Today I wanted to talk about warming up. There is a lot of information available on the importance of warming upand the benefits we derive from it. Almost every class at the Academie starts with an instructor-led warm-up, featuring joint-movement, medicine ball-tossing and exercises. Something that has always been stressed at the Academie, though not…
Category: Programs
Sword fighting videos for this week at Academie Duello and on Duello.TV
Welcome everyone to another excellent week at Academie Duello and Duello.TV. This week we have some exciting news to report -- we have over 250 videos on Duello.TV about over 40 hours of content now available. We're also nearly all the way through creating lessons for our full Mastery Program calendar, which means we'll be…
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Exercises for an Independent Seat
We begin all our riding sessions with warm-ups for both horse and rider. For the horse, this involves progressing walk and trot, circles, changes of direction and suppling exercises to warm up the muscles and joints prior to exercise. For the rider, the warm up serves an additional function: to develop an independent seat. The…
The $99 WMA Library
Back in the spring, Clint reminded us about the importance of reading - and understanding - the texts necessary to progress within the Academie Duello ranks. Further, as an Instructor, he also reminded us of the importance to read, and possibly re-read the required texts whenever we have new experiences or knowledge. Reading should not…
Def'n: Robin Hood
Rob'n Hood (verb): to shoot an arrow directly into another arrow that you previously shot. Pictured is one of our Archery apprentice instructors, Aaron, proudly giving us a pictorial example; nice work!
Gentlemanly Conduct: Chivalry in Combat
The concept of chivalry originated with the knight. In fact, that’s all it means: knightly. The French word “cheval” means horse, and the thing that separated a knight from other soldiers was his steed. But we all know that chivalry goes beyond horse grooming, it is more closely related to the code of honour expected…
Sword Fighting Lessons on Duello.TV This Week
As of this week on Duello.TV we have over 250 videos posted! We have content on longsword, sidesword, rapier and dagger, cloak, buckler, and more. It's been exciting getting to this stage and we're looking froward to bringing even more cool stuff soon. This month all three levels of the Mastery Program are focusing on…
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Mount up!
The second item on the Riding 1 checklist is: 2. Mount safely and correctly from block or ground, picking up reins correctly Mounting your horse may seem like the simplest of skills, but it's one that takes a lot of practice to make smooth, effortless and kind to your horse. As you can see from…
Guest post: pushing to the next rank
Today's post features another guest poster. Nels Anderson is a recent addition to the Blue Cord. I requested his perspective because, as you'll soon read, Nels had to take an extended break from class, and returned the month before his successful test for Blue Cord. A great story on the power of practice. Thanks…
What's on your head?
When it comes to head protection, most of us use fencing masks, whether we're fighting with rapiers, knives, longswords, or anything else. Anyone who's done this for a while, however, will be well acquainted with the idea of mask failure. All masks have a limited lifespan: over time, and with repeated blows, the mesh loses…
The Riding Curriculum
Over the past dozen weeks or so I've written posts detailing the requirements for our Horsemanship Level 1. If you read through those posts, look at the relevant chapters of the Manual of Horsemanship, and attend at least three Horsemanship classes in which you have the opportunity to practice handling, grooming and tacking up, you…
Every moment in class is available for practice
I was standing firm in Longsword focus the other day, with my sword in posta longa. My partner was doing rising cuts to me through my sword. I realized after a few moments that I had a good opportunity to get some practice in. So while my partner reset I performed cuts to the air,…
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This month at Academie Duello and on Duello.TV
Rank examinations have just finished up today for the Mastery Program with two new Blue Cords entering the ranks. They have a whole new set of topics to look forward to as we roll over into the next month of curriculum at Academie Duello. Green Cord - Rapier and Offhand This month in Green Cord…
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My Swordfit Bootcamp Experience - Day 12
All right! Today being the last day of this round of bootcamp, Academie Duello director Devon Boorman instructed our class. As always, it was super fun and inspiring learning from the Maestro d'Armi. For one, Devon let us indulge without restraint in our Medieval breakfast of wine and bread - the results of which you can…
Concussions R Bad
Discussion of concussions often centres around contact sports. Here in Canada, news is made when hockey players must miss games, and the same is true of American football, and the most relevant for this Bartitsu blog: boxing. All you really need to know is hitting your head is bad. What is a concussion? “Concussion” means…
Summer at the Stables
Summer is just around the corner, and boy is it busy! So rather than start the series on Riding 1 this week, I thought I'd give an overview of what's happening in the coming months. June 2 June: This Saturday during the rank exams at Academie Duello we'll be presenting a number of Green Spurs…
My Swordfit Bootcamp Experience - Day 10
Hallo, Finally, a Monday bootcamp to blog about! This morning, I have three videos for you. First: warm-up, including lunges, bum kicks, skipping and crab crawls. Second: the dice game resurrected from Day 2. This time, we rolled the die for ourselves and so ended up doing our own independed excercise. Then, we'd grab our…
Resources for Newcomers
Hey everyone, We have another guest blogger this week. Ivan Sim has been teaching the Taste of the Renaissance program for several months now.I asked him to put together a blog post directed more towards our newer students though in truth it's just as valuable for veteran students. Catch Ivan Saturdays for some fun sparring and…