This blog post has been written after the Astolat 2017 event.
I’ve been ‘doing’ ‘Longsword for around 6 years after accidentally discovering the club whilst cycling through the local park whilst I was hungover, and they were training. It’s taken some time to get around to do my first tournament for a number of reasons, but first why did I even wish to compete? Continue reading
Once more unto the breach dear friends….after Monday’s hugely successful evening introducing women to German longsword and I.33 sword & buckler (see post here), Wednesday arrived quickly and with some trepidation as we had 20 ladies booked in (+53%) and the sure knowledge that the hall would be absolutely at capacity when the TLA members who came along to help out were included in the count. As the images show…a busy, focused, and noisy session which, at times, felt like the clamour of a medieval battlefield!
Yesterday, along with the weekend, was a little crazy for the Taunton Longsword Association (TLA). From my last post on this blog expressing pleasant surprise on hitting 6,000 impressions and a load of likes; things only escalated from there….quickly!
Firstly, let me and the Committee of the TLA say a huge “thank you” to all the ladies (and gentlemen) whom shared our Facebook post launching the campaign “Give A Girl A Sword” (GAGAS). You really got the message out there and we although we paid Facebook a princely sum of £12 to advertise it; it quickly turned out that this was eclipsed and ended up being relatively insignificant compared to people tagging friends, relatives and acquaintances. By 19:00 on the 21st August 2017, when the first session began we had over 29,000 impressions, over 170 shares, and a over 100 comments/replies. Incredible! Continue reading
Ahem, well that escalated quickly!
Less than 48 hours after the initial post, we’ve got over 6000 Facebook impressions of the poster, 48 shares, and a load of enquiries. Not that we’re complaining of course, just surprised that there are so many people out there in our community seemingly just waiting for an opportunity like this (and I’m also a little embarrassed that this blog post wasn’t published sooner)! Continue reading
Email: we seem to have experienced an email outage from the 2nd March until now so apologies if you’ve contacted us and not received a reply. Expect one shortly as I work through them all.
Kieran (Secretary)
TLA are extremely happy to announce that we have been able to secure a second night for training, and allow a limited opening of membership to prospective new members. 🙂
If you’re reading this little article, it cannot have escaped your notice that the Taunton Longsword Association (TLA) has undergone a period of rapid growth over the last couple of years (thank you for your support). This growth has been part of a strategy of planned growth and improvement of the club with various members travelling to seminars and even competition(s).
If you’re into HEMA and based in the UK it is almost impossible to have escaped your notice that weapons supremo David Rawlings of London Longsword Academy fame (https://m.facebook.com/TheSwordLondon/) is the driving force behind the superb “2-Days of the Blade” event recently run in the Crystal Palace area of the capital.
Imagine, if you can contain your excitement, two days of training in multiple weapon disciplines by some of Europe’s most accomplished coaches. It was too good an opportunity to miss and so after the first set of tickets sold out rapidly; Mark, Kieran, and Neil were determined to get the second batch (of course we did).
Terrible pun aside, 5 members of Taunton Longsword Association (TLA) made the short trip up the M5 and M4 to attend an informal, open sparring session hosted by Jake Virtus of the Virtus Sword School (Bath, Bradford-Upon-Avon, Cardiff, Newnham).
Web: http://www.virtusswordschool.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/153643688160848/ Continue reading
The question of where to buy kit specifically for Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) has always been a bit tricky. In the ‘old days’ – as long ago as 2012 – the casual practitioner would have had to make do with a combination of standard saber/epee/foil fencing gear, re-enactment gambeson and motor cross armour. Continue reading
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