Back again!

Wow i've been gone for a long time! Just finished another MS ride and a 3 day ride for the Police Unity Tour back in May. Practice has slowed down a bit because I'd been doing training rides but hopefully we'll get going again. The main problem is getting folks to come to class on a regular basis. I'm getting away from the padded swords. They're fun to spar with but just don't hold up to the abuse. I'm trying to keep the cost of things low so I can get more people to practice. I'd love to train with steel wasters but the cost of steel and the armor to go with it puts it out of most of my students price range. I think synthetic is the way to go for now. Our core group bought five nylon wasters from Dwarven Smithy http://web.emerytelcom.net/users/blhunt/longsword.htm and they are great for practice with a good weight and feel. A litle stout for working without heavier armor. I recently purchased two wasters from The Cult of Athena http://kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=600874 These are made in England and are very nice. Lighter then a steel sword with good flex and feel. These take much less armor to work with. More to follow!

Update on Training

Due to some hand injuries, I bought ten pairs of lacrosse gloves from ebay. ($80 gloves for about $15 apiece after taxes and shipping) Very well made, great padding with kevlar as well. We've also found that the pvc swords don't stand up to hard sparring. I've made a couple of wood wasters that we slide a piece of pool noodle onto. These take the abuse and we can still hit fairly hard, (with the gloves and head gear). Still not where we want to be but we're taking the cheap route for now.

Update on the Joust

Lot's of fun. Two teams with "Knights" from around the world. Jousting, poleaxe fighting, sword fighting, demos, etc.

Jousting Tournement

Tomorrow, some of us are going down to Poway for the "World Joust Tournement". This is an international event sanctioned by the Royal Armories of England. This is full contact and should be a lot of fun to watch. I'll post pictures when I get back! http://www.worldjoust.com

After the ride

It's time to update. Well, I did the MS Bay to Bay ride and it was great! I didn't make the full 150 miles but I should be ready by next year! The first leg on the 10th was 58.82 miles and on the 11th it was 43.39 miles. A little over 102 miles all together. With the help of friends and family I was able to raise $1,100.00. Our team, "Team Sheriff", raised $23,175.oo and overall over 2 million has been raised this year! This is a great cause and I plan on doing every year possible.

As time goes by....

I guess I'm just not as talkative as I thought I'd be when I first started this blog. We continue to have class every Saturday morning with few exceptions. We spend the first hour going over technique, drills, etc. The second hour we spar. Long swords, short swords, espada y daga, dagger vs dagger, etc. It's all still with padded weapons and head gear as we figure out armor to wear. We're all cheap and don't want to spend the big bucks yet so we're working on homemade armor. We'll see how that works out, we have some pretty creative people in the group.

I may be missing a few Saturdays coming up because of cycling. Yes, I've taken up yet another hobby. It's keeping me in shape and I'm training for a long ride to help out Muscular Distrophy.
http://www.biketofinishms.com/rjprice Please help out if you can! The ride is Oct 11 &12 and I plan riding the full 150 miles.

I'll try to be more prolific and put more pictures. Practice!

Latest class..with padded armour

Yes, it has been awhile since I last posted. Lots of work, on the job and at home has kept me busy. We've continued to have classes but most of the club are busy as well so new people come and go. Wanting to liven things up, I brought home a "FIST" suit from work. (http://www.fist-inc.com/) We use them in training the recruits with dynamic scenario training where they can strike the person in the suit with plastic batons. (Which still hurt a lot if hit on a non padded spot!) Since we're still using padded swords I thought it would work well. I also brought some padded headgear with eye protection. Dave, Brown, Butterfield and I tried it out. It was a perfect day for wearing the suit. Crisp and windy. It gets hot very quickly in the suit. The FIST suit will take full power punches and kicks but is bulky. I would like to try the "High Gear" (http://www.tonyblauer.com/4105/03_01_highgear.asp) developed by Tony Blauer. It's lighter and more manuverable but won't take as hard a strike. Thats okay if both people are wearing them as it gives just enough protection. Both suits are expensive though. We're still working on making our own armour to train with wasters and steel swords. We'll get there eventually.

Warrior TV Shows

There are some new shows out that are pretty interesting. History Channel is showing "Warriors" on Thursday night. (http://www.history.com/minisites/warriors) It follows a Green Beret who participates in the study of a particular warrior culture. He finds modern experts in that culture who teach him the weapons and tactics of those warriors. Very interesting.
Tuesday night on Spike TV we have "Deadliest Warriors". (http://www.spike.com/show/31082) It matches up two different warrior cultures and using modern technology, decides which warrior would win. All very subjective of course but fun to watch none the less.
Pitting ancient warriors or even "super heroes" against each other has been an hobby of many. Even video games are into it and the possabilities are endless. My youngest son would grill me constantly over who would win between the Hulk and Spiderman, the Preditor and a Ninja, etc. After each discussion, I would explain that despite the powers of each, it's the individual skill of the fighter that usually wins the fight. Fun to talk about. I'm still waiting for the holo deck to actually try it out!

Reclaiming the Blade

As you can see, I've put in a link to a DVD called "Reclaiming the Blade"
Reclaiming the Blade celebrates the culture and craft of swords and the Hollywood legends and academic warriors who wield them. The film explores the Medieval and Renaissance blade; a profound and beautiful object handcrafted by master artisans of old. Today, much of the history of the sword remains cloaked under a shadow of legend. Reclaiming the Blade highlights today’s cinematic tribute to the beauty and necessity of the sword through films such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Chronicles of Narnia and The Pirates of the Caribbean. If you pre-order, you can get a free T-shirt! I've ordered mine - you should too!

Miles Spiritium

A friend of mine from the dojo has started an interesting blog that is martial arts related. I would highly recommend checking it out and reading his posts. Kerry is a godan (5th Dan) in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu and is very skilled with a wonderful understanding of taijutsu. Check it out at http://milesspiritium.blogspot.com/