SG-7 Hull

[The Guardsman]

More sparring, more cuttting drills. Concentrated on good posta from start to finish during cutting drills.

Next week is the last week before we break for christmas. There will be no more lessons until the 7th of Jan.

[The Guardsman]

Another good session last night, plenty of drilling and sparring. Older students are coming along nicely and giving me some well deserved bruises!We will work on distance after the new year as that is the only weak point.

Well done to the new recruit last night Rob. Thrown straight into sparring after some drills and did ok.

First lesson in the new year will be dagger, and sparring to finish. Lesson times have changed slightly.

We will be training from 7pm until 8:30pm, still 3 quid a lesson though.

Have a good one chaps.

[Matt T]

The shot you gave me in the shoulder has come up really nice and is extremely sore. My fiancee even thought I had broken my collar bone .

Cool, an extra 30 minutes.
Any chance we can pull the session forward half an hour? 6-30 till 8? Thursdays is very busy for me as I have to be in Hessle for about 9pm, so it doesn't leave much time to get showered, changed and to drive there. If you can't, then no worries, I will just have to think of some other way to work round it.

Matt

[The Guardsman]

If its any conselation I have a blue stripey tricep where you cut me and another on my right shoulder.

Actually, getting dinked with a thrust as you step into it is fairly common. Apart from the bruise, it shows you how quick a fight can end compared with getting hit on the hands. Getting hit on the hands and fingers does hurt and if done with a proper sword would be an incapacitating hit instantly. However most people don't really realize or accept this, but a thrust from anything is an instantly enlightening experience.

In fact, I'll bring my sharp in to demonstrate a hand hit after christmas. Don't worry I'll be using carrots or something for fingers.

[The Guardsman]

Quick reminder chaps

Dagger training on Thursday 7th Jan 7pm - 8:30pm £3

Please try and bring change!

I have also had some crossguards made up courtesy of Paul B from our West Yorkshire chapter SG6.

These will be available for £5 each, first come, first serve.

I'm putting together a lesson plan for the session, but the whole of the dagger section will be available for everyone to take home and study.

Kit list for 2010
Now we have reached a level where we can spar a bit more, I expect all of you to get some more protection as the club kit is slowing things down, eg swapping over sweaty masks and such isn't really fun and breaks the momentum in an already time pinched session.

So priority is your own fencing mask, protective gloves, groin guard and a suitable thick jacket or if you so desire a gambeson/aketon. Most of the kit you can find via links on this site.

Sports shops in Hull are limited but sports direct.com on kingswood or St.Stephens is ok for knob boxes/groin guards approx £5 each.

5ways bikes down Walton street are doing deals on gloves £20-ish go for ones that have solid protection for the knuckles and fingertips etc. Leather is fine but it shrinks after time so go for a size a little bigger.

Fencing masks are available for under £40 now from various places so just google for 'em.

If all esle fails just argos the gloves and boxes.

If you haven't got a shinai yet 9circles do nice ones, size 39 round grip if you want to fit a Paul B crossguard.

See you Thursday!

[Matt T]

When the Xmas credit card bill has been paid off I will look into picking up some bits.

I don't know when everyone else finishes work and the like, but is there any chance of starting the sessions at 6:30?

[The Guardsman]

We originally had classes start at 6:30, but no one could make it until about 6:45 -7:00pm so it was changed to 7pm. This will be reviewed again at our Thursday session, unfortunately its a majority thing, but a workaround could be arranged.

[The Guardsman]

Not updated this for a week, mainly due to being a bit ill and suffering the crappy effects of painkillers.

Anyway last week we did dagger training, which kind of speaks for itself, although I did introduce some abrazare fundamentals into it, footwork, body positioning etc.

Ok so last night we did a little Gioco Largo longsword mixed up with some paired drills working on good cover using frontale/corona and avoiding the volta cuts.

We also touched on a little fight psychology while paired drilling, working on poker faces and identifying little 'tells' so they didn't become bad habits.

Our warm up was made up of mixed cardio, cutting drills and 'pokey drills' with the swords, mainly to get our wrists and forearms up to scratch.

To finish, we sparred in pairs with me coaching technique on the fly and correcting little mistakes here and there while also prompting attacks and defense.

Overall it was a pretty good lesson and I'm going to aim to recreate that particular type of training from now on until my lot get sick of it and want to do something else.

We will be covering Longsword as a primary subject this year, followed closely by dagger and abrazare. Most of you guys have the kit now so lets just have some fun with it!

[The Guardsman]

Last night went well.

Warm up followed by cutting drills, its fun building up those muscles in the wrists and forearms innit chaps!

Movement drills following natural stepping and cutting flowing from one guard to another through offensive and defensive cuts.

Paired drills concentrating on the use of Fenestra against Fendente cuts and rebatting thrusts from posta di donna using fendente cuts. Blocking in gioco largo and exchanging thrusts.

Finishing off with some moderated sparring.

Well done to all!

Next week dagger training and dagger sparring.

[The Guardsman]

Great class last night.

Taught my Fiore dagger v2.0

Very nice, plays just flow into each other alot better.

Finished with frenzied dagger sparring. Defenders do better when they are allowed to hit back as they block.

[The Guardsman]

Longsword training this week.

Paired drills concentratring on real time attacks.

Defence against Fendenti cuts and volta cuts. Students were made attackers and defenders and attacked in real time, defender tried to aviod getting hit. When I shouted change, they switched roles and had to attack asap, meaning defenders also had to protect themselves asap.

The whole role switching thing prevented the going-through-the-motions business paired drills can degenerate into.

We did a few cutting forms or flourishes, nothing too legnthly or showy just realistic movements really avoiding and counter attacking.

More paired drills using the flourishes in real time, mainly stepping offline using fenestra as cover and counter cutting the arms or head.

Then a bit of blade grabbing gioco largo style, before changing to gioco stretto plays and learning what to do in high, middle, and low crossed situations.

Finsihed with student umpired sparring as I fannied around doing dagger flourishes with Andy. Cheers Andy!

Next week dagger or longsword, I havent decided yet.

Note for your diaries: No training on the 1st of April. The church need the hall so people can feel good about giving up crisps for three days before failing. I think the winners of not eating chocolate during lent get to do the flowers at the altar or something, making tham closer to God.

[J Marwood]

I like that sudden change idea. Consider it stolen

[The Guardsman]

I like that sudden change idea. Consider it stolen

Well you can nick this one as well. Drilled sparring.

Person A attacks in a set attack, Person B defends in a set defence.

Whistle blows to start, whistle blows to stop.

Training, reflexes and muscle memory under pressure. Bit like pad work for boxing.

[The Guardsman]

Roadworks are ongoing near the church hall, nobody travelling from holderness road will be affected, Matt and Rob you will have to travel to the swiss cottage roundabout and come back towards asda to get in.

[The Guardsman]

Colin F came over to video loads of dagger stuff, good night really!

[Colin F.]

Video is almost done and prepared.

I am formatting it both for teacher tube and, for you techy types who carry portable devices, it will also be available for ipods and other such devices.

[Fab]

Colin F came over to video loads of dagger stuff, good night really!

Looking forward to seeing that !

[The Guardsman]

I have the DVD now!!

Bugger, I should have really pushed the whole work from 2nd to 1st and 3rd master stuff more

What the vid shows is my interpretation of the movements of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd master plays. Which are of course shown by every other man and his dog. What I will show and speak about briefly is changing through masters and using the 2nd and 4th masters of dagger as a solid foundation to work into 1st and 3rd master plays.

Also I show 1st master plays as pre-emtive snatches where the defender has the tempo

[craftyfighter]

I have the DVD now!!

Bugger, I should have really pushed the whole work from 2nd to 1st and 3rd master stuff more

What the vid shows is my interpretation of the movements of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd master plays. Which are of course shown by every other man and his dog. What I will show and speak about briefly is changing through masters and using the 2nd and 4th masters of dagger as a solid foundation to work into 1st and 3rd master plays.

Also I show 1st master plays as pre-emtive snatches where the defender has the tempo

Excellent news! when do the rest of us get to see it

[Colin F.]

I think 4 plays need a bit of a redo (we missed 3 by mistake and one needs sorting) and some more spiel by neil about principles maybe and then it would be finished. That about right Neil?