Happy new year!

It's been a brilliant year for the school. Thanks so much to everyone who has made it such a good one.
We have a special first class at the Clapham hall this Friday. No matter which LLA class you belong to, you are welcome to attend. We will make room.
And to everyone, student or stranger. Have the most excellent  new year.

The Days of Wrathmas 3-4

Following on from the previous post, two more clips from the Sword London*. "Days of Wrathmas" series of solo drills.
Wrath 3

I hope you enjoy them, feel free to visit the facebook page if you have questions about the drills or classes.
Wrath 4

* Our facebook page, don't forget to follow us;).

Days of wrath, and other festive fun...

This weekend saw the charity bash at the school, with fifteen fighters and over 100 fights in 4 hours.
Bearing in mind that the competion was so close to xmas, I was incredibly pleased with how many folk turned up; many of whom were fighting for the first time. Overall winner was Luke Rose who won every one of his fights as well as showing some great teetering on the edge of the ring skills.

Here is one of his early fights.

£350 was raised and has been sent to Shelter. I'm incredibly proud of you all chaps.


We are off now until the 3rd of January, but as a special treat we are posting up clips of solo walkthroughs of Joachim Meyer's longsword wrath section, more will be coming, but here are two to begin with.

And we are back!

  At last an update, merely to say that up the class schedule is set up until xmas. Mondays: Rapier. Tuesdays: dussack/staff. Wednesdays: Sword & buckler. Thursdays: Sword & buckler. Fridays: Longsword. Now we have internet again there will be more updates coming. In the meantime; I hope you enjoy the video of Zeb and I working through the a play from Meyer's wrath guard.  

Class updates.

Monday: from now till the end of the year is going to be rapier. This has proved enormously popular with the group working on material from Cavendish, Fabris & Thibault amongst others.

Tuesday.
Meyer staff and dussack. A split lesson drilling with long staff and hack and slashing with the dussack/messer.

Wednesday/Thursday.
Sword and buckler, working with I.33 and cavendish.

Friday.
Longsword.  Working a combination of styles.

As soon as the wifi is up and running we will have more updates.  Including some new and interesting projects coming up.

Two Days of the Blade 2013

Another Two Days of the Blade is nearly upon us. And half the places are already gone.
Day one will be myself teaching single sword, based on the "Truth of the Sword" by the Marquis of Newcastle. This will be the first time this system has been taught in hundreds of years, as the manual has only recently been resurrected from it's papery tomb by Gordon Hamilton and myself.
It is a fantastic system, valuable to every student of swordsmanship, regardless of their style.
Day two will be the wonderful Rob Runacres, the workshop will be based around the rapier and dagger of Fabris, but with insights from other sources and Rob's experience with the pairing.
Click the image above to visit the two days website for information on how to book.

Danelli Armouries, basic rapier and custom pappenheimer review.

Yesterday I took possession of 6 basic model, and my personal pappenheimer rapier from Marco Danelli, and I wanted to go over a few things about the weapons, and the experience of dealing with Marco. Customer service, this may be a strange one to start with, but it needs mentioning here because... At every single point of dealing with Marco I have been kept in the loop. If there is a delay which may affect the items delivery time, I was let know, if there was anything to do with materials, I was let know. I was made welcome at his workshop and my thoughts commented on with honestly and clarity as to if (or not) that option was possible or wise...In one word, fantastic. The basic rapiers. These are 42” bladed, cup hilts, the cups are rolled and fastened by two screws, the screws are hard to put in, which made or a lot of swearing till we realised they are angled slightly to hold the cups better and more firmly in place. There is plenty of room between the cup, rings and cross, for varied grips (one or two fingers over, Fabris, or flat up Thibault), without any discomfort. In fact comfort is very much a feature in even these, the basic models, The blades are hollow ground and widen to toward the tip and feature a very good distal taper which helps the handling even more. Handling. Stunning. I can say no more.

The pappenheimer. The blade is wider than the basic model but features a lot of the same characteristics, again 42” strong distal taper and thickened tip. Obviously the weight is a feature, but it is just that an additional presence in the blade, but offering no detriment in handling. It is beautiful to use, and has that same exceptional comfort in the hand that is a feature of Marco's work. The quillons and shell, are well finished, with the hammer marks left on the inside of the pierced plates as a mutually agreed aesthetic touch. Handling. A little heavier in the hand than the basic models, but it's what I asked for and what I like. Fantastic. Overall. I haven't mentioned money here, my feeling is I got much more than I paid for. If you look at comparable items on the market I think these win hands down. Their handling is superior to any other rapiers I've played with. And dealing with Marco is a delight. I will be buying much more from him in the future.

Danelli armouries click here:  http://www.danelliarmouries.com/

A little Meyer for you.

For all of you expecting the harsh, clash of clash on steel. Here is a brief clip of the sword play of Joachim Meyer, of course this is a slow run through. but the idea of these techniques are: observation, timing and redirecting rather than fighting the momentum of the blade. Longsword is running in every class until the end of July.

The first prize play!

It has been a long time coming, but at last the first student has been given the right to challenge for his prize play within the school. This is not an honour earned lightly & reflects the hard work and effort put in by Luke.

The prize is very simply the first assessment,  but as any within the school will tell you, knowing enough and demonstrating that knowledge well enough to be considered for grading and promotion to scholar: is a long, hard journey. 

His obligations of rank will be:
To make the challenges as stated.
To teach a lesson on the weapon and principle of his choice.
To make donation to a charitable cause.
To fight the stated challenges.

The hour of his prize will be announced soon, all members of the school please offer your support, I hope that soon, more of you will be fighting your prize.

What's gone on...

A little recap of what's been going on over the last couple of months or so. There was the Thibault seminar in Delft

  (more pictures here) Here is a short review of that. Review by Reinier van Noort: Last weekend, Dave Rawlings visited the School for Historical Fencing Arts, to bring the fencing art of Girard Thibault’s Academie de l’Espée back to life during a two-day seminar, for the first time in the Netherlands since the seventeenth century. 21 historical martial artists, from amongst others Antwerp and Stuttgart, traveled to Delft for a seminar that, to me, was a fantastic experience. On Saturday, the seminar kicked off with an in-depth introduction to Thibault’s system. The basic stance was explained, and from this basic stance the first steps in subjecting the opponent’s blade were executed. After that, we studied various possible reactions the opponent might have to the subjection of his sword, and the correct counter-reactions. On Sunday morning, we started with drawing the sword and assuming the basic stance as shown by Thibault. Next, the techniques and principals studied on Saturday morning were repeated, in order to really let them sink in. This was followed by looking at more possible reactions the opponent might have upon subjecting his sword and approaching. The most prevalent counter-reaction was “stretch out your arm, and stab him in the face”. On Sunday afternoon, once the fundaments were in place, there was time to look into some of the more special actions Thibault shows, such as a volta, and a hilt grab. During the entire seminar, Dave really demonstrated the depth of his research into Thibault’s system. He really made it clear to us how much focus Thibault puts on aspects that might seem mere details at first glance, but he also showed very clearly why these details can be so incredibly important. Additionally, Dave gave the participants ample opportunity to attempt executing the techniques and principles, and to perfect them, so that the importance of the details could also become clear to us. All participants were very interested, and were willing to work hard to give themselves and their partners the best possible training. At the end of the two days of training, we had all learned a lot about Thibault. I myself have also gathered some ideas with which I hope to improve my own training. So, it was a very good weekend, which undoubtedly did Thibault honour. The organisation of this fantastic seminar was almost spotless. This would not have been possible without the help of a few people. First of all, Mark Kloeg put a lot of time and effort into designing the T-shirts at the very last moment, and getting them printed in time. Additionally, he arranged the hall, and made reservations at the restaurant. Without Mark, all that would have been so very nice. Saskia Roselaar helped him with this, and I want to further thank her for standing ready and for the coffee on Sunday morning. Of course, the seminar would not have been possible without my good friend Dave Rawlings, and the short time he spent with us, I once again laughed and learned a lot. Finally, I would like to thank all the participants. You made this seminar possible, and your efforts were inspiring. Only minutes after the seminar ended, the hall was even tidier than we found it on Saturday morning, except for a single lost T-shirt. Thanks so much, all of you! Onwards to the next event!

Thibault is one of the systems I enjoy most, I don't think there is a more thorough one. There are plans afoot to have a one night a week rapier class soon (at the moment I am mostly teaching Thibault to private students).

We have been working through a fair few of the weapon styles we cover in the school. From dagger:

To dussack:



more dussack

To sword and buckler.


More sword and buckler

 oh, more sword and buckler

Longsword


um, indeed more longsword
#
And some more rapier

This picture is an evasion by the way, not as it appears, me swooning at the sheer joy of training in a most fantastic martial art. There has been a lot more going on, sadly I have been unable to commit to teaching any of the seminars I've been offered as my workload is too great at the moment. But I hope that you can see that it's worth it, every one in the school is working hard and improving greatly.If you want to join us, drop me a line at londonlongsword@gmail.com or call me on 07709639881. you can also find us on facebook 

It's a bind...exploits of pressure.

This week we've been working on the entering against half shield, looking at it's (half's) offensive potential and counters to diverse responses to the attempted entry. One of the benefits I see in this is how well this simple aspect of sword and buckler; from entry to bind or assault, fits in the simple basics for both Fabris and Thibault. The entry working a simple fourth to second progression, showing exploitation of space and line, the half showing the benefit of the bind and subjection, and both the need to understand sentiment when the swords are bound.

last week...

Fantastic work from all the groups last week. Intensive cutting and complicated partnered drills, which would have been hard slog barring the great effort that everybody (without exception) put in. Improvement and excellent cooperation from all of you, well done.

Like a boss! Back to buckler...

Last week we started back on an extremely structured and codified work through on sword and buckler. Looking initially at the reasoning behind choice of targets, and the pros and cons of crossing the blade in varied ways and bringing into play logics from other rapier manuals, to explain clearly the desired use of half shield and the devices that oppose it. We have been sparring a lot with sword and buckler alongside the other weapon forms, but it's good to be focussing on the structure and form. As usual great work guys, a lot of great effort going on.

Back to the big knives...

Here is a little clip of the most basic work we do with the knife in the school, taken at one of last weeks classes. Please note that there is a little profanity in this clip, and that the techniques shown are for educational purposes only.  When we work knife we work with the knowledge that many medieval knives were sharp, not all of them  of course, but many were. as a result of this you may find reference within the clip to slicing mechanics which is often not dealt with in HEMA classes. This week it's back onto longsword, messer and buckler. Working from crown and the hangings and showing how different systems work with them.

Thibault comes home.

A longer report coming soon, but I wanted to say thank you to all the students who attended my seminar on the Dutch fencing master Girard Thibault in Delft at the weekend.

. Thank you also, to the School for Historical Fencing Arts (Netherlands) for their hospitality. Everybody involved worked extremely hard and well. A pleasure to come and teach.

More soon...

In an emergency apply the break... dagger days.

This week it's mainly sparring and dagger work, with some footwork and slip drills thrown in.
Please be aware the following is for research purposes, please do not try it without professional tuition.

Here's a few recap basics as we go through.

Firstly as the overhand thrust comes in, I slip back to bring myself out of distance, checking the blade with my own, and grasping Tim's wrist.

I return an over thrust of my own to Tim's belly or groin, of course at the check earlier I could have gone for a hand or limb destruction, or aimed the thrust elsewhere, however this is the set up for the following.

Tim checks my attack slapping the move in a down slightly to protect his body.

I hook in and up with my forearm, pushing his knife away and down with my left.

you must take care to push pull twist and step in one motion as to prevent a hand swap by the opponent.

The hook accomplished I pull his blade to the outside of my thigh securing it, but keeping it away from the more vulnerable inside. 

I then proceed to the floor to apply the break.

 If you have any questions, we can go over them in class. 

Approved

Recently I posted a review of the mark 1 messer synthetic from the Knight Shop. I said that overall I found it clunky (all though handling better with a steel pommel), rigid and unsuitable for sparring.

Today I received the mark 2 and had a chance to compare and spar with it. So, is it any better?

Appearance.
Outwardly it looks identical, as the moulds used are the same.

Weight.
Mark 1 720g
Mark 2 600g
If you add the steel pommel (needed to balance the mark 1 in my opinion) the difference is even greater.

Handling.
A vast improvement, every position, technique, cut and thrust is easy to perform, the tool moving well and lightly. Blade on blade was fine.
As far as winding is concerned, it is not steel, but it is a hell of a lot better than a dussack.

Sparring.
Again a great deal better, the mark 2 moves well and doesn't hit like a club, and as my student said after running bodily onto a thrust, in that respect also... "approved".

Overall.
This is a much better tool than the mark one in every way (with the possible exception of winding, but we are talking a minute loss here). I can't wait to train with it on the occasions when steel is not available or impractical. And will whole heartedly recommend it to my students. A massive improvement, Very much Rawlings approved.

Assessments, insurance and certificates

Happy new year all.

There is already much to look froward to, the longsword assessment is ready for those of you who feel you are, it has several revisions which I feel will help. Please not you are only expectged to know 3 of the master cuts for the basic test. You can view the PDF below, but if you need a hard copy please feel free to ask. 
Longsword basic assessment pdf

Insurance:
All insurance payments are expected to be made week commencing 8th of Feb. These will now be processed at the same time each year, so if you pay late you will get less than a year before you have to pay again.

Certificates:
as you may know I took an age to get the 2 Days of the Blade certificates done, thank you to all of you who took part and completed the weekend, you showed great patience in waiting for them. They are now ready.