Happy New Year everyone! Over the holiday I wrote a post on the Academie Duello blog looking back over the past year at the school. I thought the same would be worth doing here on Duello.TV where so much has happened.
A Fruitful and Productive 2015
We are always working to improve the content on Duello.TV both in how we deliver it abroad as well as to better represent our learning and delivery at Academie Duello. This year one of our major new projects was shooting the Abrazare Level III video series for Unarmed and Dagger. Along with extensive treatment of hand-to-hand grappling and unarmed combat, these videos explore all of the traditional Italian dagger masters and their plays. This material covered more than 60 individual techniques. It was a lot of fun to shoot, though probably less so for Greg who did most of the falling.
When you have the opportunity to run material through hundreds of classes you get a lot of feedback and iteration. Nearly all of our longsword material (6 tracks worth of stuff) has been updated to fit our new pedagogy. We also shot a whole new series of videos on Approaching Gioco Largo that reflects how we have developed in the school in the past two years. We have already received tons of compliments so I know it’s working for others and not just for us.
Looking Forward to Great Things in 2016
In the new year we are growing our intermediate curriculum videos further which will mean improved and expanded material for rapier and sidesword as well. Look for more on the deceptive fight with rapier, as well as general combative strategy in approaching and receiving with sidesword. I’m working on developing all of the new curriculum plans for the school now, so look to see these changes reflect in DTV content as our calendar updates progress.
Beyond content changes, we have been making changes to Duello.TV under the hood. Our membership engine was upgraded which allowed us to have people pay directly instead of through Paypal. It has also setup the needed backbone for much better access control and progress tracking for individual members. This will make our new features with DTV possible.
Which brings us to the most exciting news. As you all know we closed down new Subscription sign-ups at the beginning of December and began moving forward on the format of the new Duello.TV. Our main goal this year is to upgrade DTV from a knowledge repository, with little guidance, into a learning portal that will help bring members through each stage of their learning. This new format will bring in some key features:
- Courses. Here you will go through smaller objective oriented lessons that includes new more focused videos, theory questions, and the capacity to get assessment on your form. We’re designing these with both individual practitioners and study groups in mind. There is a sample course available already, check it out and give us your feedback by email or in the comment boxes below each lesson.
- Video Assessment. We’re working out exactly how we want to do this, but the plan is to have the ability to review student’s form remotely, so we can better help practitioners truly excel in learning new techniques.
- Discussion. Our new site will allow for much more discussion around individual techniques and lessons. Here there will be the opportunity to learn more about the why behind our approach as well as how it relates to the various historical sources we use.
- Progress. As you move through content and assess on it, the new site will better allow you to track your own progress, or manage the progress of others in your group.
We plan to start rolling out trials to some of these new features very early in the new year to our paid Subscribers and we’ll be looking for feedback and guidance as we go.
What are you looking to get out of DTV? What features do you appreciate the most? What is lacking? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
It has been a great year of swordplay at Academie Duello and Duello.TV and it has been great to meet so many DTV followers in-person and by email. I hope to meet many more of you in the coming year both online and in person. All the best to you, and enjoy your training!
Devon & Greg
April 21-23 in Vancouver, Canada | Register here.
Six new lessons for sidesword and buckler are now available in the Video Library. Approaching Gioco Largo will take you forward to the opponent, starting from out of measure all the way to the final strike. Along the way you’ll learn how to attack with safety and in a way that will put your opponent at constant disadvantage, regardless of the guard they take or move to.