Building the Swordplay Grand Slam

Tennis, one of the few internationally followed duelling sports, has four major tournaments throughout the year that are held in esteem above all of the others. These events, "the majors", are hosted in four different countries and played on four different surfaces: Wimbledon (grass), French Open (clay), US Open (Decoturf), and Australian Open (Plexicushion). Each…

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Managing Safety in Martial Arts

Swinging a steel sword at someone, even a blunted one, seems risky. That's because it is. How do we manage to practice an art that is traditionally deadly in a way that allows us to keep practicing it – often rigorously – for a long time? There are three primary ways that we mitigate risks…

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Martial Challenges and Sparring Gatherings

From June 3rd to 5th, Academie Duello will be hosting the first Vancouver Martial Challenge. This event is part of an alternative type of event I want to promote within the Historical European Martial Arts community: events that focus on combat within the realm of the martial art rather than the martial sport. Here’s a…

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Trans*gressions: the struggles and victories of trans athletes

It is refreshing to be alive in a time to see so much progress in our society in regards to LGBTQ* acceptance and civil rights – though we still have a long way to go despite a lot of recent victories.  This year in June we saw the Supreme Court of America legalize same-sex marriage. …

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Women's Only Tournaments

I have loosely followed a couple of different conversations that have touched on this topic within the HEMA community. The first is about a Trans woman who has been denied entry into the Pacific Northwest HEMA gathering Women’s Longsword tournament. (In short on this: I am in support of her inclusion. I think that at best…

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