1st German Longsword Lesson

Well,
After much encouragement from Stolenbjorn and Langenschwert's posts and a chance discovery of my old mentor Louie involved with starting a German Longsword class in Glasgow, I decided to go along and try it myself.
The longsword fencing instructor is a gentleman called George Davidson, who upon entering the class was very welcoming. He jumped straight in with an explanation of the origins of the system which is a recreation of the art devised by Johannes Liechtenauer and a whirlwind tour of two of his longswords.
The Lesson began in ernest with footwork. George (for my benefit) subjected all his students to an hour of rigorous footwork training. The Highlight for me was a useful little paired drill that forces you to mirror in reverse the footwork of an opponent in order to maintain the correct fighting distance. The highlight for everyone else was watching me trying to unlearn years of tai chi and Aikido postures and getting tied up in knots in the process (How Louie managed to keep a straight face I'll never know).
Next we ploughed into guards, well what can I say. There are lots of them. No really, lots, a guard for all occasions one could say. I quickly got lost and the guys were all patient while I fumbled like a two week old kitten. Then Wham the two hours were up.

So my first experience was a very positive one and I look forward to my next lesson.

The Bear.

 

Awesome.

I'm glad you enjoyed youself. Sometimes the large number of terms can get confusing, but don't worry about it. It'll all be second nature before too long.

So what did you find to be different? Did Bill (Koyo) manage to stop by?

Best regards,

-Mark

 

I'm sitting here turning green with envy.
That doesn't happen very often.
Sounds brilliant. Let us know how you get on with it.

 

Hi Bear
Glad to hear you enjoyed the class, combining the footwork & guards is tricky especially when your used to a variety of other guards and steps. Once you work them out the next hurdle is trying to remember the german names of the various guards, cuts and steps.

George won the Edinburgh DDS agm longsword tourney last year and by his own addmission just wants to train us up to have someone to fight he's also a big advocate of sparring with real-steel & he's inspired me to fork out for my first sword. (Well not exactly, I bought one from the barras when I was around 17 but that was for something entirely different :Angel: )

Louie

 

Hi Mark,
No he didn't, I wish I knew he was planning to go and I would have given him a lift. Maybe he will go next week.

The differences showed up pretty quicky. The footwork is wider and more flat than my Aikiken stuff. After years doing 90 degree rear foot then trying to change to 45 with a deeper stance was a bit of a challenge. Some of the guards have remarkable similarity to Aikiken though.
All the angles and movements are much larger. It really reflects the physiology of Northern Europeans. Those swords are heavy trying to maintain some of the guards.

Note: don't use japanese kote instead of fencing gloves. They don't have the flexibility in the wrist for this style.


It was a great experience, but damn those swords are heavy!

The Bear.

 

Hi Louie,
It was good training with you again. We'll need to get together for a proper catch up at some point and maybe a little single stick action.

Yeah I really like the idea of using real-steel too. Well, I will worry about sparring when I stop tripping over my own feet.

The Bear.

 

HI guys

I had to pick up Mrs Koyo at the train station. She was at a Red Hot Chili PIPERS concert. That was not a spelling mistake. Don't even ask.!!!!
Sorry I missed it. Sounds like it would be perfect for Chris and Gerry.
Best of luck.


regards koyo

 

If you ever need a lift let me know.

The Bear.

 

This is an example of how "living history" have been able to aid historians/archaeologists; gauntlets that do not allow wrist-movement was common in europe, but those were probably meant for horseback, as the cuts on horseback do not encourage extreme wrist-angles (they'll break if the horse does somthing unexpected or if the blade gets stuck in somthing while you cut, so cutting downwards on either side are the only two recomended ways of cutting on horseback)

The hourglass-gauntlets on the other hand, give exactly the wrist-movement needed to do both Liechtenauer and Fiore.

As for the weight, the swords will appear lighter when your arms gets used to the stances, and remember that you don't stand for long in either stance when fighting for real

 

Hi All...

George has asked me to point out that when he won the Longsword Dawn Duellist tourney last year, there were only two members of the Aberdeen Swordsmanship Group there and not the whole Aberdeen club as my post may have implied - The post has been rectified and my apologies go out to anyone in Aberdeen who was offended :Angel:

Louie

 

Hey Bear,

So are you going to continue with longsword?

Best regards,

-Mark

 

Hi Mark,
I certainly hope so but I guess we will have to see if I am accepted as a student of the Glasgow Duelling Society. I have been practicing my footwork and trying to remember the guards in the hope that I am. I have had to use my katana in the place of a longsword but atleast the weight is closer than using a wooden weapon. On the plus side it is extremely sharp so it is forcing me to be VERY precise.

Dave The Bear.

 

Sweet. I think one of the hardest things for people from some EMA and classical fencing traditions is not "riding the rails", i.e. getting the back foot out to the side rather than inline with the front foot. People in general, regardless of background find the agressive nature hard to adjust to, since so many people are taught to defend rather than attack first. So I use the movie title as a way of describing it: "Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill!"

Best regards,

-Mark

 

Langenschwert

polarbear is getting the hang of the stance and his footwork (while having the odd amusing flashback) is a lot better than mine when I started.

He's only had 4 hrs so far but have been preaching the way of the Vor to poor polarbear. By the time I got past Nach and onto Indes you would think he had post traumatic stress disorder!

Have promised him midweek beer to make up for my ranting (... where I will rant at him a bit more!)

geo

 

I'm jealous of his previous experience. I barely had footwork when I first started. I barely have any now.

German longsword can be a little lingo-heavy. With regards to the Vor, may I quote HS. 3227a:

"Strike threefold and hard in there, rush in regardless if you hit or miss, so that in understanding this you will be known as a wise man." (translation from the ARMA website)

Beer makes everything better. That, along with Gin and Scotch.

Best regards,

-Mark

 

Don't be too impressed, I still get neighbours laughing their asses off watching me stumble round the back garden doing "footwork".

Heaven is beer, blades and ___________ (you can add your preference).
Man, I think I doing the Ochs is turning me in to Conan.

The Bear.

 

Beer blades and a rifle barrel to cut through?

koyo

 

Beer, blades and hot lady goths! ......... add in sweet chilli crisps and that neatly summarises me and my dvd collection! :love:

 

ha ha ha ha.
I can see we'll get on just grand.

The Bear.

 

Check out NCIS on TV Abbey is a Goth AND she has a steady supply of dead bodies.


regards