We couldn't have ordered nicer weather for our annual Cavaliere Tournament ... or asked for a better group of riders and volunteers! We had four teams of grooms out bright and early to make the horses beautiful, and once more our volunteer judges from Richmond Pony Club lent their critical eyes to check horses and…
Motivational Sword Press
As WMA/HEMA ‘scholars’, a lot of us study texts from the medieval or renaissance past, and then try to recreate the art using modern sword technology and protective equipment. The third part of this time-based triad is of course ‘the future’. And our efforts to engage young people in our interest and passion can only…
Sometimes there's only one way to practice
Randy's at it again. The take home message in his post, or, the one that I want to point out, is that there are some lessons of fencing that can only be learned by fencing. Call it what you will: being under pressure, no thinking time, art vs. practice they all lead to the same…
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Choreography is a Physical Story
I just watched The Raid: Redemption (and I thought colons were only used for sequels, silly me!) which is a film that was hyped in martial arts cinema, and fits in the sub-genre of "Take The Castle". It's a fun genre. Troy is an excellent example: fortified city, army within besieged by an army without.…
More from Forteza Fitness
So as I commented on in my last blog post, after we finished up at the Armizare Academy last weekend we visited Forteza Fitness, the home of the Chicago Swordplay Guild. They had a great space that was working its way toward becoming even cooler. Well, after we left they launched an Indiegogo campaign to…
Knightly Games Tournament this week!
Come one, come all! The Knightly Games Tournament has something for everyone this Sunday September 30th, at Red Colt Farm! As promised last week, here is a list of games and their descriptions. Groom Competition Grooms will have 45 minutes to turn out a well-groomed and correctly tacked up horse. Entrants may participate with their…
Swordplay Videos this week: Counter-attacking, Second Assalto, Longsword Wrestling
Welcome to this week in training at Academie Duello. In our training at the studio we are looking at counter-attacking as a method of defence (Green Cord), the second assault of sidesword (Blue Cord), and how to enter into grapples with the longsword when you've lost the crossing (Red Cord). On Duello.TV we have…
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Sword Press of Prudence and Poland
The privilege to practice our arts within city limits is a large part due to how we conduct ourselves as a mature, trust-worthy community of ‘real scholars’. That said, sometimes, for a whole variety of reasons, one of us – or worse, a member of the viewing public, gets hurt during a sword-themed event. Notwithstanding…
What's Happening in the Wrestling Workshop Tomorrow
So I've polished up the last parts of my outline for the Abrazare workshop tomorrow and it's going to be a great one. In the first part students will be learning the fundamentals of striking in the Italian system including hammer fists and open hand strikes. We'll be using strikes and counters to strikes to…
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Backwards
There's few worse positions in a fight than to have an opponent behind you. Visibility The biggest concern is that you can only see what's ahead of you, so an opponent behind you is effectively invisible. You cannot react to their motion unless they grab you and you can feel their position and their close…
Event and School Review: Armizare Academy and Forteza Fitness
I have just returned home from Armizare Academy in Racine, Wisconsin and must report that it was an excellent event all the way around with great classes, opportunities for collaboration, and sparring. For those who are unfamiliar with the event, this is it's second occurrence - the first time being in 2009 under the name…
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Tournament details & shedrow progress!
Entry forms are now available for our Knightly Games Tournament, to be held Sunday 30 September 2012 at Red Colt. The day will begin at 9am sharp for the Grooms competition. Teams of grooms will have 45 minutes to groom and tack up their horses to sparkling perfection before meeting the critical eye of our…
Nominal Nordic Sword Press
Aide from a brief stop-over in the nation’s capital, We’re in Europe for this weeks round-up. We do find it modestly frustrating that there are some truly excellent WMA/HEMA-related events being conducted on both continents, but there’s no ‘central, one-stop-shop’ of these sort of things that would assist the WMA traveller in making or amending…