Medieval Retro-Class today

Only two folks for class today. :( I'd planned on covering medieval knife work but decided to go over joint locks instead. The same joint locks will be used in the knife defense. Medieval knife attacks are either icepick style coming down or a thrust. Most systems that developed in areas where it got cold used these types of attack to get through thick clothing. The warmer areas developed faster more slashing attacks since you weren't wearing as much. Lot's of good videos on youtube!

Castles

I am very interested in castles and plan on building one after I retire. Various plans are in the works to enable this to happen. Of course there are lots of castles still standing in Europe and many still being used and some for sale. Two groups of people are building castles using the old methods. No power tools or equipment, all by hand. One is in France, http://www.guedelon.fr/index.php?lg=en and the other in Arkansas. http://www.ozarkmedievalfortress.com/en-us/ I don't need to be that authentic! The stone work is cool but I'm thinking of using concrete faux stone from this company. http://www.redi-rock.com/. I'm not sure yet which would be cheaper, I guess that would depend on where I build. Much more research yet to do!

Class

We had a good sword class today. Dave talked about balance points and then I worked them into the sword work. Finished the class with knife sparring. Then we went to Victorville High School to watch a fencing tournament. We got there in time to watch the epee. I taken a fencing class in college but it was with the foil. The epee is a heavier sword and the targets are anywhere on the body, including the feet! After the epee was the saber. Very fast. All great for gaining experience with timing and distancing but lots have been lost to making it safe for a sport.

Happy New Year!

Yes, it's a new year with many new possibilities. As far as the sword club, I'm going to revamp the training to account for nobody making it consistently. Somehow I'm going to have to gear the training so I can progress without consistent training partners. I'm also doing a lot of study on the Crusades with the idea of writing a book. I've got a number of ideas that I've started on, just need to do the research.
I've ordered a number of books that hopefully will fill in the gaps of my medieval education. I'll try to share intersting tidbits along the way, as well as keep up with the martial aspects of the club. Hope you're new year is filled with new knowledge and great blessings!

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!