Our Godalming students met up today to practise a little free sparring with a number of different weapons. These sessions allow students to practise and refine techniques in class as well as give valuable experience of sparring with a multitude of different opponents.
It was free sparring night at Swindon tonight, where students got the chance to spar with a number of different weapons including daggers, rapiers, and smallswords. Students also got to play with Montantes, longswords and polearms in what was a fun filled but exhausting evening.
Swindon students were treated to a special night, where they voted which concepts we’ve covered this autumn they wanted to revisit. They chose to look at second intention and the sidestep. They revisited old concepts, plus covered the areas in more depth. We also had a welcome half-time break with the strawberries Valentina brought for us.
Our Swindon students were in a bind tonight – several, in fact – as we looked at blade mechanics and the basics of binding with the sword. We went through a number of drills focusing on the feedback of the bind before progressing that to look at covering your opponent’s sword without binding. We then went on to explore passing footwork. Some great observations and intense study.
All four chapters came together this weekend, as the final leg of the Wessex League Tournament came to Swindon, Students from our Godalming, Reading and Oxford chapters competed whilst our Swindon students got their first taste of tournaments from the sidelines, cheering everyone on.
School of the Sword came away with a number of medals despite some highly skilled competition.
Emilia Skirmuntt took gold in Women’s Rapier & Dagger, silver in Women’s longsword, as well as two golds in the overall league – Women’s longsword league and Women’s Multiple Weapon league
Magnus Kraken took silver in the Beginner’s Rapier & Dagger, with Lenny Sim taking Bronze
Kristian Barlow took bronze in Sword & Buckler.
Congratulations to Nigel Salt who narrowly missed out on a medal, gaining 4th place in Beginner’s Longsword.
Great fencing by all fencers, whether they won medals or not. They should all be proud, as we look to 2024 and our preparations
Our Swindon students were joined by a couple of our colleagues from Oxford as they prepared to get in some extra training ahead of the Wessex tournament this weekend. There was a lot of intense, sweaty sparring, interspersed with feedback sessions and tips for improvement, as students were coached through a number of scenarios. We think everyone will sleep well tonight!
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.
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.
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.
