Strange Fox Fighting Arts on Instagram: "Allow me to reintroduce this practice: Welcome to Strange Fox Fighting Arts, home of the Sionnach Aiteach Faction. On the eve of my coach exam, my teacher messaged me to tell me he'd been thinking about what I should call my faction. Doyle style bataireacht keeps the naming convention of factions alive. Faction has a lot of meanings in the Irish context, but in our martial art today it refers to your school or learning community. When you become a coach, you have permission to start your own faction in addition to beginning to teach. He said he'd been playing with names with "little wolf" (the translation of my full first name), but the more he thought about it, the more fox made more sense with my energy. As is true with many other cultures, Irish folk knowledge holds the fox as a walker of liminal spaces and a guide between realms. My teacher loved that, and the cheekiness of fighting foxes not just guiding folks to the Other World, but sending em there with a thump of our shillelaghs. I was honored to receive that blessing and reflection, and loved the clear queer read of it all. When I passed my test, I named my faction Sionnach Aiteach, Strange Fox (with a nod to the Irish word for Queer). I started teaching under the name Bmore Bata because it felt like a lot to introduce wtf a Faction is, alongside bataireacht, and the fact that there are Irish martial arts at all...plus Bmore Bata is cute, and pithy, and vibes with a lot of Baltimore naming conventions. But, as I count down the days to my Instructor exam, celebrate the amazing community that's blooming and weaving through this practice, and embrace the big Aires spring-time energy that abounds, it's time to share who we really are. I shared a bit more about our name in our April newsletter (which went out this AM!!). The artwork/sigal is by the absolutely phenomenal @the_atang_site. I cannot get over it. Our faction name is a declaration of collective self. We are not just a club, we're a community martial arts *school* following the Irish tradition of fighting for collective liberation and against colonization, and I want us to take up space as such. Welcome, foxes. Let's 🦊 shit up!"

119 likes, 19 comments - bmorebata on March 31, 2023: "Allow me to reintroduce this practice: Welcome to Strange Fox Fighting Arts, home of the Sionnach Aiteach Faction. On the eve of my coach exam, my teacher messaged me to tell me he'd been thinking about what I should call my faction. Doyle style bataireacht keeps the naming convention of factions alive. Faction has a lot of meanings in the Irish context, but in our martial art today it refers to your school or learning community. When you become a coach, you have permission to start your own faction in addition to beginning to teach. He said he'd been playing with names with "little wolf" (the translation of my full first name), but the more he thought about it, the more fox made more sense with my energy. As is true with many other cultures, Irish folk knowledge holds the fox as a walker of liminal spaces and a guide between realms. My teacher loved that, and the cheekiness of fighting foxes not just guiding folks to the Other World, but sending em there with a thump of our shillelaghs. I was honored to receive that blessing and reflection, and loved the clear queer read of it all. When I passed my test, I named my faction Sionnach Aiteach, Strange Fox (with a nod to the Irish word for Queer). I started teaching under the name Bmore Bata because it felt like a lot to introduce wtf a Faction is, alongside bataireacht, and the fact that there are Irish martial arts at all...plus Bmore Bata is cute, and pithy, and vibes with a lot of Baltimore naming conventions. But, as I count down the days to my Instructor exam, celebrate the amazing community that's blooming and weaving through this practice, and embrace the big Aires spring-time energy that abounds, it's time to share who we really are. I shared a bit more about our name in our April newsletter (which went out this AM!!). The artwork/sigal is by the absolutely phenomenal @the_atang_site. I cannot get over it. Our faction name is a declaration of collective self. We are not just a club, we're a community martial arts *school* following the Irish tradition of fighting for collective liberation and against colonization, and I want us to take up space as such. Welcome, foxes. Let's 🦊 shit up!".

Strange Fox Fighting Arts