First new practice

Last night was the first implemenation of thew new practice ideas shown to us by HG Owain and HE Alden.  We are looking to turn practice into a learning and training space, not a sparring free for all.

It was also the first practice I led and I think it went off pretty well.  We started a few minutes late, 7:15 as opposed to the 7:00 start time, but not too bad. 

My original schedule for practice looked like this

• Warm-up: Dynamic stretching
• Slow work
• Sword footwork drill
• First blood
• Shield line drill
• Bear Pit

The actual schedule worked as follows

• Warm-up: Dynamic stretching ~5mins
• Slow work ~10 mins
• First blood, ~30 mins
• Shield line drill, ~15 minutes
• Critique fights (2 pairs) ~30 mins
• Bear Pit, last 20 minutes

We have two hours for practice 7pm- 9pm and judging from the times it took to do everything it looks like we have time for the 1st blood, 2 skill segments and a bear pit.

I was initially scared that the 20 minutes at the end of the practice was going to be far too short a time for the pit, but there was only 3 of about 12 of us left fighting at the end, so I guess everyone got their fill.

We also have a couple of new fighters, one older (Gareth, an accomplished archer) and one younger(Darian).  It will be interesting to see them progress with the new style of practice.

Feedback from the practice seemed positive.  One of our exprienced fighters, who was unable to attend the workshop, said she enjoyed it, which was good to hear.