10th June</h1> <article> <h1>10th June</h1> <p>Graham A — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:10:00 GMT</p> <p>A recap of the 1st Master dagger work from last week saw us leap into a similarly styled training for an examination of Fiore's 3rd master dagger work.</p><p>The final part as given across to rehearsals for the event at Peterborough in a few weeks time with those not able to come practicing their skills in a dagger fight that looked fantastic - well done all! <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>3rd June - Fiore</h1> <p>Graham A — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:08:00 GMT</p> <p>This weeks session was given aross, almost exclusively to the 1st Master dagger work of Fiore. Studying was divided parts, the actual technique then its adaption to stage combat and finally variations for safe inclusion with different weapons use in stage combat.<br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>Sherborne Park Lodge</h1> <p>Graham A — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:44:00 GMT</p> <p>With nice weather for a change, Sherborne Park Lodge was tremendous fun for the public and the group alike.</p><p>Four activities were repeated twice throughout the day; a bungled house robbery, a site wide treasure hunt, pied powder court and a dark cellar ghost talk. All which went down very well wit young and old alike.</p><p>A bungled house robbery saw a group of nefarious characters demanding satisfaction from Dutton for some soured shipping in Barbados. Refusing to settle his account the pirates attempted a daring, day light robbery of the house and some of its contents, only to be thwarted by an equally hastily compiled militia who beat them away.</p><p>The children's treasure hunt was extensive, exhaustive and tremendous fun. Ranging across the grounds of Sherborne Park Lodge, from the building to as far as the Long Barrow each one saw over 40 children try to help the pirate locate his treasureburied somewhere in the grounds. Filled with riddles, fights and buried treasures the hunt was blessed with lovely weather and a great walk through much of the site people would have never seen otherwise.</p><p>The Pied Powder court was a slice of life from a market court of the mid 17th century ending in an attempted arrest of a dread pirate captain who was accidentally spotted during the proceedings.</p><p>Lastly the old favourite, the Ghost Talk down in the cellar saw old and young alike get very nervous as tales, old and new where told about various carry-ons committed in its dark, damp space.</p><p>Special mention should go to Gary Marshall for his near tireless antics throughout, changing from one show to the next and not resting when the rest of us managed five minutes as he led his treasure hunting band throughout the grounds. <br /></p><p>A great weekend for all. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>20th May Spears, gladiators and rapiers</h1> <p>Graham A — Sat, 22 May 2010 08:59:00 GMT</p> <p>Another well attended trainig at Collingwood saw us split into two groups after the warmup and core competencies; that this time saw us practicing very basic sword skills and a throw.</p><p>The two groups then carried on with their seperate training as one group rehearsed for the Sherborne show next weekend and the other group practiced theor gladiatorial skills using gladius and spear. The spear work in particular, although only using the most basic forms looked very effective as people got to grips with the weapons and the apparent restriction of these simple movements. We are looking forward to next week when fights can start to be put together for the others to watch.</p><p> The Sherborne training moved along nicely as rehearsals started to cement the fights and dialogue in the minds of the players. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>13th May, gladiators and pirates</h1> <p>Graham A — Sun, 16 May 2010 14:45:00 GMT</p> <p>Another well attended session ended with two seperate groups training together as work gets under way for the immediate Pirate event at Shernorne Lodge Park and for later gladiatorial events throughout the second part of the events season.</p><p>Training went well as we learnt about Piepowder Courts and, in our case, its demise into chaos and a later tavern brawl; the rest learnt basic swordsmanship with the gladius, or in some ases with two. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>6th May Agrippa and the ting tings.</h1> <p>Graham A — Fri, 07 May 2010 09:02:00 GMT</p> <p> Mercifuly not a referece to The <b>Ting Tings</b> that Ivor Novello winning and Grammy nominated indie pop duo but rather the noise a rapier, back sword or similar weapon can make when receiving a good beat or defence. This week saw us start looking at Camillo Agrippa's treatise and seeing how it can inform our stage combat, the results where fantastic.</p><p>Making a quick way through his guards and hand positions and a couple of adaptations to our standard stage combat we each had an opportunity to create a very quick phrase of a fight and demonstrate our new found skills to the group. The session was an all round outstanding success with each fight looking very different (as was hoped) from the previous weeks medieval Fiore based combat. Everyone quickly took on board and showed direct application of the basic Agrippa techniques and created markedly different but true to form historically based stage combat pieces that impressed everyone present.</p><p> Next week we will be building upon this for people going to Sherborne and for those unable to make it they will be cast back 1500 years and start practicing gladiatorial work ready for the coming season.</p><p>A great effort by everyone the after training McDonalds was well deserved :D </p><p>For more information on Agrippa you can start with the ARMA website <a href="http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/NewManuals/Agrippa/agrippa.htm" target="_blank">here</a>, a sincere thankyou to them for all their hard work and public availability, if you haven't you should take some time to view their site and read their research. </p><p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>Ferny Croft Scouts</h1> <p>Graham A — Tue, 04 May 2010 09:10:00 GMT</p> <p> Despite poor weather on the single day of the show in the south, a lot of fun was had by all at the Ferny Croft Scouts centre in the New Forest as part of their annual Evo event. Luckily for us the scouts were prepared and the event was moved to the large marquee building they had set up, so even the weather coudn't stop the fun.</p><p>Once the tents where setup and kit was donned; we started with a brief display that included the picnic fight where a group of Free Company men learn that medieval women (at least this bunch) may not have been the easy meal ticket they had hoped for as after a few frantic moments the pile of bodies is all male and the women leave wealthier for the encounter, this was in turn followed by a brief demonstration of some Fiore dagger and sword fighting and ended with a short demonstration of stage combat techniques to prepare the group for the next display.</p><p>Sadly the weather closed in and the event moved to the marquee. In the new location we carried out a short Hollywood section, demonstrating how fights are built up in layers for the camera, with the girls at the front conducting thier Hollywood fight, which went down very well. After this we had three volunteers come forward who were taught a short fight sequence to do before the public and a vote was cast on the favourite. The girls won this round!</p><p>Lastly, after a very short break we were back, this time in full harness to the demonstrate a passage of arms. Two fights had been scheduled but things soon get out of hand and a third fight started after Steve took annoyance at a technique Sam used against his brother Ben. </p><p>The rest of the event was spent enjoying the site, talking with some of the Scouts, eating and having a drink after the event ended.</p><p>Special mention should go to the following for having special occassions of their own but still coming to share the event with us; Alice, it was her Birthday andBen and Meri as it was their wedding anniversary.Finally to Ben's mum and dad for coming to join in the sillines and to Kate for taking lots of pictures. </p><p>A great start to the year. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>30th April Bumps, grazes and all coming together</h1> <p>Graham A — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:44:00 GMT</p> <p> The final training session for the weekends events went well. Dressed rehearsals showed a few last minute adjustments to armour that need doing but no major changes to the fights due to ill fitting harnesses or costumes, which was great news.</p><p>A special mention should be made for Gary, who came down from Farnham by train straight after work and wouldn't have got home much before midnight, just to be able to watch the fights through to make sure his commentary gels as well as it can during the show.</p><p>Costumes looked great, the fights came together and it was a great evening with everyone leaving looking forward to the event.</p><p>No rest though as next week we start for putting things together for the following show and additionally start getting people trained up with gladiatorial weapons. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>April 22nd</h1> <p>Graham A — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:06:00 GMT</p> <p>Another well attended training session saw us continue with the preparation for the coming New Forest event, fights are coming together very well and despite one members acrobatics slipping on a rolling spear handle everyone escaped without injury. The only injury to Graham was to his pride as he slipped and fell, luckily though his fight partner softened the blow by being unable to breath for laughter.<br /></p><p> The 'Hollywood' fight is fitting nicely together with the ladies doing a superb job of piecing it together even though they haven't managed to all be in the same room at the same time due to real life committments, so a big thankyou to everyone who has stunt doubled for one of the ladies over this period. </p><p> Training will be open from 1830 next week to enable people to get changed for the dressed rehearsal. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>15th April</h1> <p>Graham A — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:17:00 GMT</p> <p>A well attended training saw us go through the usual warm ups with an improvised thigh and calf exercise from Alisa that brought on some interesting looks of pain from a couple of us. Guard drills and dagger drills then gave themselves over to be used in the warming up session as well, with new face Jasper catching onto them a lot quicker than most of us seasoned<i> *experts*. </i></p><p>With the bulk of us moving swiftly into the preparations for the up coming show in the New Forest the rest carried on with some core competency work, making sure that skills are kept up to speed.</p><p>The events training went very well with all of the fights being blocked out and ready for learning and honing.</p><p>An excellent training session. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>9th April, daggers, swords and gauntlets for shields</h1> <p>Graham A — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:39:00 GMT</p> <p>Training continued after the usual warm up including some stretching and guard/dagger drills for movement straight into fight rehearsals. </p><p>After figuring out who would fight who sequences were quickly figured out to enabled their tightening next week after being filmed by Steve who kindly brought along his digital camera to record the sequences. The use of the various drills soon becomming evident and very useful in the sequence's creation as they added a historical feel to the usual stage combat.</p><p>Some inventive use from Ben and Sam using gauntlets in place of shields as the shields where *ahem* elsewhere allowed for a nice sequence to be mapped out. It was doubly refreshing for older members of the group as they brought with them their own previous experiences making for a very different looking fight to standard fair, but all within the safety codes of the groups stage combat.</p><p>A fight was blocked out for the ladies to use in their 'Hollywood' sequence with kind help from Alisa and Pete who stepped in last minute (thanks for being a lady for an evening Pete).</p><p>All the while Big and Lil' Steve went through more weapons drills in preparation for Steve's public debut. </p><p> <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>April Fools Day ...</h1> <p>Graham A — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 22:11:00 GMT</p> <p>Training, thankfully, went off without too much of any April Fool gags being played on one another by anyone.</p><p>From now until the New Forest Scouts show training is principally being given across to preparations, rehearsals and equipment checks for the event itself. However, anyone not involved directly in this event should still feel free to come along to training as there is plenty that can still be practiced, rehearsed and gone through for future events that you are coming to, so we would encourage everyone to come to training as normal.</p><p>After a warm up including the guard drill from Paul we moved through some competency based training and then got to the business of a quick and nasty fight sequence in which a wandering company of lazy men decide to try and take some food from a passing group of ladies and quickly discover that the women must come from Fiore's home town as they are quickly put to the floor as all good '<i>ruffians</i>' should be. With dagger drills and throws the group of men are soon shown the errors of their ways and then robbed by the women!</p><p>The blocking out went well and the timing is just about there after the first couple of half speed run throughs finished. So next week it will be more of the same to tighten up the sequence, looking for down time and gaps and then onto some individual combats.</p><p>Coffee in McDonalds afterwards was enjoyed by all. </p><p> <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>25th March, Southampton!</h1> <p>Graham A — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:22:00 GMT</p> <p> Well I suppose it had to happen eventually, training this week saw us finally go to Southampton for the evening as the usual location as being used for a local theatre production. </p><p>The site was superb and perfect for our uses. A very relaxed session as we revisited the medival competencies and added the sword drills and experimented within them with some 'half sword' work in anticipation for next weeks preparation for the coming seasons first medieval show.</p><p>Afterwards we had a change of location and went to Ben and Meriel's for coffee and wii, narrowly missing the call of the nearby Burger King! Thanks for your hospitality. <br /></p><p> </p><p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>11th March, Gladii, Hand and a Half & Rapiers</h1> <p>Graham A — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:30:00 GMT</p> <p>After a quick warmup and some core competencies we moved swiftly into a very quick stock fight scene that was quickly picked up by everyone for the next exercise that was to do the smae sequence through a number of times using different era weapons, employing the historic competencies, to look distinctly different each time, selling the idea of competent swordsmen from each era.</p><p>Then, in an attempt to foster the new ideas of peer critique each sequence was critiqued by the members present; giving some very positive information to everyones fights.</p><p>Fun was had by all and the event was filmed, so hopefully some movies up soon.</p><p>As ever McDonalds was descended upon, undoing all the previous good work. <br /></p><p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>4th March, pads, knaps and slaps!</h1> <p>Graham A — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:07:00 GMT</p> <p>Making efforts to ensure that our fights are as realistic as possible, we broke off in two groups for this weeks training, with Steve looking at core sword movements and the rest of us working on the punch pads. Stepping through a short technique slowly, we built up the movemnt to go as hard and as fast as we could, as though our lives depended upon it and then attempting to keep that sae force of movement we reinterpreted the movements through stage combat. The result was, for a time, much crisper, harder looking movements from those taking part; blowing the cobwebs out from our movements proved difficult and we all had several goes at picking up the speed and illusion of force after prompting from our companions. However, judging from the puffing and the noises involved, everyone enjoyed themselves.</p><p>Afterwards John took us through some different knapping techniques. Some of our best video footage from events shows that properly placed knaps get the audience gasping and wincing at the percieved pain. Most recently at Kingston Maurward we would have had the medics out on the field had it not been for one of the members on the side explaining that all was well, all due to a well used knap by two of our members. We examined, self, shared and partner knaps .. all leaving with warm, well slapped hands, shoulders and thighs! </p><p>Then across to McDonalds for a well deserved coffee and ice cream! <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>18th February, Last minute change</h1> <p>Graham A — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:56:00 GMT</p> <p>Hello all</p><p> A big thankyou to everyone for being flexible this evening and training in the Green Room, we're not sure what happened this evening with the normal venue, we'll do our best to find out and try to make sure we get some warning in future, but thanks you all for being so versitile, especially John, Steve, Alisa and Paul who helped arrange the Green Room at the last minute to ensure training could continue.</p><p>We had planned to run through sword drills and the various uses of the weapons today, buut instead ending up trying various Fiore based hand to hand techniques in a round robin format. Thanks to John for coming up with the new plan.</p><p>Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, especially our quick version of an unarmed vesion of Fiore's Magistro 9, Zogho 8 and some of the other embarrassing locks and counter attacks.</p><p>Next week we will continue with the planned sword work to be lead by John. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>11th February, locks, throws, grabs and pulls</h1> <p>Graham A — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:54:00 GMT</p> <p> In a change from recent weapons training this evenings session was a quick tour through the principles surrounding the application of locks and pulls. So many fights both historically and in stage combat come to a point where the weapons work ends and the hand to hand begins, so the session was designed to help with the principles surrounding the safe application of these techniques rather than simply going through a list of moves, hopefully enabling everyone to do things safely in their own manner during their own fights.</p><p>Additionally we took a look at the hip throw and a leg sweep, again helping students understand not only theprinciples of these techniques, but the safety surrounding them to help them use different methods in their own fights.</p><p>Next week its weapons time as we break out various swords from different eras and go through the basic stage tecniques surrounding each one as e seek to complete basic movements with them. So remember your gloves and to bring any personal weapons you might like to use in addition to the club's weapons. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>4th February, sword drills</h1> <p>Graham A — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:30:00 GMT</p> <p>Continuing on from last week's dagger drills 1 to 4 we learnt how they can be used equally as well against an opponent armed with a sword. The same drills applied against a sword armed adversary allowed the student with the dagger easily defeat a sword armed master. (Student being the defender and the master the aggresor). After this came our two standard sword drills, based upon elements found within Fiore and Talhoffer everyone grasped the basics of the movements and could see how they could be used in a show.</p><p>Finishing on a bit of fun, where we had a stab at some <i>jabolite </i>used to demonstrate the amount of force required, or not requied to actually injure a person. This part of the training is used to inform our acting when fighting at an event to enable us to move more realistically.</p><p>Next week, in a change of tact we are looking at locks, grapples, throws and falls before returning to the earlier sword work the week after. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>28th January</h1> <p>Graham A — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:09:00 GMT</p> <p>A well attended training saw us revise Walker's Simplified Boxing Methods ending in a short series of paired example sequences made to demonstrate the techniques learnt, all of which were very good and more importantly very different looking.</p><p>After a short break it was back to the grindstone, this time moving back through time a further 400 years as we looked at four medieval dagger drills based upon Fiore movements and Fiore's Magistro 3, Zogho 7 when used against another dagger.</p><p>Next week we plan on building upon the dagger drills of this week as we introduce a couple more Fiore based techniques and move throug the group's Fiore based dagger vs sword drills. </p> </article> <article> <h1>21st January</h1> <p>Graham A — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:11:00 GMT</p> <p>Training this week was given across to the some basics, examining in quick succession the cross punch, head butt, head lock, various arm locks, kick to the grion and punch to the stomach.</p><p>With a reasonable turn out we went through these techniques in their stricest form to help blow out the cobwebs caused by too much Christmas pud and frivolity.</p><p>Over the next few weeks there will be a number of small but noticeable changes to the training including its own seperate place on the website, a viewable schedule and some guest sessions. So keep your eyes on the site as these become available. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>14th January</h1> <p>Graham A — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:09:00 GMT</p> <p> The first session of the year saw us pick up where we had left off and the dice came out for one more ill fated go after some basic study of Walkers Simplified Boxing Techniques.</p><p>The dice where then used to create a random melee with everyone a potential target. Some inventive diving about by Alisa and Steve's bull like charge through the middle of the group made for some interesting techniques being used by all, however Walker's methods bore us through the strange fight that the random dice had created and left us with something that would have made for a very enjoyable bar room brawl in a 19th Century public house.</p><p>Next week is the planned start of our 2010 training revisions after the committee have their meeting on Tuesday to prepare for the next few months eading up to the first show, so watch this blog for the announcements of what is to come. There are some interesting plans afoot! <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>10th December, Die and fight!</h1> <p>Graham A — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:14:00 GMT</p> <p> Dice took centre stage as we sought to randomize a fight sequence with 6 combatants.</p><p> Using old school D&D dice each person was allotted their fight, who they had to strike, when they had to attack and where the attack had to land. After a shaky start the experience of those present soon began to shine through as a plausible fight was constructed with players darting in, out and across the field making thier hits count. A variety of weapons where available seeing gladius fight rapier and mortuary sword go against a hand an a half made for some interesting techiques as people sought to fight in accurate styles.</p><p>All in all a great end to the season's training with a fun and sweaty finish. The fight was filmed and we hope to create a a montage of it shortly. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>Stevenage Museum - Archaeology of Indiana Jones</h1> <p>Graham A — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:04:00 GMT</p> <p>A single day event at Stevenage museum saw the group give a multimedia presentation on the real life influences and pre Indy inspirations for the creation of the now world famous Indiana Jones. A 20 minute talk punctuated with fights based upon moments from the film entertained four separate crowds that came through the museum on a steely grey day.</p><p>From the Chachapoyan idol scene, through the bazaars, to German airfields and beyond several iconic moments were recreated for the public, which coupled with Gary's excellent presentation saw everyone from museum staff, to the public to us have a thoroughly enjoyable Saturday afternoon.</p><p>Our specific thanks to Gary for preparing such an excellent presentation, to Ben for the tireless sound effects and as ever to Steve for getting everything there and back safely. </p> </article> <article> <h1>Kingston Maurward - Napoleonic Weekend</h1> <p>Graham A — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:25:00 GMT</p> <p>A slight departure from normal for us this weekend as we took part in the Napoleonic Weekend at Kingston Maurward. A number of true Napoleonic Society and groups where present along with us all talking and working with the public. The Allied and French encampments where very atmospheric filled with men, women and children all dressed in exceptionally good costume. The market and shows at the House where equally as interesting with our friend the excecutioner this time showing his more gentle side at a Georgian meal. </p><p>In a packed programme, something was happening every 30 minutes we offered two different shows at 11AM and 1PM each day.<br /></p><p><b>Cutlass Drill.</b></p><p>The cutlass drill took on a different form this time with adult participation in a 'Generation Game' style play off. Although we did not realise at the time that one of the contestants was a 3rd dan Ju Jistu instructor and caught on very quickly (all of 3 seconds) before mastering the art of the cutlass. After the cutlass drill the children had a go with the foam weapons and then repelled borders by beating the group to a pulp. Immedieatly after this a tavern challenge turned nasty as two drunken sailors fought it out to settle an old score and managed to kill everyone in the pub apart from themselves.</p><p><b>Tavern Brawl.</b></p><p>The tavern brawl starts with explaining a few of the different tricks of the stage combat trade ending in Alisa knocking some sense into Graham and John. After this the Tavern saw a nasty brawl break out due to some cheating during an arm wrestle. </p><p>All in all everyone enjoyed themselves with much positive feedback from the public and the customer alike. The weather, although not great, was merciful and both days saw sunny intervals breaking through the clouds which no doubt helped the organisers with the weekends events that where enjoyed by all of the group. <br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>Sherborne Lodge Park</h1> <p>Graham A — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:26:00 GMT</p> <p>Well everyone worked there socks off at the event with none stop work every 45 minutes and even in between during the ghosttalks down in the cellar; which appears to pick up new ghosts with each visit from the group. In a centuries time I ihave no doubt that Lodge Park will be counted as one of the most haunted pieces of real estate in the world.</p><p>Not including the ghost talks most of us participated in three displays repeated twose throughout the day.</p><p>The Duel.</p><p>Two gentlemen duellists unable to resolve their differences meet in the gardens of the park to duel until satisfaction is acheived; it does not go well. Misfiring pistols are replaced by rapiers which see the disgruntled duellists injuring and killing everyone around them without so much of a drop of their own blood being split! The duel is cancelled in the end, in case anyone should get hurt, as the weapons are rather dangerous.</p><p>The Cheater</p><p>Enjoying a drink and cards on the lawn one 'cad' is found to be cheating. The ensuing disagreement see's all hands to the fight as old scores are settled and new ones are made. </p><p>The Footpad</p><p>While discussing the useless field strategies of the farmer teh Gentleman finds himself pickpocketed by an unlikely footpad. After sending in the boy to get the good back in goes the farmer and then finally the gentlemen. None are able to get anywhere and leave with bruises and broken bones ... until the boys mother turns up and teaches the fotpad a few lessons he won't quickly be forgetting!</p><p>Played for entertainment and fun at the site, the visitors, staff and society all had a great time in the splendid weather the weekend brought.</p><p> </p> </article> </main></body></html>