We had a great turnout in Reading for our Sunday Sparring session today. There was a great mix of weapons being played with: everything from rapier & dagger through to spear and rotella. There was also a nice level of feedback from students as well, analysing their fights and point out areas of possible improvement.
We celebrated a very hectic, sweaty session with a trip to the pub and a nice carvery.
Another busy night in Godalming on Wednesday where the school offered three streams of training.
Fran worked with the beginners working towards their safety test. Adrian took the Bolognese group through defence with the buckler and Pim worked on feints with the single rapier.
It was a busy night in Reading on Monday with three different streams of training running simultaneously.
Matt worked with the Bolognese group, whilst Pim took the rapier stream. Meanwhile Stewart and Simon took the beginners through some more of the foundations of sword play as part of their six-week course.
It was our regular training session in Reading on Monday night with a good turnout of students.
Stewart and Dan took the beginners through the second week of their foundation course whilst Jay took the Bolognese and Pim took the single rapier stream.
Students turned up on Wednesday night for our regular weekly training session in Godalming.
Fran worked with the beginners progressing towards their safety test. Meanwhile Pim started an introduction to single rapier in the rapier stream, whilst Adrian worked with the Bolognese group on improving their use of the buckler.
It was Reading’s first training session of the year and a new intake of beginners. They worked with Stewart and Dan on the first week of their six week course on the fundamentals of Bolognese swordplay.
Meanwhile Matt took the Bolognese stream whilst Pim started a stream on introduction to single rapier.
Students from both our Reading and Godalming salles convened in Hawley on Sunday as we welcomed the return of Sunday Sparring. These sessions provide an excellent opportunity for our students to out into practise what they have learned at training as well as getting some much-needed sparring experience. As always with The School of the Sword our students gave each other generous constructive feedback. We were also joined by famed sword maker, Marco Danelli.
After a good session, we retired to the pub to put on all the calories we’d lost during sparring.
We had a very special and fun night of gradings on Wednesday with with over thirty people attending to see and participate in three senior students testing their skill.
An array of weapons such as rapier, dagger, cloak, sidesword and buckler were used; as well as a variety of situations. The final bout was carried out in darkness and with the addition of lanterns.
Congratulations Adrian and Simon on passing their Laureando assessments, and particularly to Matt, who has achieved the ultimate rank of Spadaccino. Well deserved all.
Wednesday saw the last training session of the year and Godalming’s Bring-A-Weapon party.
Students got to spin a wheel to choose the weapons they would fight with, leading to some interesting and entirely one-sided fights. It also gave students a chance to fight with weapons they may never have used before. Good fun was had by all and it was the perfect way to finish what has been a very busy year for the school.
It was the last training session in Reading for the year on Monday, which could mean only one thing… our annual Bring-A-Weapon Party.
Students brought every weapon they could lay their hands on from small swords & montantes, through boken and bo staffs, to weird and wonderful from science fiction & fantasy. Students who felt brave could pick weapons from the hat of doom which lead to weird and wonderful (and entirely one-sided) match ups.
We ended the evening with a melee where it wasn’t exactly clear who was on which side at any given time.
