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…

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Be Prepared

Why do we study self-defence? To be prepared for a situation that may never happen: a personal attack. Let’s take a look at other problems we normally prepare for, and situations we often ignore. Don’t Panic Take the advice of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. When reading over these negative scenarios and thinking about…

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Centre of the Canadian Universe Sword Press

Toronto and jousting items dominate this Easter offering. Toronto – swords ‘and’ jousting … who knew? Of more important note though, our community recently suffered an accident that deserves a moment’s consideration to ensure that we’re doing everything possible to take care of weapon safety during training, displays or competitions. Wes   A Centre for…

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Stage Combat Priorities 2: Style and Expertise

The overall goal of stage combat, as we discussed in episode 0: The Illusion of Violence, is creating a violent scene that is safe for the actor and believable to the audience in the context of the show. Last time, we broke down some of the ways in which our first priority, Safety, plays out…

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Stage Combat Priorities 1: Safety... Boring!

This is really the first post in my series on the basics of stage combat and how it is applied in real productions. Last time, I talked about the illusion of violence, and how the effect to the audience must match the rest of the production (a fairy tale should be magical and melodramatic, while…

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