SG1: Schola Gladiatoria London

[admin]

To all SG1 members coming to class tonight - if you're coming on public transport, either don't, or at least don't carry weapons - I'll provide the kit.

[admin]

All SG1 members. Training tonight is cancelled, as London is going into transport lock-down and it's going to be a nightmare for me to get from Guildford and out again. Stay safe.

[admin]

Congrats to Gavin for coming third in the FightCamp Assault at Arms!
Also congrats to the other SG1 guys who fought really well in both tournaments - especially proud of Martin and Arash's tidy form in the Assault at Arms.

Training tomorrow night is on - it is sabre and we may be joined by Scott Brown.

[the_last_alive]

Congrats to Gavin for coming third in the FightCamp Assault at Arms!
Also congrats to the other SG1 guys who fought really well in both tournaments - especially proud of Martin and Arash's tidy form in the Assault at Arms.

Agreed. Well done Gav!

That fight felt good from my perspective. Just a shame it ended the way it did. Hope I get a chance to see it.

[admin]

A fairly quiet session this week with a lot of people on holiday etc. We looked at Fiore longsword - stringing attacks together, how to attack certain guards in the safest way, how to lure opponents out of their guards and how to follow up unsuccessful attacks.

[admin]

This week's class will be on Fiore's lessons of unarmed defence against a dagger-armed attacker. Also note that next week (13 Sept) there will be no class, but we'll be back with sabre the week after that (20 Sept).

[admin]

Good session last night, despite the hall being like a building site at the moment! After finding the switch for the temporary spotlights and moving some of the building rubble out of the way we got started. We were a fairly moderate sized crowd, but that was just as well given the amount of space we had. Instead of doing the usual 1 hour class followed by 1 hour Scholar+ grade freeplay session we just did an extended class, with a slightly more challenging end drill (really halfway between a drill and sparring) for the more advanced members. Everyone's sabre form is getting steadily better and in particular people are really starting to internalise the basic parries - whether they realise it or not, looking at them as an observer it's obvious that people are starting to parry without having to think so much, and the ripostes are coming a lot quick and more naturally now as well - in fact so much so that it is hard to stop most people from immediately attacking after a parry, even when they aren't supposed to.. which I suppose is a good thing.

[admin]

The state of the hall for the last session really took the biscuit, but apparently the floor is now largely clear and the hall will be returning to normal over the next couple of weeks. That means we can get back to a more normal training pattern, with the two one-hour slots.
Upcoming sessions:
4 Oct - Sabre
11 Oct - Longsword
18 Oct - Dagger (or something different - open to suggestions)
25 Oct - Longsword
1 Nov - Sabre

I'm also looking into the possibility of a cross-training sparring session with another group on a weekend day. More to follow on that.

[admin]

Due to special request, tonight's training session will be Fiore one-handed sword, perhaps with some other medieval one-handed material thrown in for good measure.

[admin]

Building on last week's Fiore one-hander class we focussed this week on rebatting in Fiore's longsword.
Next week is sabre, perhaps looking a bit at counter-grappling.

[the_last_alive]

Building on last week's Fiore one-hander class we focussed this week on rebatting in Fiore's longsword.
Next week is sabre, perhaps looking a bit at counter-grappling.

Sounds fun, and different to me.

[admin]

For any SG1 members who have the time or interest, try having a look through the online sabre manuals for anything regarding weapon grabs and counter-weapon grabs. Most of what is out there is confined to closing on and grabbing bayoneteers' weapons, but there are some references to weapon grabbing in swordplay - for example Waite mentions that someone who lingers on the lunge with their weapon extended risks getting their weapon grabbed in a real fight, and Hutton gave a series of techniques for fighting an Afghan with a sword and buckler, based on Silver's lessons, which focus on closing and grabbing.
I think it's useful to train to deal with this stuff in sabre, because you never know what your opponents are going to do, and many other HEMA styles use blade grabs extensively (as we know from Fiore!).

[admin]

On Tuesday 6th December Junaid will play his Free Scholar prize over 1 hour (during the sparring session).

[admin]

On 6th December Junaid fought most valiantly for one solid hour against all comers. I had the honour of being the last person to fight him and I was really impressed by how unexhausted and coordinated he still was. He even gave me a linear bruise that stretched from my elbow, up my arm and over my shoulder, to the middle of my back!

Next week (20 December) is our Christmas bash. We're opening at the usual times but there is no formal class - there will be casual sparring, some games and a mini tournament or two. For those of you who want to bring food and drink, pets and relatives, please feel free.

[the_last_alive]

Remember, bring the spears.

[admin]

Remind me on Tuesday!

[Lemonaid]

It was an honour and a privilege to play my prize - and my sincere gratitude to yourself Matt; to the Free Scholars; to all who stepped forth to cross swords with me.
(My appreciation also to all who otherwise participated by way of spectating and feedback.)

I enjoyed it immensely - and twas definitely exhausting.. particularly mentally, with rather peculiar effects before, during and after.

I must say, experiencing the fight in this mode was an eye-opener..

[admin]

Well done to all the tournament fighters at the Christmas Bash and thanks to those who came!
The longsword was won by Paul, with Miro coming second and the sabre was won by Miro, with Arash coming second. A particular highlight of the fights for me was Arash's excellent closing, followed by Miro's excellent counter-closing on him!
We observed the double-hit elimination rule from FightCamp, but this only knocked out a couple of pairs. So generally I think people did pretty well at keeping the number of doubles down. I think that this rule is helping to reduce the number of doubles we are seeing in fights.

[admin]

2011 has been a great year for SG1. It also marks 10 years since our official founding. I feel that this year several of the Free Scholars have really stepped up to the mark in terms of assisting with teaching, but also by being ambassadors for the group. I'm really happy with the balance of personalities we have in the group now and the way that certain people have grown into their roles and become more confident. I'm also really happy with how many of the people who have joined us this year have become firm regulars, some of them travelling really quite considerable distances to train with us. It is greatly appreciated and is a strong part of what has given us such a good group dynamic this year.

Some other highlights for me (feel free to add others) -
- Making military sabre a regular part of our classes.
- Seeing a group of people, most of whom had no prior experience in sabre, go from beginners to really rather good, in a relatively short period of time. I reckon that in less than one year we can now pretty much match any other group's skill at sabre/backsword and I fully intend to improve on that!
- Seeing several experienced members of the group, whose abilities have reached that plateau we are familiar with, go up a step this year.
- Seeing more antique swords being bought by SG1 members! I love seeing all the antique swords being waved around in the solo drilling part of class.
- Seeing SG1 members doing great in fights against members of other groups, at events like Dijon and FightCamp.
- Seeing the average number of people in the class increase, sometimes stretching our little hall with over 30 people.

So, onwards and upwards in the new year. Happy new year!

[the_last_alive]

Agreed, onwards and upwards is the way to go.

Let's keep improving next year. On a personal level, i'm looking forward to testing myself, at at least fightcamp and hopefully a few other events, against other groups.