Pillow-Fecht Fall 2022
Pillow-Fecht pillow fighting tournament and pajama party!
On October 8th, Hilt and Helm held its first ever event: Pillow-Fecht pillow fighting tournament and pajama party. This was the first of our quarterly social gatherings where people who’ve never tried HEMA before could get a feeling for what it feels like to compete in a HEMA tournament without committing hundreds of dollars to buying a full HEMA kit and countless hours to training to use an weapon proficiently.
The event started with our first class: “Dance for your life!” In the class I showed everyone the basics of HEMA footwork (simple steps and passing steps). Then we whipped out the pillows! Using a body pillow case and a regular sized pillow, these training tools are a cheap and easy way to introduce new people to the concepts of conservation of momentum (since you can’t stop a pillow mid-swing), staying an appropriate amount of distance away from your opponent to be able to dodge their strikes, and counter attacking after you have dodged their attack. Once students got the basics, I then showed them a few moves that work exclusively with pillows since they would be using them later.
My good friend Nick Bulan came in and ran our katana workshop after that.
After a quick pizza break, we got ready for the main event: The Pillow fighting tournament! Each fighter picked a song and when they entered their fight they flipped a coin to see whose got played. Once their song was play it was taken off the play list to make sure we didn’t get repeats. At the end of the event it was Jonah Driver (aka Robert the Snooze) who ended up walking home with “THE GOLDEN SLEEP MASK!”
Jonah Driver being awarded “THE GOLDEN SLEEP MASK!!”
All in all it was a wonderful event and I want to thank everyone who could make it out. Hope to see you all at the next one in January!
Pictured from left to right Jonathan Heidenreich (Sir Harold Honk-Shoo), Kaitlin Heidenreich, Panda Ray (Beary Sleepy), Jonah Driver (Robert the Snooze), Chris Shelton (Knighty-Knight), Jonah Driver (Knight-mare), and Jacob Holfelder (Generic Skeleton #8)
