This years "A Weekend of Tactical Decision Making and Approaches to the Fight" shall be held the weekend of June 15th 2018.

This event is a series of workshops all with the same overlying theme - Defending with Intent. 

That is to say using tactics and strategies from the instructors systems what are good methods to stay safe and attempt to regain the initiative. The point of the Weekend is not a broad strokes explanation of actions, but in-depth focus on aspects of the systems the instructors study that can be applied generally across fencing.

We have three different instructors who shall be running these workshops; Jess Finley, David Rowe and Brad Cramer Jr. They shall bring their own experiences and perspectives to this topic to help further your ability to fence intelligently.

  • Jess Finley - Longsword
    • Beginning the Chase: Nachreisen in Context Nachreisen (‘chasing’, or literally ‘traveling after’), while only one of the Hauptstücke (‘chief techniques’), is arguably a central tenant of Liechtenauer’s fight. Certainly using Nachreisen is one of the best ways to guarantee you are fencing in a safe manner, that is so that you can hit without being hit in return. From the approach (Zufechten) we should threaten the openings using it, from the bind we should it again to maintain our superior position, and after a landed attack, we should use it a final time to exit safely. In this class we will explore how to use Nachreisen in these three times, and begin to understand it as a tactic to fight safely. Equipment: Longsword, Gorget and Mask required. Heavy gloves, and jacket encouraged.
  • David Rowe - Sword and Buckler
  • Brad Cramer Jr - Rapier

The workshops shall run from Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon. Each workshop shall be 2 hours long and deal with a different aspect of the topic. There shall be loaners of all weapon sets available should you not own them. As the workshops are meant to be applicable across all weapons then if you wish to use your weapon in all classes then this is also possible. 

This is a weapon neutral event as it works more on underlying theory rather than specific weapon orientated actions.

Cost for the weekend - $50

Cost for 2 days - $35

Instructors

JESS FINLEY.jpg

Jessica Finley has had a sword in her had for the past twenty years. Her initial interest began in stage combat, but not too long after beginning that pursuit began to ask "... but how did they really fight" and from that question branched out to German Medieval Martial Arts. She has been a student of Christian Tobler’s since 2003, and is an instructor at Selohaar Fechtschule, within which she holds the rank of Provost, while being the head instructor of Ritterkunst Fechtschule (Knightly Arts School of Fencing) in Canton, Georgia. She has taught and competed internationally at events like the Western Martial Arts Workshop in Chicago, USA; Swordfish in Gothenburg, Sweden; and Longpoint in Baltimore, USA and has taught intensive at two separate years of VISS. She also has a background studying Judo under the tutelage of Arden Cowherd of Topeka Judo Club.

Brad.jpg

Brad Cramer Jr. is the founder of the University of West Florida Fencing Club in 2004 and for the past 4 years has been the club instructor. His area of expertise is Italian rapier and English backsword, but he is also fairly versed in longsword, saber, dussack, and ringen. Brad participates heavily in the Society for Creative Anachronism, having achieved it's highest recognition for fencing.

Schedule

This is a very rough outline of the event. It shall be most likely changed a little as we get closer to the event.

Friday night:

  • 7.30 - 9.30 Jess Finley

Saturday:

  • 1.30pm - 3.30pm David Coblentz
  • 4.30pm - 6.30pm Jess Finley & David Coblentz

Sunday:

  • 10am - 12pm Brad Cramer Jr
  • 1pm - 3pm All instructors

Venue

Unit 2 Fitness, 240 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308