Academie Duello started in August 2004 at a defunct outdoor skating rink in the heart of downtown Vancouver, Canada. The space cost us nothing, other than the time and effort it took to get permission from the province, who owned the rink. It was covered, lit at night, and centrally located. We had enough money…
Read More... from Humble Beginnings: How to Start a Sword Fighting School
Let the clash of steel be what rings in your new year! Academie Duello Centre for Swordplay and Mission-Possible are hosting one of this year's most unique and exciting evenings of dancing, fun activities, canapés, and swordplay! Why not enjoy a fun New Year's Eve and support charity at the same time? Get your tickets…
It's back — the fourth Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium! February 17th to 19th, 2017 will be a weekend of amazing learning right in the heart of beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. The theme this year is This vs That: An Exploration of Martial Asymmetry. This is a do-not-miss event and I heartily recommend that you attend.…
The play She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen is a show breathing new life into theatre. Its reliance on sword fights at important moments is making the study of stage combat more popular, and because the story focuses on two sisters, it encourages women toward action-hero roles. Here's the short synopsis from the publisher, Samuel…
We’ve all got one. That self-inflicted bump on your head, scrape on your arm, or a knick on your cheek. We’ve all had that moment. The moment when you made a bad parry and deflected your sword into your own face. That time when you were making a circular flourish with a stick and clipped the side of…
It’s that time of year again; trees have lost their leaves but gained some twinkly lights. And it’s time to knuckle down to do some serious gift shopping for your loved ones. This year your friendly neighborhood swordfighting school has you covered. Numerous studies have demonstrated that when purchasing gifts for people one of the…
I recently received another inquiry about Bartitsu by email. There are no bad questions. This was the question, which is very common, reasonable thing to ask when deciding where to put your time and effort: Hello David, I'm interested in learning Bartitsu. I'm wondering if you could tell me how effective it is compared to…
This past Friday, Academie Duello held a rank exam with 14 students across both adult and youth programs examining for Scholar and Free Scholar levels. We had a tremendously full house with somewhere between 60 and 70 fighters on the floor and dozens of observers. Exams are challenging affairs and we are not afraid to put…
Riding Level 4: Mounting, Dismounting, and Stirrups The second item on the Riding Level 4 assessment is 2. Mount - Dismount. Adjust stirrups mounted. Obviously, by the time you've reached level 4, you already know how to mount and dismount. However, now we expect you to do so smoothly and lightly. Mounting You may use…
I am a big fan of Adorea Olomouc, a stage combat troupe from the Czech Republic. I've shown their YouTube videos to Academie Duello's Demo Team for both stage combat training goals and filming sword fighting. I have to apologize to my regular stage combat students that I didn't direct you to them sooner. What…
When you’re working with a partner and you see them making an error it can seem like the right thing to give them a correction in order to help them improve. However, unsolicited help is often not help at all, it’s harm. The Problems with Unsolicited Help It’s disempowering 90% of learning happens in absence…
Bartitsu's fusion of martial arts has jujitsu at its core. "Jujitsu" mean "The art of suppleness" in Japanese, and focuses on core "soft" techniques such as: Joint locks and chokes Takedowns Ground fighting However, there are strikes in jujitsu which are called "atemi" in Japanese. These strikes are almost identical to the techniques in katate,…
"Just the facts, ma'am," Attributed to Detective Sergeant "Joe" Friday Are Longswords Larger in Texas? DENTON RECORD-CHRONICLE (Texas) 30 October 2016: The members of Denton’s ARMA group are working hard to prepare themselves physically and intellectually for their bi-annual meeting on the medieval martial arts. The article describes their aims and intentions. It also features…
Read More... from Factual Sword Press: News for October 2016