Greetings!

I'd like to take a few moments to thank everyone for the exceptional
weekend of I.33 study that took place here in DFW on Feb. 11-12.

Dr. Robert Holland, co-founder of the Schola Saint George, now runs
the SF branch of the Schola and has been focused on his
interpretation of RA MS I.33 for several years, bringing his many
years of competitive sword and shield and sword and buckler to bear.
I think I can say with confidence that his interpretation is
straightforward, powerful, and a very solid read on what is a very
difficult text and I'd like to begin by thanking him for his effort
in preparing his first two-day version of the manuscript, and for
visiting our DFW branch! It was an excellent weekend!

Things began to roll on Thursday night, as I picked Mike and John
(from our Bartlesville, OK study group) and Robert from the airport.
Of course the usual social fun ensued, and lots of good stories were
exchanged. Since our house is a bit larger than is strictly
necessary, there was room for folks to spread out, and a good many
of the folks who came in stayed at the house. Scott and Eric came in
from Birmingham and Dakao came up from Houston. Other folks came in
throughout the weekend, including Todd and his wife (Jennifer?),
Barry and April, David, Russell, Mark and Tony. For everyone who
came by, the invitation is always open!

On Friday night we held testing. It was a rare opportunity, with
both Schola Principale in the same place, and we were rewarded with
some fine tests. Congratulations to Mike Quigley, John Shearheart,
and David Browning, who tested for Compagno, and most especially to
Russell Kinder and Barry Eisenberg, who did very intensive and
skillfully prepared tests for our very first recognized Scholars.
Well done, gentlemen! David also had an unusually intensive Compagno
test, but did quite well. Later in the weekend, Dakao Do and Eric
Fritts tested for Compagno. There were no weak tests in the group: a
Compagno test takes between 45 minutes and 1 hour, while the Scholar
tests took a little over a hour. The level of preparation and
dedication shown by each candidate was exemplary, and the strength
of the testing was exceptionally gratifying. Thank you for all the
work!

On Saturday morning things really began quickly. We were in the
lodge at the Briarwood Retreat (~20 minutes N. of DFW airport), site
of this year's 2006 WMAW in October, a beautiful oak-tree bespotted
location. Owing to the unusual cold, we were inside all weekend. The
site proved fairly easy to find, and has the virtue of being about 2
miles as the crow flies from my house, which made lodging
convenient. At the site we were joined also by Cynthia Wunsch (who
did the video), Randall Pleasant of ARMA, Geoffrey Schemel and Jack
Morones of ADRIA (all the way from San Diego), Alex Garza and Mike
Matthews from our new Abilene / Lubbock study group. April was kind
enough to photograph the event, too!

I offered a few words of recognition and thanks, along with a few
logistical points, and Robert dove right in with a brief
introduction of the students (about 18) and then straight into the
manuscript. As he noted, the treatise is full of puzzles, and
throughout the weekend his scholarship on the technical merits were
often footnoted where they differed from the Hand & Wagnger
interpretation (chiefly in the footwork, but there were other
places, too, especially in Priests Special Longpoint). He also made
a special effort to thank Dr. Forgeng for his fine translation that
we published in 2004 as The Art of Medieval Swordsmanship, noting
however that whenver there were problematic elements he sometimes
referred back to the original Latin for variant uses of the term. He
also thanked Stephen Hand and Paul Wagner for their book, although
he made it clear that his interpretations stem chiefly from Dr.
Forgeng's translation--with some exceptions--rather than being a
presentation of Stephen and Paul's work.

One of the interesting, and I think useful, distinctions that Robert
made came with the presentation of the participants who appear (or
don't!) in the treatise. In addition to the Priest, Scholar and
engignmatic Walpurgis, there is another, the "common fencer," who
although not pictured gives us a clue as to what kind of movements
could have been expected from someone not trained in the system.
Robert was particularly careful to highlight these references
throughout the weekend, which I think most everyone found useful,
since there really are very, very few practitioners of the I.33
style in the world today. For the most part, opponents that the
students are likely to meet will be untrained in the system.

Robert's interpretation for the footwork is really the same as we
find practiced by many of the Liechtenauer students or those of us
studying Fiore dei Liberi: There are essentially advancing and
passing steps, often on the oblique, and the combatant determines
which to use based on his objective at the time. In this Robert's
interpretation is much simpler than the Hand & Wagner one, with no
incartata--and it is one that I personally agree with, especially if
this is a civilian text designed for part-time practitioners.
Indeed, since such a high percentage of the students were Schola
Compagni or Scolari, I found it easy to draw parallels between
principles illustrated in Fiore's zhogo larga with the longsword and
some of the plays in I.33. Skills such as exchanging and breaking
the thrust and rebetarre in front and in back were especially
useful.

In the previous weeks we had made some very nice cuirboille and
steel bucklers, light affairs about 11" in diameter that enabled the
combatants to easily grab the sword with an open hand while
maintaining good control over the buckler. The thick leather was
also nearly bullet-proof, and we will be putting these bucklers into
production to make them available through our Revival Martial Arts
company, since they were so very popular. Look for them in about
three or four months.

We then drilled with shinai. The drill was chiefly for the attacker,
who started in second ward, to strike at full speed for the
opponent's head, but NOT keep the buckler near the hand (at least at
first). The defender was supposed to strike at the incoming hand or
arm in an effort to begin learning that the lead hand and arm isthe
closest available target. Since there are no bars to protect the
hand, the buckler is kept over the hand for protection, and in a
very short time the students learned to keep the buckler near the
hand (almost as with a longsword). It was a good drill, and one that
I've used before for the same purpose. In the treatise the buckler
is kept near the hand most of the time, and this seems one of the
key differences between this form and the other German buckler
material (such as that of Paulus Kal, for example): In the other
treatises, the buckler and sword are usually separated, a cardinal
sin in I.33.

For the rest of the material, students used rebated swords: Paul
Chen single-handed "practical" swords, my Del Tin, and a pile of
relatively heavy swords we acquired just for the event.

Through the morning Robert presented the seven wards and their
counter-wards, being careful to highlight possible responses by
the "common fencer." After introducing the concept of counter-wards
and binden, we went off to lunch, which turned out to be a superb
value for fresh roast beef, baked potatoes, fresh green beans, a
full salad bar and dessert. This boded well for WMAW, since the site
is providing breakfast, lunch, and the feast.

Before we got started again in the afternoon, we recognized those
who had tested the night before, rewarding the Compagni and Scolari
with their belts. This drew a well-earned round of recognition and
applause from the attendees, and we were definately moved.

Then we jumped right back into the mss. Throughout the afternoon, we
concentrated on the counter-wards for the first ward, concentrating
on developing efficiency in taking the blow on the sword and seeking
the over-bind, transferring control to the buckler, and making an
efficient and well-covered reply. Most of the students had little
trouble making cover with the sword, although it was trickier to
transfer control with the buckler and, given the variable experience
of the students, to come up with efficient replies. We worked on
developing a few key principles along these lines throughout the
weekend to good effect--by the end I was much happier with the
efficiency and power of the responses, and achieving the bind was
much more natural.

On Sunday things again began around 10:15 (a neat trick, since some
of us were doing the usual 3:30 am discussion thing). We ran through
the counter-wards for all seven of I.33's wards, and some for the
other special three wards. By the end, students had done sufficient
repetitions that they could recognize the potential for the over-
bind, seize it, control the opponent's weapon (and usually his
buckler, too), and reply effectively.

Following the ward/counter ward section, we focused on some of the
interesting "special" plays, including several vesions of the double-
arm envelopment and the very sexy disarm. Robert's interpretation of
grasping the sword behind the buckler was especially devious and
well presented; everyone especially liked this one and seemed to
have a great time working on it.

The day ended around 2:30 with everyone completely exhausted. Robert
left everyone with an outline, which many of the students were
furiously scribbling on throughout the day. We went and did a lunch
at the local Chiles, then quickly spun folks to the airport.

Several things were very fine to see. First, it was a diverse group,
although the Schola predictably dominated in terms of numbers.
Randall Pleasant from ARMA was quite pleasant the whole weekend, and
did well with the material. Alex Garza brought an Eastern martial
arts background, and in addition to the fine discussions with him,
he seemed to really enjoy the material. Mike Matthews brought an SCA
rapier background, and also learned quickly and well. The folks from
Adria, Jack and Geoffrey, were both left-handed, as was Cynthia.
This makes for a different set of lines, of course, but the
principles still apply no matter which hand is employed. The Schola
folks seemed to adapt to the material quickly as well, drawing
parallels to the Compagno and zhogo larga material, which seemed to
provide some validation for our emphasis on core fundamentals as a
WMA foundation. All in all, the students seemed to learn a great
deal, were largely controlled and seemed enthusiastic about the
material.

It is easy to recommend Robert as an instructor for the material in
RA MS I.33. His manner is effective, thorough, and has a uniquely
practical approach that combatants seem to like.

We are planning to do another "focus weekend" during the summer, but
the topic is TBD. Maybe next time we want to do the other German
buckler material, and have Christian Tobler out?

Again, thank you Robert for a very fine weekend!

BrianR. Price, Principale
http://www.scholasaintgeorge.org