On 21st May Winchester freestyle martial arts hosted an interclub sparring day, featuring members from the School of the Sword, KDF Bournemouth and Portsmouth British Martial arts club.
It was a great day with nylon and steel, lessons and sparring, and a host of different weapons. There was a very friendly atmosphere and everyone learned something new. We look forward to attending future events.
Obviously, for practical reasons, we don’t fight with sharpened blades. The bladesmiths that we use are renowned for making their weapons feel and handle as close to the real thing as to be almost indistinguishable. However, there really is no better way to test your cutting than by cutting with a sharp.
On Sunday a number of our students attended a seminar hosted by our good friends at Waterloo Sparring Group. The Cutting Clinic was lead by Tristan Zukowski, a HEMA longsword instructor from New York who had students from a number of local schools testing their cutting against tatami mats.
Thanks to WSG for a great event!
The School of the Sword is Proud to Present: Ilkka Hartikainen Seminar – On the Bolognese Single Sidesword
Saturday 27th August 11am-5pm, Godalming.
The School of the Sword is proud to announce this one day seminar, delivered by Ilkka on the Bolognese single sidesword, drawn from several sources with a particular focus on the Anonimo Bolognese. Ilkka is recognised as a world-leading exponent of Bolognese fencing, and will be presenting his work for the first time ever in the UK.
This event will be open to students from other HEMA schools.
Ilkka Hartikainen began studying historical European martial arts in 2001 and discovered the rich early renaissance fencing tradition of Bologna in 2007. The Bolognese sidesword soon became his main focus and since 2010 he has taught regular classes in Helsinki, where he is the head instructor at the Espoo Association for Historical Fencing. Every year Ilkka travels around the world to speak and teach on 16th century Italian martial arts.
Currently multiple groups in Finland follow Ilkka’s method and he is working together with other enthusiasts of Bolognese tradition to bring the style back to life. Recently he has concentrated on creating an accessible core system for the sidesword based on the works of Achille Marozzo, Giovanni dall’Agocchie and the Anonimo Bolognese. From here his focus will shift to the other weapons and disciplines in the texts, looking at the tradition as a unified, complete martial art. Ilkka is the founder of Marozzo.com, a website project dedicated to sharing information on Bolognese fencing, and works as a user interface specialist when not training or teaching swordsmanship.
Registration and payment details will go live in June. Please keep an eye on the website or the Facebook event page for more details as they go live
Are you interested in what we do but not sure if historical fencing is for you? If so, then you’ll want to keep Sunday 12th June free, as The School of the Sword is having a FREE Have-A-Go Day!
Drop in to Broadwater school between 10am and 12noon for a glimpse of our weekly training in historical fencing. Join in and have a go for yourself; learn some basic swordfighting, hold steel weapons, see the sources we use to train Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). Or just have a chat and ask us anything you like.
“I wasn’t very fit or active and wasn’t sure it would be my kind of thing… How wrong could I have been! Four years later and sword fighting has given me the motivation to improve my fitness and strength as well as being a mentally stimulating activity. I am forever grateful to the friend who dragged me along to that first session!”
– Lizzie, Instructor at The School of the Sword“I enjoy the history of it, the people involved and the fitness. Best workout I have ever had.”
– Leslie“Sword fighting has given me confidence, power and the pursuit of post-apocalyptic skills! But truly the confidence one gains by fighting people bigger and stronger than you is amazing. You feel like nothing is impossible”
– Callie“I do this to keep my body healthy while challenging my mind. I love how it’s an entire chess game played in a matter of seconds.”
– Amy
This is open to anyone 18 and over (15 and over with an attending guardian). People of all ages, sexes and fitness levels train with us at our classes.
Our events team has been incredibly busy of late. Aside from our two training classes a week, we’re increasing the number of sparring sessions and seminars for our members.
However, we’ve got a number of events coming up that will be open to wider than just school members!
The first of these will be the Grappling Workshop on the afternoon of the 12th June 2016 at our Godalming (and International Rapier Seminar) venue. Peter Smallridge will be joining us for a 2 hour grappling workshop after which we’ll have 3 hours of sparring.
We’re taking registrations and payment for this event through our attendance system and booking is now open to members of other HEMA schools to come and join us! It would be great to see you.
For further details and booking:
https://manager.dojoexpert.com/student/register.aspx?g=f921d074-ae46-443f-aa86-762b854da87b&j=en-GB
The School of the Sword played host to the International Rapier Seminar this past weekend with participants and instructors from all round the world converging in Godalming. Amongst the multiple training streams, the event also saw tournaments for single rapier as well as rapier & dagger.
In the Rapier & Dagger tournament
1st Place – George Zacharopoulos (Academy of Hoplomachia, Greece)
2nd Place – Stewart Hotston (School of the Sword, UK)
3rd Place – Maria Makarova (School of the Sword, UK)
In Single Rapier tournament
1st Place – Alexander Makarov (School of the Sword, UK)
2nd Place – Massimiliano Moscatelli (Accademia Romana d’Armi, Italy)
3rd Place – Robert Wrightson (Sussex Sword Academy, UK)
Robert Wrightson also won the best technical fencer prize, winning a custom rapier from Danelli Armouries.
Whilst we’re naturally thrilled to see school members do well in the tournaments, we’d like to congratulate all winners, and thank all participants, instructors, organisers, helpers and our fantastic sponsors: Danelli Armouries, The Knight Shop, Gajardoni and Neyman Fencing. We hope everyone had a wonderful time and look forward to joining you all next year.
Coming to the International Rapier Seminar this weekend? Then make sure you’re up to date with all the latest information!
Attendees to the sold-out event should all have received emails with details of the class schedule, tournament rules, equipment requirements and (most importantly) the social schedule. If you’ve not seen emails please check your spam folder or check out the IRS mini-site
The School of the Sword is looking forward to playing host this weekend to what should be an awesome event. The team is working flat out to make this an event to remember. We hope to see some of you there.
It’s less than a week to go before the start of the International Rapier Seminar 2016. The School of the Sword is playing host this year to the sold-out event and has lined up a number of world-class instructors and seminars.
There’s also a tournament and we’ve published the rules and safety requirements for attendees. (Attendees should have also received this via email earlier this week).
It looks to be a fantastic weekend of historical fencing. Who will win be crowned the Technical Champion for 2016 and take home the trophy?
The School of the Sword’s instructors are certainly busy outside the school, travelling to a number of events this summer to run seminars and workshops.
Fightcamp is the largest HEMA event in the UK with instructors attending from all over the world. Held 12th -14th August 2016 in the Midlands, it’s a weekend of learning, competition and camaraderie.
It looks like it will be an excellent weekend and the school is looking to have a big contingent of members there.
As well as being an accomplished instructor, Fran is also a published writer. To celebrate the launch of a new anthology she contributed a story to, Fran and Lizzie went down to Bristol for the day to give a sword fighting demonstration at the book launch.
There was a big crowd and it seemed the demonstration went down well with people who had turned up. Fran then got to sign books for people.
The anthology, Fight Like A Girl, is now available from good bookshops. Thanks to Chris for the photos.
