Our Epee de Guerre sword class ended today. Disappointingly, it did not offer as much of a workout as I had hoped it would, although it turned out to be interesting in its own right.

After learning a bevy of basic moves, we put them all together into a string of actions in what would essentially be a choreographed fight scene.

That itself was mildly amusing, especially the latter sequence where we trap one opponent's weapon, hit him in the face with our sword pommel, kick him in the groin, turn around, drop to one knee, put the sword under our right arm and thrust it backward into a careless advancing foe, then pull it out, sweep it up into another coming from the front, and then - when he's doubled over - step-turn and lop off his head.

It turned more amusing when we acted it out, each of us taking a turn being the hero against our classmate foes. It makes quite a difference when there are bodies on the floor (in terms of footwork) than when you're practicing by yourself with no one lying in the way.

One of the instructors took some photos and video of us doing our routines and I'll post them later if they arrive, but given the delay so far that may not happen.

By the way, squalambrado (if spelled correctly), is the Italian word for the move that makes a sweeping downward angled cut at an opponent's neck. All the different moves have such names, making it hard to remember them all through just a once-a-week class. I could take the class again but there's no advanced version at the moment. Private classes are available but I'm pretty sure they would be prohibitively expensive. Maybe it's time to rejoin the SCA and try single-sword this time.