SG1: Schola Gladiatoria London

[admin]

Yes, it's only limited by not having enough one-handed sticks/shinai/swords. If people get them, then we can do more sabre/backsword.

[The Guardsman]

Ah cool! My shinai is about ready for cutting down now anyway.

[The Guardsman]

I thought i would let the warm up take a natural course last night.

How did everyone who attended last night feel about the warm up?

Too long, too short, just enough?

What did you like dislike about it?

[admin]

A little bit too hardcore for most I think - we need more chances to catch our breath between things; Simon and I were seeing stars..
The stretching was very good.

[The Guardsman]

A little bit too hardcore for most I think - we need more chances to catch our breath between things; Simon and I were seeing stars..
The stretching was very good.

I'll tone the cardio down a little next time and do some fun games again instead. I'll definately do more on the stretching side of things though.

[Matclarke]

How long do you guys do warmups for?

[The Guardsman]

The warm up ties in nicely with Matts lesson usually, so the last warm up excersize flows to knee tag or longsword cutting drills extending the warm up work time. This can vary from lesson to lesson. Ideally I would like to do 5-10 mins of stretching followed by another 15 -20 mins of cardio and excersizes that use most or all muscles groups. So overall around 30mins.

[T Gallagher]

Are SG1 still doing Friday night training? If so, when is the next one?

Tim

[admin]

I haven't got the dates for the next few months confirmed yet, but when I do, I'll mail them out.

[admin]

Training on Tuesdays continues as normal, but note: there will be no training on Tuesday 5 February, as the hall is being used by the church.

[admin]

After having a week off this week, training on Tuesdays will resume as normal next week on 12 Feb.

[The Guardsman]

Anyone fancy abit of sparring this Sunday afternoon from around 2-4pm?

Im thinking longsword and dagger v dagger, possibly some wrestling since the grass is nice and spongy at this time of year.

[admin]

I have only just returned from the Dreynschlag event in Vienna, which went very well.

[admin]

Captain's log, Earth Date 6 March 2008.
This week we sparred. We sparred with daggers. We sparred with longswords. Then we sparred with whatever we wanted - single-handers, bucklers, double short swords etc. Much bruising and battering was had. And then we drank.
End of journal entry.

[scholadays]

Good God, you do waffle on and on and on.

Could you try and keep it a little shorter please?

[The Guardsman]

So last night Matt kindly let me take a Bayonet fighting lesson.

The lesson plan consisted of:
5mins warm up
Sprinting, pressups, situps, co-ordination excersizes

5mins extended warmup with wasters(used as rifles)
more of the above with added stress positions

5mins phsychological warm up with daggers
The group was forced to kneel in a circle stabbing the floor shouting "KILL"
with every stab. This was purposefully stopped and resumed intermittantly with sprints inbetween.

5mins on drill
Teaching the actual technique to stab with bayonet fixed on a rifle
Going through the High Port and En Guarde stances.

5mins scenario based 'fighting'
The group was herded into a confined space and called for one by one.
They were given the brief of being the last surviving man in a patrol and had to finish off a lone enemy. Immediately afterwards they were pushed into the hall and had 3 goes at 'killing' an enemy.

Once a person had killed the enemy they were again herded into a different confined space away from the people who had yet to take a turn to fight.

5mins cool down
Everyone was brought back into the hall and told to lay down in a space of their own. The lights were turned off and in complete darkness they were told to imagine somewhere serene, like a beach or overlooking a mountain range. They were instructed to control their breathing, breathing in and holding for three seconds before exhaling slowly.

Overall I thought it went really well. Some things I might change slightly like a prolonged warm up and maybe some verbal insults thrown in. I was going to include random punishments but decided not to as people seemed confused enough already.

Basically my aim in the warm up and through the different stages was to drain everyone physically and force them to get through using adrenaline and a bit of grit and determination.

Keeping people unnaware of what was coming next meant that they never knew when the physical side of things were going to end .

Phsycologically that can be tiring in itself, as you begin to get a little stressed out. You start listening to your body complaining about pain and have little option but to carry on when someone is shouting in your ear.

Continued long enough people will 'zone out' and unlock the nasty bastard who is usually locked away and chained up in the back of their head somewhere. Everyone has one, and although chanied up he usually get a sly word out now and then and it enters your thoughts. Like kicking someone down the escalator because they are walking too slowly.

Bayonet training gives you the abitlity to turn this on and off like a switch.

Giving you access to controlled spurts of furious aggression when you need it.

I would greatly apprieciate any feedback from anyone who attended or observed the lesson.

Too long? too short? too hard? too easy? etc etc.

[admin]

I thought it went great. The only thing I would perhaps alter slightly is a little less cardio, given our average fitness levels, and a bit more shouty stabby stuff.

Thanks for doing it though - I reckon we should aim to do something like that once every month, or something like that.

[The Guardsman]

I thought it went great. The only thing I would perhaps alter slightly is a little less cardio, given our average fitness levels, and a bit more shouty stabby stuff.

Thanks for doing it though - I reckon we should aim to do something like that once every month, or something like that.

I will definately do a bit more of the shouty stabby stuff. Probably get a line of people doing the attacking one after the other for a few mins.

The cardio is so difficult to judge, there is a pretty wide variation of fitness levels so I may split it into two groups next time...not sure yet, and not sure how I can manage two groups.

For aggressive training it kind of detracts from what I am trying to achieve somewhat if the fitter people are not working hard enough to benefit. For less fitter people I dont want it to be a chore and for them to dread comming in to a session, so it really is a hard call to make. I may substitue some cardio for stress positions next time.

A point on the cardio - you are supposed to push yourself(or be pushed) to the absolute limit of what you can physically do without passing out. Its at that point when given a short rest and recovery session the shakes set in and you are ready for the big charge. Hence the drilling with wasters after the cardio, that was a rest period.

[scholadays]

The group was forced to kneel in a circle stabbing the floor shouting "KILL" with every stab.

So, I assume that you are taking April 12th rather seriously then?



shit

[Fab]

Interesting stuff.

We can't do that in our training hall as the floor is wood and we might put nasty scratches in it if we go stabby stabby even with wooden daggers. And I'm not sure that all my people would be up for intense stress/cardio training (I would ).

I try to build up their fitness, and their stress response and aggressiveness, even had them throw the brick last time (ok, foam bricks), but I might pick up ideas from that.

Thanks Neil.