Students met up in Godalming for sparring last Sunday. There were a mix of weapon combinations in play including sword & buckler, rapier, montante and even smallsword. It was a very active session and the time just flew past.
Sunday Sparring went to Godalming this past weekend as students from both our Reading and Godalming salles met up to put in a bit of extra sparring time and try to put into practise techniques learnt at our training sessions.
There was a multitude of weapon combinations crammed into our 2.5 hour session including rapier & dagger, sidesword & buckler, single sidesword, single rapier, rapier & cloak and even montante.
It was the final lessons in the current teaching blocks on Wednesday evening in Godalming. Our senior students will be starting new streams next week. In Lizzie’s Montante group, students put together everything they’ve learned over the past few weeks to do some half-speed sparring. Meanwhile, in Pim’s rapier & dagger stream, he worked on giving some individual feedback whilst the rest of the students played with a variety of weapon combinations. Fran worked on getting the beginners group ready for their safety tests.
We were also joined by Jessica who is visiting the country from Holland, where she studies HEMA
There were flying penguins at Godalming on Wednesday night! The Montante group was looking at dealing with thrown objects, and because throwing a sword might not be the safest thing to do, it was substituted for a stuffed penguin. It produced a lot of laughs and worked as an effective drill.
Over in the rapier & dagger group, Pim lead students through some tournament scenarios resulting in some high intensity bouts. Meanwhile the beginners continued their work toward their safety test
A decent turnout on Wednesday for training in Godalming with three streams of learning.
Fran worked with the beginners with sword and buckler, the montante group were taken through a number of drills with Simon from our Reading salle, and the rapier group had a bit of tournament coaching with both single rapier and rapier & dagger ahead of the International Rapier Seminar this weekend.
There was a good mix of weapons on Wednesday night. The montante class continued their progress with the weapon whilst in the rapier & dagger class, the students got in some tournament practise. There was even time for some sword & buckler in the freeplay session at the end.
Our last training session for March saw a number of our Reading students come and join us for the evening.
The Montante group worked on attacks against the rotella / shield whilst in Rapier & Dagger, the students continued their work on tactics.
A busy night as always in Godalming on Wednesday with three training streams running.
Fran worked with the beginners progressing toward safety test, Lizzie continued her very popular class on the use of the Montante / Spadone and Pim progressed with his classes on tactics in rapier & dagger.
A fun night which left us feeling in need o liquid refreshment in the pub afterwards!
On Wednesday night, Godalming played host to Simon from our Reading salle who brought his lesson on di Grassi’s Spadone to a lot of eager participants.
In the meantime, Pim took the rapier & dagger stream through a lesson looking at tactics.
Wednesday saw the students from our Godalming Salle get their first introduction to use of the Montante / Spadone. This proved a very popular stream in Reading and also had a large take up from our Godalming students. A few, however, elected to join the rapier & dagger stream going over some of the fundamentals. Matt came along from Reading to take the Beginners.
An enjoyable night all round with high levels of enthusiasm and energy.
