All right! Today being the last day of this round of bootcamp, Academie Duello director Devon Boorman instructed our class. As always, it was super fun and inspiring learning from the Maestro d'Armi. For one, Devon let us indulge without restraint in our Medieval breakfast of wine and bread - the results of which you can…
June Workshops
"Sisu is a Finnish term loosely translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. However, the word is widely considered to lack a proper translation into any other language. Sisu has been described as being integral to understanding Finnish. The literal meaning is equivalent in English…
Concussions R Bad
Discussion of concussions often centres around contact sports. Here in Canada, news is made when hockey players must miss games, and the same is true of American football, and the most relevant for this Bartitsu blog: boxing. All you really need to know is hitting your head is bad. What is a concussion? “Concussion” means…
Summer at the Stables
Summer is just around the corner, and boy is it busy! So rather than start the series on Riding 1 this week, I thought I'd give an overview of what's happening in the coming months. June 2 June: This Saturday during the rank exams at Academie Duello we'll be presenting a number of Green Spurs…
The Usual Sword Press Suspects
Swords stolen (again); swords given and swords found. We do live in interesting times, and some of us, more than others. Wes Just another fight day – ‘if’ this was Vancouver! THE COURIER (Warwick, UK) 28 May 12 Rain failed to stop May Day sword play on May Day Rain failed to halt…
My Swordfit Bootcamp Experience - Day 10
Hallo, Finally, a Monday bootcamp to blog about! This morning, I have three videos for you. First: warm-up, including lunges, bum kicks, skipping and crab crawls. Second: the dice game resurrected from Day 2. This time, we rolled the die for ourselves and so ended up doing our own independed excercise. Then, we'd grab our…
[Video] Armoured Fun and Games at the South Hill Festival
This past Saturday Academie Duello was out at the South Hill Community Festival in Vancouver at Main and 49th. It was a beautiful day and was the first opportunity for our Youth Demo team to show off their stuff. Everyone did a fantastic job with showing of their quaterstaff skills and our adult demo team…
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Resources for Newcomers
Hey everyone, We have another guest blogger this week. Ivan Sim has been teaching the Taste of the Renaissance program for several months now.I asked him to put together a blog post directed more towards our newer students though in truth it's just as valuable for veteran students. Catch Ivan Saturdays for some fun sparring and…
Rank Exams Next Weekend!
"If we did all the things we we were capable of doing we would literally astound ourselves." - Thomas Edison. Rank Exams Saturday, June 2, 2012 12:00pm-3:00pm Come one, come all! Academie Duello students striving for their next cord are put to the test! All students are encouraged to participate and a rank exam participation…
[Photo Gallery] Handmade bows from Academie Duello's bowmaking workshop
Today marked the last day of our bowmaking workshop taught by Jamie MacDonald of Ravenbeak Natureworks. The workshop was a tremendous success and I had the opportunity to handle eight beautiful and effective pieces of art. The final day of the workshop focused on final sanding, oiling, affixing arrow rests, striking plates, and wrapping the…
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Stretching Towards Splits
How do you perform high kicks to prove you’re a “real martial artist”? Even educated and experienced stunt coordinators look for leg flexibility when choosing who will perform well in fight scenes. Why? Mostly because the public demands it. So, you have to increase your flexibility to give the people what they want. The Best…
A surprise guest instructor at Academie Duello - Marco Quarta
This morning we had the distinct pleasure of hosting Marco Quarta an instructor from Nova Scrimia for an impromptu instructor workshop. Marco showed up spontaneously in our doorway last week while in town meeting with the Italian Consulate and we roped him into showing us some of how his organization approaches the Italian martial arts.…
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My Swordfit Bootcamp Experience - Day 7
Hi All, Back again from another three day weekend, including a visit to Hell's Gate with Mom. (How wicked was your weekend?) On a less nefarious note- or more, depending on your take on swords- today's cutting was a drill used for last month's feature in Breakfast TV. Mané demonstrates it here: We also experimented with a…