Another busy session at Godalming tonight. The longsword group worked on low guards, while the tournament prep group discussed the use of a ‘corner’ person and held a mini pool. Each fighter fought against the others in the pool and there were some excellent bouts. Everyone won at least one bout and everyone scored points in every bout.
School of the Sword lead instructor, Fran Lacuata, was in Dorset this weekend teaching an introduction to Historical European Martial Arts course at the Ancient Technology Centre in Cranborne.
The course focused on teaching renaissance swordplay where participants could learn the basics of greatsword, sidesword, dagger, buckler and more!
Tonight at our Reading Chapter we saw the start of a new introductory course for beginners, together with dagger fighting and some serious studying of Capoferro for our more experienced students
It was a big night in Godalming tonight as Phil Hodder took his Laureando assessment. The rank is given to a student who has shown expertise with a number of weapon combinations and Phil’s assessment this evening required him to have a number of fights to showcase his range of skill.
Congratulations Phil on the hard work it has taken to get him to this stage.
Two of School of the Sword’s instructors were in the glorious sunshine and the rain this weekend at the Fightcamp Skirmish event hosted by Schola Gladiatoria. Adrian did a class on introduction to rapier and Fran taught an intro to Bolognese sword & buckler.
Fightcamp is a long running UK event organised by our friends over at Schola Gladiatoria. It’s a fun weekend of camping, classes and camaraderie.
This year, three School of the Sword instructors were invited to teach. Fran ran a class on Anonimo Bolognese Poleaxe, Adrian ran a class on Active Buckler Defense and unfortunately the weather put a stop to Emilia’s class on dirty rapier tricks. All the students seemed to enjoy themselves, and it was good to catch up with members of the wider HEMA community after so long apart.
Valentine’s day didn’t keep our students way from Godalming on Wednesday night with two streams of training on offer.
Lizzie & Kasten took the Bolognaise group through defending ready for an attack in sword & buckler, whilst Lynette looked at proceeding with rapier.
Sunday sparring was in Hawley this week with a number of students turning up looking to get in some extra practise.
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.
Students gathered last night our regular Wednesday night training session in Godalming.
Fran taught a class on sword & buckler and Adrian continued his introduction to rapier.
