Training in March and April 2012

The lastest times can be found here.

Please note that the University Club will be closed on the 5th of April for Easter and so there will be no session then. The "extra session" mentioned for March has yet to be determined, and information will be sent to the mailing list at a later date.

Training in 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Apologies for the belated update of the timetable.

New text

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

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

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

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

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

Timetable update

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.

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

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.