The School of European Swordsmanship

The seminar will run from 11.00 to 17.00

At our Helsinki Salle, Luiskatie 8, 00770 Helsinki

The seminar will cost 40€, 30€ for students and unemployed.

Places are limited, so please sign up by email to info@swordschool.com as soon as possible!

In a change to the original plan: we will spend the time looking at the most exciting rapier discovery of the century so far: Giganti’s second book, originally published in 1608 and lost for centuries before being re-discovered in 2012 and published in translation in 2013. You can find out more about this book and its contents in this blog post. In this seminar we will work through some of the plays from this book, and compare it to other rapier sources, such as Giganti’s first book, and of course, Capoferro.

 You can find examples of rapier techniques on our wiki here, and in our Instructor’s book on rapier training, The Duellist’s Companion.

All Welcome!

Places are limited, so please sign up by email to info@swordschool.com as soon as possible!

Welcome to the School!

The next Medieval Longsword beginners’ course in Helsinki will run on Tuesday evenings from February 25th to April 15th. Class runs from 1800-1930. Aim to arrive at least 15 minutes early to get changed etc.

The beginners’ course is suitable for anyone interested in the Art of Swordsmanship. No experience of any kind is needed.
We will show you how our art is developed from the historical sources, and teach you everything from basic warm-up exercises to safe pair practice with the longsword. The goal of the course is to prepare you to take part in our regular classes safely.
The style we will cover comes from Fiore dei Liberi’s Il Fior di Battaglia written in 1410, and will include some of his basic defences against dagger attacks, basic longsword strikes, and basic longsword defences.

Instructions for finding the salle (training hall) are here
The course costs 120€ (students, unemployed etc. 100€).
Places are limited, so register early to secure yours by email to: info@swordschool.com
Questions? Ask us by email to the same address.
The first class is free and without obligation to continue or pay for the course. Come, try it, and see if it is right for you.

Our instructor published a series of blog posts detailing the content of a recent course; you might find it useful.
For a complete description with video of our basic syllabus, which will take most students a year or two to complete, see here:http://www.swordschool.com/wiki/index.php/Fiore_basic_syllabus
For an idea of what to expect in terms of etiquette, discipline, what to wear and so on, see here: http://www.swordschool.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Welcome

To start with you will need only a white t-shirt, dark training trousers, and indoor sports shoes. Students under 18 will also need to bring written permission from a parent or guardian.

Paul Wagner, of the Stoccata School of Defence, is returning to Finland and will teach a day seminar on the quarterstaff. All welcome!

As Paul writes: “The English quarterstaff was a stout, wooden pole, usually of oak or ash, around 8 foot long. It was thus a solid and relatively heavy piece of wood, designed to disable an opponent with a single effective strike. All the great English fencing masters recognised the quarterstaff as superior to any other weapon in single combat, even other two-handed polearms, as Zachary Wylde wrote “for a Man that rightly understands it, may bid defiance, and laugh at any other Weapon”.

This seminar will provide a thorough overview of English staff combat, drawing upon the works of Silver, Swetnam and Wylde. We will cover the primary principles, attacks and defences of English quarterstaff, how the system is adapted to blades polearms (bills, axes, etc), and look at the use of the staff against multiple opponents.”

Please sign up by email to: info@swordschool.com

Where?: Helsinki Salle

Luiskatie 8

00770 Helsinki

When?: Saturday, November 2nd,

11am to 5pm (with a lunch break)

How Much?: 60€ (non-members)

50€  (SHMS members)

40€ (SHMS members concessions)

This seminar will cover breathing training and meditation, for health, fitness, power generation, and to control stress.

It will include:

• Basic breathing
• the Crane exercise
• Awareness of Breath meditation
• Visualisation techniques
• the Nine Breaths meditation

Cost: 50€ (non-members)

40€  (SHMS members)

30€ (SHMS members concessions

Sunday, September 8th,

11am to 5pm (with a lunch break)

Helsinki Salle

Luiskatie 8

00770 Helsinki

 You can download a pdf of the seminar poster here: meditation seminar flyer2small

Chris Chatfield, co-founder of the 1595 Club, and now a full-time instructor, will take us through his radical interpretation of Vincentio Saviolo’s swordsmanship style. Saviolo wrote his treatise in 1595, and was an arch-enemy of George Silver.
The seminar will be based on Saviolo’s sword form, but extrapolate from there into polearms and unarmed applications.

You can see Chris at work here:

The seminar will be held:

Where: at our Helsinki Salle (Luiskatie 8, 00770)

When:  August 17th and 18th, from 11am to 5pm

How much: it will cost 60e per day, 110 for both days (concessions: 50e per day, 90 for both.)

Sign up at the salle or by email to info at swordschool dot com