Linacre School of Defence

Training in 2012

2011-12-20T06:16:00.001-08:00

Training will start on the 5th of Jan.; the full details are available in the usual place. N.B. there will be no head instructor available on the 9th of Feb. due to the Dreynevent, so please keep an eye on the list to check what alternative arrangements are made.

Prize playing results

2011-12-16T01:10:00.000-08:00

The prize playing previously described here was conducted last night. There was a good turnout of eight students, close to the capacity of the salle, and so there was insufficient time to play both weapons. However, a good contest was had with the small-sword and there was time for a small amount of free fencing afterwards. The winners were as follows:

1st: Dan Hemmens.
2nd: Ian Chilvers.
3rd: John Raynor.

The bouts were fought as a pool, with each competitor winning at least one bout and Mr. Hemmens winning all seven of his.

Prize Playing

2011-11-28T03:19:00.000-08:00

In English martial arts, a "Prize Playing" usually means an event equivalent to a grading, performed by means of bouts during which the candidate for promotion has to demonstrate that they can fight at the level required of someone of the higher grade. Sir William Hope seems not to have used grades in his school, for which I am grateful as I don't like them and can thus cite precedent for not using them, but he did advocate the playing of a prize.

Hope's rules for the prize can be seen here. We don't follow these exactly, but we follow the general idea. That is, that the prize playing is a yearly contest between all the students during which the winner will take away some sort of trophy or token. This varies, depending on what I've managed to purchase that may be appropriate. As we're not based at Linacre College any more I don't tend to buy bottles of Linacre sherry, which is probably a great relief to winners as it was of rather poor quality.

Fencing for the rest of 2011

2011-11-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

The LSD timetable has been updated, so please refer to www.sirwilliamhope.org for more information.

Please note that the prize playing will conclude training for this year; more information on next year's training will be forthcoming later, so keep an eye on your e-mail.

September and October 2011

2011-09-05T05:49:00.000-07:00

The timetable has been updated again.

Please note that the same arrangement will be used from month to month, so even if I forget it should be possible to work out what's on.

Training, July and August 2011

2011-07-13T05:14:00.001-07:00

The details for training have been updated, and are as follows:

July:

7th, 14th - small-sword.

21st - back-sword.

28th - pugilism.

August:

4th, 11th - small-sword.

18th - back-sword.

25th - pugilism.

2011-05-09T06:50:00.000-07:00

The timetable has been updated; please see here.

Don't forget the possibility of an all-day seminar on the 17th of September with guest instructor Mr. Macintyre. This could cover cane, sabre or small-sword, or some combination of these.

Training for March and April

2011-03-08T05:50:00.000-08:00

Training times for March and April have been updated, and can be found here. Efforts are still underway to book an extra weekly session.

Please note that one Thursday session will be missed due to Easter closure.

Last sessions for 2010

2010-11-01T06:38:00.001-07:00

Please note that the last session, on the 16th, will be the prize playing. Rules for this will be announced in due course. The university club then closes on Wednesday morning the week after this. We'll be back in again on the 6th; details of that will be announced later.

2010-09-01T01:04:00.000-07:00

The timetable has been updated with the latest sessions and can be found here. In those cases where the timetable hasn't been updated you can guess what's going to happen by extrapolating from previous months.

N.B. there's a pugilistic session booked for the 12th of September, 2-4pm, in the usual venue.

Timetable update

2010-07-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the belated update of the timetable.

New text

2010-06-26T03:58:00.000-07:00

A reprint of Longhurst's 1906 treatise has now been republished. It can be purchased very cheaply, particularly in conjunction with the free postage offer that's still operating, or downloaded for free.

Fightcamp

2010-06-11T03:27:00.000-07:00

Please note the interesting range of classes at the forthcoming Fightcamp event. This is a cheap and easy way to see a variety of HEMA systems (or to find opponents for bouts) and well worth attending.

Beware, places are limited!

Sunday training

2010-06-09T03:23:00.000-07:00

A session has been booked for 2-4pm on Sunday the 13th. Come equipped for pugilism but bring a fencing mask if you have one, and read this first.

Homework

2010-05-28T01:31:00.000-07:00

Last night's class covered various simple actions against a fistic attack, such as the stop hit, parry on the outside and riposte with the fist or riposting with the chassé bas after leaping back out of distance.

As mentioned, movements such as the punches, kicks, lunges &c. can take a lot of repetitions to get right. As our weekly training sessions are limited in number it is a good idea to practice these at home during the week; it will make noticeable improvements in your training if you can get more repetitions under your belt between sessions.

The same applies to fitness; class time is limited and must, other than the essential warm up, concentrate on the techniques and principles of art. If you would like to develop increased fitness (always useful) then additional training outside the class is also recommended.

Renaud

2010-05-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

A page giving links to or actual text of translations of sections of Renaud's 1912 work is now available here.

Timetable update

2010-05-21T02:46:00.001-07:00

I've noticed that the timetable was a bit out of date; this has now been corrected and it can be seen here.

In addition, it is worth posting this reminder of one of the major sources of cane technique that are taught in the cane classes. The other source is, of course, Prof. Bracewell.

2010-04-06T01:33:00.000-07:00

A pugilistic session has been booked for 2-4pm on this coming Sunday (11th), which will include work on both the fists and the feet.

Training for March and April

2010-03-08T10:57:00.000-08:00

More sessions have been booked for March the 11th, 18th and 25th as well as Sunday the 14th (2-4pm). In April the sessions will be the 8th, 15th 22nd and 29th, with one more session booked for May the 6th.

Please note that the venue is closed on April the 1st; please keep an eye out for extra Sunday sessions to make up for this.

Sunday pugilism

2010-03-04T07:19:00.001-08:00

A session has been booked at the usual venue for 2-4pm on Sunday the 14th. The topic will be pugilism, including low kicks as well as punching and working on slipping.

Events

2010-02-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

So far this year I've been asked to present classes at four events. Here's a quick summary in case anyone is interested:

SWASH, 20-21 Feb. The class here will involve punches and simple low kicks according to Émile André.

Evolution, 25th April. This will be a class in pugilism, covering striking and grappling.

Fightcamp, 13th-15th August. There should be two classes here; one on Hope's New Method and another on pugilism, or possibly André's simplified method of defence.

Smallsword Symposium, 2nd-3rd October. As the name suggests this will be sword work. There should be one class on sword-cane tactics and another on techniques for the corps-à-corps.

New training arrangement

2010-01-31T09:51:00.000-08:00

The current system of class rotation has worked quite well, particularly in giving reasonably long sequences of lessons enabling points to be looked at in depth. However, there are disadvantages and the time has come to change it. So, for the weekly sessions each month will go as follows:

1. Small-sword.
2. As week 1.
3. Back-sword or cane.
4. Pugilism or Boxe Française.
5. A surprise! (i.e. the instructor(s) will come up with something extra if there are 5 Thursdays in the month).

This new timetable will start in March.

Sunday seminar, 24/1/10

2010-01-18T02:07:00.000-08:00

This seminar will be from 3-5pm (but please arrive at around 2.45) in the usual venue. Mr. Marwood will be along to cover some Bartitsu-related Ju-Jitsu and there will be some Boxe Française as well.

Training, 14/1/10-4/3/10

2010-01-18T02:05:00.000-08:00

The regular classes are as below:

January 2010:

Small-sword: 14th, 21st, 28th.

February 2010:

Pugilism: 4th, 11th, 18th.

Small-sword: 25th.

March 2010:

Small-sword: 4th.

Why this blog?

2010-01-17T06:18:00.000-08:00

The purpose of this blog is to flip out and provide updates via RSS for those who are interested in finding out what training sessions will be happening when. Other information directly related to training in Oxford may appear here as well.