Blogs

Ornamenting Rostiboli, Buffens with sticks.

Gush forth my tears, Change then for lo she changeth, and a few others

Week 3

Muggy, but a lot of fun. Heys for eight, and Buffens with sticks.

Second lesson on early 17th C Italian rapier, following Richard Cullinan's /ibn Jelal's online notes. 

We reviewed the basics of stance and lunge (informed by Capoferro) and of taking the sword (with the point off-line).  Taking the sword was practised first in response to the partner extending the sword (this makes it easier to judge) and then with the partner remaining in guard (this requires judging where the blade would be in the partner lunged).

A vigorous and enjoyable evening, in spite of some traffic-induced delays.

Splendens Ceptigera, La Sirena, Laudate nomen domini, and a few others.

At the recent Feast of St Sebastian, I was asked by the Steward to run a "pro-am" rapier tourney.  With this brief in mind, I decided to pair novice fencers with experienced ones in a pairs competition.  I had six fencers to play with, which was perfect for a round robin, each bout best of three, which we played three times over, each rotation with different weapons combinations. 

It's been ages since anyone's added to the blog, but it isn't because we haven't been fencing.  Over the summer we've taken advantage of the long evenings, getting together for some sparring practice whenever two or more have felt like it.  Of course, Canterbury Faire was a big fencing event for some of us (I played almost every day).  And we recently held a couple of rapier tourneys.

But with the return of our regular schedular, I'll try to make sure our blog updates are also more regular.

Yours, in service to the Art,

Ludwig

Our first big project for the year is Giganti's two books.  Matt's leading us through the material, making use of Richard Cullinan's (Tariq ibn Jelal's) online material:

http://www.renfence.com.au/Giganti_Teaching_Curriculum

and https://www.youtube.com/user/richardcullinanau

We covered stance, footwork, the lunge and gaining the sword.  Everyone is now sore: mission accomplished :)