Lots of fun and smiles in Godalming tonight with classes in Sword and dagger, Sword and buckler, and our beginners stream. Enrolment is open for our next entry level course starting January.
The cloaks (or beach towels) were out in force again tonight in Reading as our students continued their study block looking at the cloak as an off-hand weapon. Lots of dapper fun had by all students.
Tonight our Swindon students got to look at second intention attacks. We went through a number of scenarios and drills to look at effective ways of using them. Ross also got his first taste of steel, gearing up to enjoy some sparring with Mick. Some great input and study by students.
It was a new lesson block tonight in Reading as our students got introduced the the joys of using the cloak as an off-hand. Armed with cloaks (or towels in their absence) Reading students were taken through the basics by Matt.
Our Swindon students have made a lot of progress since our newest chapter opened back in May. Tonight, we were joined by Mick from our Oxford chapter who gave Jonathan his first experience of sparring with steel as we looked at different types of counter, as well as deep vs shallow targets. A busy night but lots of progress made by all
Our Reading students got to enjoy a free-sparring night at training tonight. These sessions allow students to put techniques learned into action and fight against a range of students.
Our Oxford student met up again today for their regular outdoor freeplay session. These sparring get-togethers provide the perfect opportunity to practise techniques learned in class as well as get experience of fighting against opponents they might otherwise not get regular practise against.
The School of the Sword is in Switzerland this weekend, after Oxford head instructor, Emilia Skirmuntt, has been invited to present a workshop on the side-sword of Giovanni Dall’Agocchie as part of the DEON event being held in Zurich. Hosted by Swiss HEMA member HADU, DEON23 is a dedicated rapier and side-sword event that features both workshops and tournaments.
The impending storm meant that we were a little light on the ground at Swindon tonight, so we had a “Try-A-Weapon” night, where students got to sample a combination of main hand and off-hand weapons including: smallsword, rapier, dagger and cloak. We all had a lot of fun and there is definite interest in progressing some of these weapons further.
