It’s time for our 2024 Family Gathering! This year's dates will be Thursday, June 6th, Friday, June 7th, Saturday, June 8th, & Sunday, June 9th.
The Family Gathering is a 3-day intensive training event for members of the entire Guild (Chicago, Denver, Nebraska, Dallas, Milwaukee & East Texas), that is meant to deep-dive into training, introduce new curriculum, or just generally 'reboot' everyone's enthusiasm for these wonderful arts we practice. Past FG's have introduced Bolognese polearms, the longsword of Filippo Vadi, armoured combat or sword vs rapier/rapier vs sword, and more! All Guild members of any chapter or at-large membership, regardless of rank or program, whose dues are in good-standing with the treasurer.
Full Tuition: All Three Days ~ $225
This year, we are doing one All-Inclusive price only.
This year’s theme is: You Know More than You Know: Understanding Armizare in Application
HEMA is pulled from texts: the revivification of dead arts. Too often that means we look at the art as a "cookbook" of recipes. What they are meant to create are "chefs" who can take those ingredients and create new "recipes" for different combat scenarios at need. We'll be approaching this idea a few different ways, from looking at how close weapons inform motion and weapon combat, how long weapons can in-turn inform striking in close combat, and how we can use Fiore's lessons of abrazare, sword and spear to understand a weapon he advocates, but barely details: the ghiavarina. We'll also explore the work of one of the great, but little understood, masters of the Quatrocento, who can be called the "Fencing Master's Fencing Master" in his approach. What's this have to do with our larger theme? Come find out! We're still finalizing things, but listed below is a list of classes we’ll be hosting this weekend:
The Ferire of Abrazare is in...the Sword? (Greg & Jesse)
One of the components of the new, Scholar-level abrazare curriculum is understanding the role of ferire ("wounds"), or strikes, in abrazare, what later Italian masters call fighting "mani nude". Fiore gives us the list of weapons to use and the targets to strike, but with a few exceptions does not detail a striking curriculum, assuming his audience has basic grappling skills.
In this class we'll look at how the Dagger Remedies address all ranged grappling, and that includes empty-handed striking, and the sword can provide many examples of how we should strike. We'll teach three short plays or training sequences, taken from Fiore's own lessons and then students will have a chance to develop their own. (Rapier and sidesword students--be ready to apply your own skills here: you know more than you think you know!)
Effective Strikes and How They Change the Battlespace of an Opponent's Body (Kurt H)
Combative striking is understanding how to unite the movements of the body with the different tools (if any) present: long levers vs. short. In this class, we're going to look at the different instruments of war starting with Abrazare concepts and carrying into dagger and sword, and how effective movement creates-effective strikes-creates effective movement-etc with a take-away lesson of, he who controls the battlespace around them controls the fight.
The Wrestling of Pietro Monte (Jesse)
Pietro Monte was a condottiero, nobleman, philosopher, expert jouster and prolific writer. Like Fiore, he was adamant that wrestling was the foundation of all martial arts, and among his writings he also details a system of stand-up wrestling, focused on throws and takedowns, suitable for use in and out of armour, that might be considered "Renaissance Judo". We'll take a look at Monte's system and some of his core techniques and how they relate to Fiore's abrazare.
They Fight with Ghiavarinas, May God Have Mercy with Them (Greg)
The ghiavarina is a winged-spear, similar to a partisan, that is essentially a "sword on a stick". Fiore extols its virtues, but only details its use briefly: showing its use on foot to defeat a mounted opponent. He only details one guard and two plays, but in the process provides a window into how his art can be applied beyond the manuscript. This extended workshop is a look at Nova Armizare: using what the master has given us, how can we build a system for wielding this elegant and deadly weapon. If you only ever learn one polearm, this is the one to learn!
LECTURE:
Additional classes and lectures, as well as a complete daily schedule with times coming soon! Current times are approximate.
