The New York Historical Fencing Association is pleased to announce a two day seminar event featuring Thomas Stoeppler from Bonn, Germany.

The event will take place the weekend of October 2-3 in Andes, NY. It will be an outdoor event with camping available on site (bring your own tent), as well as an abundance of nearby hotels and resorts in the beautiful Catskill Mountain region of Upstate New York (look for hotels in Andes, Margaretville or Arkville). People are welcome to arrive Friday, the day before, to set up tents, relax, swim and socialize.

Training will be conducted outdoors amidst spectacular mountain vistas in a quiet and isolated location. Rainy day backup will either be a wedding style pavilion or indoor facilities at a nearby school.

The course of instruction will feature Thomas’ ground breaking work on body mechanics that has gained him an international following. This is a small event with a target audience of about 25 students, which means you will get individual attention and the opportunity to learn the material in depth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrVKWduuROM&feature=related

Classes
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Frequens Motus
- motion mechanics as described in the earlier sources, particularly 3227a.

Striking Work
- non-telegraphic strikes
- force transfer
-striking & bind alignment

Bodywork
-foundational core exercises with and without tools

Technical Applications
-winden exercises

Students will also have the opportunity to request additional material if time permits.

Required Hardware: Longswords, Masks, gloves, dagger/plastic knife trainer.
One wooden pole (alternatively a wooden longsword waster) per two participants is required.

Cost: the cost for the event is $100. Please contact me at nyhfa.director@gmail.com to register and receive payment instruction. Because this is a small event and we have significant costs to cover, early registration is essential. If we do not meet our minimum attendance requirement, the event will be cancelled or rescheduled and all money refunded.

This is BYOF (bring your own food) event. There will be grilling facilities on site. However, if we reach our upper attendance goals, there will be a Saturday night BBQ and perhaps additional meals provided at no additional cost.

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The seminar site has 10 open acres for camping and training There is also a sizeable swimming pond and a Russian style banya (sauna) that can be fired up if people are brave enough to try it.

I wanted to add that the Catskill Mountain region is a prime vacation spot and the fall foliage of early October makes for some spectacular views.

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There is an abundance of activities for spouses or other family members not taking the seminar, including antiquing, concerts and shows, historic sites, parks, cavern tours, zoos, swimming, hiking, shooting sports and much, much more.

Some information can be found here:

http://www.visitthecatskills.com/index.php

Travel Info:

The property is located in the town of Andes, about 50 miles west of Kingston, NY and about 40 miles south-east of Oneonta.

Specific directions will be provided to registered attendees, but the following should give you a very good idea of how to get there and what it will cost.

Driving
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The seminar site is a 3 hour drive from NYC (going north and then west). Get on the New York State Thruway and take Exit 19, Kingston, then take 28W for 50 miles.

Bus
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Adirondack trailways runs a regular bus service on luxury motor coaches from NYC and some parts of Canada and just about everywhere in between, including Syracuse and Albany. These busses will drop you off right at the seminar site, but if you miss it, I will pick you up from one of the main stops nearby.

http://www.trailwaysny.com/

Air Travel
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You can fly into one of the New York City airports (or Newark, NJ) and take the train to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, then take Adirondack Trailways to Andes. You can also fly into Syracuse or Albany and take the bus from there.

People should definitely use any opportunity to train with Thomas. While some of his interpretations are sometimes regarded as 'controversial', he's an amazing martial artist, and you'd have to work hard to *not* get tons of useful training material from him.

Don't miss out!

CHT

Thomas Stoeppler's Bio:

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Thomas Stoeppler

Born in 1979 in Germany, Physical Therapist
Started martial arts with Judo as a child and took up Taijiquan at the age of 17. He has studied several internal martial arts styles from different lineages, including Systema, Tan Tien Chuan and Xing Yi Quan. Apart from the internal martial arts, he researches, practices and teaches the Liechtenauer System of martial arts with a focus on the motion mechanics of the earlier sources.

Since 2004, Thomas is a member of OCHS-Historische Kampfkünste and currently teaches his interpretation called „frequens motus“ to a few dedicated fencers and has given instruction at workshops in Germany, the US, UK and Finland.

The registration deadline for this event is September 12th, 2010.

To register, please contact me at nyhfa.director@gmail.com.

Space is limited to 25 attendees, so please try to register as early as possible.

Rainy day backup has been secured at the local school. It is a large gymnasium with very tall celings and plenty of space. The school is only 3 miles from the house.

Also, for people who want to camp, since it will be cold at night there will be semi-indoor places where you can sleep. There is room for six or seven people. Bring sleeping bags and or cots.

Reminder: the registration deadline is approaching, and space is limited. If you intend to go, please register ASAP.

Only a few days left to register. Registration closes on the 10th.

Email me at nyhfa.director@gmail.com.