01/01/2026
What a year that was.
We didnt achieve everything we would have liked but we have managed to now add spear and sword and buckler to our regular rotation meaning the only piece missing in the Blossfechten section is Pollaxe.... which we aim to remedy in 2026
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Our own little mighty mouse took out the mixed sword at the NZSEMA tourney in Wellington, the first event she's ever won and the first time anyone from Aucklands taken an event at the NZSEMA tourney.
Two of our other learners entered their first internal and external tourneys after only a year of training and managed to climb into the top half of the table at the Wellington tourney.
Our first under 18 student transferred to the adults class,
We've managed to add C.A.C.C and several Folk Wrestling styles into our grappling rotation to fill out our kampfringen, ringen am schwert and unarmed vs dagger.
We've also added weight lifting and calisthenics into our warm ups for all unarmed training as part of the move towards physical culture and filling out the "knightly arts"
Sadly our Age of Piracy and Gentlemans self defence classes have been put on hold but hoping to see them come back this year with an additional trainer in rotation and we will be introducing bowie knife fighting and bayonet fencing to the mix.
We also now have yet another new interpretation development challenging and pushing our Liechtenaur traiditon interpreations further forwards.
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Term One will kick off next week getting straight back into it with new learners starting mainly with Longsword while our more experienced practitioners will be rotating through messer, sword and buckler and longsword.
05/05/2025
This term we are back to long sword and back to basics... kind of....
For new starters the term will cover a mix of training designed to introduce you to the fundamental techniques of the system, the underlying principles of the system and the underlying mechanics.
Using both what the masters say to do as positive reinforcement and what they say not to do as negative reinforcement.
I'll put a list in the comments of material we'll be covering for those who don't mind a long read.
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For our returning members who didn't attend Sword and Buckler or Messer you'll mainly be developing from the learning building blocks you already have in place to further refine your sequence of motion, use of structure and flow of techniques, with a lot more dynamic drilling accompanying every technique drill to improve your reactions, flow and capacity to apply indes techniques.
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For those who have now completed the modules on messer and sword and buckler, the standard term is no longer just longword for you.
Whenever you are partnered with another learner in the same stage of development you will start with longsword as the foundation for every drill but then are free to explore variations of the sword and buckler and messer variations, with the aim of eventually moving to open sword.
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02/04/2025
First three ballistic skull simulators cast and temporarily frozen to harden them, next three are already being produced.
We're going to try something different this time with the less dense skin simulator ballistics gel when we cast the faces for these.
Head and skull simulators will be the final tier in our upcoming test cutting event, if I had more time I'd do a second batch with the coconut shell skulls but I don't think I'll get 9-12 heads done in time the 6 I have planned will already be pushing it.
Eventually when we get the molds improved we will do entire bodies and we'll go to a denser harder ballistics gel for hollow skulls etc.
If I have time I might even cast some of these again for our public event at the end of the month.
30/03/2025
With Term 1 over we are about to hit a busy little month in April, before jumping into our next term in May.
April will introduce sword and buckler with the aim of allowing our most experienced learners to switch between Longsword, Messer and Sword and Buckler during term two.
Grappling(saturdays) will switch over to Ringen Am Schwert - both countering and effective use of grappling at the sword during assaulting and tournaments. (since the two highest win ratios in our last event went to grappling and thrusts from the bind)
Glenfields Sunday Classes will cover the dagger fundamentals we covered in term 1.
We have our first test cutting competition in place of our normal test cutting assessments bringing a more competitive edge to improving technique and validating competencies.
We will also be hosting another public test cutting event late in the month for those interested in joining any of our swordsmanship based classes at Cornwall Park and taking at least one of Ringen Am Schwert days out to the park as well.
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Term 2 will Kicking off in May
This will see a return to Longsword for our medieval classes as the fundamental weapon of the Liechtenauer tradition but our more experienced students will be able to switch between the weapons in the hopes of preparing a team for the Nationals hosted by WSEMA in Wellington later in the year.
We'll have our own little internal tourney in May which will be the first to include Sword and Buckler - (with the aim of including spear and pollaxe by the end of the year)
Which at least makes the mixed sword more than just messer vs longsword.
Grappling (Saturdays) will return to Unarmed after a term on dagger fighting with a Kampfringen focus as the second foundation to knightly arts with the aim of developing fundamentals and stand up grappling in the hopes of introducing C.A.C.C in term 3.
term two will only see the return of the AoP (Age of Piracy) fencing and the DDLR (self defence classes) if we have minimum dedicated numbers.
min class 4 max class 8 (10 at a stretch but 8 is better for the learning process).
