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Sverre Vijvers:
Hello my fellow martial artist,


I'm Sverre (noI am not swedish ;p) I am from Holland! 19 years of age now and been doing medieval martial arts for about 6 years now. I am studying International Timber Trade and Iwill have to do an internship in sweden for 3 months. But when I graduate I would really like to live in sweden and spend the rest of my life there. BUTI need a swordfighting school ofcourse. I thought I had to start something up in sweden but apperantly there is luckly a school already, you guys! ^_^ how far are you guys now? With training and stuff? you have maybe some video's I could watch on youtube or something? So I can see your skills?


Cheers,


Sverre

Roger Norling:
Hi Sverre!


Good to hear that you enjoy sword fighting and Sweden! :)


In Sweden there are about 250 practitioners in total, divided on 22 clubs of various sizes. GHFS is without doubt the largest with about 90-100 paying members. Actually GHFSis one of the largest HEMA clubs in the world, alongside of Hammaborg, Ochs, Schola Gladiatoria and a few others. You can see some stats here: www.hroarr.com/survey/worldwide/practitioners


The club has existed for about six years and several of the early members are still in the club, including our head trainer. Ages in our club range from 16 to 55.


GHFS is a martial arts club and as such has no focus on other historical aspects like clothing or handicraft. We focus solely on the fighting techniques. We practice with modern equipment and use both steel and nylon simulators in training and sparring.


The majority wear modern protection like Lacrosse gloves, hockey neckprotection, arm guards for escrima, kick boxing or police riot gear, a cup and a fencing mask. However, in the beginner's class you need no gear what so ever. But, a mask is good to invest in fairly soon both to protect yourself, but more importantly so that your training partner can hit you properly. :)


As you can see from our schedule www.ghfs.se/P%C3%A5g%C3%A5ng/tabid/57/Default.aspx we have beginner's classes on mondays and wednesdays and advanced classes, which you can participate in after you have done an oral and practical graduation test, on tuesdays and thursdays. We also have smaller groups for pugilism, military sabre and sword and buckler, and even a small study group for polearms. The advanced group also practices Ringen (wrestling) two months per year.


This compendium shows what you should know before taking the graduation test: www.ghfs.se/Texter/Nyb%C3%B6rjarh%C3%A4fte/tabid/68/language/sv-SE/Default.aspx for the advanced group


Our teachers are very skilled and two of them have actually won the tournaments at Dijon. Our longsword training is based on Sigmund Ringeck, but many study other masters as well, like Joachim Meyer. And of course other smaller groups use other material, like Ms I.33, Paulus Hector Mair, Military sabre manuals etc.


Every year we arrange a big Hema event where about 130 people come to participate from the UK, the US, Germany, Austria, France, Denmark and other countries. During this event we see three days of interesting workshops and also an informal tournament. There are quite a few clips from Swordfish 2009 available on YouTube.


GHFS is probably the Hema group with the biggest presence on YouTube and we record a lot. Here are some links:


www.youtube.com/user/GothenburgHFS


www.youtube.com/user/Leondrian


www.youtube.com/user/taffy1975


www.youtube.com/user/mika3logren


www.youtube.com/user/Njurvar





Good luck with both your internship and your sword practice!

Sverre Vijvers:
Wow cool website! where you can see all the stats of the school! ^^ I am a member of the EMCA, apperantly according to that website the biggest school in holland. I also saw that you are going to Dijon! My teacher is Mishael Lopes Cardozo, you should know him (bald and with a braided red beard =D) and the movies are very useful, thank you. I also will be going to Arts of Mars in Germany, will any of your members be attending there aswell?

Axel Pettersson:
hi Sverre, where exactly inSweden will you do your internship?this info will help us in setting you up with other HEMA fighters. I have met Lopez, say hi to him from us :). Some of us are most probably going to colins event in Germany.


GHFS has built a reputatioon as a club that produces good fighters, we have placed high in several national and international HEMA competitions (Dijon, FightCamp, Swordfish etc) and its members have done well in Martial Challenges. That does not make us full of ego however, we love to learn from new people! There are also many skilled fighters in other Swedish HEMA schools, many here started to train HEMA in the 90s.


/A

Sverre Vijvers:
My internship will be in Skinnskatteberg I think, but I won't have time to train :( because I will be busy with school work. Not sure yet. won't be for atleast a year or so. But it will give me time to learn the language.

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