Reading Group
Our Reading students got to enjoy a sparring night tonight. Sparring sessions give students the chance to practise techniques they have learnt in class and work on incorporating them into their personal arsenal of moves, tricks and tactics.
Our success and strength as a school comes from the diversity of our members. A lot of our drills and techniques depend on trust on our sparring partners, and we want our members to feel included, seen, supported, and safe. As part of commitment to inclusivity, a pronoun patch now forms a voluntary part of our part of our official uniform insignia. Members who choose to have one, can wear it under the chapter flash and school patch with pride.
Our Reading students were practicing for upcoming tournaments this week by holding their very own Sword & Buckler tournament. Using the rule set from the Wessex League, students fought valiantly for the amazing prize of some runner beans. Perhaps unexpectedly, this is not the most trivial thing we’ve ever had as an internal prize. Congrats to the winners! Enjoy your beans!
It was a busy night tonight in Reading. Josh lead students through some single rapier according to Alfieri whilst matt took the Sword & Buckler block through styles of fighting, understanding yours, reading your opponents and how to change up a fight.
School of the Sword was competing in tournament this weekend with three of our chapters taking medals . Emilia took gold in Women’s Sword & Buckler, as well as bronze in Women’s Longsword; Lenny took silver in the Beginner’s open steel Sword & Buckler, whilst Mike took Bronze. A lot of other students narrowly missed out on medals.
Congratulations to all winners, and we look forward to the next leg which will be held in Taunton.
It was a busy night at our Reading Chapter tonight. Matt looked at Marozzo, feints and fighting styles leading onto a friendly Bolognese tournament, whilst Simon and Josh continued their block on single rapier. However, all attention was on the newly-improved peasant flails (first debuted at the Coming of Age event), which made a welcome return to sparring at the end.
It was the second day of our Coming of Age event, celebrating the 21st anniversary of the School of the Sword. After a hearty breakfast, students jumped into a selection fo workshops taught by instructors from across School of the Sword’s four chapters.
Josh taught some Fabris Rapier & Dagger, Phil introduced students to dall’Agocchie sidesword, Fran ran a Sword& Dagger masterclass, Emilia tackled Longsword disarms, Adrian ran a workshop on introduction to single rapier, and Matt taught rapier and cloak. We then gave out a bunch of awards before leaving the afternoon for people to pack up their tents and engage in a little sparring.
Thank you to everyone who came. It seemed the event was a massive success and the perfect way to celebrate our 21st anniversary. Here’s to the next 21!
After a busy first day of workshops and sparring, what better way to unwind than a cruise down the Thames. Attendees from all four chapters at our Coming of Age event this weekend, boarded a boat and set sail for an evening of food, drink and conversation.
It was a jam-packed day of workshops on the first full day of our Coming of Age celebration event. Students from all four of our chapters gathered on the banks of the Thames to partake in a wide range of workshops put on by our instructors.
Lizzie gave an introduction to Spadone, Dan looked at Alfieri humors, Apollon gave a Rapier masterclass, Kirstian taught an introduction to Longsword, Adrian gave a masterclass on use of the buckler, Simon looked at Godhino’s Montante, Luis introduced us to grappling, and Mark gave a workshop on Agrippa. All were well attended with lots of happy students enjoying the perfect weather.
We ended the first day of workshops with Simon and Josh from our Reading Chapter completing the final piece of their Spadaccino grading. Spadaccino is the most senior rank in the school and as part of it, they have to engage in a number of fights including a weapon they’ve never used before which in their case were peasant flails. Congrats to both of them for a well deserved honour. which has required huge number of hours of dedicated training as well as written pieces.
This weekend sees our 21st Anniversary celebration with a range of workshops from instructors from all four of our chapters. However, before the weekend could begin, we needed to partake in a little light liquid refreshment as we made our way into the town of Marlow for some pub food and celebrate the first time that students from all four of our chapters have gathered together.
The food was excellent and the company was brilliant, setting us up for what promises to be an exemplary event weekend.
