Keith Farrell will be visiting us from Friday the 21st of June until Sunday the 30th of June. He will be available for private tuition, and will be running a variety of seminars and clinics while he is in Glasgow.
Friday 21st June – private tuition
Keith will be available for private tuition on Friday the 21st from 1pm until late in the evening.
Private tuition is an excellent way to address problems you are finding in your training and performance. The one-to-one nature of private tuition means that an experienced instructor can work with you alone to give you exactly the input and high quality repetitions you need to improve your skills and solve a problem that you might be having.
To book a slot for private tuition, please contact us here.
Saturday 22nd June – dussack seminar
Keith will be teaching a dussack seminar on Saturday the 22nd of June, from 1pm-4pm.
The dussack was a 16th century training tool for any and all single-handed swords. We will explore this role and examine how we can use our dussacks to learn more about historical fencing with other swords, whether single- or two-handed.
Places are limited, with a maximum of 16 tickets available, due to space in the venue.
The price for pre-booking through the website is £20, and this will guarantee your place at the event. If there are any tickets left, then you can pay on the day, but the price will rise to £25. Any paid-up AHA member is entitled to a 10% discount on the ticket price.
Booking is available through our website: https://vanguard.academyofhistoricalarts.co.uk/shop/events-seminars/dussack-with-keith-farrell/
Saturday 22nd June – coaching clinic
On Saturday the 22nd of June, from 4:30pm-6:30pm (after the dussack seminar).
Instructing at a HEMA club is a difficult thing to do, requiring a huge variety of different skills, without even considering the HEMA skills and knowledge you need to possess to be able to pass along! During this clinic, Keith will highlight a few key items that are part and parcel of instructing, and will then open the floor to individuals to ask questions or request help with specific instructing issues.
Places are limited, with a maximum of 16 tickets available, due to space in the venue.
The price for pre-booking through the website is £15, and this will guarantee your place at the event. If there are any tickets left, then you can pay on the day, but the price will rise to £20. Any paid-up AHA member is entitled to a 10% discount on the ticket price.
Booking is now available through our website: https://vanguard.academyofhistoricalarts.co.uk/shop/events-seminars/coaching-clinic-with-keith-farrell/
Sunday 23rd June – longsword and coached sparring
On Sunday the 23rd of June, from noon-3:00pm.
The topic will be: “Flugelhaw, Schlaudern, and Schneller.”
There are some techniques that appear in the 16th century material that are quite stylistic of the Gemainfechten (“common fencing”) or guild fencing approach at the time. Working with these key techniques gives us an insight into the mentality and approach to the fight, which was probably quite different from the doctrine of Liechtenauer. This lesson will examine the three techniques of the Flugelhaw, Schlaudern, and Schneller, and offer an approach to longsword fencing informed by these ideas.
This session will be perfectly accessible to beginners and more experienced practitioners alike. You amount of (or lack of!) experience will not pose any barrier for this lesson.
After the taught lesson concludes, there will be the opportunity to do some coached sparring with Keith and with other participants.
Places are limited, with a maximum of 16 tickets available, due to space in the venue.
The price for pre-booking through the website is £20, and this will guarantee your place at the event. If there are any tickets left, then you can pay on the day, but the price will rise to £25. Any paid-up AHA member is entitled to a 10% discount on the ticket price.
Booking is now available through our website: https://vanguard.academyofhistoricalarts.co.uk/shop/events-seminars/longsword-and-coached-sparring-with-keith-farrell/
Blacksmithing at The Vanguard Forge
As always, Paul, our resident blacksmith, will be here through the month of June to teach you to make a variety of different items in the forge. Coat hooks, pendants, fire strikers and more! Check out our blacksmithing workshops page to find out what we have to offer.
Gift vouchers are available and make excellent Fathers Day gifts! Get in touch to make a booking at the Vanguard Forge.
Assistant Coaches
Stuart, Victoria and Ben have been familiar faces at the Vanguard Centre for a while now and will be helping to run classes. We are hoping to have some extra classes running through the summer with our assistant coaches taking the lead.
Classes at The Vanguard Centre
Regular classes at the Centre will be running as usual with Highland broadsword and targe being our subject of Scottish Fighting Arts this month.
We will be making some changes to archery sessions next month to accommodate archery beginners and give our regular archers more time for shooting. We will still have regular sessions on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays so you can get your archery fix!
You can also book some private tuition with us! Private parties, stag and hen parties as well! Get in touch if you would like to book your event with us.
New reading material
A completely new translation of the anonymous commentary on the Zedel of Johannes Liechtenauer, forming a 15th century treatise on three subjects: Fencing on foot with the longsword, fencing on horseback with lance, sword and dagger, and fencing on foot with lance, sword, and dagger.
The work contains a poetic translation of the Zedel and plain, straightforward translations of the commentaries to provide a smooth reading experience perhaps closer to that of reading the original document. You can purchase your copy from our online shop.
Kishinkai Aikido
Nathan from Kishinkai Aikido will leaving us for pastures new! His last class at The Vanguard Centre will be on Wednesday the 5th of June at 6pm. We would just like to say what a pleasure it has been having Nathan teach at the centre and that we wish him all the best on his new ventures.
That’s all for this month, to keep up to date on our day to day activities, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tumbler pages.