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Fight School
School of the Soldier
"The Old Ways" Renaissance CQC w/ Brad Waller
German Longsword w/Josh Little
Bartitsu: the Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes
Highland Broadsword w/Chris Thompson
Fight School
When ? Mondays 7:30-9pm, 8 weeks,
new session starts 1-07-08
Where ? River Valley Complex,
605 Main Street, Leaf River, IL 61047
Who ? Allen Reed, Instructor
$$ ? First class FREE! $50 due second session Our space is limited, so please preregister by phone or e-mail.
Throughout European and American history, students of the martial arts have come together to train -- in German Fechtschulen, London Maisters of Defence, salles d’armes of old New Orleans, and on up to modern storefront dojo. Here we combine traditional European and American techniques with Oriental combinations into a coherent and powerful system for personal defense in 21st-century America. This class will include empty-hand and weapons defenses against armed and unarmed attackers. Participants should be at least 18 years of age, and relatively fit.
Supplies/Equipment: Wear comfortable workout clothing, including long-sleeved heavy-duty sweatshirt and gym shoes. Men should wear a cup. Showers and lockers will be available.
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School of the 19th-Century Soldier
March 29, 2008
$50 until March 1; $100 thereafter and at the doah, suh!
Lunch included
9am - 5pm
River Valley Center, 605 S. Main St., Leaf River IL
Nineteenth Century Bayonet, with Patrick Bailey
Class will concentrate on the system imported to the US by George McClellan, but will also feature an overview of the complimentary systems of Burton, Hutton, and Angelo. Practical instruction will include basic stances and attacks, parries, and scripted drills. If time permits, the guards against cavalry will be explored against the mounted saber techniques taught in the other section.
Sabre Exercise, with Michael Pennock
A class in American military saber of the nineteenth century. In this class we will be working with the Mounted Sabre Exercise as it is presented in Poinsett’s Cavalry Tactics of 1841 and Cooke’s Cavalry Tactics of 1862. We will work through the Exercise and explore the concepts behind mounted combat from a martial arts perspective.
Since we will be conducting the Exercise, each student will require a saber simulator or, at a minimum, a 1" dowel rod about three feet long. Part of the class will consist of slow-speed pairs drills, so students will want to make sure that saber tips are properly blunted or covered and that all blades are dulled for safety’s sake.
The Exercise will be conducted on foot as it was initially taught to recruits, so there will be no need of horses.
Bowie Knife, with Allen Reed
Many Civil War soldiers were photographed posing with a Bowie knife, and many sword and knife makers of the time made and sold Bowie knives to soldiers from both the Union and the Confederacy.
Yet very little is known of how these famous knives were used in combat. This class will work on examining how these big deadly knives could have been used in close quarter combat.
Required Gear for all sessions:
– hard-lensed safety/shooting glasses or standard fencing mask
– a 6-ft., 1"-diameter dowel rod
– a blunt saber simulator or 3-ft. dowel rod 3/4" to 1" in diameter
– men must wear an athletic cup
Some gear will be available on a loaner basis.
Suggested gear: leather work gloves or equivalent, fencing mask or closed face martial arts helmet.
Historical uniform or costume is encouraged but not required.
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"The Old Ways"
Workshop in Renaissance
Close-Quarter Combat
with Brad Waller
April 26-27
$100 until April 1 no foolin'!; $150 thereafter & at the door
Lunches included
8:30am - 5pm both days Each day jam-packed with action!
River Valley Center, 605 S. Main St., Leaf River IL
The weekend would be dedicated to learning the breadth and scope of the historical martial art that is used by Marozzo and many of the Medieval and Renaissance Masters of Defence. The foundation of these systems is often assumed by the manuals themselves. Our two days together will explore this vast and comprehensive relationship -- Marozzo Pressa 1-22, Durer Counter 1-120. We will give special emphasis to developing a process to interpret how these techniques work together as a system. There is more material than I think we can get through in two short days. We will work hard, move quickly, and most of all have fun in our celebration together of this art form. I look forward to working with everybody. --Brad Waller
For a very detailed syllabus, download this .PDF 
Required equipment:
--Rigid eye protection or fencing mask
--Trainers: dagger, single-sword, and longsword
--Men must wear athletic cup.
About the Instructor: Brad has been a teacher and fight director with The Shakespeare Theater (Washington DC). He has produced the International Paddy Crean Workshop with such cultural institutions as The Shakespeare Theater, The Smithsonian Institution, The Folger Library, The Shaw Festival, The Stratford Festival (Canada), and the Banff Centre for the Arts.
He is a certified teacher of stage combat with the Society of American Fight Directors, and an Honorary Member of Fight Directors Canada.
Brad is an internationally recognized scholar in 16th-Century fighting systems. In 1995, he was guest curator of "The Sword and the Pen," an exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library exploring the relationship between combat and drama. He hopes to eventually raise the money to mount an expanded version of the show at the Globe Theater in London.
Brad is the Founder, and serves on the Board of Directors, of the International Order of the Sword and Pen.
He enjoys gardening with his two kids, Lillian and Alan.
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Safe in the Assault:
A Defensive look at Liechtenauer’s Art
with Josh Little, Ars Gladii
June 21-22, 2008
$100 until May 22; $150 thereafter and at the door
Lunches included
9am - 5pm both days
River Valley Center, 605 S. Main St., Leaf River IL
This two-day seminar will examine the old axiom "hit without being hit," and how Johannes Liechtenauer’s art of the Longsword encopasses this ideal. Appropriate for beginning and experienced students alike, this course will work through the fundamentals of Liechtenauer’s teachings as presented by "Döbringer," Ringeck, and Von Danzig, with overall emphasis on defensive tactics. We will be examining stance, movement, timing, strikes, thrusts, and deflections – all with the idea of "hitting without being hit."
For this course, students will need a sound 3-weapon fencing mask (or other comparable head protection – no open faces!), a pair of gloves (preferably padded like the Revival Light Sparring gloves), and a Longsword simulator. Simulators should be made of metal (rebated steel or aluminum) instead of wood, as wood distorts some of the actions we will be reviewing. I will have a small number of masks and aluminum swords available for use at this class, but please bring your own or borrow a friend’s, if such is available to you. Men must wear athletic cup.
About the instructor: Josh Little is the founder and principal instructor for Ars Gladii (http://www.arsgladii.com), a historical fencing group from Detroit, MI specializing in German Medieval martial arts. Mr. Little has been studying swordplay for the last 14 years, with the last six dedicated towards Liechtenauer’s (and other German masters) teachings. Mr. Little is a regular instructor at the Cumann Bhata "Recretional Violence Weekend" (sic!) seminar, where he has taught classes on the Longsword and Dagger. Mr. Little holds a BA in Philosophy and Medieval History from Western Michigan University.
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Bartitsu: The Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes
with Tony Wolf
One day only: September 27, 2008 -- 9am-5pm
$75 until September 1; $100 thereafter
In the year 1898, an English gentleman named Edward William Barton-Wright created the "New Art of Self Defence" that he called Bartitsu. His New Art was a combination of street savate, jiujitsu, scientific boxing and walking stick fighting, designed to beat the fearsome street gangs of Edwardian London and fin de siècle Paris at their own dastardly game.
Bartitsu was the first martial art to combine Asian and European fighting styles. It was later incorporated into the Sherlock Holmes stories, and was used by Holmes to throw his mortal enemy, Professor Moriarty, to his doom from the top of Reichenbach waterfall.
This class provides an intensive, practical grounding in this fascinating system, as it was taught between 1899-1903 at the Bartitsu School of Arms and Physical Culture in London's Shaftesbury Avenue.
Canonical Bartitsu refers to "Bartitsu as we know it was"; the self defence skills and sequences that were specifically presented as Bartitsu by Barton-Wright and his associates between 1898-1904. Neo-Bartitsu refers to the creative, modern application of the art: "Bartitsu as it can be today".
We will begin with warm-up exercises taken from the 19th century "physical culture" repertoire before exploring the underlying principles and tactics of Bartitsu, via lessons in the unique combination of fighting styles that made up Barton-Wright's arsenal of tricks.
This class will include:
• a selection of the original self defence sequences represented in Barton-Wright's classic 1902 article series, "Self Defence with a Walking Stick"
• examples of both the canonical and neo-Bartitsu blends of jiujitsu, scientific boxing, street savate and stick fighting.
We will also examine some of the combat and hold-up tactics used by turn-of-the-century gangsters and the counters developed by self-defence masters of the period.
For further information on Bartitsu, please see http://www.bartitsu.org.
REQUIREMENTS: Participants in this class will need a sturdy walking stick, cane or dowel of approximately 33-37" length. Fencing masks will be useful. Gallowglass Academy requires groin protection for men, and recommends it for women.
About the Instructor: A veteran of the martial and performing arts, Tony Wolf has worked as a martial arts instructor, professional wrestler and fight director/stunt co-ordinator. Between 1988 - 1994 he developed his original Wolf System of performance/combat exercises, which has been taught to actors, martial artists, stunt performers and stage combat specialists throughout the world.
Tony's fight direction and action design have been featured in over 200 feature film, television, theatre, opera and ballet productions. Between 1998-2000 he served as the Fighting Styles Designer for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy and in 2002 he toured Japan performing fights for the Washington National Opera's production of Otello, starring Plácido Domingo.
Tony regularly teaches a range of master-classes and seminars for martial arts associations, universities, stunt teams, acting academies and performance conferences throughout New Zealand, Australia, the USA, Canada and Europe.
He serves as the editor for the EJMAS: Journal of Manly Arts, a scholarly online journal focusing on the martial arts and combat sports of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. In 2005 Tony edited The Bartitsu Compendium, a complete history of E.W. Barton-Wright's "New Art of Self Defence," and in 2006 he edited a revised and expanded re-publication of A.C. Cunningham's 1912 manual, The Cane as a Weapon.
Tony is a member of the advisory panel of the American Heritage Fighting Arts Association, an Acknowledged Instructor with the Historical Maritime Combat Association, a member of Western Martial Arts Illustrated magazine's editorial board and a founding member of The Bartitsu Society.
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PDF flyer
Highland Broadsword
w/Christopher Thompson, The Cateran Society
October 18-19, 2008
9am - 5pm both days
$100 until Sept. 21; $150 thereafter and at the door
Lunches included
River Valley Complex, 605 S. Main St., Leaf River IL
We will study the 10 principles of the Highland broadsword and targe, as derived from Thomas Page's "Use of the Broadsword" from 1746. The targe (a small round shield) is a weapon of control and suppression more than defense. By the end of this seminar you will understand how to use the targe to suppress and control your opponent's weapons, allowing you to rapidly close in for the kill.
Required Gear:
– singlestick, cudgel or training broadsword
– small shield of 18"-24" diameter
– athletic cup for men
– gloves and head protection (fencing mask, etc.) highly recommended
Some gear will be available on a loaner basis.
Christopher Thompson is the author of Lannaireachd: Gaelic Swordsmanship, a training manual on the use of the Highland broadsword, and of Highland Knife Fighting: With the Dirk and Sgian from Paladin Press. A resident of Peaks Island, Maine, Thompson is president of the Cateran Society, a national organization that promotes historical fencing with Highland weapons.
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