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Talons and Blades
Devin Osman '26, Animas Quill
Ospreys have been sharpening their talons for a new old form of combat for XBlock!
The Swordfighting XBlock, taught by Osprey dad Colin Roy-Ehri and supervised by our own Head of School Rebecca Ruland, has been training students in the wonders of historical European Martial Arts. This class covers combat forms from 13th to 17th century Europe.
“I've always fought with swords as a kid, and I wanted to get involved with Riva’s school, so I asked her what would be best to teach, and she immediately chose swordfighting!” Colin explained.
Students are learning techniques from Fiore dei Liberi and Hans Talhoffer and practicing HEMA dueling with each other. They are also mastering “chess” (not the board game!), a form of practicing patterns and predictions in combat, and early manual survival tactics in the period.
Senior Cooper Sakadinsky enthusiastically shared: “Swordfighting is a little bit like--you know how you dream about having a bouncy castle to yourself or ‘what if they taught us magic in school?’--I remember when I was like- five or something- I would always daydream about how much cooler school would be if they just taught us sword fighting moves and cool things like that. For the most part I had let go of that dream but lo and behold in my final year it becomes a reality, and unlucky me only gets to experience it in my LAST year… regardless, its a dream come true!”
Freshperson and swordfighter Riva Roy-Ehri shared, “It’s really cool! You get to play with swords and pretend to be an action hero from the Middle Ages. It’s one of the most interesting XBlocks. You get to duel people not to the death!”
Colin hopes to continue the XBlock into the future, so Ospreys will have many more chances to try their hand at medieval martial arts!
PS: we LOVE it when parents and families want to get involved! Reach out to libby.cowles@animashighschool.com if you have an idea about how you'd like to plug in!
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