Impressions Winter Messer Meeting 2018
Utrecht, january 13th. Messer fencers from all over Europe gather to fence with messers and enrich their knowledge. The weekend kicks off with not just one, but two workshops, by Falko Fritz of Hammaborg and Oskar ter Mors of AMEK. Falko presented his participants with exercises to move to a form of sparring with minimal equipment, called “Control Matters: An Introduction to Sparring without Protective Gear”. Oskar worked on wrist-hooking and variations on that technique.
After the break there was plenty of free fencing. It was a delight to see a hall full of people fencing at speed with just the protection of the safety goggles Falko brought.
The Fechtschule style tournament was a great success, with fencers continuously cycling between bouts for over an hour. Participants each received a token at the end, which they could present to the person with whom they had had the most enjoyable bout. In this way, Christian Stickel of Solve et Coagula, Fulda received most tokens and was therefore presented with the laurels of victory. Dinner was attacked with a healthy appetite.
Sunday was kicked off with a session of cutting and a workshop by Johann Paulus Kal and Bas Doeksen, who took their participants through the rigours of footwork in messer. Pushing step, falling step, true meaning of ‘Eber’, the works.
Since Messer Meeting is a joint effort, there’s always room for entries in the schedule by participants. This time we had an interesting discussion, a tertulia if you will, about open questions on Johannes Lecküchners manuscript. A succesful initiative by Joeli Takala!
Lots of freeplay until the end of the second Winter Messer Meeting.
