinglist ed.nefrewtxa|neffertrefrew#ed.nefrewtxa|neffertrefrew to provide a communications medium and to form a loose virtual group of throwers. The first discussions were mainly about the bad reputation of knifethrowing in the public. It was a really good feeling, to learn that I am not the only crazy man on earth, but many of us exist, and we are not crazy at all.
But virtual communication was not enough - I wanted '''meet my friends in real life!''' So I promoted the idea of having thrower meetings. No one knew how this should be done, or whether people would travel so far. In 2001 the first small one was the Midsummer Throwers Meeting Pottenstein in my village. And in October the first Big Throwers Meeting took place on the Little Big Horse Ranch near Berlin. Full success!
In 2002 I introduced the name "Eurothrowers" with a new mailinglist ed.nefrewtxa|sreworhtorue#ed.nefrewtxa|sreworhtorue. I felt, for growing and protecting our sports, we should have an official association, and I began to promote the foundation of a club. I prepared papers, consulted a lawyer for making a first draft of the articles of association and come out with a preparation paper in Berlin 2002. Backing came from my local village's three shooting associations - without them I probably would not have hold out.
In 2003 after the Great Throwers Meeting, we finally had the foundation meeting for our new club with 14 foundation members. Special thanks to the Michel, Sigrid and Philippe, who came from over 1000 kilometers to strengthen our project. Michel already had already done great work in France for a throwing club.
In 2004 und 2005 I had few time to care about the association. I feel especially sorry, that I could not attend the great meetings in Bayonne and Marseille. So it happens, that I don't know many of our members, and they don't know me.
Now in September 2005, I am back here for action.
The '''votings''' of the managing committee are ahead. I would love to be your chairman for another two years, and serve our sport and international friendship with power and continuity.
; External Links (p.s. because my homepage www.axtwerfen.de is huge and chaotic to navigate, here some direct links into favorite chapters of it)
- Chapter Event Calendar
- Chapter Introduction - Culture
- Chapter Technique - Calculi - Symmetry - Body
- Chapter Literature - Archery - Book Review
- Chapter Technique - From Grip to Throw
- Chapter Technique - Two Aiming Strategies
- Chapter Discoveries
- Chapter The Authors Team
Have fun with throwing - and always watch the security!
Yours
Norbert C. Maier
(Franz Virtual)