We had an energetic evening of coaching in rapier and dagger, and Manciolino’s closed play in the Bolognese group. All good prep for those attending The Taunton Chapter of the Wessex League this weekend. Lots of luck to those taking part.
Lead instructor Emilia taught the first class of the beginners course at our new chapter in Oxford this evening. We were fully booked as eager new students picked up the longsword for the first time and learned about the principles of longsword according to Fiore dei Liberi.
Classes take place each Thursday at Magdalen College School.
Sots brought home wins from the first leg of the Wessex League 2018 hosted by London Historical Fencing Club this weekend in south London.
Reigning league champion for open r&d Stewart Hotston took gold in open rapier and dagger as well as silver in open sword and buckler.
And women’s longsword league winner 2017 Fran Terminiello took gold again in women’s longsword. Emilia Skirmuntt placed bronze. And for women’s rapier and dagger Fran and Emilia placed silver and bronze respectively. Well done to all SoTS members who not only competed admirably and with great skill but also worked hard to staff this event.
The league, in its second year, has several School members on the organising committee, Sots hosted the second chapter last year in Reading.
The next chapter takes place in Taunton on 29/30 September and is hosted by Taunton Longsword Association.
We had a busy session this afternoon in Godalming, with the Wessex League starting next Saturday in London it was probably not surprising that a lot of us wanted to hone our skills.
It was also the end of Mark’s block on Agrippa single sword so lots of people wanted to use the time to try out what they had learned.
On Wednesday Lynette will continue her block on rapier & dagger, and Simon will be joining us to look at sidesword and parrying gauntlet according to the Anonimo Bolognese as translated by Piermarco.
Several of our beginners in Godalming have levelled up to full membership recently. After taking their safety tests and being cleared for sparring, they can now attend all classes at all three sites as well as our regular sparring.
The test consists of several exercises to assess technical knowledge, skill and above all control.
Congratulations to Maria, Michael, Sarah, Joshua and Sebastian!
Today we held our opening of The School of the Sword Oxford, with Q&A sessions, mini classes, demonstrations and sparring.
We had an enthusiastic group of newcomers to HEMA who put in a great effort, and we look forward to welcoming them to our Beginners Course.
If you would like to sign up please fill in the registration form:
The School has always been praised for the quality of its teaching, and to maintain this level of tuition we run periodic gatherings of instructors to discuss and consolidate on teaching practices across the three sites. It was a very productive morning, with lots of insights and ideas shared among the senior members.
Fightcamp is the largest and longest running HEMA event in the UK, and three people from the School entered the Rapier tournament which resulted in three medals for the School! Congratulations to Adrian, Apollon and Alexander for achieving 3rd, 2nd and 1st place respectively.
Alexander went on to win silver in the longsword competition, first place went to Jack Gassmann who has also taught at the School in the past.
On Monday in Reading we had a very special evening full of lots of fights as Stewart and James took their Spadaccino and Laureando exams.
Laureando is the second exam students at the School can take after the initial safety test (to make sure they are safe to spar). This is typically after 200 hours of study and some experience of teaching others. James took part in five 3-minute bouts, ending in an exchange against a weapon he hadn’t encountered before, in this case it was a katana! James chose sidesword and put in an impressive performance. He will also submit a written piece of research.
Spadaccino is the most senior rank in the school and Stewart racked up an impressive ten bouts of three minutes at a time in sword & buckler, rapier & dagger, spadone and dussack. As our treasurer and with 0ver 400 hours of study and many sessions of teaching under his belt, it was time he showed us what he was made of – and on a very hot August evening he cut a swathe through all opposition and emerged victorious! His final match was using parrying gauntlet and rapier, and he has submitted a longer written piece. Well done to both and all who helped take part in the bouts.
On Sunday in Godalming we held a women’s open day after sparring. We were pleased to have a fantastic group who all did some Q&A with all our women instructors and students, took mini lessons in longsword with Emilia, sword & buckler with Fran and rapier with Masha. By the third sparring session everyone was really getting into it! We hope to see plenty of them at our beginners course in January.
