If you live in Eugene, Oregon or Chicago, Illinois I'll be in your area in the next few weeks teaching workshops on Italian Knife, Longsword, Sidesword, and Rapier. This weekend on Saturday the 27th I'll be visiting Northwest Fencing Academy in Eugene Oregon to teach two workshops, one on Italian Knife and the second on…
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Last week I talked about freeing the sword hand by using the reins in one hand. This week we'll deal with what to do with that free hand as we 12. Safely carry and move a long object (dressage or buggy whip, flag, sword etc) at the walk and trot The purpose of this part…
We're into the last week of our rapier focused month at Academie Duello. Green cords are countering offhand parries, blue cords are exploring the diversity of rapier and dagger plays that can be found in each tempo, and red cords are concluding their unit on striking with the dagger. Also to keep your sidesword work…
Swords, bows and lances all compete for column-inch in today’s offering. Whatever your preference in WMA/HEMA interests, it appears (in the press at least) that you’re not alone out there. Not Your Padres’ Destreza MSN (New Delhi, India) 15 October 12 Medieval fight club This is not so much a press report as…
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Randy gives us all a good look at how our ego can interfere with our practice. Just read it.
Greetings, Duellists! It's that time of year again--time to dust off your costumes, gorge yourself on sweet stuff and then work it off swordfighting and rocking out with your friends! Details This coming Saturday, October 27th, join us at Academie Duello from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. for a Hallowe'en Cabaret featuring: a Pumpkin Carving…
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Cracked.com this week has thrown up an article entitled: The 5 Weapon Myths you Probably Believe Thanks to the Movies. Myth #4 is that the sword's edge was used to parry incoming blows. In the most masterful of internet-based research, the writer has cited a misguided article by John Clements and two -- as far…
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Up till now all discussing of the Riding 1 curriculum has implied the use of two hands on the reins. This is because we ride with English tack in the Cavaliere program and teach English style riding (for the reasons for this see these previous posts: English or Western pt I and pt II). However,…
This week at Academie Duello and on Duello.TV we're looking at advanced techniques for the unified defence of rapier and offhand (green cord), the 5th and 6th rapier guards with dagger (blue cord), and employing the dagger within disarms (red cord). We also have some longsword exercises that pertain to some of the exercises students…
Youth and utility dominate this week’s modest offering. My off-hand weapon is … my off-hand! IO9 (New York, New York) 14 October 12 This remarkable prosthetic hand was made for a 16th-century knight (Lauren Davis) “Don’t be swinging that in the castle keep … you’re going to poke someone’s eye out … or…
A really good post today taken from the Chivalric Fighting Arts Association by Maestro Sean Hayes of the Northwest Fencing Academy in Eugene, OR. Here's the post. It's specifically on developing tactical skills with the longsword. The second half is specific to that but the first half applies to any martial art. I'll summarize: …
If you work downtown, or perhaps have your Thursday afternoon free, come visit us at Victory Square at W. Hastings and Cambie St. this Thursday (the 18th) for Victory Fitness Day! Academie Duello, the Hastings Crossing BIA, and Kalev Fitness Solution are teaming up to offer a health and wellness fair from 3pm to 5pm…
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How do I choreograph a fight scene? To me, the question is the same as "How do I put on a magic show?" We're going to ignore issues of your venue, your lighting and backstage capabilities, the number of people to help you, and the critical props (in our case, weapons). We'll assume: You have…