New Adult Saber Class!
Sword Play is coming to St. Paul!
Coach Sean is hoping to add an adult saber class to the schedule this fall, meeting in downtown St. Paul. The first step is to advertise and find a few prospective students to gauge interest and make the class feasible. To that end, assistant instructor Ellie and head instructor Sean will be demoing saber and offering intro lessons outside Union Depot in a couple of weeks.
We’ll be meeting Sunday, August 16th at 1:00 pm in Mears Park, right in front of Union Depot’s main entrance. Let me know if you’d like to join us!
What Is Saber?
The headline is that we’re meeting in a couple of weeks in St. Paul to start offering saber classes. But it might help to add a little context for those just dipping their toe into fencing.
Modern fencing includes three weapons or disciplines. Up until now, Sword Play has been focusing on foil for kids. Foil is a good introductory weapon, and it’s a great place for kids to start. In fact, it was even originally invented as a training tool for new fencers.
Saber is a little different. While foil is a thrust-only weapon, saber can be used to cut as well as thrust. This added dimension makes a huge difference in how the weapon is used and taught.
It also makes a much flashier, more exciting discipline to fence and watch. Much of the swordplay you see in movies, particularly in the early days of Hollywood, owes a lot to saber fencing. It often more closely matches the popular idea of what fencing “should” look like, and better fulfills the fantasy of being a master of the sword, which makes it a popular weapon.
That extra dimension also adds some complexity to the weapon that the other fencing disciplines don’t share. As a result, we usually save it for older students and adults.
Check out a couple of videos of saber fencing to get an idea of what it looks like.
First, watch Coach Sean fence another instructor from a program in California.
Next, check out two fencing masters from a school in New York going at it.
How is Sword Play Saber Different?
At Sword Play, we follow the Italian tradition of fencing, which is one of the original European traditions that modern fencing is based on. While there are actually a bunch of fencing programs in the Twin Cities, Sword Play is the only one to offer genuine, traditional Italian saber taught by a certified instructor. In fact, our head instructor’s original certification is in Italian saber.
Additionally, Coach Sean has spent a couple of decades working with fencing masters and researching Italian saber. You can find out more about that over at our other blog, the Radaellian Saber Project.
As always, the idea at Sword Play is to make sure our fencers are having fun, so our expertise is always combined with a healthy dose of games and bouting. You’ll never spend a whole class just doing tedious drills.
Try It Out!
If that all sounds like a good time to you, check out our demo on Sunday, August 16th! Let us know you’re coming to make sure you get a chance to work with the instructors, or just drop by to see us in action.
