Home School Demo October 2006

October 18, 2006 A sword demo was presented to several local home-school groups who were visiting the Houston North-side study group. The evening began with Sydney Yarbrough introducing the members of the study group. After a short description of ARMA and its purpose, some time was spent dispelling some of the common myths and false information about swords.

Next Kyle Cook, Stacy Clifford, Erich Wagner, and Austin Fontaine demonstrated the basic stances and cuts. Kyle and Stacy then went through some cut/counter-cut drills with steel blunts followed by Erich and Austin doing the same with wood as Sydney briefly pointed out the reasons why both wooden wasters and steel are used in the study of ARMA.

The demo was ended with some free-sparring with different weapon types. Kyle and Stacy began with longsword wasters trading off with Erich and Austin as legitimate blows were exchanged. Next Kyle and Stacy used steel blunt longswords. Finally Erich and Sydney sparred with longsword waster against sword and buckler.

The evening ended with some light padded weapons sparring among the visiting students and a chance to handle various weapons and armor.