Loch Lomond 2012 - 30th May to 4th June

[KeithFarrell]

The Academy of Historical Arts will be running a camping event right on the banks of Loch Lomond from Wednesday 30th of May until Monday 4th of June this year. It is the fourth year we have run our annual summer camp event, and this is the first time we are opening it up to the community in general! People can come for the whole event or for just a few days, we don't mind.



We are going to be hosting 6 combat lessons, 4 missile lessons and a historical crafts lesson each day for 4 days. There will also be time for personal practice, along with a daily "march and shoot" exercise borrowed from the British army, and an assortment of "hastilitudes" and melee games.

Historical fencing lessons will cover a wide variety of disciplines such as Liechtenauer's longsword, Fiore's longsword, I.33 style sword and buckler, Silver's sword and buckler, Scottish regimental broadsword, Highland broadsword and targe, Bowie knife, Mair's peasant staff, Liechtenauer's halfsword for armoured combat, Gladiatoria style halfsword for armoured combat, an interpretation of Starzewski's Polish sabre... Missile weapons on offer will include longbows and horsebows, hand slings and staff slings, throwing knives and throwing axes, and possibly even javelins.

As a camping event, the accommodation is free of charge - just bring your own tent (or let us know in advance and you can sleep in one of the Academy's group tents) and sleeping space is sorted! We also provide three hot meals a day, also free of charge, to any and all participants.



We have a Facebook page for the event, so if you are on Facebook and would like to be party to the chatter about this event then please have a look here: https://www.facebook.com/events/239115422846866/

We also have a website that gives much more information about the event, including details on how to sign up for the event: http://www.historical-academy.co.uk/camp/

Tim Gallagher wrote us a very positive review of the Loch Lomond event last year and posted it here on the Schola forum: http://www.fioredeiliberi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=16857. Hopefully we will do an even better job this year than last, making it an even more amazing event, and this year Tim has joined our team of instructors to bring a flavour of Fiore to the event.



I will post more information here as the event draws closer. If you are interested in the event then please do have a look at the links above, and if you have any questions then please do not hesitate to send me a PM or an email

[KeithFarrell]

Registration for the event closes on the 15th of May, so there are only three and a half weeks left to put in a booking! If you are interested in coming for just one or two days then that is perfectly fine, we don't require everyone to attend for the full event. If you have any questions about the event and your specific situation, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us and we will do what we can to answer your questions.

[KeithFarrell]

Booking and registration have closed for this event. We are doing our final preparations and are looking forward to everything coming together in a couple of weeks!

[T Gallagher]

I am planning on replying to this one properly when I get the chance. However, for now just let me say thank you to Keith and Ben (and everyone else who contributed - you are legion) for another wonderful summer camp event. If anything it was even better than last year.

Tim

[KeithFarrell]

Ben Kerr wrote a review of the event from the perspective of the event organiser and has posted it on Encased in Steel: http://historical-academy.co.uk/blog/2012/06/08/loch-lomond-2012/

Tim, we will welcome your review whenever you manage to write it up

[T Gallagher]

Those wishing to gain a sense of things from an organisers' perspective are advised to read Ben's post. For the uninitiated I think I should point out that the whole thing tends to run on hard work, disipline and bloody-mindedness to an extent unrecognisable at any other hema event I have attended. Very little money is available and a huge, mind-boggling amount gets done even over the 3 nights and 2 days I attended. The quasi-militarisric, almost cult-like set-up is the distinguishing feature of this camp and the AHA in general. My sense is that if you are a little older than Ben and Keith (mid-20's) then this is going to grind a little, particularly as your designated NCO (lance commander) is going to be in their early 20's.
Just something to be aware of.

To be continued . . .

Tim

[T Gallagher]

I like to take this opportunity to thank Keith and Ben for inviting me to teach at their event. The surviving victims of the morning PT traipsed into my Saturday morning class on 1.33 ish sword and buckler. This is apretty technical manual that in my view takes a whole lot of experience to apply at all. I tried to give the class some basic sword and buckler and then some sense of the sophistication of 1.33. The results were apparently mixed but I felt a bit more comfortable with this than I have done previously. The David Rawlings DVDs - buy them*.

Tim

*With respect to Roland at Hammaborg. Who is also very good.

[T Gallagher]

The rest of the day was taken up with things like the march and shoot, done at the double. I'll be posting on this at some length on encased in steel, so I'll mention it in passing here. Suffice to say, rather different from the standard Hema class and much fun was had.
The next lesson for me involved Ben giving us the benefit of his scholarship in fighting in units with muskets and bows. A case of "oh, so that's how we ended up running so much of the planet".
After a minimalist lunch, there was a nice change of pace with James Burns' Silver's sword and buckler. This formed a bit of a compare and contrast with my own earlier efforts. Silver's modest amount of material on this subject meant that there wasn't vast amounts of material to go over, so what we did we did thoroughly. I took this lesson on board for my own slightly sprawling effort earlier.
Supper and drinky-poos at the mead bar followed.
Every event should have a mead bar.

Tim

[T Gallagher]

As I absolutely and utterly did not partake in any of my own beers on the side in addition to the mead bar I was 'up and at 'em' from the get go in the morning. My recollection of things is the following: PT with a log involved. I don't normally excecise with a log, I work with them, so this was a change. There was a minor hiccup next as the breakfast club ran out of gas and meal-time went back a bit. Considering the scope for an organisational cock-up, this was as bad as it got, so that in itself was a sort of triumph. We had the first lesson of the day next. I have done Mark's Bowie Knife before and enjoyed it, so it was with regret that I took the time out to review my own lesson material for the following lesson. Somewhere in this mix a rather demanding march and shoot took place, which left us all feeling the pace rather.
My lesson on Fiore longsword involved pretty much the whole camp (this seeming to be something of a tradition for me at AHA events) and went reasonably well. I did a bit of footwork - always under-estimated - and then a bit of my trademark "move quickly and clobber the bugger before he gets you" basic cutting drills before working my way d
own the incrossada and the various plays derived therefrom. This got some interest from a really tired group of people and it was gratifying to see some of the more experienced practitioners adding stuff in that was also in the mannual, but that I had not reached yet.

To be continued . . . .

Tim

To be continued . . . .