August 2009 - Posts

• 27th August, fight!

  Something a little different today after the standard warm up and competency technique, this time a quick revision of napping after one went down very well at Chedworth last weekend. Thr group was broken into four attackers and one defender. Then using the stage combat methodologies already well known among the members we defended against a series of attacks as the defender walked through the middle of the group, then repeated the walk with a counter attack. After this was done a series of exercises took us through from staticly defending against a series of known attacks through to a semi free moving defence and counter attack against the four opponents. A selection of weapons mixed things up with mortair, rapiers and hand and a half swords all being used at the same time. The object of the exercise was to help members as they script fights; making them seem to move more naturally and ebb and flow with a little more grace. All in all the exercises achieved their goals and we all went to McDonalds on a high afterwards. Posted Aug 28 2009, 07:45 AM by Graham A with no comments

• 20th August, Chedworth preparations continue

  This week's training was given over almost entirely to preparing for Chedworth, the final details of the slave revolt scene where worked  through after the usual warmups and basic competency training. The basics this week where chosen completely at random by Alisa and Meriel. The preparations went well with us finally getting the revolt blocked out and fully rehearsed ready for the show this weekend. As ever a coffee was enjoyed by all at McDonalds afterwards. Posted Aug 26 2009, 04:03 AM by Graham A with no comments

• 13th August, Chedworth preparation and basics3

  After a warm up and a review of the stage combat doctrines around pugilism the group was split into two halves. Those attending Chedworth and those unable to make it this time. The new piece for Chedworth was blocked out by John, rehearsed by all and filmed by Paul for final prep next week. Fungus and Mark continued with the gladius basics, experimenting with three differing ways to do the 5's, movement and timing. The new Chedworth scene has allowed us to give an increasingly diverse role to women in the group when portraying periods that were more traditionally male dominated societies which has been great fun for all involved and shown just  how fantastically some of the women who do not want to be gladiators can actually fight; there where a couple of bruised men at the end of training yesterday! Afterwards McDonalds was the haunt of the evening as ever. Posted Aug 14 2009, 07:16 AM by Graham A with no comments

• 30th July, Fiore for Lulworth

  Training this week was given over to preparations for the Lulworth Castle event. Concentrating on Fiore this week to build the event for Lulworth it was soon obvious to all that Fiore's dagger drills will be able to easily move across to the other disciplines within the society. Swapping out medieval daggers for gladii, clubs and other assorted weapons. Time was spent looking at and combining the following plays. First Master, first play, second play and 9th play. Second Master, 3rd play and 3rd Master 7th play. It only took a few goes before people started to add their own variations to the movements taught by Fiore to great effect as peope where thrown, kicked, twisted and stabbed across the stage. Afterwards everyone went across to the new look McDonalds for a coffee. Posted Aug 03 2009, 04:34 PM by Graham A with no comments