Greetings, Duellists! It's that time of year again--time to dust off your costumes, gorge yourself on sweet stuff and then work it off swordfighting and rocking out with your friends! Details This coming Saturday, October 27th, join us at Academie Duello from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. for a Hallowe'en Cabaret featuring: a Pumpkin Carving…
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Cracked.com this week has thrown up an article entitled: The 5 Weapon Myths you Probably Believe Thanks to the Movies. Myth #4 is that the sword's edge was used to parry incoming blows. In the most masterful of internet-based research, the writer has cited a misguided article by John Clements and two -- as far…
Read More... from Cracked.com perhaps not the best authority on historical swordplay
Up till now all discussing of the Riding 1 curriculum has implied the use of two hands on the reins. This is because we ride with English tack in the Cavaliere program and teach English style riding (for the reasons for this see these previous posts: English or Western pt I and pt II). However,…
This week at Academie Duello and on Duello.TV we're looking at advanced techniques for the unified defence of rapier and offhand (green cord), the 5th and 6th rapier guards with dagger (blue cord), and employing the dagger within disarms (red cord). We also have some longsword exercises that pertain to some of the exercises students…
Youth and utility dominate this week’s modest offering. My off-hand weapon is … my off-hand! IO9 (New York, New York) 14 October 12 This remarkable prosthetic hand was made for a 16th-century knight (Lauren Davis) “Don’t be swinging that in the castle keep … you’re going to poke someone’s eye out … or…
A really good post today taken from the Chivalric Fighting Arts Association by Maestro Sean Hayes of the Northwest Fencing Academy in Eugene, OR. Here's the post. It's specifically on developing tactical skills with the longsword. The second half is specific to that but the first half applies to any martial art. I'll summarize: …
If you work downtown, or perhaps have your Thursday afternoon free, come visit us at Victory Square at W. Hastings and Cambie St. this Thursday (the 18th) for Victory Fitness Day! Academie Duello, the Hastings Crossing BIA, and Kalev Fitness Solution are teaming up to offer a health and wellness fair from 3pm to 5pm…
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How do I choreograph a fight scene? To me, the question is the same as "How do I put on a magic show?" We're going to ignore issues of your venue, your lighting and backstage capabilities, the number of people to help you, and the critical props (in our case, weapons). We'll assume: You have…
This week at Academie Duello we're deepening our study of the rapier with further use of the offhand, dagger, and disarms. We're also checking in regularly on our work with the sidesword, this week with a series of excellent cutting exercises. Meanwhile we've started shooting new longsword content from our Longsword Focus classes. So look…
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Well, sort of new. The name of the Riding & Horsemanship classes has changed to the Cavaliere Class. Why? Because we've added 45 minutes of sword drills and practice time to the end of class. You'll still get your all your horsemanship instruction -- feeding, grooming, vet & first aid, conditioning etc -- as well…
While We were skating the internet for the appropriate subject-relevant press items, We got to musing … why doesn’t somebody just collect (loot) all of these references and make a newspaper already? A newspaper … with real sections … like this … The Sword Press News Expositor Reporter Times (Gloucester, Ontario) 08 October 12…
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I really enjoyed this particular post of Randy's. And not just because he's writing about cats; there are a few gold nuggets to talk about. The first is practicing what you're not good at. Ignoring techniques that that you find challenging mean certain defeat when an opponent tries it on you (whether they're aware that…
This is a tricky subject, and I hope you will discuss these issues with myself and your friends to figure out your own opinions. This post is going to be a multifaceted exploration, because I'm not settled on all the factors. Ethics is messy, so let's get our hands dirty. War, Police, Politics And I…
It's the turn of a new month so again our curriculum focus shifts. This month Green Cords (level 1) will be learning to use their offhand to support their defence, Blue Cords (level 2) will be stepping into the fundamentals of Rapier and Dagger, and Red Cords (level 3) are working into rapier disarms with…
We couldn't have ordered nicer weather for our annual Cavaliere Tournament ... or asked for a better group of riders and volunteers! We had four teams of grooms out bright and early to make the horses beautiful, and once more our volunteer judges from Richmond Pony Club lent their critical eyes to check horses and…
As WMA/HEMA ‘scholars’, a lot of us study texts from the medieval or renaissance past, and then try to recreate the art using modern sword technology and protective equipment. The third part of this time-based triad is of course ‘the future’. And our efforts to engage young people in our interest and passion can only…
Randy's at it again. The take home message in his post, or, the one that I want to point out, is that there are some lessons of fencing that can only be learned by fencing. Call it what you will: being under pressure, no thinking time, art vs. practice they all lead to the same…
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I just watched The Raid: Redemption (and I thought colons were only used for sequels, silly me!) which is a film that was hyped in martial arts cinema, and fits in the sub-genre of "Take The Castle". It's a fun genre. Troy is an excellent example: fortified city, army within besieged by an army without.…