Welcome to Duello.TV!

Hello and welcome!

Greg and I are excited to have you here and on this journey with us. We are really passionate about European martial arts and the journey of mastery (I even did a TED talk on the subject). The goal of this site is to help support others on that same journey, and to help make it accessible, fulfilling, and fun.

Duello.TV is a pretty massive repository and the road of mastery can be a daunting one, so I wanted to take a few moments to help you get started right. Here’s how we think it’s best to approach the site:

Get Some Equipment

If you’re brand new to European Martial Arts the first thing you’ll need to do is either purchase some training equipment or fashion something for yourself. The simplest starting place is a four-foot long dowel with a ½” diameter. Mark off 6″ for a single-handed grip (rapier), and mark off 12″ for a double-handed grip (longsword).

You can get a Duello.TV wooden longsword starter kit from our partner Purpleheart Armoury. We hope to have steel longsword and rapier kits available soon.

Start With the Fundamentals

Whether you are a brand new practitioner or a pro, we recommend that you check out one of our fundamentals courses as a starting place:

Start with Rapier Fundamentals

Start with Longsword Fundamentals

These courses will help you establish a solid foundation in the body mechanics, postures, attacks, defences, strategy, and theory of these arts. Each unit includes a quiz and a short practice assignment. Go as fast or as slow as you want.

For those coming from other swordplay backgrounds, even Italian ones, I guarantee you will find lots of valuable insights and refinement. Fundamentals are the heart of any practice, and your training will bring you back to them over and over.

Set a Training Rhythm

Set aside regular time to forward your practice. Whether you decide to do one lesson per day (about 15 minutes) or to make two dedicated hour long practice sessions each week, regularity is more important than quantity. Set a schedule now and see if you can get a friend to be a part of it with you.

Read more about how to be successful in at home practice…

Read the Training Blog

Every week I put up an article about swordplay, mastery, learning, teaching, motivation, and many of the other subjects that interest me and I feel are valuable to students of the art. Here are a few I recommend as a starting place:

Three Things You Should be Saying to Your Students (or yourself!)

How To Keep an Effective Training Journal

Connect with Us

We are looking for ways to make Duello.TV more useful, motivational, and engaging. We genuinely want this to be a resource that helps you become a swordplay Master. Please connect with us and let us know what you feel will be the best way we can help you do that: web contact form, email, Facebook, or any comment box on the DTV site.

I’ll be in touch in a few days to check in. I hope you enjoy being a part of Duello.TV!

Devon & Greg