June Newsletter

June-July Newsletter

Good morning swords!

This newsletter is being sent to all the latest additions to our cozy company of martial artists, sword handlers, pirates, and assorted reprobates.
For some, this may be a bit of a repeat of the one you got last week.  
This newsletter is now being sent to 22 MORE people!  Wow. 
These are the wonderful people who just finished up our Wednesday class on the 12th, and are looking forward to the advanced one on the 19th.
And yes, you are in good company with the Friday class people, many of whom will be joining you as well next week!
Some of you already know each other.
There is no problem with the overlap...the incessant review on the advanced classes will do nothing but boost your confidence.

As we get into the summer months, we noticed that there is a conflict at the City classes. 
As you know, we also teach this class for the city of Ottawa at the Plante recreation centre at Sommerset St. at Preston. 
The conflict is in the first day, which totally conflicts with the Osgoode Medieval Festival AND on the last day which conflicts with Fan Expo. 

We successfully filled three classes of basic sword handling through May and June. 
This was through successful advertising and promotion. 
Seems that people really do want to take these courses IF they know about it!
Allow me to pat the backs of all the people who "told their friends" about us.  It worked!
  
And of course, the advanced classes are just waiting to be filled with eager warriors.  
Should be no problem...Algonquin has an advanced Chivalrous Sword Handling course for June 19th to July 31st. Wednesdays.
And as of 13 06 2013, it is running!
But there is still room for people who wish advanced training.  A dirty trick every class!  Armouring all the time.  Whats not to love?

We should probably just take August off, at least at Algonquin. 
We have Fan Expo in Toronto, and a couple of birthday tournaments to keep people interested and fighting.
On the other hand, if we let things slide for a month, they could well vanish forever.
But I think it is better to start the next series of beginner's classes in September.   
What do people think of that plan?  email me with your thoughts....  marshalbill@armouredswords.ca 
(oh wait, does that email even work?  Well, my backup is this one...MarshalBill@gmail.com)


The price is the same at the College's usual ten bucks an hour (plus taxes).
You can sign up on line by going to here  http://xweb.algonquincollege.com/pdi/courseDetail.aspx?id=GEN0105
And of course, the Plante Recreation Centre is happy to accomodate us for a summer course in about another month.

I think Jeff should teach a Ken Jutsu class at the Plante Recreation centre.
I have put in a proposal for an extra two hours at Plante devoted to KenJustsu.

This will have to be a paid class, in order to be covered by the city insurance.
If there is interest, we will run it.  If not, well, no harm done by asking if there is enough interest.
Again, if you want a KenJutsu course enough to pay seven bucks an hour for it, email me at marshalbill@gmail.com
What do you get for your money?  The finest Japanese sword handling training in the world!
(okay, finest in Ottawa!)  Free parking, heat in the winter, air con in the summer, and somebody ELSE cleans the toilets.

I personally believe that Ken Jutsu makes a very nice addition to the sword arts.
What do you all think?  If there is interest, Jeff has agreed to run a formal Kenjutsu course from 10:30 to 12:30 at Plante on Sundays.
An option would be ONE HOUR instead of two.  Cheaper, and easier on students. 
Again, we need your feedback.  email me if you wish to commit to a Japanese sword handling course on Sundays

Marshalbill@gmail.com  and let me know if you want the one hour or the two hour kick at the cat.
This will be in addition to the two hours of European. 
I need 10 people to say they want it before they will run it. 
If I don't get 10 names, the concept is dead in the water, and there will be NO Ken Jutsu on Sundays.


(Yes, Dmitri, I have you on the list....)
 

Five more students are trained and safe to work in the shop. So we will be seeing them on Saturdays.

Two more battle ready armours have been finished at the armour shop in Metcalfe by inspired fighters.
We saw them in action last Sunday.  They sure look good!

But, there has to be more than just training...there is "doing" as well.
We are planning a spring tournament 22 June 2013
Spring tournaments traditionally have been problematic because of course everybody is so busy in June!
And those spring showers put the mockers on outdoor tournament plans.

I am looking for warriors who want to put their carefully hones skills to work.

Brenda loves hosting tournaments when she has help. 
So we will need volunteers to tend the bonfire, haul tables around, erect canopies, that sort of thing. 

So if you are willing to volunteer, Call Brenda at tudorlady@gmail.com and she will find you something to do.
If all you want is to fight, then great.  email me at marshalbill@gmail.com and let me know.
There will be prizes.
(prettiest fighter, most chivalrous fighter, most unlikely fighter, that sort of thing.)
(consider this a call for prizes as well!  All donations gratefully accepted)


With a rain date of a week later.  I know...somebody always has something on the go no matter what date I pick. 
As usual, RSVP is required only if you want to get in on the barbeque ribs deal from the D & S.  

(And I know this newsletter is going as far away as Malta and Latvia...so I understand you guys not showing up!  But we will raise a toast to ya!)

email me marshalbill@gmail.com with your thoughts on this matter.

Upper Canada Village show weekend is June 8 and 9.  Osgood Village Medieval Faire is July 13 and 14.
Big tournament at Andrew Beere's place on 20 July. 
This party is to celebrate Andrew Beere's birthday, John Piche's birthday, and Dan Piche's birthday.
So you KNOW it will be well attended by some of the finest fighers in Ottawa.
RSVP directly to lisa@beere.ca
Her exact words were ...  come one come all.
This is what it will look like...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkteEFI-PBs&feature=related

BYOB 

A knight in Edinburgh

This May, researchers have found a family crypt of a knight and his family under a car park in Edinburgh.  Why it should be a surprise that they would find skeletons under a known ancient monastic building is anybody's guess, however this is the whole article from the Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2317097/Researchers-family-knight-Middle-Ages-buried-Edinburgh-car-park.html

Click on the image to embiggen, then click "beside" the image to come back here.

Why do I find this interesting?  Well, being a knight was more than just being a random soldier.  A knight was the law, the kings representative, the dispenser of justice...a lot more than being just a man at arms.  The cracked sand stone grave marker above shews a great sword.  Such a sword is not really made for fighting...it is a "great" sword, a symbol of the hand of royalty on the person under the stone.  Such "great swords" were used in judicial combat because they represented royalty.  "you gonna fight amongst yourselves boys, then you use these swords".  Often they were blessed by representatives of the church, and consequently, people felt they invested a lot of "right" on their side.  No doubt swinging such a big heavy sword would slow the hand of the guilty...a psychological effect which must not be overlooked!

The knight himself did not seem to have had much in the way of injuries...and the skeleton is of quite a small man...cause of death undetermined at this time.  What is poignant is the skeletons of the kids.  Death was never far away in those days. 

Seize the day...

This is a fairly straightforward situation to get into.  The fellow on the right will move forward and to his right just as soon as his opponent's sword is tossed away by his overhead ward.  He walks toward his pommel, the safest thing to do in the circumstances.  and of course two things can happen.

If he slips in close enough to his opponent, he "might" be able to snake his arm over his opponent's sword arm.  No doubt he will try, because it is a very successful grappling technique.
 (plate 225 shows this as well)

 This is what we call an "inside" technique.  It is less than optimal because, well look at the fellow on the right in the above pic!  Although he may be facing a power house smash from that sword, he can do a lot of damage first!  If he had a knife in that left hand, the guy in the fancy hat would coughing up blood right about now. Or he can simply grab the guy's wrist, and step away, freeing his hand and his sword.  He has the rest of his life to do this! 

For instance, this might be a solution!

Another way to handle the situation at the top would be get the sword in a wrist in-turn.
This is really hard to do with a sword in your hand, but not impossible.  And if you get it, you like, totally win.  If you fail, things don't go to hell in a hurry, so it is worth a try.  You start like the fellow in the top picture, then slam your butt into his body.  Slide your hand down the outside of his arm, keeping him from pulling it back.  Grab his hand with your free hand, and back out. 

Lay your sword on his fingers, to keep them from writhing out of position.  Then crank him down.

 This is a wrist in-turn done with a sword in your hand.  It is NOT a European move, and will never be taught in a EMMA salon.  However, it works a treat.  Its moves like this which set us apart, and make the STAG swordhandlers more devestating than any other Martial Art on the planet!


Can you learn this from these pictures?  Of course not.  You will have to take my classes!

Next class ....  Algonquin College May 1st 2013.
                       http://www.algonquincollege.com/index.htm
                       If you have trouble with their system (and who doesn't) email me!  I'll walk you through the registration.

                       Plante Rec Centre April 7  Phone: 613-232-3000

Sign up now while you think about it.  Information and phone numbers are here at the Armoured Company of the Sword web site.
http://armouredswords.ca/ACOTS_Class.html

Plante Grads March 2013

This was the graduation class at Plante Recreation Centre, March 2013.
From left to right...Dmitri, Natalia, Maryanne, Dave, Jason, Nika and Dave P.

And of course, Bill and Jeff in front. 

Dave P. is showing off his new armour.  Crikey it looks good on him.  Now everybody is jealous and wants to make their own! 

Samurai Sword Cutting

Hours and hours of perusing youtube videos.

Oh my. 

Check this guy out!

The guy is really smooth.  The cuts are clean.

However......

Although he says he uses the curve of the sword, he does not.  The first cut is like...so beautiful! The second diagonal is just like he learned it from his Sensei.  After that, his cuts are like baseball bat swings.
            So Andy Dean is one of the greats, but I think he got camera happy and decided to show off.  

Pumpkin Cutting, Mid November 2012

There are MANY reasons for cutting inoffensive squash with swords.  For one thing, it really teaches "edge consciousness", a skill which can be learned like any other.  Cutting pumkins, watermelons, or cabbages helps to provide feedback to crisp up this skill.

Of course the real reason one does such an oddball activity is because all in all, it is great fun.  We had a bonfire, with plenty of hot apple cider.  Kept everybody happy.  I didn't see a single long face there the entire day.

Above and below you can see Shayne and Lorne using the biggest baddest sword on the planet.  This anime scaled blade is particularly large, especially when you consider the guy holding it is 6 foot 4. 

The pumkin Mayhem has begun.

Above are a collection of the assorted exotic weapons available for use.  All, sooner or later, passed through a pumkin.  In the back you can see the pumkin on my archery target.  We stuck to throwing weapons since we did not think it good practice to use an unsecured archery lane in the midst of a crowd.
    (well, duuuuh....grin!)

Many thanks go to John at Bowman Farms, and Canamore Orchards for all the pumkins.  Very decent of them.  They tell me they were more than happy to get ME to compost them.  Ah shucks...

The metal stantions that Brian Fence made us came in really handy when it came time to define the thrown weapons lane.  

Eventually we shoveled 3 trailer loads of smashed pumkins to the cows, and there is this much yet again preparing to render down into compost.  Cows didn't quite know how to take it.  I think they eventually decided that broken pumkins were edible, but not like tasy fresh grass of course.   We had left on the ground a plethora of seeds which has kept the squirrels, rabbits and racoons VERY happy. I don't imagine many of them will germinate next spring, but believe it or not, under that orange carpet of yellow fleshed mayhem is my plowed garden.  So, you never know.  Most of the seeds will fall victim to undersnow field mice I am fairly certain. Did we have a good time?  Oh, lordy!  The feast later on was stunning,  with cider and ribs with pulled pork in the tent.  It was becoming a bit cold (Jeff said he had trouble deciding whether the sauce covered items he was sticking in his mouth was ribs or fingers, his hands were so cold) so I may have to think of a way to warm the tent next year.
  
And yes, there WILL be a next year. You know, we had between 120 and 150 people!  How am I gonna feed all those people if they ALL buy meal tickets?  In shifts I guess. 

We had a thousand pictures, but I think I liked Natalia's pictures the best.  I know there are a dozen sword handlers with photo accounts, please feel free to post the addresses of such accounts in the comments below. 

Takedown

The disengage.  Now there is a place where you can shine!  Or fail miserably! 

It is all part of knowing how to deal with what is thrown at you and how to handle it. 

First rule....get into guard.
Second rule...meet the attack, deflect it, turn its energy against the attacker.
Third rule...Disengage and get into guard.

That disengagement is where you can get into a lot of trouble.

It was a development of techniques which I shoved together because I had to teach a class filled with veteran fighters who wanted to see something different.  Its not so much a matter of coming up with something totally different as combining existing techniques in new ways.  So its not just one technique, but rather several tacked together.  And if I can do it the way Talhoffer did it, even better!

First I got into guard.  Second, I deflected his sword over my head.
So far, fairly straightforward.  Thats just rule number one and two.
Then I pushed the hilt forward and hooked his sword hilt with my pommel, pulling on his arm trying to straighten it.

Stepped in, place my foot behind his, and tried to drive him into an arm bar by slamming my shield hand against his elbow.  (I like to use the back of my hand, my shield, buckler or forearm, but Talhoffer just pushes the elbow with the palm of my hand.  Same, same.  The other difference is of course that Talhoffer steps in front of his opponent's leg instead of behind it.  This leads to a different finish yet.  But...back to the arm bar...

An arm bar almost never works...he bends his arm, the armour locks up, so I go to the fourth part of the techinique quite smartly.  I brought the sword blade up towards his neck for a throat cut.
        Cute technique.  And quite complex with four discrete moves.  (four things to go wrong! ha!)  But it won't work on a guy in armour because of that pesky gorget.  So now we must disengage.   (rule three) 
         To do this, I must free the sword from its tangle of pommels, heads and so forth.  Only direction it CAN go is forward, so I shove the quillion into his throat, and lift my pommel out of the action.  Also, I body check him forward as I am doing this.    Hopefully my left knee is still behind his right knee...not a guarantee!
      Withdraw the sword smoothly from the action and place the blade into a tail guard, then bang the pommel into his ear.  This covers up my movement of my fist behind his head to the far side...I place my left hand on his left shoulder. 

      These next two things must be done at the same time... I unlock his right knee with my left knee, and shove his body down towards his right foot.  He should drop in front of you. 

   My sword was still in its tail guard, and it comes naturally onto the back of his neck with 180 degrees of movement.  This will be a kill.  To make this strike work, you MUST move your left foot back and you MUST withdraw your hand. 

This withdrawal technique was a development of the shoulder twist takedown which we have been teaching for many years.  The only difference being that the guy being taken down ends up on his face.  The unlocking of the knee and the push straight downwards with the left hand is the same....but you are less likely to drop your opponent on your leg by dropping him in front of you.  But you DO have to watch out for that elbow...grin!

The above picture shows a drag backwards so it doesn't "quite" illustrate the technique I just described, but the samurai has his left knee placed in the back of my right knee, and there is not a lot I can do about it.

At this point in the picture, the samurai pulled me down.  He could have dropped me in front of him, or he could step forward and drop me on my back.  These pictures show me on the way onto my back. 

       

Further development work on this techique can be derived from plate 188, 182, 177, and plate 32.
All show work you can do when you are tight in like this.