Five Hours of Open Sparring!

The day is an open hall for all fencers to partake in open practice against other fencers in the room, get your fights in and compete against your friends. Or, even better, make new friends and then fight them!

Instructor seminars and team games will feature within the day, but if these do not interest you, there will be room to continue sparring in the hall.

Seminar Instructor – Fred Hopkins, Order of the Blade

Shields are a defensive and offensive article that close down huge sections of possible areas and opponent can strike. This seminar will look at how to deal with that and how to better make use of a shield to close off your opponents options while leaving as many as possible open for yourself. This workshop will require shield users in order to work but is open to those without a shield and will demonstrate different routes around them.

Fred is an instructor within Order of the Blade and has developed a syllabus around shield use over the last 5 years. The methods principals and techniques described are taken from studies of historical imagery, backed up by a lot of experimentation and trial and error.

Required equipment: Usual hema sparring gear single handed weapon suitable for synthetic sparring or steel sparring (providing your drill partner is amenable) and a shield.

Admin Bits

The day is open to all those who have valid insurance for the practice of Historical Fencing. Please be prepared to present evidence of such if asked by a member of staff. Those who do not have insurance will be required to purchase it through the Order for the day, for a £5 surcharge.

After Party

A fter the day of sparring, we will be heading up the road to a pub called the Boat Inn, address below. There we will swap exploits of the day and grab some food and drinks before the drive home!

Boat Inn, 31 Shilton Ln, Coventry CV2 2AB