If you enjoy training with Indian clubs but you’d like some more variety and challenge, the next stage is the Gada mace. Indian Clubs | Suria Akhara GADA Mace TrainingWatch this video on YouTube The two-handed grip for the “360” is more common among Western enthusiasts, and a great place to start to learn control…
There is an interesting phrase pair I have been hearing from a lot of instructors recently. I hear: “Practice makes perfect." Then an admonishment: “No. Practice makes permanent. So make sure you don’t practice poorly!" The first is a message of hope and resilience. If you practice and stay the course, you can find mastery.…
Riding Level 3: Dismount at the Walk There are times when it's neither convenient nor possible to wait till your horse has come to full halt before departing the saddle. Sometimes your horse or your opponent forces the situation; in other cases you may make the decision to get to the ground ahead of time. …
I watched no martial arts movies over the weekend, which would be unusual except for the fact that it is hockey season. Now there’s some interesting martial arts for you -- I wonder if those hockey sticks are as well balanced as my rapier! I find myself really looking forward to Class 3. The only…
What does it mean to make acting decisions in a fight scene? Being angry or frightened or stone-faced during a sequence of moves is perhaps the only thing you can maintain besides the accuracy of your fight choreography. However, there is so much more you can do before the first move and between phrases when…
♪"Stop, Hammer time!"♫ (Apologies to MC Hammer.) What is a cultural ‘artistic’ reference in our time, was an invitation to ‘bring it’ in medieval times. For nearly two centuries, the warhammer was a weapon of choice for mounted medieval armoured combat. However, there seems to be a distinct lack of (recorded) knowledge of the fighting techniques…
Read More... from Book Review: "Warhammer, the Forgotten Weapon" by James Roth
Exciting news for Academie Duello. We have scheduled our first Silver Cord examination for August 21st, 2015. This is excellent news for us as a school and for me as the Master Instructor. The Silver Cord is the fourth rank in our system and is the equivalent of a Provost level in swordplay schools from…
Open Barn & Work Party Up for some fencing of a different kind? Come out to our work party at Red Colt farm on Sunday April 26th. We need help putting in a few fenceposts and electric wire, checking hoses and troughs, clearing blackberries and generally getting the fields ready for the horses to be…
Every week since our office moved downtown I have walked by Academie Duello and looked through the window, admiring the brave students practicing their arts as I passed. I would conjure up inspiring visions of myself decked out like Red Sonja, or like some rogue female musketeer, brave in my mind, but not quite brave…
An article from 1928 about H. G. Lang’s walking stick advice posted on Bartitsu.org reminds us of some of the prominent features of Bartitsu, especially suppleness. As Tony Wolf, author/editor of the Bartitsu Compendium and organizer of the Bartitsu Society remarked, this short newspaper piece gives us “nothing groundbreaking”, but here’s the clipping and my…
Season 5 of Game of Thrones is underway and fans of the hit HBO TV series based off the best selling books by George R.R. Martin are all abuzz. As someone who has been reading the books since they first came out (and often eagerly waiting for what seems like an eternity for the next…
After their first night at sparring, a new student of mine engaged me in a conversation. He had enjoyed himself, but felt like he was flailing and a bit out of control. He thought perhaps he should return to simply doing drills for a while. Sparring is one of the primary ends of our art.…
"It's everyone from everywhere in one place." --Bruno Ramos, Knight's Blade HEMA Fresh from flying home from VISS at the end of last month, the statement above really resonated with my experiences with the Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium, and with my modest exposure to HEMA events internationally. Peers from all over the world fly across continents…