gothamswords

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National Motivation & Inspiration Day

So we’ve somehow already reached the second day of January!  It’s that time of year when we begin to evaluate how we want to spend the next twelve or so months at the Fechtschule.  To help you out, we’re celebrating National Motivation & Inspiration Day!  Whether you are new to swordplay or a seasoned student here’s some tips to help keep you on track to achieve your goals for the upcoming year:

Remember to celebrate all the progress you’ve made!  If this is your first class: Welcome! You already made huge progress by taking initiative and showing up.  Swordplay is wicked fun and you’ve started yourself off on a new wild journey!  Is this your 50th class? Congratulations on the dedicated effort: you found a hobby you enjoy and hopefully are benefiting in all sorts of wonderful ways from your training.  This idea extends to individual class sessions as well, because each little success is a stepping stone to reaching larger goals.  Did you pull off a really excellent piece of footwork during a sparring session? Remember to think about it in the context of other goals and celebrate with an extra sip of beer at the Taco Bell after class.

Approach your training with purpose, thoughtfulness, and accountability — remember that training any martial art can be both fun and incredibly rewarding work but it is not without its own set of challenges! It’s important to understand when and why things aren’t going how you planned so you can make a plan to practice and improve.  There are going to be some days when you feel unstoppable, and others that feel impossible and downright frustrating. Always remember to forgive yourself, move on from difficult feelings and remember you’re surrounded by people who want to see you succeed.  We get it.  We all have had our difficult days.  How can your comrades and mentors help?  Go ahead and ask!

Most importantly: the learning never stops!  Day 1 or 100, foundational exercises or advanced techniques, every training session is a new lesson in some way or another.  Embrace the mindset that martial arts is a lifelong pursuit and always approach class with a humble attitude, willingness to learn, and you’ll get something out of each day on the training floor!

In the comments below tell us what motivates and inspires YOU to train!

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Happy New Year!

It’s that time of year to celebrate the wins and reflect on the challenges of the past 12 months!  This is also an opportunity to contemplate how we want to move forward with our training and resolve to set goals for and make changes in our practice for the year to come.  Stay motivated, be safe, and we look forward to seeing everyone on the Fechtschule floor in 2025!

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Playing the Game — Jeremy takes hits from Peter.

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Arzang Takes Hits from Peter (2024-11-22)

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Bauernwehr Class Plan (2024-12-21)

Fitness

Kat is out this weekend so I'll be taking on that time slot currently labeled sword fitness! Kat's final class of the year (last weekend) was a fantastic review of small work outs you can do any time.

My goal for this session is to give people space for guided practice, think of it as personal trainer time... but with swords! It's going to be a fun class, I promise!

Skills

Last weekend we discussed BAITING, an action that invites an opponent to strike us, and, having successfully fooled them, allows us to take advantage of their decision.

This week we're going review Baiting and begin to explore FAKING, makes use of actions which threatens an opponent, causing them to react.

Since this week is our final class of the year — I want to leave plenty of open floor time to field questions, or work on something you feel like you want to practice.

Applications

Let's end the year strong! We'll be playing The Game and putting those skills to work!

There will be rum and further Gemütlichkeit.

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Side sword with gauntlet and Bauernwehr blocks!

We have a workshop coming up on Sat., Jan 4th:

Avanced Longsword Skills with Arto Fama.

This four-hour workshop will be broken into two two-hour blocks, with an half-hour break in between.

Fool, Fighter, Fencer — Use simple patterns to remain safe and gain the opportunity to use techniques.

A Structured Approach to Sparring and Tournaments — Go deeper into the foundational concepts of longsword and take the next step in applying them in the messy environment of sparring and tournament matches.

Register on our BookWhen page.

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Max takes Hits from Peter (2024-11-22)

A one minute session of The Game during an Applications class. Here, the Scholar (Max) is tasked solely with defending themselves against incoming hits from the Mentor; forcing them to respond to a variety of stimuli while focusing on the correct responses. The game comes to our practice of Bauernwehr by way of the Haitian tradition of Tiré Machét, to which we owe our core curriculum.

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Reading Range Drills

How close can you get without being struck? Can you read/size up your opponent and their reach?!

Range: Mensur, Measure; The important distance between you and your adversary that delineates safety from danger. See also: Out of Range, Near Range, In Range, Wrestling Range.

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We are very excited to share that Gotham Swords was featured in @timeoutnewyork 🤩!!! Instagram Reel & Article:

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A post shared by Time Out New York (@timeoutnewyork)

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Our LinkTree is live — Quickly access resources for joining classes, learning about events, buying merch, and more!

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A glimpse into the past week of training: Test cutting, free-play fencing, and weighted trainers, oh-my! We are very excited to share that Gotham Swords was featured in @timeoutnewyork 🤩 [link in bio]. More announcements are coming soon, but we have some new classes starting in October: Longsword: Skills and two Bauernwehr: The Peasant's Defense classes!

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Here's a quick article that discusses how our German Fencing System: Concept & Techniques class approaches drilling:

"At first glance many drills can appear rather simple, yet upon closer inspection these practices provide complex insights to training various concepts and techniques... but only if utilized correctly."

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wood and steel are both fantastic training devices with their own lessons! ... .. . #longsword #hema #nyc https://www.instagram.com/p/CqN_D_RLyrV/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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So you want to play with swords?

Learn how to join our historical fencing classes right here in NYC!

Gotham Swords is a community-driven non-profit that offers training in Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) and Historical Fencing. We host weekly classes in Longsword, Langes Messer, Sword & Buckler, LED Saber, and more!

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Parts of the Longsword

A. Die Spitze, Tip B. Schwech,Weak C. Stark, Strong D. Schielt, Shield E. Hiltze, Crossguard F. Greiffen, Grip G. Knauf, Pommel

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some snapshots from this weekend! #swords #hema #historicalfencing #ledsaber https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp-vBuyrVzI/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=