We have some wonderful updates for the club today! From Monday the 17th of May, sports clubs in England can return to training indoors. This means that Liverpool HEMA can return to the hall on Wednesday evenings.
Wednesday evenings, 7:00-9:00 pm
We have made the necessary arrangements with the venue managers, so everything is set for us to reopen for indoor training this week.
Sunday afternoons, 1:00-2:00pm
We will also continue to run the Sunday sessions outdoors for at least a few more weeks, so there will be two opportunities for training every week for at least the foreseeable future.
Price and booking?
Paying monthly: if you pay monthly, then there will be a place booked for you automatically, no need for you to do anything further. There will be no additional charge or fee beyond what you are currently paying.
Paying for individual sessions: the price for the Wednesday indoor sessions is £10, and the Sunday outdoor sessions are £7. If you prefer to pay for individual sessions, then please book your attendance online through our website for each session: https://www.liverpoolhema.com/shop/single-session-attendance/
Annual memberships
We’ll need to start getting our memberships and insurance sorted again, now that we appear to be back to regular, consistent training with (albeit small and low-risk) amounts of contact. If your membership has elapsed, according to your membership card, please arrange your membership here: https://www.liverpoolhema.com/shop/liverpool-hema-annual-membership/
For the next month or two, we’ll be offering an optional 25% and 50% discount for membership fees. If you are struggling financially, please feel welcome to choose a cheaper option. If you are able and willing to pay the full standard rate, then that’s wonderful, and thank you for helping to support the club. If your finances are tight right now, then the discount is something that we as a club are able to offer right now as one of the ways that we can support you after the last year of pandemic, so please don’t hesitate to choose the membership price that is most appropriate for your situation.
Is contact training allowed?
The government has not made this simple, and everything is couched in hedging and level numbers and phases. However, the very simplified answer is that we can return to some low-risk contact training where we wear fencing masks and touch each other with swords.
Is sparring allowed?
Not yet. The rules from DCMS are at least fairly consistent about this.
What equipment is required?
Please do bring your own longsword if you have one. The club has plenty of loaner swords that can be borrowed.
Please also bring your fencing mask if you have one already. Again, the club has plenty of loaner masks that can be borrowed if you are a beginner.
Please make sure you bring a bottle of water to either session. For the outdoor session, it would be sensible to dress for the weather, so bring any long-sleeves or sun-hats or sun-cream (or rain jackets or waterproofs) that you might need to protect yourself from the weather.
Where possible, please try to come wearing club uniform: black trousers, blue shirt. If you have fencing trousers or 3/4 length trousers, then either black or blue long socks are appropriate.
Are beginners welcome?
Yes, beginners are welcome! Now that we have the opportunity for training indoors or outdoors, and can return to working with low-risk contact training, this is the ideal time to come along and give it a try. Please do book your attendance in advance so that we know to expect you!
Some other useful links, if you would like to read up a little in advance:
What to expect from your first session; our venue address and how to find us; some information about what HEMA involves; some information about the sources that we use; and some promotional videos of club members doing cool things over the years.
Covid safety:
All the exercises will remain low-risk according to the BMABA return to play document agreed with Sport England.
While congregating and chatting before or after the session, or during drink breaks, we must not mix in groups larger than 30 (the updated figure from the 17th of May onwards) – the “rule of six” no longer applies.
Liverpool College will have an NHS Test and Trace poster with a QR code, if you want to check in. We will be keeping detailed attendance records in any case.
DCMS no longer requires that we wear face masks during training. Please do still bring a face mask, in case there is a need to go further indoors than the training hall (to use the toilet, for example), but while we are outdoors or in the hall, there should not be a need to wear it.
Needless to say, if you are supposed to be self-isolating, if you think you might have Covid, or if you have any of the Covid symptoms (such as high temperature, dry coughs, breathing difficulties, loss of small and/or taste), then please stay at home and do not come to the session, and please book yourself a Covid test.
Questions:
If you have any questions, please do ask, and we’ll do our best to answer them for you!
