This is one of our biggest barriers to growth. Who doesn’t fear looking like a failure in front of judging eyes? Who doesn’t see all eyes as potential judges? Even brand new students who have never held a sword before share experiences of feeling like they look stupid during their first class. Many resist ever…
More information on the new Cavaliere Program courses: Mounted Combat Playday An opportunity to put your skills to work. The term 'playday' usually denotes mounted games and other fun events on horseback in a semi-competitive format. This day will include informal competitions as well as opportunities to practice mounted games, sparring and horseback archery. Assistants…
I revisit the question “Why do swordplay?” on a regular basis. Many people ask me what my reason is for practising something that is arguably esoteric and a few centuries past its true usefulness. The answer may not be what people are expecting. At the end of the day, I feel that hundreds of years past its…
Happy New Year! With our winter program hiatus the New Year is a great time to re-examine, refresh, and renew. As our program evolves, the needs of our students change, and we are continually nudging, tweaking and adjusting our courses. For this fifth (yes, fifth!) year of the Cavaliere Program we have some larger program…
[Updated - Fixed link so it goes to correct facebook group - Dec 30, 2014] In the summer of 2013 I created a challenge, primarily for myself and a few senior students, to practice 30 minutes of swordplay each day for 30 days. The challenge went from my small initial group of invitees to a…
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Today is the first day of Kwanzaa. Many of us know of Kwanzaa, but not many of us know its origins and how it is celebrated. Today, I would like to talk about what the holiday truly means, and how we can apply its core principles to our lives as martial artists and practitioners of…
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Our equine friends at Red Colt wish you all peace, goodwill, and carrots in your stockings ... See you in 2015!
Regular practice is more important than quantity of practice. 5 minutes a day can be more profound for your long-term growth in a skill than 5 hours, once per month. Keeping a new skill in the active portion of the brain allows you to return to serious study of that skill (for example in a…
'No hoof, no horse,' goes the common saying, which indicates how vital hoof care is to the soundness of your horse. For this reason, in Horsemanship Level 3 and up, there is at least one lesson in the curriculum (and a section of the exam) devoted solely to the foot and farriery. For level 3…
A new year is coming so get into our next round of Beginner's Courses! Prepare for swinging swords and pulling punches. We offer three different courses which cover different avenues of Western Martial Arts: Fight Like Sherlock Holmes Bartitsu is a complex martial art with many interlocking skills. Our four-week Fight Like Sherlock Holmes course gives students…
Robert Borsos, my horseback archery instructor, raced down the lane and planted 12 arrows in the target. An impressive feat from horseback. As he rode past me back to the starting gate to do a second run, I noticed that he had passed his bow into the other hand and was going through a series…
I’ve recently become more aware of a helpful person in my classes at Academie Duello. This person is so helpful that they want to make sure that their partner never fails, never feels bad, and is successful in all that they do. One place I see this person in action is in target drills. In…
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Learn to fend off ruffians and rapscallions with Vancouver's most common weather-based accoutrement: the umbrella! With the rainy winter season returning to Vancouver we are pleased to announce the return of this very popular workshop. Loaner umbrellas and canes will be available, but we encourage to bring your own sturdy device, especially if there is…
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Horsemanship Level 3: When to Call the Vet No matter how well your look after your horses the inevitable day will come when you encounter an accident or illness that requires a vet call. For Horsemanship Level 3 we want you to know: 10. When to call the vet; types of wounds and treatment Again,…
Congratulations to everyone who examined in our November 28th rank examination at Academie Duello. This was a very special event as it not only had examinees within the Mastery program (our core adult martial arts program), but also had two members of our Youth Program who were the first ever to test for the Blue…
Horsemanship Level 3: Maintaining Good Health This is a continuation of last week's post on 9. Signs of good health, TPR, maintenance of health, signs of colic. Last week we looked at signs of health, including vital signs (temperature, respiration and pulse). This week's post focusses on keeping your horse healthy, which falls into two…
I love slow fencing and I think it is an essential part of training. It will help you develop strategic and tactical awareness, develop flow, and overcome your reactionary qualities and replace them with more effective responses. However, slow work on its own does not fully prepare you for combat. True martial combat exists without an…
Horsemanship Level 3: Signs of Good Health Item 9 on the Horsemanship Level 3 checklist is: 9. Signs of good health, TPR, maintenance of health, signs of colic. This is a fairly large topic, so I'm breaking it into two posts. Today, we'll look at signs of health. There are many, but you'll only have…