Guy Windsor

Consulting Swordsman. Writer.

  • Books
  • Podcast
  • Audio
    • Podcast
    • Audiobooks
  • Blog
  • Training
    • Learn Online!
    • The School
    • Seminars
    • Resources
      • T-Shirts!
      • Video
      • Sources
      • Errata
  • Games
  • About
    • Contact
    • Book Me!
    • Crafts

Kiwi swords!

October 20, 2015 By Guy Windsor 1 Comment

This is the furthest I have ever travelled to go to a swordsmanship event. 12 hours to Singapore; 9 to Sydney; then another 4 to Wellington. Plus about 6 hours of layovers. Needless to say, I was a tad weary when I arrived, to be met by Heather, the most crucial person at the event: she was in charge of the food!

The event was held in a scout camp, which was actually pretty civilized, especially when the excellent Selwyn pulled out his single malt whisky supply.

The event in full swing. Sword swinging, axe swinging!

I come to these things for three reasons; to help students I don’t normally get to meet, to catch up with old friends, and to meet new people. Of my fellow instructors, Paul Wagner, Rick Cullinan, and Stephen Hand were old friends. Stephen I hadn’t seen for a decade, so it was especially good to catch up.

In a long list of new friends, I got to meet the legendary Peter Lyon, maker of the Lord of the Rings swords, Colin McKinstry, and Callum Forbes the organiser of the incredible Harcourt Park International jousting event . Among the students were several backers of my various crowdfunding campaigns; it’s great to be able to shake their hand and say thank you in person. And then to kick their sorry arses in round after round of Audatia 🙂

I was there to teach, of course. I had a full day on Saturday; three hours of mechanics in the morning, and three hours of tactics in the evening. I heard from the students, and Selwyn (aka Gimli from now on)

that they went down well; the groups were both very easy to teach; keen and enthusiastic. The key thing in my experience is to only teach one thing in a class. In the morning, it was using groundpaths to apply a line of strength to the opponent’s line of weakness. In the afternoon, it was how to construct a tactical drill to solve decision-making problems.

Sunday morning I spent wandering about taking photographs and talking to people, answering the occasional question, and generally not doing very much, because a posse of students lead by Matt Mole had roped me in to run an unscheduled rapier class in the afternoon. I did manage to explore a little, and found all sorts of interesting things, like this tree:

After lunch the rapierists and  I bagged a hall, and spent over an hour and a half going through the footwork form, how to hold a sword, plates 7 and 16, working on the attack by disengage, and finishing up with a quick overview of how I teach the core skills of rapier and dagger. The “one thing” there was how to use the footwork form, for breadth and depth.

At the end of the day I hopped into a very full little car, and drove North with Les and Devon. They were heading back to Auckland; I was going to Mordor…

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • More
  • Pocket
  • Skype
  • WhatsApp
  • Print
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Mordor, New Zealand trip, teaching

Trackbacks

  1. Cycling through Mordor says:
    October 23, 2015 at 10:37

    […] the Sword Symposium, and before heading off to Sydney to teach a seminar, I took a couple of days and headed up to […]

    Reply

I'm sure you have an opinion: do share! Cancel reply

Sample video

A sample class, on the Famous Farfalla!

Recent Posts

  • Teaching Us to Sit Still with Tim Parks
  • Challenge of the Month: Eat Well in April
  • Writing and Walking, with Joanna Penn
  • Jousting with Callum Forbes
  • An unconventional approach to HEMA, with Lauren Ings

Archives

  • 2021 (21)
    • April (3)
    • March (6)
    • February (5)
    • January (7)
  • 2020 (76)
    • December (8)
    • November (8)
    • October (5)
    • September (8)
    • August (8)
    • July (11)
    • June (9)
    • May (6)
    • April (5)
    • March (3)
    • February (2)
    • January (3)
  • 2019 (68)
    • December (5)
    • November (2)
    • October (7)
    • September (1)
    • August (2)
    • July (5)
    • June (18)
    • May (6)
    • April (2)
    • March (8)
    • February (7)
    • January (5)
  • 2018 (54)
    • December (5)
    • November (8)
    • October (3)
    • September (4)
    • August (3)
    • July (4)
    • June (5)
    • May (7)
    • April (5)
    • March (5)
    • February (2)
    • January (3)
  • 2017 (57)
    • December (6)
    • November (4)
    • October (6)
    • September (4)
    • August (3)
    • July (5)
    • June (5)
    • May (5)
    • April (5)
    • March (6)
    • February (5)
    • January (3)
  • 2016 (49)
    • December (5)
    • November (4)
    • October (7)
    • September (3)
    • August (2)
    • July (2)
    • June (3)
    • May (3)
    • April (4)
    • March (7)
    • February (3)
    • January (6)
  • 2015 (50)
    • December (5)
    • November (4)
    • October (4)
    • September (3)
    • August (3)
    • July (5)
    • June (4)
    • May (5)
    • April (9)
    • March (3)
    • February (4)
    • January (1)
  • 2014 (39)
    • December (2)
    • November (1)
    • October (7)
    • September (5)
    • August (3)
    • July (3)
    • June (4)
    • May (3)
    • April (4)
    • March (3)
    • February (3)
    • January (1)
  • 2013 (45)
    • December (2)
    • November (2)
    • October (3)
    • September (2)
    • August (2)
    • July (3)
    • June (2)
    • May (8)
    • April (7)
    • March (7)
    • February (3)
    • January (4)
  • 2012 (35)
    • December (4)
    • November (9)
    • October (6)
    • September (2)
    • August (4)
    • July (1)
    • June (3)
    • May (6)

Post Categories

Do not remove

0

Copyright © 2021 Guy Windsor · Privacy Policy · Cookie Policy

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.