Pain and Glee: Enjoying Your Training
August 14, 2018 2 Comments
Many are afraid that if they really enjoy themselves they’ll lose their edge. Yet I do think there is much more to be gained from the type of joy that is equated with growth, fulfillment, and satisfaction.
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News & Updates
Expert Weapons Packs
May 22, 2018
Expert-level packs are ideal for students who want to take their training to higher levels with advanced techniques and strategies. You’ll hone your mechanical proficiency and build high level skills that would make any advanced martial artist envious!
Novice Weapons Packs
April 19, 2018
Novice-level packs are ideal for students who want to get the fundamentals of swordplay in a clear, concise and progressive method of training and advancement.
Online Longsword Course, Starts April 1
March 18, 2018
Helping people build the habit of mastery is the goal behind our very first co-operative online course. We want to bring together practitioners from all over the world to learn and level-up their longsword skills all together at the same time.
Featured
Why Fight Light? Using Less Gear When Sparring
May 22, 2018 No Comments
A bulk of medieval and renaissance fighting manuals depict swordplay in shirts, jerkins, or gambesons, generally with light gloves, with both two handed and one handed weapons. These are often presented alongside depictions of combat in full armour.
The 5 Minutes Per Day Practice Regimen
March 19, 2018 No Comments
Rhythm is the most important thing to cultivate on the path to mastery. Whether you leverage our online course or simply get started with your own practice ritual, start making those little steps. Five minutes of real practice time honours your commitment more than hours of good intentions.
The Three Defensive Principles, A Cross Martial Approach
August 6, 2018
These are principles that we look to in our approach to armed and unarmed fighting. In particular I look to them not just as single avenues upon which you can create defense but as a triumvirate that you look to combine as much as possible.
Practice Pinpointing Your Coaching Corrections
July 30, 2018
What makes an expert coach is that they have a strong sense of the goals of given techniques, and have made lots of attempts to pinpoint key areas and give focused corrections.
Making Masters
July 25, 2018
How do you really make someone a master? How do you know where you should set the goal posts and when you’ve reached them? We’re defining the route while we walk it.
How to Get People to Drill
July 17, 2018
How do I make the other people in my group drill and do exercises? The short answer is that you don’t “make” them do anything. But with a bit of empathy you may find an effective strategy to bring a few of them on board and increase your overall quality of practice.
Event Report: Lord Baltimore’s Challenge 2018
July 9, 2018
I had the pleasure this past weekend of being a judge, ring director, and instructor at Lord Baltimore’s Challenge in Washington, DC, an event put on by David Biggs and a large crew of people from diverse groups such as Maryland KDF, Virginia Academy of Fencing, and the DC-area SCA chapters.
Getting Over the Hump of a New Routine
July 2, 2018
Coming back after a long break? Stepping it up in a way you haven’t before? Fact: the first week will be hard.
Training Rhythms
June 25, 2018
Don’t expect the schedule to stay the same forever. It’s normal and natural for a rhythm that worked last month to not work now. Here are some rhythms that work for others and might work for you.
Event Report: Vancouver Martial Challenge 2019
June 19, 2018
The Vancouver Martial Challenge is a weekend focused on the joy of sparring in a relaxed and collaborative environment. Throughout the weekend there are also individual challenges between participants and personal challenges that up the stakes and create a spectacle for the event.
How to Saber a Bottle of Champagne
June 13, 2018
This past weekend we held a charity event at Academie Duello called Duelling with Cause. It featured a tournament, swordplay demonstrations, and a lot of cool audience participation. One of the things that the attendees got to try out was sabering a bottle of champagne. Here’s how it’s done.
Pushing Your Students Enough
June 5, 2018
Making sweat angels on the floor after every training session or working out to the point of injury aren’t going to get you very far very fast. But if you never push yourself you’ll also never have your capabilities expand to encompass new possibilities.