Seminar mit Colin Richards zur italienischen Schule
On 6th /7th of March Ochs was proud to host an seminar on sword & shield, Italian longsword and dagger with Colin Richards.
We know Colin as a great instructor with a really outstanding teaching experience and teaching ability and therefore we wanted him to show us his approach to mainly medieval sword & shield combat.
In addition we asked him to give us a brief overview over De Liberis longsword and dagger material, which was of special interest in terms of comparing the system with our beloved and familiar uncle Liechtenauer method.
And for all 22 seminar participants the seminar surpassed all expectations:
Colin´s humorous presentation combined with very clear structured explanations made it very easy to follow his thoughts and the underlying ideas / principles of the presented techniques. This is important especially when it comes to sword & shield techniques which cannot be re-read in manuals.
The presented movements were very plausible and worked quite well even for beginners in that field, which we are. Colin based the sword & shield techniques on his study of I33, research within historical pictorial material, skeleton finds of the battle of Visby, shield finds and last but not least his long time martial background in various arts.
Be it sword & shield, longsword, dagger or unarmed Colin impressed throughout with profound and precise body- and weapon-movements. His knowledge about biomechanics and the speed, power and agility he develops while transforming that knowledge into “Ernstfechten” is surprising (or not!), if you know his “master-Paulus-Kal”-like shaped body… 😉
His methodical and didactical way of teaching is one of the best I have ever had the chance to experience. Even the snob-like 12 or something Italian longsword “poste” made sense when performed by him: “I think De Liberi established his fighting system for noblemen in order to survive on the “piazza” of medieval Ferrara or other Italian towns…”
They suddenly looked very natural and straight… what is quite important for a scholar of the rather mathematical and non-fancy German system… 🙂
And a personal side-note:
The seminar was a big success. I learned a lot, suffered from an overloaded brain and had several funny hours with our favourite toys.
Finally: Colin “Rab” Richards is truly “a mate you can steal horses with” (common German saying)…!
Autor: Christian Drexler