not-yet-sir ravaj salutes you

today before class cd let me wear the gauntlets, and i gathered the courage to put my head in the helm (nearly took off my ears, and there was no room for my specs). what the heck i have signed the membership forms so we put it all on, gave me a sword, and took a couple of pics.

later, in more 21st century attire, i got to practice hitting someone with a sword for the first time. i cannot tell you how satisfying it was to whack that helm, although during the practice i kept apologising (moi?!). there is so much to remember, and cd said now i can start thinking about preparing to test for a yellow belt. me with a belt? cool :-)

tired now.

a boston-area online report on our swordfighting class

a guy named rick came to the end of the beginners' class and asked some questions. then i went home. here is his report.

some excerpts:

"Beginners won't know that thrill of discovery until later. (They can also put off the purchase of a big metal helmet for a while.) The early training sessions focus almost entirely on footwork, posture, and hand movements. As Deily explained, "You want to make sure people are safe before you give them big, heavy wooden things." Nonetheless, at the end of the sessions, Deily, a patient teacher with a way of being opinionated without being pushy, lets students get their hands on the weapons. It keeps them coming back.

[ravaj], a newcomer to the group, grew up in London, where she would visit the Victoria and Albert Museum and admire the armaments. As she left Thursday's practice, she confessed, "I'm glad to be able to go home and say I had the sword in my hand." For [ravaj], joining the Schola is a kind of revenge against her childhood, where the boys would always play King Arthur, and the girls would wait to be rescued. Soon, she will be the one with the sword. Plus, it's good exercise, and you don't get a pair of metal gauntlets when you go to the gym."

From what Bostonist saw, the Schola offers a great workout, both intellectual and physical, in an encouraging environment. You do have to keep on your toes at the Schola; you never know when one of Deily and Barolsky's two young girls, aspiring sword masters, will launch a sneak attack."

i always forget how different what one says at the time comes across when used in an article. i said nothing about revenge against my childhood, but it kind of sounds like i did although it is not a direct quote. meanwhile, it's great for the programme to get written up. also, he picked up my attraction to the gauntlets, and he did spell all our names correctly :-)

medieval italian swordsman (and woman) ship

today i went to my first class. my mentor teacher's husband teaches, and when she mentioned it i thought it sounded like fun so she suggested that i try it out and i did and i'm going back next week.

that is the short version. the slightly longer version goes like this: i had no idea what to expect. it did not cross my mind what a serious kind of exercise swordfighting could be. the first thing we did was run laps around the gym (i thought the whole point of a sword, ha ha, was so you didn't have to run away). also lots of stretches. we are following the teachings of fiore de liberi. i am a new student - zugadore and thus will be studying the fundamentals of fiore's longsword, stance, grip, poste, colpi, punte, and fundamental defenses. tonight we started learning about stance. that is illustrated by the elephant at the bottom of the picture with the tower on its back. we have to learn balance and stability, as well as how to keep our upper body like the tower. for homework there is footwork to practice!

i now know one of the nine dagger master moves, and one thing to do with a large king arthury wooden sword that i forgot the name because i am soooo tired and some hitherto undiscovered muscles are also announcing their presence by aching. i also tried on some seriously cool gauntlets that made my hands look like robo-ravaj. i was a bit scared by the helm, and will have to talk myself into trying it on next time. i did love the gauntlets, though :-)