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.

One of those lessons...

One of those lessons... You know that one where the heat and the day have got to you yet still, despite all that you head along to training?

Here's a some shots from the last few lessons. Friday was going through posture mechanics for cutting and a cool disarm from the thwart (plus the tasteful little extra I show here), also a little staff work from yesterday, working a strike to the flank from a high bind on the left.

 I didn't take any photos on Monday, but without exception every student at every lesson this week and last worked incredibly hard and showed good improvement. Which brings me back to the "have you ever had one of those lessons". One of the students turned up last night, looking absolutely bloody shattered after a long tortuous shift, they struggled with the flank strike with the short staff throughout the majority of the lesson

so I on, several occasions made the offer for them to sit out and take a breather. They didn't. When it came to their turn to carry out the winding, grinding drill with the 8' poles. I though they would flake.

 However, having watched everyone else have trouble with the drill, loosing contact, snapping between positions too quickly and creating an opening, this student didn't they maintained fluidity and structure and above all control of the bind. To finish a lesson like this and perfect so much at the last moment is an excellent show of determination. Liz we are massively proud of you.

Choose your target.

A busy few weeks. In case you aren't up to date the classes are as follows. Monday Barbican: Rapier/Rapier and dagger. Tuesday Beckenham: spear/staff. Wednesday Blackfriars: Sword and buckler/sword & shield. Thursday Clapham: burn night mixed weapons. Friday Highgate: longsword.

"What do you mean you haven't trained with us yet?"

The Monday class is cracking through Meyer's rapier/sidesword, each week building on the previous week's session going over the same material, drilling it more intensively for a shorter span of time before adding the next principle or counter. 

 

Tuesday is a cracking session, short staff leaning heavily towards the spear. For all of those of you who like wild swirly staff work, you are missing the tight brutality that is Mair's spear. Great fun.

Wednesday is the splendid "shield" class. The clip above is a simple exercise taking from di Grassi, finding the sword first and having found it, trapping it and entering. The great thing for me about di Grassi is that his system is consistent throughout and being simple is easy to transfer between weapon sets.

Thursday is of course burn night and being a lot more full on and fluid I haven't had time to take a decent picture. Half and hour of explanation, then drill till you drop.

Friday is the most beautiful hall of all. Jacksons Lane seems to inspire effort from the crew (only a few of them in this picture). While we are generally working on Meyer, the last couple of weeks have seen more emphasis on natural motion, looking at the body's ability to strike and then applying the cuts to those movements and refining them. A lot more free form to start off with but giving good results.

Happy stabby days.

 

Here as you can see, is the beautiful Jacksons Lane class. This class is dedicated to longsword for the 

next few months, these chaps are practicing counters from the Iron Door. 

The wonderful Monday class. Lots of rapier and lots of work; here we are going through the

suppressing cut from Meyer, this is mainly for sidesword but I feel that the boundary between that and rapier is a lot more fluid than some would have you believe.

 

The same counter to an attack from the right. 

More Meyer next week, then who knows, maybe a little Thibault...