Welcome to the School

If you have never trai­ned with us befo­re, the­re are a few things you should know.

1) Begin­ners are welco­me. Eve­ry stu­dent begins knowing not­hing, and we expect to teach you eve­ryt­hing from scratch.

2) Most branc­hes run regu­lar begin­ners’ cour­ses, which might be once a week for a couple of months, or a single wee­kend. The­se are the best ways to start, but if you are only spen­ding a limi­ted time wit­hin reach of a branch (we get a lot of exc­han­ge stu­dents, for ins­tance), then get in touch and start trai­ning right away.

3) You will need only a whi­te t-shirt, dark sports trousers, and indoor trai­ning shoes to start with. We can lend you the neces­sa­ry equip­ment, such as swords and masks.

Age and Disability Policy

Swords­mans­hip trai­ning is appropria­te for any per­son who can beha­ve as a rea­so­nable adult. Eve­ry stu­dent should finish class healt­hier than they star­ted it.

Our youn­gest stu­dent star­ted at age 10; our oldest star­ted at age 58. It is uncom­mon for stu­dents youn­ger than 15 years old to be emo­tio­nal­ly and phy­sical­ly capable of hand­ling our regu­lar trai­ning, but that is not a hard and fast rule. We encou­ra­ge youn­ger stu­dents (tho­se under 16) to bring a parent with them to watch the first class, after which the school, the parent and the child toget­her can deci­de if the child is rea­dy. We requi­re writ­ten per­mis­sion from a parent or guar­dian for eve­ry stu­dent who is not legal­ly adult.
The school does not as yet run speci­fic children’s clas­ses.

We have never encoun­te­red a phy­sical­ly per­fect human being, so eve­ry­bo­dy starts out somew­he­re along the sca­le from inca­paci­ta­ted to super-ath­le­te. We defi­ne our­sel­ves by what we can do, not by what we can’t, and it is part of the School’s mis­sion to expand eve­ry student’s capa­bi­li­ties as far as pos­sible. In prac­tice, stu­dents have success­ful­ly trai­ned with a ran­ge of phy­sical disa­bi­li­ties inclu­ding seve­re bone mal­for­ma­tion, ampu­ta­ted limbs, and par­tial para­ly­sis. The school expects all stu­dents, as rea­so­nable adults, to take their phy­sical limi­ta­tions into account when trai­ning- if an exerci­se is unhealt­hy for you, don’t do it. Stu­dents with unusual­ly seve­re disa­bi­li­ties should make time with the instruc­tor (in free-trai­ning ses­sions, or in pri­va­te les­sons) to work out ways to adapt the Art to their par­ticu­lar body.
Trai­ning at the school can­not replace medical super­vi­sion or phy­siot­he­ra­py. If you have any doubts, con­sult your doc­tor and the instruc­tor befo­re star­ting trai­ning.

Payments

Pay­ments to the Suo­men His­to­rial­li­sen Miek­kai­lun Seu­ra Ry should go to this account: Nor­dea FI53 1015 3000 2149 03

Plea­se remem­ber to use your membership/reference num­ber, or explain in the mes­sa­ge field what it is for.