This past weekend was the 20th Anniversary of the Western Martial Arts Workshop hosted by the Chicago Swordplay Guild at the lovely Dekoven Center on the shores of Lake Michigan. I have had the opportunity to be teaching at this event for the past 10 years and it is always one of my favorite events…
What an amazing weekend! Carosella 2019 was our seventh iteration of the event but it contained many firsts. We finally brought Working Equitation to the event courtesy of Darcy Henkel and Westcoast Working Equitation; Benjamin Davis gave us a cutting workshop; we included on-ground longsword, sidesword, and rapier tournaments for the first time; and we…
Wow, Carosella 2019 is this week! And registration closes tomorrow, Thursday September 26th. If you've always been meaning to take a course in the Mounted Combat Program this is your absolute best time to do it. Normally courses like Intro to Mounted Combat and Beginner Horseback Archery are $200 each. But you can take both…
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The Carosella 2019 schedule is up! There may be some small timing adjustments, but this is the lay of the land for your workshops, tournaments, lectures, and clinics for a whole three days of awesome!
The Carosella Schedule is coming together and should be in its final form soon. In the meantime, here are some highlights! Friday 27 September Intro to Mounted Combat Ballet at the Barn Grappling and Pommel Plays Working Equitation Swordplay from the Falsemount Horsemanship Level 1 Mounted Sparring Equine First Aid Beginner Riding Saturday 28 September…
Carosella our three-day multi-disciplinary Mounted Arts symposium is coming up at the end of September. From the 27th through the 29th, Cornwall Ridge Farm will be host to two full days of workshops, clinics, lectures, and demos, followed by a fun and friendly tournament on Sunday.
How's your horse sense? Be sure to demonstrate safety and common sense when working around 1000 lb animals by correcting these common errors.
At Academie Duello we care both about the process of developing great students but also of creating great teachers. To that end I like to periodically share articles about the process of teaching and learning to teach. Dale Carnegie, in his influential How to Win Friends and Influence People, says "the sweetest sound to anyone…
At the end of July through beginning of August we had another set of students go through our Mounted Combat Intensive. As always, we held a playday on the last day, but this year we decided to open it up to other riders. Along with some of our regular participants, we were delighted to be…
Read More... from East Meets West in our Mounted Combat Program
Chances are, if you’re a member of Academie Duello, you started your path to mastery the same way I did: choosing a fundamentals class, learning the basic concepts of your chosen discipline, earning your green cord, and receiving your Academie Duello black binder upon conclusion of the course. Then comes the next step: transitioning from…
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Language is what makes memorization possible. Memorization is what makes analysis and improvement possible. Technical jargon can seem like a burden when you're first learning a martial art. European martial arts in particular have dozens of guard names, positions, attack types, and terms for movements of the sword and body. It can be daunting when…
Summer's in full swing here at Cornwall Ridge, and there are plenty of opportunities to swing a sword and ride horse with us. Start with the Mounted Combat Arts Intensive coming up in a week's time, join us for a playday on August 4th, and get back into the saddle with weekly adult classes or week-long kids' camps.
If you’re anything like me, then the reason you walked through the door at Duello was probably because you peered through a window one day with childlike wonder, fascinated at the scene before you. Rows of people, faces expressing the same glee I felt, all swinging swords at each other. I remember feeling, with absolute…