Workout & Lecture: Mindful Warmups and Cooldowns

Tuesday's class was a part of the new Hema Workout and Lecture lineup.  We joined Kat Hamilton for an exploration of warming up and cooling down mindfully (and we got really sweaty too!).    

Schedule Updates!

Exciting news Comrades!  We are expanding our Hema Workout and Lecture lineup to include new topics will explore all sorts of Hema and Hema-adjacent subjects.

December 2020 Lecture Schedule: 

12/08 Kat Hamilton Workout & Lecture: Mindful Warmups and Cooldowns

12/11 Peter Haas Class: Langes Messer Class

12/15 Katie Meade Workout & Lecture: Sword Games!

12/18 Peter Haas Class: Longsword & Messer 

12/22 Peter Haas Workout & Lecture: Sticking’em with the Pointy End

12/25 No Class         Movie Marathon on Discord

12/29 Joe Ceirante Workout & Lecture: Tour and comparison of the messer sources

01/01 Peter Haas Class: Happy New Year, Time for 1,000 Cuts!

For more information and registration check out our schedule on Bookwhen!

Online Class — Oberhau Basics & Krump Review

Today's class reviews the basics of Oberhau and then a quick review of the Krumphau!

Mensur: The Weight of the Exchange [Class]

This week we discuss Mensur, the “weight” of the exchange. In this conversation we will cover: Motus (Movement), Abstand / Raum (Distance / Space), Ziet (Time), and answer the question “When should I attack my opponent?” 

Diagnosing Cutting Issues [Class]

 In today's class we do a lot of cutting and discuss how we can use long durational drills to diagnose issues with our cutting actions.

Snap Shots from Recent Class!

Some snapshots from yesterday's class in the park.  Beautiful Fall weather for sword practice! 

Advice on Building Your Own Practice Sessions [Lecture / AMA]

This week we discuss how you can focus on goals to build more concise practice sessions.

Classes Snap Shots!

Thank you everyone for joining us for our third week of safe, outdoor classes!

This week we covered: Sword & Buckler, Langes Messer, and freeplay fencing.

Check out our schedule page for information about future classes.

Schedule is Online!

As we still navigate the question of "what next?" we're increasingly have socially-distant outdoor class meet ups.  Check our new schedule page or www.bookwhen.com/dafak for more information regarding class times, locations, and participation requirements.

Stay safe, and look forward to seeing you all soon!

Interview: Kat Talks Practice Habits and the Covid-19 Pandemic

 

In this week's Hema AMA we interview Kat about her latest article "Practice Habits and the Covid-19 Pandemic." We recommend that you read her article here before watching!

When fencing halls and dojos closed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, everyone's fencing classes changed dramatically; but did solo practice, i.e. time spent practicing outside of class, change?  Kat Hamilton conducted an informal study and now shares her findings.

About Hema AMA —The Covid-19 Pandemic continues to restricted our ability to safely practice Hema. In order to help keep the NYC (and greater!) community connected, Peter has been hosting weekly AMA sessions covering a wide and diverse range of topics.

MOVING FORWARD: A Brief Statement [and a Survey!]

Comrades,

We live in challenging times.

I am incredibly grateful for all the times we had together at Sword Class NYC: we trained. We built a new training space. We trained some more. We partied. We expanded our realm of study from Longsword to messer, sword and buckler, spear, saber, and ringen. We experienced the excitement of tournaments.

We collectively owe everyone at SCNYC, and especially Tristan, Raab, and Sara a huge thank you for their time, blood, sweat, tears, and many sacrifices they’ve made to help us create this space and build this community.

Moving forward, I want to reassure everyone that we will continue to be doing what we do best: be a community of awesome people with a bad-ass sword habit.

There is still much work to be done in hammering out the details, but here is what I know and what I can personally offer you at the moment:

• The Discord channel is here to stay! If you’re not already a member, let us know, and we can add you.
• The Lecture / Ask Me Anything and Virtual Class Sessions will continue!
• TZLongsword and Squinting Rabbit will continue to produce amazing training materials!
• I am currently working with everyone to see how we can move forward to provide in-person classes. Please be patient!

This being said, running two virtual sessions a week, plus [at least one] in-person class is a lot for any individual.

I’m currently looking to restructure our current schedule; I know Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday have been long carved out in terms of classes, but I don’t want to automatically commit to those times without your input.

Please take a moment to fill out this schedule survey:

https://forms.gle/8UE2paq8CUpdQyL89

The more information I have, the better my choices can be for everyone!

As I mentioned before, there are still a number of details to work out; there is a lot more work to do, and there will be many opportunities to contribute to this process!

Thank you all for the outpouring of support, and I look forward to fencing with you all again soon!

Hugs,

Peter

Practice Habits Before and During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Study

When fencing halls and dojos closed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, everyone's fencing classes changed dramatically; but did solo practice, i.e. time spent practicing outside of class, change?  Kat Hamilton conducted an informal study and now shares her findings.

Re: Training Outdoors [IMPORTANT]

An important reminder to all students practicing outdoors in NYC:

Due to recent NYPD activity, Please be careful and take extra precautions.

The NYPD are getting more aggressive and are now snatching people off the streets. We don't know what the limits to their outreach / threat level is at the moment. They could easily misinterpret our training and act in unpredictable ways.

1) Wear a uniform if you can. If you don't have a uniform, wear a club t-shirt.

2) Go in appropriately socially distant groups.

3) if you have wooden trainers, use them instead of metal if possible.

4) if you have a training space / club business card be sure to bring them.

Use your best judgement, do your best to keep calm, and again: please be careful.

Reflection on Our First Post Covid-19 Class

We had our first in person class last night, a huge thank you to everyone who was able to make it out!  It felt amazing to train with my Comrades again.

Some Thoughts Regarding Tonight's Class

Comrades,

Tonight is going to be an experiment. 

With New York City entering Phase III of re-opening, group gatherings of up to 25 people are now allowed, as long as participants adhere to social distancing and mask / face coverings.  So, for the first time in several months, our Longsword group is going to attempt a meet-up.

Tools for Deliberate Practice

Learning the "art of learning" is critical to one's growth as a student of martial arts. Peter Haas offers some tools for improving your deliberate practice skills.

My experience shopping for a training messer

After some time practicing langes messer with the class loaners, I set out to find a training messer of my own to better suit my practice needs. This post describes my experience finding, comparing, and evaluating the messer models available on the market, and presents some data I compiled to help me make a decision.

Mindfulness in Partnered Drilling

OR - How Not to be a Sword-Wielding Zombie

Drilling, specifically paired drilling, is a big part of our classes in NYC, and likely almost everywhere in HEMA. It’s a way of learning a technique by executing it over and over to build up "muscle memory" and refine the movement until it works in a predictable setting.

COVID-19 Studio and Training Information

Post issued from SwordClassNYC:

    Skip one day of training and lose one hundred days.

    - Chinese Proverb

Losing your routine is hard. In fact, coming back to training after significant time away is one of the greatest challenges that any martial artist can face. We get it. We’re all going through it and we’d like to help you avoid that malaise of daily inactivity.

Our studio remains closed until gyms in NYC are permitted to reopen, but we’ve created a number of online resources for you to access while you’re unable to come in for training. Although online instruction is not a replacement for the traditional training environment, we hope these will help to keep you active, challenged, and engaged with our incredible community of enthusiastic and caring instructors and practitioners.

If you have any questions, please email us at info@swordclassNYC.com. Train hard, and we’ll see you in class!

For information regarding Online Group Classes and Talks and Sword Class NYC Online 

please visit: http://swordclassnyc.com/covid19/

A Note from Peter

Comrades,

We live in strange times.

It is in our most difficult moments that we are accustomed to turn to our friends, family, Comrades, and allies for support.  The challenges of the current pandemic, and subsequent lock-down have removed access to  much of the intimate comradery we so often depend upon.

Yet, while the world feels askew, it brings me incredible pride to see the countless ways folks are proving you can't keep a good club down:  uplifting check-ins via phone or messenger, shared online gaming, remote movie nights, and creating the community's Discord forum (thanks Dylan!) all have offered a wonderful way to help us all feel less isolated.

While we continue to be away from the FechtSchule, I want to encourage everyone to gift themselves the time to study and practice.  Join the online study sessions, aim to include your solo practice hours, even if it means roping in your partner, roommate, or pets.

If you have new, creative methods of practicing, please share them with us — or if you're encountering difficulties in your practice, such as: discovering exactly how low your ceiling actually is, please let us know and we will do our best to help keep your training on track.

More challenges are ahead, and things are going to feel out-of-whack for a while. You're not alone in your worries, fears, and concerns.  I know our community, and it's a good one; we're going to get through this together.

As always, please don't hesitate to reach out to me for any reason.  I'm available via phone, e-mail, and now the kids have pulled me onto the Discord [peterjhaas#7618].

Continue being awesome to each other!

Best,
_pH:.

- - - - -
Peter J. Haas
Lehrer, KdMF(DAFAK) 

Concussion Resources

Practitioners of HEMA are no strangers to injury—Kat Hamilton provides concussion resources

Red Cross First Aid, Health and Safety for Coaches
NFHS Learning Center Concussion Courses
SCAT5 Checklist
CDC Concussion Symptoms

UPDATES 3/17 Classes Cancelled, AMA 7pm [UPDATED 10:22 AM]

Hi all,
Since classes are cancelled tonight, I will be doing a live Ask Me Anything [Preferably Sword Related] tonight at 7pm for all the HEMA folks. More information on that ASAP.

Five things you can do right now to train, with limited space and low ceilings:

1) Practice breathing
2) Footwork, footwork, footwork.
3) Grab a wooden spoon and practice your cuts, focus on your grip, posture, and using your core, maybe even some step-and-then-cut movements.
4) Radio Taiso Workout !!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrEH5JLljDI
5) Read some sources!

We're all in it together,

:: SCHEDULE UPDATE ::

All classes and events are cancelled through this Sunday 3/22.

All classes and events are cancelled through this Sunday, 3/22. Classes have been credited back to your account for future use. We will keep everyone posted as the situation evolves.

Keep an eye on this space for an exciting update on ways your can keep in fighting shape while we're closed!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at info@swordclassnyc.com or at 646.580.9532.

SCNYC Schedule [ UPDATED 14 March 2020]

::STUDIO UPDATE::

We would like to share some information about how Sword Class NYC will be operating as the COVID-19 situation evolves. We are closely monitoring the evolving public health situation and we will be making daily decisions as to the status of upcoming classes at the studio. Each weekday by 3 PM, we will announce whether or not classes will be happening that evening. We’ll let you know about Saturdays and Sundays the night before.

Also, keep an eye on www.swordclassnyc.com/schedule, our app, or the MindBody app, which will always have the most up to date information. Also, please sign up ahead of time if you are planning to come to class so we can make sure you’re notified if the schedule changes.

Along those lines, all classes are cancelled tomorrow, Sunday 3/15.

Our instructors are working hard on some new class formatting to make training safer for everyone. We’ll discuss historical research, watch and analyze videos, learn about gear maintenance, and other areas of martial arts study that we don’t always have time to cover. We’re very excited at the opportunity to cover these often-neglected topics!

If anyone knows how important distance is, it’s us! Practice will either be solo or done outside of fighting distance. You won’t be doing any contact drilling and instructors won’t be making physical adjustments, only offering verbal corrections. We have reduced the maximum capacity of our classes to promote social distancing. We are also asking students to wash their hands before and after each class and our staff will continue to do extra cleaning and disinfecting throughout the day, including cleaning the training floor and all equipment after every class.

We are committed to providing our students and our community a safe training environment, and we thank you all for your understanding and support!

SCNYC Schedule [UPDATED]

I wanted to share the current status of the schedule at Sword Class NYC:

From SCNYC

We’ve got plenty of germs to fight right now! Gyms are a common place for illness to spread and we’re working hard to make sure Sword Class NYC stays a healthy training environment.

Here’s what we’re doing how you can help:

• We’re doubling down on cleaning and disinfecting all shared equipment. You should also disinfect your own gear and anything you borrow.
• You know this one but as a reminder - wash your hands and avoid touching your face.
• Cover your mouth and nose if you sneeze or cough.
• Most importantly- Please don’t come to class if you’re not well. Rest up, care for yourself, and protect your fellow students!

The most important thing you can arm yourself with is information! WHO information Can be found here.

At this time we haven’t made changes to our schedule, but  [UPDATED BELOW]please remember to sign up for classes in advance so we can notify you if anything does change. www.swordclassnyc.com/schedule 

:: UPDATE 12 MARCH ::

In light of the developing health situation 

we are suspending classes today [12 March] through Saturday the 14th.  

If you have a class scheduled during this time, the class will go back on your account for you to use at a later date.

Safety is always our first priority and we want to make sure that our students can train with clear minds and confidence. If you have any questions or concerns about your training or how this affects the class schedule, please email us info@swordclassNYC.com or call us at 646-580-9532.

Stay healthy everyone!

Class 2/18

Hi Folks! 

If you have a Messer uniform, t-shirt or anything with the Messer/Squinting Rabbit Logo on it, please wear to class tomorrow!

We'll be taking some promotional photos and it'd be great to see everyone sporting the brand ;-)

Hugs,

( \__/ )

( ='.'= ) Peter J. Haas

(") _ (")

Announcements: Jacket Updates, Longsword Books & Curriculum

Announcements:

1) If you ordered a track-jacket with the last round of orders , GOOD NEWS: "They're heeerreee...!"
I will bring them to the space on Tuesday.

2) I will be adding a hard-back copy of the Jude Lew fechtbucher and my associated course curriculum and Journeyman's Diary on the bookshelf at SCNYC. All students are welcomed (and encouraged!) to page through, read, Xerox, photograph, etc., these texts.

BUT they should be considered library reference materials and are not to leave the space under and circumstance.

More Updates soon!

( \__/ )
( ='.'= ) _pH:.
(") _ (")

SCNYC Osoji 2020

Hello Comrades!

A quick reminder that Osoji (大掃除, "big cleaning") at SwordClass NYC will be

this Sunday, Jan. 19th, at 9 AM – 6 PM

From Sword Class NYC:

Join us for the fourth annual osoiji & help us kick off the new decade looking fresh!

Osoji is a Japanese tradition where all members of a school community come together to deep clean the dojo. We don't just clean dirt and dust, but also clear away negative energy to set the stage for excellent training in the new year.

Mewsashi will reprise her role as Supreme Ultimate Osoji Supervisor.
We'll be there all day but please feel free to come whenever and stay for however long you can!

Please RSVP if you so we know how many folks to expect and plan accordingly.

Also, we will be moving gear around while we deep clean. We will be keeping track of everything, but note that things like feders may be shifted slightly. If there's anything you really don't want moved, please take it home this week.

There will be snacks, though more contributions are always welcome!  Please invite & bring friends, kids and other family members.

I highly encourage everyone to attend and demonstrate a commitment to our training space.

Best,
     Komrad-Lehrer Haas

Head Protection for Sparring with Gekken / Padded Swords

Some folks have been asking me about sparring helmets for use with Gekken / Padded Swords:

I recommend the The ProForce Thunder Full Headguard. They retail for around $80, but can be found cheaper around the internet.

https://www.proforcema.com/…/3707-proforce-thunder-full-hea…