A couple weeks ago, we ran out of federschwerdts. And the clunky Cold Steel synthetic trainers.
What a wonderful problem to have. We have a lot of new folks in the club this year, being introduced to Joachim Meyer, Liechtenauer, and historic German longsword fencing. And we're finally not an all-boys group! And, as luck would have it, one of the deals of the day last week at PHA just so happened to be lighter, fullered federschwerdts (Thanks, Chris and Natasha!). Anyways... all that to say, we're off to a great start this year! Now, to get back to fundraising...
0 Comments
Iron Gate Exhibition was a great event once again this year.
I (Harold) was placed in some great pools, and had fun every match. I brought home the silver medal in lightweight dagger after some pretty epic battles. In mixed weapons, I ran a langes messer against saber, sword and buckler, and Scottish broadsword. Longswording was fun as well. I only wish my new gloves had arrived the day before IGX instead of shipped the day before the event. Tyler rocked it in the basic longsword tourney (see the videos below), and represented us well. There were some hiccups, mostly the usual (i.e., poor judge calls, etc, many of which were probably mine, and I apologize if such was the case!)), with a hurricane and Swedish flu throwing a wrench in the mix, but it was awesome seeing folks stepping up and offering impromptu classes in place of those whose instructors were unable to attend. The addition of fighters being able to challenge a call in the finals with slow motion replays was great, though! Thanks for the coaching and advice, Charles, Char, and Michelle! And, of course, many, many thanks to Jeff Tsay, Rebecca Boyd, and Julie Olson for all of your blood, sweat, and tears in putting this whole event together. But my ultimate highlight of the week was watching Tyler compete in his first tournament (he placed fifth), and hearing him talk about how awesome it was to be welcomed into the HEMA community, and how great a bunch of role models you are in sportsmanship, comradery, and holding one another in high regard, esteem, and respect. This weekend was a great reminder of why it is that I love HEMA so much!
I know, I know... Another fund raiser? Yes, indeed, we are working on building up further funding in our coffers in order to be able to purchase more training gear and support students in attending various HEMA events in the region as we continue to grow. The best part, though? We're selling stuff you already need, and it's delicious, and it's all also Fairly Traded and thus supports communities of farmers and small business across the globe. We're partnering with Equal Exchange again this year, to be able to offer fairly traded coffee, tea, candy, and an assortment of other handmade products. Please keep an eye out for students with EE catalogues, and let me know if you haven't seen someone yet and would like to so I can send them your way. Thank you again for your support! Welcome back to all our returning members, and welcome to the new folks who turned out this week! We had a really fun training session yesterday, getting folks acclimated to the training feders and basic footwork and postures, playing some games, and a little dussack work to end off on. We will continue to work on training the basics next week, including cutting mechanics, footwork, and chief guards, as well as introducing some of Meyer's secondary cuts.
See you there!
Welcome back for year two of Bellows Freifechter! We'll be kicking things off this year with an informational session during the first week or two of the school year to catch folks up on highlights from our first year and to introduce interested freshmen and other high schoolers who may have been unable to participate last year but are interested in doing so this year. This will most likely take place during Support Block. We will also discuss our training time and location for the year, and if adjustments should be made or if Fridays after school still works best for folks.
One of the cool, new things we have on the radar this year is our YouTube channel. We'll be trying to keep our demonstrations flowing on the YouTube Channel so folks can stay up to date if they miss a training session, and can review more at home, even if they are present each week. There will also be a few, different events on the radar this year. The first is already quickly approaching: IronGateExhibition, which will be the 7th-9th of October. We will also be looking to hit the ground running with some fundraising so that we can get the club into better shape gear-wise. Please let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas concerning this. Our first fund raiser will be in-club sales of shirts and jackets. As we did last year, we will have cotton shirts ($20 ea), dry-wicking shirts ($25 ea), and full zip warmup jackets ($60 ea) available for sale. Shirts are red, jackets are black. See you guys in a couple weeks! Harold. It's official! If you have any gear that you've been waiting to pick up, please do so through this link: http://www.woodenswords.com/?Click=8669. Purple Heart Armoury will donate a percentage of all sales through the link back to our club!
Today marks the start of our fourth week studying and training as Bellows Freifechter, and the kids are having a blast learning history, foreign language, and fitness all at once! |
Upcoming Events10/5/2017: Bellows Freifechter Training; 3-4:15pm in the Multi-Purpose Room Archives
October 2017
Categories |