As silly as it may sound, I’m afraid an institution that has largely ignored the cane for a century will gain the ability to capitalize on a title that has been passed on without its knowledge or consent. There was a contest this weekend, and the winner was crowned Twirl Champion of the Old School vs. New School competition. The winner has chosen to consider himself the first official Kane Master as a result of this win, but the protocol in this competition is not conducive to this title. Traditionally, many things must be achieved before that title is bestowed: a mastery of the fundamentals, showmanship, significant battles won, and the respect of one’s peers to name a few.

In all fairness, the competition in no way bestowed the title of Kane Master, but because of the verbiage used by the winner I see this as something that should be addressed before anyone winning a competition, instead of a time honored battle, continues this trend. There are many differences between a battle and this weekend’s competition, namely the lack of one on one bouts, simultaneous twirling, one drop eliminations, and the absence of other Kane Masters as judges. Impressing the crowd though, is one of the paramount aspects of twirling, but crowd selection alone has been no way to select a true Kane Master or winner of a battle, yet that was the method of selection for the winner of this competition.

As Kane Masters we must preserve our culture and what it takes to become one of us. If we don’t define that, we can expect a promoter, the fraternity or some popular merchandiser to eventually tell us who is of our number and caliber. I worked too hard for my title to have its worth diluted because we’re not at the gates on this. No disrespect to the winner, but it takes more than 1 competition won to be considered a true Kane Master.

Still, good showing, and hopefully we can do it again with a little bit more length, because I’m not dropping and I had some other things to be recorded, as I’m sure you did.

When was a plastic cane “bounced off a surface” during the competition?

What good is an advantage if it is not used?