Senior Instructor and ‘matriarch’ of the School of the Sword, Fran Terminiello, is in Seattle, Washington this weekend participating in the Swordsquatch event where she is running a workshop on rapier body mechanics.
Whilst not one of the core weapons we study, word has reached us that Fran will be fighting for bronze in the ladies’ longsword competition. We wish Fran the best of luck!
It was a busy night on Wednesday with the start of our new beginner’s course. Over the next 6 weeks Fran will be taking our new candidati through the foundations of swordplay.
Meanwhile, Pim taught the rapier students whilst Adrian worked with the Bolognese students on the use of the buckler.
It was the first training session of the month in Reading on Monday night, with our usual three streams of training on offer to students.
Pim took the rapier and dagger group, whilst Jay worked with the Bolognese students. Simon was also busy preparing our candidati for their safety tests.
Godalming played host to Sunday sparring this past weekend, with a large turnout from both our Reading and Godalming groups.
These free sessions for students who have passed their safety test allow them to get in some valuable sparring time, practising the techniques they’ve learnt in our training sessions. It allows them to spar with people they don’t normally train with as well as try out some fun weapon combinations that are not part of our curriculum.
It was another fun night on Wednesday as students turned up at Godalming to participate in one of two streams of learning available.
Fran worked with the Bolognese students, whilst Lizzie took the rapier stream.
What better way to spend a bank holiday weekend, than with a bit of free sparring. Students from both Reading and Godalming met up in Hawley for our regular Sunday Sparring session.
These free sessions for students allow them to get in some valuable sparring time, practising the techniques they’ve learnt in our training sessions. It also allows them to spar with people they don’t normally train with as well as try out some fun weapon combinations that are not part of our curriculum.
Wednesday night saw another of our regular training sessions in Godalming with two streams of training on offer to our students.
Pim worked with the rapier students whilst Fran worked with the Bolognese stream.
With the bank holiday next week, Monday night saw our last training session for the month.
As always we had three simultaneous training streams on offer for students: Beginners, Bolognese, and Rapier & Dagger.
Thanks to Matt for the pictures!
The School of the Sword was in Switzerland the weekend of the 19th & 20th August attending the Swiss Blades event.
The Swiss Blades is an international Historical European Martial Arts event, organised by the HEMA division of the Association Médiévale Romande with 15 workshops over 2 days and a feder tournament.
School of the Sword world-acknowledged instructor, Jay Maxwell, taught a workshop on the cutting rapier, examining the body and blade mechanics, and optimise movement and posture using analysis of solo and partner drills to improve speed, strength and efficiency.
Thanks to Swiss Blades for the images.
Sunday Sparring was in Reading this week with a number of weapon disciplines in play including rapier, dagger, sidesword, buckler and others.
These free sessions for students allow them to get in some valuable sparring time, practising the techniques they’ve learnt in our training sessions. It also allows them to spar with people they don’t normally train with as well as try out some fun weapon combinations that are not part of our curriculum.
