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.
We’re pleased to announce that two of our instructors will be heading to East Anglia this May to instruct at the brand new Boudicca – Warrior Queen event.
Boudicca is an annual women’s only HEMA teaching and competitive event celebrating and promoting women in HEMA. For women, by women with the aim to encourage more women to take part and compete in HEMA. The event is also raising awareness of and money for Fibromyalgia research.
SOTS instructor Fran Terminiello will be teaching Bolognese sidesword at the event on 14th May whilst Lizzie Wilson will look at Bolognese sword and buckler.
For more details, check out the event’s Facebook page
There was a lot of energy on Wednesday night which was put to good use with some new exercises in our warm up. Lizzie helped the beginners and recently passed studente progress. In the Sword & Buckler group, Pim covered close play, whilst in the rapier group Fran took the students through the mechanics of the lunge.
The great thing about a leap year is that it means we can get an extra training session in. Despite a lot of regulars suffering from the latest bug doing the rounds, we had a very healthy turnout. Another group of beginners passed their safety test, Mark took the Bolognese group and the Montante group worked as a study group trying to figure our four cuts along one line.
