After work today, I walked over to the train station in the light rain thru the main shopping district for Sittard

and  jumped a train to Tilsbury to see Bert and visit his class on historical western fencing. It was already starting to snow when I reached Tilsburg and Bert was waiting. We went for coffee and talk before he had to open for the kids class, taught by his senior student, Esther.  Surprisingly, not only did I not want to sob but I was really impressed with how well the class was handled.



The kids line up and salute. Then they review the previous class with questions, and have what they will do tonight explained. Esther and Bert are holding two of the prettiest dusack repros I've seen. He sent us the measurements so i guess Ben and I have a nice project. The overall weapon quality was much better than I've in the US: the waster were solid and well balanced and the steel blades nicely made.



Esther stops and watches the boys working on a response to a strong bind.  Still holding that lovely dusack, I think I drooled on it too much.  Esther and Bert wander the class, tuning, correcting and making sure everyone has fun.



Bert explains the move to the two boys, explaining how you must make sure your lines are closed when you cut, and keep his open so he can't defend. I loved how seriously they listen. In the backin the picture is the only girl in this class, who told me, via one of the mothers,  very seriously that she wanted to be knight  'cause princess were wimps. The lady said the other class has more girls, some children of adult students and others who come on their own.

Afterward I took the adult class and not only found it fun, but found it very well done. The body motion is not bad arnis or kenjutsu, but has a western feel to it. Especially in moves from the Ox guard, the long rotation of the spine is very present. Afterward we visited some more and he showed me more of his manuscripts. Starting with a based from the folks in Leeds, Bert has a ton of German manuscripts that he has translated into Dutch and is working on English. What I found more impressive, because I know some people who work from these things who are so bad they make you stupid on contact, was that has developed a way of teaching it that actually works.  Classes flow as a whole on one theme, and there is pretty of supervised time to work on things.   Having the ability to actually read the version, handle the orginals, and not just guess from the pictures helps* but I think also Bert's attitude of this is fun and I want you to do it too works well. This was a very warm place, unlike most HWMA in the US. It may actually be the best I've seen.

I was going to take pictures of the advanced class but I had too much fun working with Henk and Sarah.  I did get challenged to a friendly duel next time I come by Leslie, and Bert says they don't frisk you before sparring either. Anyway, it was a fun evening even with the damned snow, even if I did crawl back to hotel at one.



I've never actually seen this place in daylight with the short winter days. One forgets how far north this is.

* it may have improved since I last did saw the recreations of western historic martial arts in the US but I tend to not be hopeful.  Way too much ego on our side of the great pond and way too much of the tai chi syndrome. ("Americans do not want to learn taichi; they only want to teach taichi.") I have to admit if Bert moved to Denton, I'd be taking his class. My own worry is that it would not extraplote well to the US because of the cultural differences in the US and the Netherlands.  See Sarah Hoyt's little rant. I've ranted myself on the assumptions that culture is unimportant and everyone is the same deep down.

UPDATE 1/31/10: Add a link to Bert's site and expanded some topics