Following my trip to the WWOC event outside Hannover, I headed north to Hamburgh to meet up with my good friend Roland Warzecha who hosted me for several days at his lovely country house outside of the city. On the first full day of my visit we headed to the medieval town of Lubeck known…
Date Change for Mounted Tournament
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for this important announcement: Due to everyone being too mind-meltingly busy this month we have postponed the Mounted Games tournament till September 30th. However, since we have the time set aside this Sunday we will run a Practice TournamentSunday 26th August1pm - 4pmRed Colt Equestrian Farm Co-opcost: $5 (own…
Staged Sword Press
Show of hands – how many ‘originally’ came to their interest in swordplay from reading books such as ‘Yvain’, ‘Scaramouche’ or ‘Prince Caspian’? One – two – three … OK, hands down. And those whom were captured by blade work after watching television or movies such as ‘The Mark of Zorro’, ‘The Princess Bride’, Scaramouche…
Duello.TV: Recovering with Cuts and Refused, Double Sword Defence, & Longsword Cutting
Welcome to your training for this week at Academie Duello and on Duello.TV. Green cords continue their work on cutting, in this week using cuts to recover from bad positions; Blues recover from disadvantaged positions by passing back into refused; and Reds will be using two swords to cover against powerful cuts. Green Cord (Level…
A model way of practicing
I'm blogging at your from beyond the internet....... oooOOOoooOOOooo! heh heh. Today I was going to write about the differences inherent in each of us (I thought I wrote about this but I couldn't find it). Take a look at this article. It's wisdom though needs to be somewhat massaged for fencing. Basically the message…
CNAT Ate My Class
Just a brief reminder: Stage Combat and Bartitsu classes on Saturday 18 August are cancelled because your dutiful instructor will be at CNAT. See you next week! Comment on this post on our Posterous Blog.
The Amateur-Professional Divide
I just read an article by Isaac Butler on the difference between amateur and professional theatre in the USA. It was inspired by a blog post about the same topic in photography. In the era of cheap(er) high quality cameras and Photoshop, the quality of the amateur's work is often comparable to professionals, and so…
Event Report: World Wide Open Championships Germany
Greetings all, I have been rather silent on the Academie Duello blog over the past 2 weeks as I have been away in Germany at the third World Wide Open Championship that took place just outside of Hannover. I thought I'd take a few moments to share my impression and experiences of this Historical European…
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Don't look down!
Back from holidays and back to business. This week our riding skill is: 8. Walk and trot over single ground poles and a group of 3-4 trot poles Riding over ground poles is the beginning of learning how to jump, but is also a useful exercise in and of itself for improving a horse's way…
Video Lessons: Rapier cuts, refused, and two swords plus longsword thrusts
The core theme of this week across all class is strategic constraint. In Green cord (level 1) we explore the constraining capacity of the cut with the rapier, in Blue (level 2) how to create dominant positions when the sword begins from a withdrawn position, and in Red Cord (level 3) we explore how to…
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Read Israeli Sword Press … in Russian
We love this job – We read Japanese-language blogs about German sword fighting; Estonian press about a Canadian ‘knight’; and now Israeli sword-press in Russian! Notwithstanding the problems of the Internet; it has provided significant resources to students and practitioners of the WMA art wherever they are – and more importantly, given us the opportunity…
Practicing on the pass
Learn how to strike on the pass (aka passing lunge). I find that practicing some finer movements in slow practice can be very challenging with lunges. There's a point in a lunge where you lose all control until you stop lunging. This makes it very hard execute techniques that occur close to the start of…
Bartitsu Focus Fight Night
The second Friday of the month is upon us, which means it's Bartitsu Focus for sparring. See you at 8pm for walking stick, purring, pugilism and jujitsu. Comment on this post on our Posterous Blog.