For me the videos were incredibly useful. In my area there are no longer any sort of fencing clubs other than the occasional SCA group. The videos provide an incredibly useful resource that I find far more engaging than studying the various manuscripts on my own.

I have been involved in martial arts for 36 years and this is the best class I have ever been immersed in. Bar none! The volume of information, outstanding presentation skills, engagement with the practitioners, and ease of access to the library of coaching films, as well as the evaluation/ progress process and group forums, make it an all encompassing experience. I highly recommend it.

This intensive helps me see the connective tissue between so many of the individual techniques I had observed and learned. There is no better on-the-spot place to get this knowledge, and it is invaluable to my sword training going forward. This is without even mentioning the lessons in training methodology, which are cutting edge in terms of adult learning – applicable across a wide field indeed.

I signed up because I’m so novice in the art that I felt like I didn’t have the tools to train alone. Being a novice, it did seem intimidating to be joining a mastery-oriented community – but having completed the program, I can’t even imagine a past version of myself not taking that step into the unknown. I’m now immersed in swordplay, I have access to a community that I feel comfortable within, despite being an enormously reticent person, and I have a rich training plan that includes multiple options and directions – forms, partner work, historical source study, recapping the basics… I’ve acquired a solid grounding in the verbal, physical and mental vocabulary of swordplay, and I also know where to turn for continuing guidance.

I highly recommend this Instructor Intensive to anyone who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of the technical side of our art, and to anyone who wishes to learn how to learn (or how to teach) martial arts more effectively. It is a lot of good information and practice delivered in a welcoming environment full of integrity and martial authenticity. “Intensive” is an apt word in the course’s title.