SG6: Schola Gladiatoria Bradford

[Brewerkel]

My mail is riveted.

Excellent. I haven't seen any pics of you in kit since you got the first bits last year. If the tournament happens (80%+) and you can join us (%?) we'll have a blast.

Pencil in the middle weeks of March, details to follow in November.

[Paul B]

So Paul has been thinking about lessons and training and stuff.

When I first started thinking about going it on my own, I wanted to take a manuscript and go through it cover to cover. That is still what I want to do, but I have rather been caught up with the business of training people to swing a sword and do things in a usefull manner.

So I got to thinking - is there a structure that will allow us to go through the manual play by play and get the basics in and have some sparring and not leave people behind if they dont come every week?

Well yes. I am going to try a 3 week rotation:

week 1 - Basics first. Plays are walked through to get a basic familiarity, learn the right measure and feeling. A physicaly quite easy lesson, but lots to take in

week 2 - Lots of basics. Plays from week 1 are gone over with less co-operation and more gusto. Physical demanding but not a lot of thinking.

week 3 - Basics. Sparring. Recap.

Occaisionaly I will throw in a novelty like armoured longsword, or pollaxe or somthing. Maybe even just an evening of fun and games. This way, if you miss one lesson, you have 2 to cover the same material and some variety in content.

[Wolfgang Ritter]

Sounds like a cunning plan.
From my experience you should keep some basic training throughout the whole season.
Whenever we do some "boring" basic stuff like footwork and basic cuts/guards training in the usual or advanced classes from time to time, it's a bad awakening for some.....

Apart from that I'd simply follow the manuals; they work pretty good as an instructional book with some pimping (footwork).
We had good experiences with actual intern seminars for different weapons; we're doing for example a weekend in October with saturday for staff/poleaxe and sunday sword & buckler.
You get them interessted way bettert during a full day, than jsut throwing in some 2 hours training lesson for something completely unknown.

Regards
Wolfgang

[scholadays]

So I got to thinking - is there a structure that will allow us to go through the manual play by play and get the basics in and have some sparring and not leave people behind if they dont come every week?

T'is a knotty issue which motivated me to experiment with numerous solutions.

Ultimately I found the most satisfying method to administer on the hoof in class was to come up with a repertoire of drills that could incorporate all of this depending upon the skill of the practitioners - then the whole class would essentially be doing the 'same thing'.

So, beginners would be exercising the basic drill.
Intermediates would be exercising this drill with variations in distance.
More advanced may be doing the same drill but with alternate options.
Ever more skilled would be doing the basic drill but with steel.
Those in need of excitement would be cooperating much less and doing the basic drill but with unexpected and 'sparrish' repertoire to befuddle their partner.

Etc.
You get the idea.
Basically, formulate an escalation to bridge between drilling and sparring, and incorporate little bits depending upon the partner matchings.

Then I would have a class full of people who are all challenged and excited but are all esentially doing the same drill - but without either catering to the lowest common denominator, or boring the more advanced once every few weeks.

So, present the basic drill, then whilst folk are executing it sidling up to pairs and saying 'hey, great you guys. now perhaps you could add in a little of this..'.

[Stevie T]

So I got to thinking - is there a structure that will allow us to go through the manual play by play and get the basics in and have some sparring and not leave people behind if they dont come every week?

'Tis the beauty of that which is Ledall.

A total n00b to longsword/HEMA will have three weeks of basic training then move straight into learning Ledalls plays. Learning the first chate one week, the First counter the next and so on. Light supervised sparring should start at the end of week 3 or perhaps in week 4, Ledall's basics are very basic after all.

After that each session should boil down to 1/3 recap/drill, 1/3 new techniques, 1/3 sparring

[Paul B]

but they will be done in 2 weeks with Ledall

[Stevie T]

but they will be done in 2 weeks with Ledall

Got to be better than your Homer Simpson Martial Arts!!

[Paul B]

The resources page of the SG6 website has been updated with my translation of Martin Huntfelt's armoured halfsword section from Von Danzig.

http://www.swordfightbradford.com/index_files/resources.htm

I will probaly sticth it all togather into a more user freindly format once I have finished the rest of the manuscript and put it on the main schola web page. Lots of work before that happens though.

[admin]

Good work!

[Colin F.]

So I got to thinking - is there a structure that will allow us to go through the manual play by play and get the basics in and have some sparring and not leave people behind if they dont come every week?

T'is a knotty issue which motivated me to experiment with numerous solutions.

Ultimately I found the most satisfying method to administer on the hoof in class was to come up with a repertoire of drills that could incorporate all of this depending upon the skill of the practitioners - then the whole class would essentially be doing the 'same thing'.

So, beginners would be exercising the basic drill.
Intermediates would be exercising this drill with variations in distance.
More advanced may be doing the same drill but with alternate options.
Ever more skilled would be doing the basic drill but with steel.
Those in need of excitement would be cooperating much less and doing the basic drill but with unexpected and 'sparrish' repertoire to befuddle their partner.

Etc.
You get the idea.
Basically, formulate an escalation to bridge between drilling and sparring, and incorporate little bits depending upon the partner matchings.

Then I would have a class full of people who are all challenged and excited but are all esentially doing the same drill - but without either catering to the lowest common denominator, or boring the more advanced once every few weeks.

So, present the basic drill, then whilst folk are executing it sidling up to pairs and saying 'hey, great you guys. now perhaps you could add in a little of this..'.

This is essentially what you do with a class of children. Differentiate your tasks, but still aiming for the same out come, or at least having part learned skills at different stages.

The lesson Paul led the other day was a good example of this, (different levels of the sticky swords exercise) so I think he is planning them out with this in mind.

[Paul B]

http://www.swordfightbradford.com
Now with an updated news and links page, and an added photo gallery

Matt, if you want anything for the main site, just let me know.

[admin]

I have added the URL to your info on our 'about us' page.

[Paul B]

A night of sparring to round off the 3 week rotation, and Paul was very nervous about not having covered the repertoir enough. So he proceeded to feck it al up by having a half-arsed attempt at it. Next time, it will be an hour of basics, and an hour of fighting.

Maybee more fighting, as once they were set loose, fight they did.

The Wall is learning to close, and we were most please to see a knee to the groin from Amy, who may well have found her schola name this night.

Also, Paul must learn to shut the f*ck up in the pub afterwards, wouldnt do for it to be 3 hours of me shouting at people.

[admin]

I read this wondering who the hell Paul was, and then realised it's you... duh

Is Mark Vickers training with you?

[Colin F.]

we were most please to see a knee to the groin from Amy, who may well have found her schola name this night.

Ahhhhhhh my advice never goes unheeded.

Poor Ian, he will never ever forget a box now though. That said, he should have known, she is a female archaeologist after all...

[Paul B]

I read this wondering who the hell Paul was, and then realised it's you... duh

Is Mark Vickers training with you?

Yes. Not armourer/munchkin Mark Vickers, Viking/giant Mark Vickers. But we call him the wall for that is the name that has chosen him

[admin]

Ah.... I thought there was only one Mark Vickers. It must be a northern thing.

[Abomination]

I read this wondering who the hell Paul was, and then realised it's you... duh

Is Mark Vickers training with you?

Yes. Not armourer/munchkin Mark Vickers, Viking/giant Mark Vickers. But we call him the wall for that is the name that has chosen him

Hah, I see your Mark Vickers & raise you a Peter Johnson.

[admin]

We once had Jesus. But he only came a couple of times. Probably for the best - everyone's drinking water kept turning to wine, which is not what you want during class.

[Paul B]

http://www.swordfightbradford.com has been updated yet again, and now has colin's ugly mug on it.

Colin gets the fancy title of sergeant at arms, partly because I liked the term as used by the ASG, and partly because his steel fetish goes way beyond mine. So he gets to make sure peoples kit is OK to train with.

I might have everyone refer to him as "sar'nt", but only if it annoys him