Over the weekend (sat 22nd/sun 23rd sept) the Dawn Duellist Society, the foremost and oldest (I think) WMA group in scotland, held its annual AGM activities. Myself (both days) and Louie (sunday) were there to represent the Glasgow Company of Duellists as well as for me to defend my tourney champion status from last years AGM. Saturday was when all the sensible classes/demonstrations were with enough kit available to equip virtually the entire class of 30 willing volunteers. Trust me thats a LOT of swords & shields - the place looked like Conan's weapons cabinet! First up was sword and buckler researched from the sword treatise known as I.33 by Matt and Greg. For someone like me whose sword is a weapon you can stand off and hit with from a distance (longsword), fighting with sword and buckler is like headbutting a tiger ... you REALLY put yourself in harms way to do some damage. Next up from Greg and Katie was D'Grassi 's early 'rapier' where Giacomo started the move towards the point only rapier from the point and edge 'sidesword'. For a man who thought that 1.5" of sword penetration was enough to disable your opponent, he seemed very keen in techniques that resulted in 3 FEET of steel being inserted in your opponent! Finally using the simple walking stick, a class was taken by Ian to teach how to engage multiple opponents. This resulted in much falling over, quite a few bruises and a thanking to the manufacturers of our fencing masks after many many head blows :bang: After all the serious stuff on the sat, Sunday was funday. Various martial (and silly) games had been organized including spacehopper jousting, blind fighting using a squeaky toy and a half brick in a sock ...... (ok, it was probably a tennis ball in a sock but I'm told it still hurt). One 'childish' game with toy axes had to be curtailed after a fear that the frequent high speed impacts between players were going to exceed the DDS's dental plan!. An hour was put aside for freeplay so Louie got to fight for the first time with his longsword ... his worthy opponent .... me! I started out at about 75% my ability but after louie disarmed me one with an arm lock and gave me a fright with a huge left handed lunge, by the end of our second session I was up to 90% and pondering going to 100% just to keep some dignity and poise. Not too shabby for his first time. Then it was tourney time. I was defending my crown won last year but this time it was not to be. I won both my duels but took too many hits to be at the top of the heap. That honour went to Richard with a totally clean sheet. <sigh!> Theres always next year I guess as amazingly, we have been invited back! Many thanks to DDS for having us over, to the organizers who pulled the event together and to the participants ... (even those involved in the combat basketball game!). See you guys next year ... or sooner if you come over to weegieland.
Sounds like fun! Any pics to share? BTW, I was wondering how you structure you classes, as I am just getting my chapter of the AES off the ground. I'm looking to incorporate good ideas from other schools to make my classes as fun and martially sound as possible. Best regards, -Mark
Hopefully some of the guys took quite a few so if they put them up somewhere, will post link here ... especially from during the silliness! Not sure I'm a good example but here goes... (we have 2 hours approx) -Stretching (nothing too drastic 10-15 mins) -Footwork (has been up to 1 full hour in the early days but a lot less now). I use 3 main drills - 1) class lines up facing me and mirrors my movements (as per a fight). 2) pair off everyone. one person leads, other person follows and then move about the room. 3) as 2 but split into 2 teams. one member of each team in a pair. team A leads trying to maneuver his opponent into one of the opponents team mates. Then switch. This teaches footwork, spacial awareness and gives me a laugh when they all fall over each other. -Teach a new guard/attack/technique/trick. ie snitt or krumphau -Opposed drills. Teach a series of responses ie zornhau and its counters etc and have them (wearing masks) go through attack and counter (carefully). -Slow motion sparring. focus on technique and motion rather than hitting. -Close with freeplay/duel as I intend to run a ladder and once a quarter hold a small tourney (haven't let them try this yet - need more kit).
Some of my mainstays are the following: John Clements' "Touch Drill". A lot of fun, and works great on developing range and timing. Meisterhauen Guard Breaking: Patient lies in Tail Guard, while he and Agent are circling each other. Patient moves from Tail to one of the four primary guards, which the Agent then breaks with the appropriate Meisterhau as quicky as possible. Alternatively, the Agent may use another method of breaking the guard, like Meyer's "Sperren" vs. Alber, for example. We also like "Fuhlen" drills, say hard vs. soft binds from two simultaneous oberhauen, choosing one of two options, say Duplieren and Mutieren. Guard Transitions, since that's the framework of all actions anyway. A Zwerch is basically a transition from Vom Tag to Ochs, etc. Best regards, -Mark
actually it had little to do with actual technique of stick and everything to do with position, intent and goals of taking on 2 opponents. The walking stick (thanks for the use of yours mum :love: ) was really just a slightly safer and more likely prop for a street fight. Where the original info came from is only known to the bloke who took the class ... the rest of us were too busy battering the living pooh out of each other.
Who was the instructor? Bartitsu included a very practical method of walking-stick defense, incorporating a fair few tricks for taking on more than one opponent at a time. Either way, it sounds like a good class. I have a long-term interest in walking stick fighting and I'm always keen to hear of "new" developments in that field.
Hi All... Wish I brought me camera :cry: you were robbed Hamster Sunday seminar was great although I felt more time could have been given over to the freeplay and tourney section rather than so many 'games' - not that they weren't beneficial in breaking the ice and getting the heart pumping, I just thought it resulted in the fights and scoring being 'hurried' at the end of the event! Phil Crawley gave us an exhausting introduction in the basics of traditional folk wrestling many of which would be familiar to anyone studying Eastern MA. ......My muscles are still aching!!! Enjoyed my first attempt at sparring with 'real' steel swords rather than the more familiar wood - it certainly hightens the senses that bit further and reduces risks that you would normally take when fighting with sticks! Thanks to my longsword instructor & sparring partner RAbid Hamster for not prodding me too much On a more familiar note I also managed to get a bout of singlesticks with a friendly member of the DDS, so it was a good day out..... looking forward to the next one! Louie
Bummed I missed it, but that's life when you are forced to go to CenterParcs with the Bear Cub. The Bear.
