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…
This week at Academie Duello we're deepening our study of the rapier with further use of the offhand, dagger, and disarms. We're also checking in regularly on our work with the sidesword, this week with a series of excellent cutting exercises. Meanwhile we've started shooting new longsword content from our Longsword Focus classes. So look…
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Well, sort of new. The name of the Riding & Horsemanship classes has changed to the Cavaliere Class. Why? Because we've added 45 minutes of sword drills and practice time to the end of class. You'll still get your all your horsemanship instruction -- feeding, grooming, vet & first aid, conditioning etc -- as well…
While We were skating the internet for the appropriate subject-relevant press items, We got to musing … why doesn’t somebody just collect (loot) all of these references and make a newspaper already? A newspaper … with real sections … like this … The Sword Press News Expositor Reporter Times (Gloucester, Ontario) 08 October 12…
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I really enjoyed this particular post of Randy's. And not just because he's writing about cats; there are a few gold nuggets to talk about. The first is practicing what you're not good at. Ignoring techniques that that you find challenging mean certain defeat when an opponent tries it on you (whether they're aware that…
This is a tricky subject, and I hope you will discuss these issues with myself and your friends to figure out your own opinions. This post is going to be a multifaceted exploration, because I'm not settled on all the factors. Ethics is messy, so let's get our hands dirty. War, Police, Politics And I…
It's the turn of a new month so again our curriculum focus shifts. This month Green Cords (level 1) will be learning to use their offhand to support their defence, Blue Cords (level 2) will be stepping into the fundamentals of Rapier and Dagger, and Red Cords (level 3) are working into rapier disarms with…
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…
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…
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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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.…
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…