On Wednesday night, Godalming played host to Simon from our Reading salle who brought his lesson on di Grassi’s Spadone to a lot of eager participants.
In the meantime, Pim took the rapier & dagger stream through a lesson looking at tactics.
Another busy night in Reading on Monday with a number of different streams running simultaneously that saw us engage in the use of single sidesword, sword & buckler, single rapier, rapier & dagger, sidesword & dagger, and rapier & cloak.
We were joined by a special visit from instructor Phil Marshall who got to see how much Reading students have progressed and grown since his last visit.
In the past few weeks we’ve had a spate of candidati passing their safety test and rising to the rank of studente, however that is not where progression ends within the school.
On Monday night, Stewart became our latest student to pass his laureando exam. In an evening fighting a range of opponents and weapons Stewart demonstrated the quality of his swordplay.
Stewart has been with us since 2012 and as well as being our Treasurer has been a very active instructor within the school. We’re naturally very proud of the hard work and dedication that Stewart has put in and look forward to see him further progress within the school.
Those who have already booked should have seen the email, but we’re pleased to announce the fantastic line-up of instructors and classes they will be teaching at this year’s International Rapier Seminar, hosted by The School of the Sword.
For more details on the event check out the International Rapier Seminar Mini-site
If you were at training in Reading on Monday you will have heard the news that we’ll be moving venue again in April.
We love our current venue but with a new intake of beginners starting on 4th April we are going to have issues with space. Trying to find a venue that can house all of us all year round is an ongoing challenge and people have been working diligently and exhaustively behind the scenes.
As a result, we’ll be heading back to Academy Sport from the 4th April 2016 (7:50pm scan in, 8pm start). We’ve got a few weeks left at St Laurence so don’t head over to Academy Sport just yet!
Wednesday saw the students from our Godalming Salle get their first introduction to use of the Montante / Spadone. This proved a very popular stream in Reading and also had a large take up from our Godalming students. A few, however, elected to join the rapier & dagger stream going over some of the fundamentals. Matt came along from Reading to take the Beginners.
An enjoyable night all round with high levels of enthusiasm and energy.
Despite the winter bugs confining some of our regulars to their sickbeds we had another busy night on Monday. Simon took the Montante group through some confined plays as well as strategies for an opponent with a rotella. Mark continued his work with the sidesword group and Matt was busy with the beginners preparing them for their safety tests at the end of the evening.
As you know, The School of the Sword is playing host to this year’s International Rapier Seminar where we will gather some of the world’s best instructors for a weekend of learning, free play and competition.
It promises to be a great event and we’re in the final stages of organisation. If you’re still thinking about coming, be warned though. Only 8 places remain and we expect them to go fairly fast. So get your booking in now, before we close registration!
For more details, booking details and payment please visit our International Rapier Seminar page
We’ve recently had a spate of students who started with our last Beginners’ Course passing their safety test and joining the ranks of the studenti. They demonstrated control of the blade as well as a knowledge of the different cuts and guards of bolognese swordplay. It just goes to show what you can achieve with some hard work and dedication.
Congratulations to David, Matt and Stephen who are the latest candidati to pass their safety test and rise in rank to studente.
Reading’s next intake of beginners is in early April and there are only a limited number of places available. It’s already filling up fast. So if you’d like to one day join David, Matt, Stephen and all our other studenti, please be sure to contact Reading for details
On Saturday, School of the Sword students from both Reading and Godalming gathered to stab their friends in the back… and the front and just about anywhere else when we had the pleasure of hosting guest instructor, Jack Gassman. Jack kindly gave us a very fun and informative seminar on Fiore Dagger.
Jack had the students start by working on flinch reactions before building it up through a series of scenario drills to defence and disarms. A lot of energy and laughs that had us throwing ourselves (as well as each other) around right up until the end.
