Académie de l’Éclair and other tales of FightCamp.

First of all congratulations to Tim Fuke on winning rapier gold. Our first scholar and a fine teacher in his own right, Tim is always notable for understating his considerable skill. Great to see him take this well deserved win.
   *In case that isn't enough, Tim then went on to win silver in the longsword and bronze in the mixed. Please apply all the above compliments again:). Congratulations also to Ties Kool for taking gold in that event. Tim, we are proud of you.




 I ran a dagger and a dussack workshop, both of which Iam happy to say, went down very well. I wanted to say thanks to everyone that attended, I often have issues with folk not cooperating and trying to win the drills at the cost of not understanding the technique. I went to FightCamp fully expecting this to be the case again. I was however hugely impressed with everyone in both of the classes. A huge degree of co-operation, extreme effort to give a partner the right pressure and generally working to understand specifics and minutia. This allowed both classes to cover far more than I originally intended. Brilliant work, those of you who took part can be rightly proud of yourselves, thank you.

     
And finally our great tale of woe, lost hope and sadness. Or at least it could have been. Sinan (pictured here) was given a lift by two of the lovely folk from our school. Sadly mid journey his rapier left the roof of the car to become lost in the English countryside. I know that those that drove and Sinan were all secretly mortified. I had a quick chat with Marco Danelli who made the missing item, his solution "Why don't you give him the one I made for myself?" What followed was a quick dash around the students who all chipped in to cover the cost of Marco's materials and I was able to rush Sinan's new improved rapier to him on the same day. To all of my students, I am in the greatest company I could hope for.

I.33 in depth. The torture begins.

Given the heat I could have maybe gone easy on them. 
 However, yesterday was an exacting lesson.

A full break down of the connection between first ward and half shield, the nature and meaning half shield and making it work safely when many methods leave it unsound and flawed.
A demanding lesson that I think made even the heat seem noticeable.

 
 We also explored the siege in far more detail than a simple counter posture, and bring us all the way to the relationship between crutch and first ward.

 

A demanding lesson that I think made even the heat seem noticeable.  Fantastic work from the whole class.

Days of the blade.

As usual so much is going on. 

In the buckler class we have been ploughing through Lignitzer, but at last found a little more time to get back to I.33 and add a little Mair as well.

We have been playing with Mair's Opus more and more throughout our classes, it is a work I am gaining more and more respect for the more I understand it.

His wresting is delightfully well explained.

Of course our favourites are never left behind, Thibault is so elegant and hard hitting.

 Then there is of course the spear. Mair using the staff to teach in a manner needing (at least a little) less exacting control. 

Most of the classes are on waiting list. But openings do crop up, so if you want to come and have a look do contact us.

Spears at the Palace.

 

A busy week, mainly fighting, with a touch of Indian clubs. 

These shots are from the early class at Crystal Palace. This week was spearplay, and rather wonderful it was too.

 

We  are also putting out a few clips to help people who wonder what HEMA looks like.

A few of these I will post up here as I get time.

 

The first of these is a gentle run through. Please be aware that these points, although not fully sharp as perfectly capable of entering the body. So my partner's caution is fully understandable. 

What's on at the academy.

Monday in the Barbican. We are on rapier and rapier and dagger, for a few weeks working through Mair.

 
          
 Wednesday at Blackfriars. It is the wonderful Lignitzer sword and buckler.    

Thursday Crystal Palace. We have two classes, one after the other. Usually spear followed by messer and dussack, but for a few weeks the spear class is working on dagger.

             
The Thursday class is currently the only group not on waiting list.

Friday Highgate. Again working through some Mair longsword for a few weeks.              
All of the classes have their own focus but follow the same principles of reach, feeling and application/reaction to force.

If you are interested in joining a class, contact me at londonlongsword@gmail.com and please include a telephone number.

Bucklering like a boss.

Last night we split into three groups.

Club swinging:
 I picked a simple heart swing that brings that if the body is turned rather than using the military club form, allows us to practice a vertical strike moving into plunge.
A lot of benefit in this, everyone was using the size 3 club which is not too heavy but encourages you to flow through the cut.

Set piece: Each pairing picking a play or section of a play from Lignitzer and working through it, focusing on the element that they find hardest.

Solver: Free responsive drill, breaking down each play from Lignitzer into its component parts. Rather than saying I must start at point A, choosing the piece of the sequence that most matches the necessity of the situation and proceeding from there.

Each group worked for twenty minutes before rotating to the next.
Excellent work from everyone, a fantastic way to come back off holiday.

The LFHA Club Training Day with Mike Simpson and Steve Angell.

This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting an event on behalf of the LHFA (London Historical Fencing Alliance). I very deliberately chose something that wasn't a fencing event, but also offered exercises extremely pertinent to swordsmanship, the Indian Clubs. I train clubs often. I use it to teach some beginner students structure and flow within the cut, but I was glad to have a day off and hand the reins to some gentlemen with much greater experience than my own.

 Enter Mike Simpson and Steve Angell.

 

 Wearing their Aloha T-shirts: Steve on the left, Mike on the right.

We only had four hours for this first seminar so Mike went very swiftly into getting folk moving with and without clubs. Taking everyone through a twenty minute warm up that also allowed the few late runners time to slip quietly into the class at the back. I was dashing all over the place but I was enjoying hearing Mike talk about using complex sequences to switch your mind off and achieve the simple thing you thought you couldn't do. I paraphrase there, but I think this is an important truth and (I believe )one of the aims of Meyer's cutting sequences.

 

That done, a section of the class split to help Steve get his gear to the outside training area to set up the heavy clubs (Meels and Jori). From that moment we had two classes running in tandem: the lighter more dextrous club work, and the strength and structure meels.

Throughout, Mike remained tireless in his energy and enthusiasm, giving people brief moments of respite as he solo demonstrated, but keeping the movement confident and constant. I suspect if I had not suggested a break for everyone between swapping over that he could of carried on right through.

Steve's class was by necessity a little more broken up. The additional weight making endurance swinging less of an option, a perfect mix of drilling and chatter about the origins of the meels allowed people to push themselves without being broken.

Both Mike and Steve dealt with everyone in a kind and hearty manner throughout. Both exhibiting a great professional attitude to training. Both with the overbrimming passion for their subject that carries people along. I had a lot of feedback from people after the seminar, all of it positive.

 It was very much a pleasure to have them down to teach, I hope that we will do so again soon.

Mike Simpson's web page.

Steve Angell's YouTube channel.

Taking liberties.

This week we worked with Mair's second dagger play. there are some points to be aware of in our dissection of this flow. One of the things I hate in instructors of HEMA is the "clearly they wrote something wrong in the treatise" mind set. I always feel that where possible, the assumption should be that our understanding of the technique is most likely flawed.
With this mindset in mind, I (in full expectation of contradiction) suggest there are two mistakes in the play, one in the illustration,one in the text. The text states: Please note this is based upon the translation work of Kendra Brown, Rebecca Garber, Mark Millman, Jon Reynolds and Amy West hosted at http://wiktenauer.com/, so thank you to them. The text. Item: conduct yourself thus in this device with the onset.
 

Wind yourself with stabs and with thrusts doubly in at him [so] that your left leg comes in forward and [you] stab him at his right side [so] that the thumb stands by your rondel. If he thus stabs at your right side and you stand with your right foot forward, so take that away from the binding behind his rondel [so] that your thumb is [shall be] above on your pommel. Immediately step with your left foot behind his right(1) and set your left hand behind his right elbow; shove him therewith from you and stab him at his neck. If he has thus set on, so set your left foot back and grab with your left hand(2) outward over his right and stab him at his face. If he takes that away with his dagger, so grab(3)with your left hand on his right; push him therewith under himself and thrust him in his face. If he thus thrusts doubly at you, so grab with your left hand on his right arm, step with your right foot behind his right and shove him with strength from yourself. 

It is this section (1) that I feel gives the first clue that something is amiss if his left foot is forward and the dagger is in his left hand. Play as illustrated has the right elbow far behind the torso and the right leg rearward, this makes it impractical to step behind with your left unless you circle, leaving his dagger (by assumption still in the left hand)free. If however the left leg is forward with the dagger in the right hand stepping behind his left leg with the weaponised right arm pinned makes utter sense. This I feel is backed up by the movement back of the left foot and the use of the left hand to displace(2) and grab(3)
Here is the video of our take on this. I have left the mistakes and imperfections in so that you can see us working through.

Mair than the sword.

Of course, although I like swords of nearly every type, I do enjoy the other aspects of European martial arts.  One of my favourite resources is that of Paulus Hector Mair. I hope you can see the easy flow his techniques bring to the art.

Dagger days with the LLA.

With perfect timing it seems, we spent last night covering dagger and to add to the thumb toward tip vs pick debate. No, they both exist in medieval play, and most systems had manners of dealing with both.

However yesterday we dealt with pseudo Doebringer that, only uses pick. The reason that I chose to take the class through this form is that it dismisses the lack of cutting ability argument with early knife forms (again made somewhat more important by it's dating with the scheme of fencing treatises, 1389 bloody early).

The first play is your standard disarm, the left handed anti clockwise rotation against the pick grip. But then it gets interesting.

To counter this disarm the exact methodology I would expect from modern knifeplay is used, the shearing and stripping rip, or pressing cut to ruin the defending limb. We covered all the other aspects of the play as well from the attempt to get behind to the common sense don't kid your self that if you aren't doing this full tilt his won't turn you by your nose for sentry kill (don't think he isn't going to try and *&%$ you up while you try this).Obviously this meant we had to don masks and try it against a bull rushing, bowling bastard of an assault, to get the timing of the counter, just so. Also we had a brief run through of Mair's second knife play, which is...fantastic. We have one more week of the knife then back to sword and buckler.

So many things.

Already this year has got of to a cracking start. Not only have we been featured on A.F.P. but also have appeared on the Islam Channel and the BBC's Secrets of the Castle.

I really hate this outfit.

The BBC episode had me teaching two presenters how to fight with spear against spear, and although I ended up teaching them long spear form for safety's sake, I was very pleased with how it came across and how well they absorbed what I said.

General training has been wonderful, with the Monday, Wednesday and Friday classes on waiting list only, in order to make sure we don't get too crowded and so everyone gets the attention they need.

If you want to get in at the earliest opportunity contact us at londonlongsword@gmail.com. We still have some space in the Thursday spear and dussack class in Crystal Palace.

A very happy new year to you.

It has been a fantastic 2014 for the school. I get to teach and train with a lovely bunch of people who are quite inspiring in their efforts. Have a great 2015 and of course, be excellent to each other.
I will leave you with what seems to be a pre cut of our recent appearance on Agence France Presse (the link to which I have provided below). At 2.15 you can see Lignitzer's first play.

If you wish to watch the other clip, go here.

A new London Longsword Academy scholar.

Saturday the 6th, saw our Charity Bash, & the long overdue Scholarship prize fight of Luke Rose.
So how did it go?
As usual I spent the days building up to the event fretting that barely anyone would show, that people would drop out at the last moment and that possibly, just possibly, everything would catch fire and burn to the ground. None of these things happened.
24 fighters joined the competition and a large contingent of guests, all of whom put into the pot for the charities we chose, amassing an excellent £600.

All of the effort and toil of sorting pools was taken out of my hands by the great help of Nancy and Helena (and of course Barney who turned up with all the pool forms in the world). All of this help meant that we were in and ready to roll within an hour.

On the whole, folks were ready to fight on time and, in order to allow free choice of weapons, had communicated their choice and level of protection to their opponent before the bout began. This meant we were able to mix dussack, longsword, rapier, sword and buckler, even sickle. all into the same pools, all judged by the same rules (to see the rules have a look at the posts from the last few weeks. I will repost them soon with notes).

For many of the fighters, yesterday was a steep learning curve, but my, they did rise to it well and it was lovely to see how folk adapted, either making a passive form more assertive, or calming a flail upon realising such vigorous blows and parries left them prone to facial battering. Their potential cover vanishing leaving them unable to do anything but watch the oncoming, inevitable blow. Hard learning that was received with much grace and good humour by all.

The judging overall was excellent (the only slight niggle possibly being Sally, whose strikes seem invisible). The rules seemed to work exceptionally well, allowing for simple and effective calls. There will hopefully be some more pics and videos of the event up soon, so I will save overall commentary for those. But well done, some great fights and of course a well earned congratulations to our winner Tim Fuke.

Luke Roses's Scholarship.

Nothing short of fantastic. I know that Luke has spent a long time practicing for this, a lot of time spent in hot rooms, in full jacket, gloves and headgear so that the heat would not be an issue. His stamina was never in doubt, nor was his will to fight.

However, I think Luke would admit that it was much more punishing than expected, the adrenaline, concentration and a somewhat uncooperative (as it should be) opponent, exerting a far greater toll than shadow sparring alone could ever do. But that endurance practice payed off and despite the strain, even the final painful, grating ten minutes - those harsh extended moments where his opponents started to press him more with more determination - he remained resolute. And I am happy to say he passed. I never had any doubt he would, none of us did, and we are all massively proud of him. Luke Rose is now a scholar of the London Longsword Academy.

A little bit about the charities we are supporting at this weekend's bash.

The charities: Shelter; a housing and Homelessness charity. LAUNCH which is a year-long project for 16 to 25 year olds from disadvantaged areas of Haringey who show promise in the arts and have expressed a wish to consider theatre as a career.

The Bash: The bash is an interclass competition held to celebrate an upcoming scholar's prize fight. Each attendee be they student or guest, fighter, judge or spectator pays to attend. Every penny, without exception is given to the charities we have chosen. That commitment is made possible by the added generosity of our host venues, who are often willing to provide the space for the event free of charge (in this case Jacksons Lane). This is our way of saying thank you to the community we are part of and in the case of shelter, aid something increasingly vital. If you wish to attend, we will have a few spaces for spectators. PM me for details.

Don't forget that all this week there is no need to bring anything other than protective gear to training. I will be along with flags and sashes to prepare you for the competition. :)

Interclass Competition rules for Saturday 6th of December.

Interclass open rules. For those of you judging and fighting on the 6th of December, here are is the simple version of the rules based around 4 ring judges and 1 centre judge. Fighters and judges do not need to worry about the number values that is for the score keeper. Judges simply worry about the "minor major and doubles". Hits of quality: Competitors are expected to illustrate good technique, so cuts and thrusts must have a clear path of intent. In the case of cuts, a cut through or into a target, not a tap shot. In the case of thrusts the thrust may be put in, or arrested out of courtesy but must reach the opponent with potential to extend into a full thrust. Judges are able to dismiss touches they do not feel meets the above criteria. Bout duration: Each fight will be to ten points or two minutes. Whichever comes first. Scoring: We have returned a little to the original open rules concept. This will be a little more complex but I hope the judges will make them work. Starting allocation: Each competitor will start the fight with 10 points, hits will be subtracted from this, the fight will be ended when one competitor reaches goes to zero or below or the time runs out. Values: Major hits. A hit of good quality to any target that goes unanswered. Instant doubles and following afters of good quality (-2 points). Minor hits. A follow on blow to a lesser target or of poor quality (-1 point). Double strikes and afterblows: Double strikes count against both parties and are simply scored major blows (-2/-2) However, we have added the "following after" distinction. Instant: When the blows land at the same time and at identical distance the score is double (-2/-2). After: If the after blow is given, with an action of following after and involves a movement of the foot or feet it must hit even or greater value. So if party A strikes a limb party B can strike back at limb, torso or head to score a double (-2/-2) . If party A strikes head or torso, party B must likewise hit head or torso to score. in the event of a strike to the limb the score is given major/minor(-2/-1). Limb interrupts: Shots will be judged by distance and path, so a cut which would reach head or torso but has a limb in the way will be counted as a major strike so if you put your hand in front of your face to stop that cut... Hit calls. Hits must be confirmed by 2 or more ring judges. So to score at least two judges must flag in your favour. On witnessing a successful hit a ring judge will call hit and hold the flags thus: Major hits: Arm vertical 2 points. Double: crossed flags above head (X) Minor following major hits (as in a poor following after) arm held at 90 degrees to the side (the major as stated being held vertical). The center judge will call "halt" after hearing 2 or more calls of "hit" This marks the limit of the afterblow. Fighters will remain where they maintaining readiness, the centre judge will either call a hit value (for example major against blue, minor against red) at which point fighters will move to their corners. Or if no confirmed hits are made the judge will call "fight on" the fight will then continue from where it left off. Grips and grapples. If the limb or weapon is held immobile no after blow is allowed upon it's release. A hit must still be delivered to score with the grip, The floor at this venue is unsuitable for grappling so no going to the floor. Dussak: When fighting dussak hits to the weapon hand will not score, this being considered protected. General. In all fights control is expected. Avoid hitting too hard, avoid hitting the joints and to the neck.

I'm not on a boat.

It was asked today why I haven't traveled overseas to teach very much this year when there have been several very kind offers to do so.

Well tonight sums it up.
Every time my students turn up and put so much effort into understanding, when on lacking understanding they ask the right questions, when they show such diligence that it makes me want to applaud....That's where we have a problem.

I love when each student makes a jump in comprehension, how that drives me to research more.
I love when that perfect shot from a student, played for and got sneaks through and you know that that application is comprehension embodied...But of course that may be an issue.

 

 The problem is I cannot leave a class when they show such desire to learn and improve.
The issue is they do, and that drives me and makes me reluctant to leave...even for a week.
Maybe next year I will try and travel out of the UK again, the offers mean a lot, but these buggers have me hooked.
 

What's new.

The crystal palace class is up and running, at the moment it is dussack only as demand for that was so high. All being well we will be starting the spear class an hour before hand. I will let you know as soon as I can get the hall time booked and confirmed.

As you can see from the schedule below, I am taking Tuesday evenings off until the new year the plan being to have two on the Thursday instead.
So, while I enjoy the prospect of reading more and playing with the cat this eve, enjoy a little clip from the Monday Class.


                                 

Schedule.
Monday Barbican 8pm: Rapier/rapier and dagger.
Wednesday Blackfriars 8.30pm: Sword and buckler/ sword and shield.
Thursday Crystal Palace 8pm: Dussack.
Friday Highgate: Longsword.

Train hard:).

Crystal Palace class, starts this Thurdsay.

From Thursday the 2nd of October, we have a new class starting in Crystal Palace, at the Harris Academy/Lewis sports centre, Maberley Road SE19 2JH. The group will focus on the dussack and spear and will run from 8-9.30pm. We are already running out of places, so if you want to give it a go get in touch quickly. Please be aware that our classes are not walk in. If you wish to train, please email first providing a telephone number.

New kings for old.

 

It's nice to be able to talk about this at last. In case you haven't seen it yet, I was the resident master at arms for the Channel 4 documentary Richard III the New Evidence. I had great fun with this and got to work with a fantastic crew throughout.

A little about what we did.

 Dominic is a very slight guy so to throw himself into a training regime. It was a big step up and something to be proud of.

We worked a quite hard routine, which mixed aspects of Talhoffer's messer, and Paulus Hector Mair's sickle to work with the blows and potential snare ups from battleaxe and war-hammer combat. From the little sneaky clips I was sent, it was clear that Dominic was not only paying lip service to learning but genuinely committing time to practice what he was taught. It was a pleasure to be involved. Take a look at the link, I hope you will enjoy it,

What's gone on.

Lots as usual, more Meyer Rapier every Monday at the Barbican. Soon we will shift to another master for a while but still staying on rapier.

Tuesdays in Beckenham, spear and staff, completing the mittelhau drill and just for fun a dussack tournament. 

Wednesday at Blackfriars, sword and buckler. Purely fighting for the last two weeks, experimenting with rule variations and last week, just fighting.

Thursday in Clapham, I had a night off. Thanks so much to Charles for taking the class. This week more mixed weapons.

Friday (as you can see from the picture above) is longsword, last week was a lot of foot work, working on balance and choice variations from the first step. very hard work, very well done. We are off this Friday as the hall is closed, but we are back to normal next week.

Lignitzer flow drill. Warning clip contains swearing.

In the video below (from a Wednesday class this week) we are working through one of our varied Lignitzer flow drills. There are a few points I want to mention as we go through.

First of all, one of the mistakes I think I and others have made, is that the first action of the opponent is a counter cut, or we counter cut them. This has led to two flawed assumptions.
Firstly in the case of the common interpretation it has made the technique into a poorly and dangerous zornhau extrapolation where none is suggested by the text.
In the case of our previous interpretation we made the assumption that like I.33 the opponent would block or bind with both sword and shield, again an assumption there is no evidence for (if he does it necessitates the wind and thrust be combined), but as I just mentioned there is no evidence in the text that he does.
So I took a simpler approach that works against more common fencing meaning the block with the buckler/shield and counter strike.
So in this we use a simple premise, that in lifting the shield to parry, he covers the eyes, so we recover the thrust beneath.

The wind against his sword can now be achieved in many varied ways, depending on the direction of the block and counter, which means that the same text can be used to cover a multiple of techniques using the same form.
This has worked very well in sparring so I feel we are closer to the truth.

The second point is one of distance, I am going against someone standing with the sword in a second or some variation of a high right ward, not against a vertical ward as this would be dangerous and open. Also not against a thrusting ward as he would attack me on the thrusting line below my shield, again dangerous to me.
Because of this right high posture, the fact that I enter with the cut first means my point or blow will still arrive first as his is more rearward.

The third point is one of the rebound from the over bind on my left (in fact in my center, but apperently on my left. This is the same as the changing strike position for the sake of the drill. It works in the same way though I am starting it from a slightly different point to link the drills.

Finally I cut to Luke's left leg in the last motion, simply because he is not passing forwards with his right leg with the blow from his right side, were he to do so I would be striking his right leg as per the text.