JackPMiller
02-10-2007, 11:53 AM
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070204/FEAT05/702040329/1023
Pillow Fight League: No sleeping allowed
By Anna M. Tinsley
McClatchy Newspapers
Don't pull hair, try to gouge anyone's eyes or be rude.
And never, ever hide a brick inside a pillow.
Just fight like a girl.
Those are the rules of the expanding Pillow Fight League - a new Canadian-born "sport" that founders hope is on its way around the United States.
"It's real women having fights with pillows, having fun," said Stacey P. Case, the 39-year-old Canadian drummer who created the league. "Anything goes."
This is not your traditional slumber-party pillow fight.
These women train every week, learning to take each other down using chokeholds and leg drops - with pillows, of course.
"This has nothing to do with a slumber party," Case said, scoffing at those who want the fights to begin with "Let's get ready to slumber."
"It's kind of vicious," he said. "You can hit them, you can trip them - anything goes as long as there is a pillow at the point of contact."
And it's coming to Austin, Texas, as soon as March.
Case dreamed up the idea years ago while on tour with his band, Tijuana Bibles. Wanting to see if anyone was interested, he put an ad in the paper.
"The PFL wants you!" "Women 19-35, smart, cute, athletic with a mean streak."
Thirty women answered; five showed up.
The league now boasts 25 members, Canadian women who hold down jobs as secretaries, accountants and writers and who pillow-fight on the side.
They have characters, costumes and stage names.
There's the apron-wearing Betty Clock'er, the beer-drinking Boozy Suzy, the aggressive waitress Polly Esther, even the pillow-fight world champion, Champain, a tough talker who ranks The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy among her favorite reading material.
During a match, they step on the mat, grab a standard double-stuffed queen-size pillow (no feather pillows allowed) and have five minutes to win or lose.
The fighters are monitored by referees, and they can do anything - chokeholds, leg drops, clotheslines, pinning opponents to the mat - as long as the pillow is used at the point of contact.
For Sarah Bellum, who wears glasses and a librarian hairdo, smothering is the only way to go.
"If I can wrap the pillow around their face, I try to do that," said Bellum, a self-described 24-year-old geek who declined to give her real name. "Sometimes I have to jump on their backs to try to smother them. Sometimes I trip them and try to do it when they're on the ground."
Rules and regulations
* Length of a fight: Five minutes.
* Average fights per live event: 10.
* Size of all pillows: Double-stuffed queen size (no feathers).
* Slogan: "Fight like a girl."
* Age, weight and height requirements: None. (They tend not to take fighters older than 40, although they could someday create a seniors league.)
* How to win: Pin your opponent. If you don't, the decision goes to three judges who look at style, stamina and "eye of the tiger," said Stacey P. Case, commissioner of the league. " 'Eye of the tiger' is a combination of aggressiveness, the will to win and passion. That's when someone is brave, takes the shots and keeps on fighting."
* For more information: www.beer.com/pfl or call the PFL in Canada at 1-416-203-2389.
Pillow Fight League: No sleeping allowed
By Anna M. Tinsley
McClatchy Newspapers
Don't pull hair, try to gouge anyone's eyes or be rude.
And never, ever hide a brick inside a pillow.
Just fight like a girl.
Those are the rules of the expanding Pillow Fight League - a new Canadian-born "sport" that founders hope is on its way around the United States.
"It's real women having fights with pillows, having fun," said Stacey P. Case, the 39-year-old Canadian drummer who created the league. "Anything goes."
This is not your traditional slumber-party pillow fight.
These women train every week, learning to take each other down using chokeholds and leg drops - with pillows, of course.
"This has nothing to do with a slumber party," Case said, scoffing at those who want the fights to begin with "Let's get ready to slumber."
"It's kind of vicious," he said. "You can hit them, you can trip them - anything goes as long as there is a pillow at the point of contact."
And it's coming to Austin, Texas, as soon as March.
Case dreamed up the idea years ago while on tour with his band, Tijuana Bibles. Wanting to see if anyone was interested, he put an ad in the paper.
"The PFL wants you!" "Women 19-35, smart, cute, athletic with a mean streak."
Thirty women answered; five showed up.
The league now boasts 25 members, Canadian women who hold down jobs as secretaries, accountants and writers and who pillow-fight on the side.
They have characters, costumes and stage names.
There's the apron-wearing Betty Clock'er, the beer-drinking Boozy Suzy, the aggressive waitress Polly Esther, even the pillow-fight world champion, Champain, a tough talker who ranks The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy among her favorite reading material.
During a match, they step on the mat, grab a standard double-stuffed queen-size pillow (no feather pillows allowed) and have five minutes to win or lose.
The fighters are monitored by referees, and they can do anything - chokeholds, leg drops, clotheslines, pinning opponents to the mat - as long as the pillow is used at the point of contact.
For Sarah Bellum, who wears glasses and a librarian hairdo, smothering is the only way to go.
"If I can wrap the pillow around their face, I try to do that," said Bellum, a self-described 24-year-old geek who declined to give her real name. "Sometimes I have to jump on their backs to try to smother them. Sometimes I trip them and try to do it when they're on the ground."
Rules and regulations
* Length of a fight: Five minutes.
* Average fights per live event: 10.
* Size of all pillows: Double-stuffed queen size (no feathers).
* Slogan: "Fight like a girl."
* Age, weight and height requirements: None. (They tend not to take fighters older than 40, although they could someday create a seniors league.)
* How to win: Pin your opponent. If you don't, the decision goes to three judges who look at style, stamina and "eye of the tiger," said Stacey P. Case, commissioner of the league. " 'Eye of the tiger' is a combination of aggressiveness, the will to win and passion. That's when someone is brave, takes the shots and keeps on fighting."
* For more information: www.beer.com/pfl or call the PFL in Canada at 1-416-203-2389.