Renaissance sword in southern England

Hi All

Quite interested in learning to fight with a sword - I did a taster for the medieval stuff which was great but not wild about full armour. So I wondered about the 'renaissance' style - a bit more fencing like.

I'm in north Hampshire so there are a couple of schools in Berkshire and the edge of Surrey that I might be able to train at. I'm looking for 'practical' training and competition rather than historical study (as I get older there may be a cunning plan to evolve into greater historical study, but I'd still like to spend some significant time sparring for the moment).

I guess my questions are:

Is there a particular school that anyone would recommend?
Are there particular sub-styles that I should approach or avoid?
What are the opportunities for competition? (I like competing, so this is important)
Is there an 'idiots guide 101' to this stuff you can point me at?

Cheers

BRD

 

School of the Sword in Godalming is probably your best bet both in terms of geography and what you want.
Most medieval places train unarmoured sword for the most part.

 

Maybe try this:

https://www.facebook.com/Virtus-Sword-School-140007869540484/timeline/

 

That's 45 minutes from me, and I'm an hour from him.

 

Yes, thank you but I'm afraid Bath is a bit too far. The school of the sword would work - I've also seen:

http://www.englishmartialarts.com/

And

http://www.renaissanceswordclub.com/

Would appreciate any opinions

 

Both are good options to be honest, you are a bit spoiled for choice in that area. Personal taste may well be a factor. Personally I like the Italian stuff and would therefore be drawn to School of the Sword (I mean they do Spadone, who wouldn't want that?). Some people like the Englishness of the backsword systems, some people like to indulge their musketeer fantasies with the French rapier stuff.

 

Hmm, I need one that has the crushing of enemies and drinking wine from their skulls.....

 

Went to School of the Sword last night. I can confirm that hitting people with swords (even padded ones) is big fun.

And also that 20 odd years of left foot forward kickboxing is no preparation for trying to move about right foot forward and swinging a sword

 

What style were they having you do?

 

I think Bolognese rapier is the core style (although 'waggling something pointy' describes what I did rather better)