When you’re involved in HEMA/WMA disciplines, your ethics have to be irreproachable. You’re using a potentially deadly weapon against another person with their full compliance. You need to be ‘honourable’ and faultless in your application of safety measures taken to protect your opponent, yourself and bystanders. Our mounted peers have another consideration when it comes…
Article on Academie Duello at the Maelstrom Core Blog
Our friends at Maelstrom Core Martial Arts have written up a very nice article about Academie Duello on their blog. Maelstrom is a school that focuses on Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) and some related arts from surrounding regions and disciplines. I have been consistently impressed with their attitude, teaching approach, and the calibre of their…
Read More... from Article on Academie Duello at the Maelstrom Core Blog
Beginner's Courses: June Cycle
Are you... ...looking for a fun, engaging workout? ...in the market for an awesome new hobby? ...searching for a great social environment to support your goals? ...preparing for a Zombie Apocalypse? If you answered "Yes!" to any of these questions, look no further, Academie Duello's Beginner's Courses are for you! Both our Beginner’s Courses, Taste of the…
Training Videos: Mezzo & Contra Tempo Attacks, Countering Refused, Rapier & Baton, Mezzano Cuts and Tactics
Welcome to Duello.TV's videos for the week of May 27th! This week 'practice' has been on my mind. Capo Ferro says that swordplay is made up of Nature, Reason, Art, and Practice. Practice being the disciplining of the body to enact the principles of art, that have been identified through reason, and governed by the…
Grooming Good Behaviour
Horsemanship Level 2: Grooming By the time you are testing Level 2 you should be able to groom your horse quickly and confidently. On the checklist for Level 2 is: 5. Groom horse; three reasons for grooming; common sense around horse. Grooming, and the reasons for grooming are pretty well covered in this level one…
Demonstrative Sword Press
For better or for worse, most of our students and membership come from those that first saw a demonstration of swordplay in a movie theatre, living room in front of the television or while out being cultural at the local playhouse. The ‘flash, action, and perception the of bravery and the romance’ of swordplay hook…
30 for 30 Swordplay Challenge!
It's common sense that if you want to get better at something, you need to practice. But practice takes time and commitment and setting a new habit can be challenging. That's where your friends can step in to help you. This June I am challenging you to join me and many others at Academie Duello…
The Jog
Horsemanship Level 2: Leading at the Trot At level 1 we asked that you demonstrate how to safely lead your horse for the simple purpose of moving him about from stall, to cross-ties, to arena. You can review this here. For level 2 you will also need to demonstrate leading at the trot. 4. Lead…
Digging Around with Sword Press
As our archery peers have been learning, concurrent with ourselves, ‘good’ culture such as movies and books can result in a renaissance of arts or interests too long ignored by our laptop culture. The trick is to exploit (in the nicest possible way) and reinforce public participation in and adoption of our art forms and…
Training Videos: Rapier recovering, Sidesword Covers, Longsword Precision
Happy Monday everyone. In Canada we're celebrating Victoria Day today -- seems like a good time to do some swordplay! This week at Duello and on Duello.TV we have a very interesting mix of classes. Green cords are working on getting out of situations where they have lost control of the sword. Blue cords are…
Read More... from Training Videos: Rapier recovering, Sidesword Covers, Longsword Precision
A Cool New Addition to the Duello Library
This Monday, Academie Duello was the proud recipient of one of 100 new reproductions of the I.33 Fechtbuch produced by Extraordinary Editions in cooperation with the Royal Armouries of the United Kingdom. I.33 is a very important manuscript as it is the earliest surviving European sword fighting manual, most likely dating to sometime in the…
Bartitsu/Baritsu Antagonism
What's in a name? There's a discussion in the Bartitsu Society about the naming of Bartitsu, a point of contention and a topic I mention at the start of my workshops. Sherlock Holmes Said Baritsu Our rediscovery of this martial art started with a reference in a story called The Adventure of the Empty House…
A day in the life
Horsemanship Level 2: Routines of the Horse There are many different equine lifestyles for the domestic horse, from grazing loose on the range 24/7, to kept in a barn with a variety of supplemental feeds, and everything in between. At level 2 we don't expect you to be able to descibe all the various horsekeeping…