Solo practice, went through all of my Silver Chain requirements (using steel).
Tag: sword
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Attended Brent's class, Indes Western Martial Arts. Basic cardio warm up followed Brent taking myself and a couple other new folks through some basic stance and movement work. We then did a partner movement drill, named "the ear game" because you're trying to reposition to either side of your opponent, practincing lateral movement and distancing. Boston then took us new folks over the basic X or "infinite" cut (similar to WCoS neck cut, but shorter, coming from the shoulder, and less snap so as to lead with a more guarded hand position). They use steel straight away for much of their drilling, so I was using my 40" overall bastard sword most of the night, starting with this cutting. We then moved into another partner drill where you maintain blade contact with your opponents weapon and attempt to manuever to achieve and keep the line on your opponent.
Brent then introduced the night's primary lesson, the montague. The move involves countering your opponents direct line on your face by rotating your sword CW as you deflect left slightly, keeping your tip up enough to maintain engagement and control of your opponents blade, then rotate or lever the blade down to catch your opponent's blade in your back guard and drop your point into a thrust to either the mid section or the upper leg (inner thigh, I should think).
After practicing the move for a while, the class seperated into those that were geared for full sparring and those of us that weren't where we continued with the contact drill. -
Tonight I observed the Indes Western Martial Arts class, a school of long sword combat. They have a more regimented format than Swordguild, though are otherwise fairly similar, as might be expected of two HEMA affiliated schools. I spoke with the main instructor for a bit after class and have decided to give his class a go.
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I attended a class with Portland Swordguild, a group that studies HEMA. The head instructor, Jason, gave me a 15 minute orientation on the basics (four guard positions, some offensive defense perspective, some attack lines) and did a little bit of saber-like stick fighting (some kind of bamboo or rattan like stick, approximately a yard in length, with a leather cup hand guard at one end, with us wearing fencing masks, and sports protective gloves and elbows). The standard class format is to start with a 15 minutes study session focusing on a single technique, then break off into sparring pairs to for the remainder of the time, learning by doing and having the more experienced critiquing the less experienced as they spar. I think they have some good concepts and ideas that have been pulled from the historical texts, but this is the same style of learning I have observed in some previous groups (particularly the couple SCA groups I've visited) and I feel it is not beneficial for beginners. However, as I am not a beginner with the sword and martial arts in general, I may return myself at least on occasion if they are open to me using a better helmet (I despise fencing masks) and to me possibly questioning things they wouldn't normally question.
Additionally, Jason suggested that Indes may be a better fit if I'm looking for more structure.