What has been going on at Thursday’s armoured practices? Last week we were myself and Duncan in armour, and Aodh out of armour. We had discussed beforehand our immediate concerns (respectively, minimal defence, left-handed shots, and body shots), so we developed a three-way drill which allowed us to work on all those areas as needed. We analysed our own ways of delivering shots and explained them to each other as though to a beginner, and used non-dominant hand shots to really isolate the technique.

This week we were down a few people for illness and car trouble, so we had myself, Duncan and Cernac in armour, and Jasper in slow work armour (helmet and gauntlets). Duncan and myself carried on working on last week’s lessons while Cernac and Jasper did general slow work. For the second part of the practice, Cernac ran us through a very useful drill series on minimal defence, using shields, swords - or even stepping out of the way. We look forward to working on the same line of things for the next few weeks.

These days, we have access to the school kitchen as well. Last week, we had a lovely catch-up there with the A&Sters after fighting. Tea and chocolate after physical workout is pretty good!