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The Sword Guy Podcast

Health & Wellness Podcasts

Guy Windsor and friends discuss sword training, historical swordsmanship, research, and other topics. Guests include well-known instructors and experts in the field. You can support the show at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy.

Location:

United Kingdom

Description:

Guy Windsor and friends discuss sword training, historical swordsmanship, research, and other topics. Guests include well-known instructors and experts in the field. You can support the show at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy.

Language:

English


Episodes

Writing Historical Novels: the Facts and the Fiction, with Elizabeth Chadwick

3/15/2024
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/writing-historical-novels-the-facts-and-the-fiction-with-elizabeth-chadwick/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Elizabeth Chadwick is an award winning best-selling writer of historical fiction. She has been writing since she was a teenager, but it took many years and many books before she was finally published. She has had great success since, so it’s a good example for aspiring writers out there to keep going! In our conversation we talk about some of the historical figures which feature in Elizabeth’s novels, including William Marshal, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Joan of Kent. Have a listen to find out what fascinating lives these people led, and also how Elizabeth separates the myths from the facts in the delicate balancing act that is writing a good historical novel about people who actually existed. We talk about the Akashic Record, which is a way that Elizabeth’s friend Alison can psychically tap into the past. Alison is able to see, hear, feel, touch, and even taste what has gone before. Whatever your beliefs, this is a fascinating way of researching historical characters and events, and check out this article Elizabeth wrote for The History Girls, on the Akashics: https://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2015/01/alternative-research-psychic-strand-by.html Here's Alison's description of William Marshal: "He has incredible courage. He's like a bouncy castle: very buoyant. He's riding with a lot of highborn people. He's awed by them but not overawed. He feels as if he's in the right place. He has a good sense of his own worth. He's very flexible and alert, responds not just in a chitchat way but deeply and appropriately. He knows how to say the right thing at the right time and it comes easily to him. He's alert and all his senses are awakened. He has dark hair, long cheeks, strong nose. His clothes are intricate. His eyes look dark but inside they feel light. I'm seeing the youth and the older man mingled. It is difficult for others to gauge what he's thinking. He has very dark eyes: might be brown might be blue. There is a woman laughing and William is making her laugh by telling her jokes about the English being loutish and stupid. It's probably Poitiers they are going to. The woman is Eleanor of Aquitaine (Alison had several stabs at saying Poitiers, and prompted by me. She was unsure how to pronounce it). Elizabeth’s website is https://elizabethchadwick.com/

Duration:01:32:18

What is a volta? A very detailed examination of Fiore, with Dario Magnani

3/1/2024
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/what-is-a-volta-a-very-detailed-examination-of-fiore-with-dario-magnani/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy My guest today is Dario Alberto Magnani, better known as Mr. Thokk, who was a longtime scholar of the Italian single combat tradition from the late medieval/early Renaissance period, and a world renowned historical martial arts instructor and gear designer. As a swordsman, he specialises in northern Italian fencing from the early 15th to the 16th centuries, i.e., Fiore, Vadi and into the Bolognese. And he's a successful competitor and sought after instructor. In the late 2010s Dario became a historical martial arts professional, between his teaching activities and the founding of Thokk Personal Armor, a business through which he designs and sells innovative historical martial arts gear, such as the Thokk gloves. The reason I'm chatting to Dario is because I met him in Spain at the Panoplia, and we ended up spending probably five or six hours of the weekend discussing details of Fiore stuff and other things. In the conversation recorded for the podcast, we pick up where we left off in Spain, with an in-depth discussion about the Three Voltas of the Sword in Il Fior di Battaglia. If you own a copy of From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice, you need to listen to this episode with your book and a red pen in hand! Here's the link to the video giving an example of tornare: guywindsor.net/dvsthrust And the article, One Play, One Drill, Many Questions.

Duration:02:41:27

Horse Armour at the Royal Armouries, with Eleanor Wilkinson-Keys

2/16/2024
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/horse-armour-at-the-royal-armouries-with-eleanor-wilkinson-keys/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Today’s episode is with Eleanor Wilkinson-Keys, who is Assistant Curator of Arms and Armour at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. She has an MA in Medieval Studies from the University of Leeds, and works with the European armour and edge weapons collections, which makes us all extremely jealous, and the Asian and African collection which also makes us extremely jealous. She works there with Natasha Bennett, who you may recall from Episode 82. In our conversation, we talk about how Eleanor got into her career and why a jousting helmet sparked her interest in working at the Royal Armouries. Ellie’s particular interest is in later jousting, when the kit got really weird and wonderful. We chat about some of the fantastic decoration on both the horses’ and knights’ armour, such as dragons, snails with wings, and even squirrels. We also talk about the best way to visit a big museum where there is just too much to see. Ellie tells us which pieces at the Royal Armouries she would make a beeline for. Finally, Guy sets Ellie a challenge, and if you are looking at this after 28th November 2024, you’ll be able to see the results of that challenge! Photos: https://royalarmouries.org/collection/object/object-20471 https://royalarmouries.org/collection/object/object-1292

Duration:00:57:27

Bronze Age Britons Were Weird, with Dr James Dilley

2/2/2024
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/bronze-age-britons-were-weird-with-dr-james-dilley/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Dr James Dilley is an archaeologist and craftsman specializing in prehistoric technologies such as flintknapping, and casting bronze weaponry. He is the founder of Ancient Craft, a company that provides expertise and experiences to individuals and educational institutions. James has three archaeology degrees, which seems like an awful lot. He has a BSc exploring polished stone axes, an MA focusing on bone flintknapping hammers, and a PhD from the University of Southampton on Upper Paleolithic hunting technology. So if you get lost in the woods with just a stone, James is clearly your man. In our conversation, we talk about how James got into his career and started Ancient Craft. We talk about casting swords out of bronze, how to do it and what the swords are like. Listen right to the end for a bonus question about hilt design. I can confirm, casting your broadsword is really good fun. I did that with James a while ago. Here’s a video of me casting the sword: ​https://vimeo.com/886422500 Heres a link to the Grotsetter sword: https://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-100-102-426-C&scache=1yxxwujgq5&searchdb=scran We also talk about some of the weird finds (or things we haven’t found) from the Bronze Age period. For example, the Tollense battlefield site in Germany, where after the huge battle all the bodies were just left there. Another weirdness is the complete lack of Bronze Age armour found in Britain, when there was loads just over the Channel in France. Why didn’t the Brits wear armour? Were they just too brave? Also, why didn’t they eat any fish in Bronze Age Britain? And what did they do with their dead? Why can’t we find human bones? Surely the theory that people were cannibals can’t be true? Listen to the episode for speculative answers to these questions and more!

Duration:02:04:10

Community and the Club with Samantha West

1/19/2024
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/community-and-the-club-with-samantha-west/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Sam West is an instructor at the Dueling Weapons Academy of Renaissance Fencing aka DWARF, a historical martial arts club in Barrie, Ontario, where she teaches Italian longsword, 1.33 sword and buckler, and rapier. We chat about running a non-profit club and creating an open and inclusive space for everyone to take part in HEMA. Sam is passionate about relating the club to the community, and she tells us about the different projects they get involved in to help the local community and also create awareness of HEMA. Amongst other things, she's also involved with running The Gathering of the Blades, which is not a tournament. It’s a historical martial arts buffet of a weekend seminar. We also talk about smallsword, aka murder spikes, access to equipment, bringing together women in HEMA, translating sources, and starting your own club to have people to play with. You can find Sam’s school at Barrieswords.ca.

Duration:01:40:57

The Politics of Eastern and Western Martial Arts, with Jonathan Bluestein

1/5/2024
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/the-politics-of-eastern-and-western-martial-arts-with-jonathan-bluestein/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Jonathan Bluestein is a martial artist and author who contacted Guy with some interesting questions related to his research. Jonathan is looking into the similarities and differences between the traditional Chinese martial arts and traditional European Martial Arts, both in Medieval and Renaissance times as well as in our everyday lives today. Jonathan’s background is in traditional oriental martial arts in general and he practices and teaches traditional Chinese martial arts from his school in Israel. He is the author of a number of books on the martial arts as well as other topics. He’s also a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine. Jonathan is currently in the midst of working on a book called Martial Arts Politics Explained. In this episode we discuss how we might classify different types of martial arts school, and how the structures and hierarchies of different types of schools inform the politics within the school. Jonanthan explains how Chinese martial arts schools work and the culture of family and disciples within them. We discuss how the cultures within Western historical martial arts schools compare. This is a wide ranging conversation which also covers philosophy, the war in Israel, straight swords versus curved swords, and Chinese medicine. You may find this list of terminology useful, which was helpfully provided by Jonathan: Names of Jonathan’s teachers: Master Nitzan Oren Grand-Master Zhou Jingxuan Master Sapir Tal Master Stephen Jackowicz Master Brian Hall Martial arts Jonathan has studied and have taught: Xing Yi Quan Pigua Zhang Jook Lum Southern Mantis Bagua Zhang Li Jia Shaolin Quan (Li Family Shaolin) Weapons mentioned: Dao (Chinese curved sword) Miao Dao (Chinese equivalent of the Nodachi/Odachi) Historical figures and periods: General Qi Jiguang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_Jiguang Japanese Pirates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wokou Meiji Restoration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restoration Chinese Cultural terms: Wuguan - 'Martial Hall' - Chinese equivalent term to 'Dojo'. Kwan - the Cantonese pronunciation of 'Guan', and short for 'Wuguan'. Gongfu - A high level of skill, acquired through longstanding effort and practice Gongfu Family (Gongfu Jia) - the martial arts family within a given lineage, of teachers and disciples Shifu - a teacher in a traditional relationship of a Master and an apprentice Tudi - a disciple of a Shifu - the Apprentice Bai Shi - the ceremony with which a Tudi is accepted into the Gongfu Family.

Duration:02:12:07

Medieval Music and the Troubadours, with Alix Evans

12/22/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/medieval-music-and-the-troubadours-with-alix-evans/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Alix Evans is a professional performer and teacher of historical music, founder of Falsa Musica, and has even fenced rapier in the SCA. We talk about what led Alix into becoming a musician, with a mention of her husband David Biggs. (Check out his episode here.) Alix explains what it is about historical music that is so interesting and how it differs from how music is commonly thought to work today. To listen to some troubadour music performed by Alix, at the end of the episode you can hear: Troubadours came from Occitan in around the 11th and 12th centuries. They were a diverse set of people, writing poetry and setting it to music. Some were the wandering minstrels we think of today, but many stayed in one place. We talk about how to make a living from your passion by having a ‘portfolio career’, and Alix tells us about her new project uncovering unknown and unfamiliar ways of making music and bringing them to audiences. For more information about Alix and her work, see her website: https://www.alix-evans.com/

Duration:01:09:10

Swords in South Africa, with David Wagenfeld

12/8/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/swords-in-south-africa-with-david-wagenfeld/ David Wagenfeld is a fencing coach, creator of the En Garde model for teaching fencing in schools, and the co-founder of Table Mountain Fencing and Historical European Martial Arts. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa and has been instrumental in creating the HEMA scene in the country. We talk about how he got into sport fencing, then coaching, then HEMA. He feels that coaching fencing is what he was born to do, but fencing in South Africa doesn’t have the history that it does in Europe, and the culture is very different. David tells us about the model he has created from scratch, and how it has created some extremely successful fencers, as well as a broad base of lots of students having fun. Of course, there is the equipment problem, and the challenge of being so far away from everywhere else. Over the years there has been a lot of improvisation! We also talk about sports psychology, what makes a good tournament fencer, and what sport fencing can teach HEMA. Link to En Garde Fencing

Duration:01:24:33

Life in the Stone Age and Bothering Hedges with Sally Pointer

11/24/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/life-in-the-stone-age-and-bothering-hedges-with-sally-pointer/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Sally Pointer is a freelance heritage educator, archaeologist and presenter of traditional skills and historic crafts. She is also an author and an Experimental Archaeology MSC student at Exeter University. Sally lives near Hereford, which is in the west of England on the Welsh border. It’s a rural area and perfect for her hobby of “hedge bothering” – a mix of foraging, looking at all the species that are in the hedge, what the birds are up to, and also checking for any pixies or interesting bits of wood. We talk about her time spent in the Middle East as a child, where she and her family could go off into the desert and find stone age campsites and dinosaur bones, just sitting there. This sparked a love of experimental archaeology: finding out how people actually spent their time, what they made and how they lived. We discuss the misconceptions about “cavemen” and how actually they weren’t at all stupid. They made Bunsen burners, they dug mines, they wore makeup, and they wanted the same things out of life that we do now. Sally has written a book about the history of makeup and tells us about a slightly alarming experiment she performed on herself, which explains why on earth people were so keen to wear toxic white lead makeup, despite its dangers. There is lots more in our conversation, including the stupidest thing a member of the public has ever said to us at an event, how to gain an extra two hours in the day, and whether Sally could survive in the wild. To find out more about what Sally does, and see her YouTube videos covering things like the acorn pasta and nettle material mentioned in the episode, see: https://www.sallypointer.com/

Duration:01:10:51

Business, Chivalry, and Life-or-Death Training, with Jason Kingsley

11/10/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/business-chivalry-and-life-or-death-training-with-jason-kingsley/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy One of our most listened-to guests is back on the show! Jason Kingsley OBE is the co-founder and CEO of the games company Rebellion Developments, which also owns 2000 AD, and he’s the man behind the YouTube channel Modern History TV, starring Warlord, which goes into depth of detail regarding many aspects of medieval life, most notably combat and horsemanship, but also aspects of daily life. We catch up on how Warlord is doing since our last chat in episode 81. It’s always great to hear that a podcast guest has acted on the best idea they hadn’t acted on. Jason has written his book, Leading the Rebellion, which he tells us about in this episode. Here is the info for the book: A fascinating look into the business and lifestyle philosophy of Jason Kingsley OBE, CEO of Rebellion. Rebellion is one of the world’s most successful independent games developers and also a film and TV production company and publisher. Combining his love of Medieval History and success in business, this unique book will give insight into a modern interpretation of the Knightly Code of Chivalry, the moral system which combined a warrior ethos, knightly piety, and courtly manners, all combining to establish a notion of honour and nobility, in a motivational and aspirational take on how to live life to the fullest. Find it at: https://rebellionpublishing.com/product/leading_the_rebellion/ We talk about writing: how someone as busy as Jason managed to get the book written, how to get useful feedback, and how to finish what you start. We also talk about how to train for a life-or-death situation, without the death bit. How does one train to be in a situation where someone is actively trying to kill you? To see more from Jason (and Warlord) check out the Modern History TV channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ModernHistoryTV

Duration:00:54:49

Washing paper and restoring books with Aurelia Sedlmair

10/27/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/washing-paper-and-restoring-books-with-aurelia-sedlmair/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Aurelia Sedlmair is a historical fencer, a translator, a transcriber, and is now studying the conservation of paper and books. Her Instagram is @freiraum.buch In our conversation we talk about what brought Aurelia to the Isle of Man, a small, independent island off the coast of England, and her study at West Dean College of Art and Conservation. We talk about what happens when you get a book restored, and Guy recommends the bookbinder in Colchester who restored his copy of Alfred Hutton’s The Sword and the Centuries. (Colin Brown, at Cuckoo Farm Studios. bindingarrangement.co.uk). The aim is not to modernise the book, but instead to make it look as if nothing has been done to it. No modernisation. Aurelia describes how to repair paper and how to clean it. Amazingly, if dry cleaning doesn’t work you can just wash it, and she explains how it’s done. Click here for some before and after images of books and paper that Aurelia has worked on: https://swordschool.com/podcast/washing-paper-and-restoring-books-with-aurelia-sedlmair/ Of course, this wouldn’t be the Sword Guy Podcast without talking about swords. Aurelia is a rapier and smallsword fencer, though there’s not much of it happening on the Isle of Man. We talk about the brilliance of smallsword and also about how to encourage beginners to give historical martial arts a try.

Duration:01:37:26

How to fight like Sir Gawain, with Dr Przemysław Grabowski-Górniak

10/13/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/how-to-fight-like-sir-gawain-with-dr-przemyslaw-grabowski-gorniak/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Dr. Przemysław Grabowski-Górniak is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of English Studies at the University of Warsaw. His research focuses on the chivalric tradition of the late Middle Ages, be it chivalric romances or medieval manuscripts and treatises on the art of war, with a special focus on the English literary portrayals of Sir Gawain in the period of the 100 Years War and the Wars of the Roses. His admiration for the Middle Ages goes beyond academia, as he is also a historical reenactor and a Harnischfechten instructor, combining his knowledge of the period as well as his experience in working with medieval manuscripts with a practical approach, in order to reconstruct martial techniques of the 14th and 15th centuries. We talk about all of this in our conversation, plus Przemysław details his extensive training routine that includes sprints wearing a helmet, and wearing weighted straps on his arms. All excellent practice for fighting in armour. Przemysław explains the book he is working on, which is a fascinating look at how Middle English romances can serve as a record of English martial arts. He believes they could have been used as a vehicle to translate certain lessons that might otherwise have been found in fight books, which people rarely owned at the time. Some of the romances have very accurate fight descriptions, which can be read as teachings on how to fight as well as Sir Gawain. Click here for the armour of Frederick the Victorious Przemysław mentions: https://swordschool.com/podcast/how-to-fight-like-sir-gawain-with-dr-przemyslaw-grabowski-gorniak/ Links to other podcast episodes featuring people mentioned in this episode: Dayna Berghan-Whyman (Buhurt) https://swordschool.com/podcast/historical-medieval-battle-nz-episode36/ Beth Hammer (Battle of Nations) https://swordschool.com/podcast/battle-of-nations-episode34/ Toby Capwell (armour) https://swordschool.com/podcast/armour-of-the-english-knight-episode76/ Daniel Jacquet (armour) https://swordschool.com/podcast/is-there-anything-daniel-jaquet-cant-do-in-armour/ Ariella Elema (The Last Duel) https://swordschool.com/podcast/the-last-duel-or-was-it-with-ariella-elema/

Duration:02:12:26

Seven Frenchmen vs. Seven Englishmen: who will win? With Dr. Rachael Whitbread

9/29/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/seven-frenchmen-vs-seven-englishman-who-will-win-with-dr-rachael-whitbread/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Dr Rachael Whitbread is a historian and author. Her PhD from York University was on tournaments, jousts and duels. She is the co-author with Graham Callister of Battle: Understanding Conflict from Hastings to Helmand, and is currently working on a book called Duel: Single Combat in Medieval England for Pen and Sword Press, which sounds just up our streets. In our conversation we talk about chivalry, jousting, tournaments and how to become a famous knight by winning a pre-battle duel – especially if you chop a dog in half in the process. We hear Rachael’s thoughts on whether Lady Agnes Hotot really jousted her neighbour to settle her father’s land dispute, which could mean Guy needs to alter the decks in his Audatia card game… We also talk about themes in European warfare over 1,000 years of history. Not a small topic! Rachael has some fantastic stories about battles; often with the English getting absolutely trounced, and if you have an interest in medieval history, you’ll thoroughly enjoy this conversation.

Duration:01:45:16

Force of Virtue with Jack Gassman

9/15/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/force-of-virtue-with-jack-gassman/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Jack Gassman, runs Horseman of Eire, an equestrian training school and medieval combat academy outside of Wexford in Ireland with Alessia Pagani. Alessia specialises in natural horsemanship, and Jack takes care of the swords. I interviewed them both in Episode 124 of the show. Jack has now invented and published a game that is very on topic for us, so he's coming back on the show to talk about it. The game is called Force of Virtue. In Force of Virtue you play an independent mercenary band of your choosing, who are either pursuing their own private agenda or taking on work from Magnates or Warlords. Anything from a disgruntled artist and his apprentices to the feared Swiss Papal Guard. In order to do this, you use decks to choose your officers, troops, equipment, level of morale, special training, advantages like ambushing etc. or to lay traps or effects on your enemy. In our conversation, Jack takes us through the research behind the game, its historical accuracy, and how the fighting works. You can find all the information about Force of Virtue, free downloads and a free tutorial campaign at https://masterstrokegames.com/ The character decks and tokens can be found at https://tempusswords.co.uk/product-category/force-of-virtue

Duration:01:10:25

Medieval wrestling and making sense of the Liechtenauer swamp, with Jessica Finley

9/1/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/jessica-finley-2/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Medieval wrestling and Liechtenauer expert Jessica Finley will be familiar to many of you from her two previous appearances on The Sword Guy. (Episode 1 and episode 56). We’re catching up today after my recent trip to Jessica’s training space in Kansas where we filmed the new Abrazare online course. You can find the course at guywindsor.net/abrazare23. In our conversation, we talk about medieval wrestling, and compare and contrast the approaches of Fiore and Liechtenauer. This leads into a wider discussion about why the German sources could be described as a ‘swamp’, and Fiore’s system as a ‘well’. We go deep into Liechtenauer’s Hauptstücke and the Zornhau. You can see the photo of the tree that’s on the wall of Jessica’s Turnhalle here: https://swordschool.com/podcast/jessica-finley-2/ Jessica hasn’t yet written a book about the Hauptstücke, and we talk about why this is and the difficulty of wanting to write both a memoir and a training manual at the same time. The book Jessica refers to is: Among Warriors: a Woman Martial Artist in Tibet, by Pamela Logan. The blog post I refer to is: https://guywindsor.net/2013/11/7-great-martial-arts-as-a-path-books/ Talking about writing books then leads us on to a brand new book idea, which we will start in the first quarter of 2024. Watch this space! Finally, here is the link to the Unarmed Flowdrill, which Jessica mentions right at the end of the interview: https://vimeo.com/851206322/57c7821ffe

Duration:01:45:36

Big Blue Flags with Marli Vlok

8/18/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/big-blue-flags-with-marli-vlok/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Marli Vlok is a virologist, historical martial arts instructor and historical flag waver. She was also a competitive target shooter who represented South Africa for a decade. Now based in Ottawa, Canada, Marli tells us about her work finding viruses in the oceans and working on diseases, including Covid, of course. Marli got into historical martial arts through a Groupon voucher, which started her on the path to becoming a rapier instructor. Since moving to Ottawa she has changed up her weapons a bit and also got into historical flag waving. The flags are very big and were used for both battlefield signalling and for raising soldiers’ morale. Some of the moves are very gymnastic and others involve sword actions, or even a sword in one hand, flag in the other. We also talk about target shooting, biathlon, the Neapolitan masters, comparative studies, and driving across Canada with a car full of swords and guinea pigs.

Duration:01:44:59

Sword Geekery and Stunts, with Jared Kirby

8/4/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/sword-geekery-and-stunts-with-jared-kirby/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Jared Kirby is a fight director and stage and screen combat instructor at the New York Combat for stage and screen. He’s a stuntman on shows such as Law and Order, The Equalizer, Bluebloods, and Gotham. We talk about how Jared got interested in stage combat, and the most dangerous stunt he has ever done. Jared is also Maestro d’Armee with the Martinez Academy, editor of the first published translation of Capoferrro and of the re-publication of Angelo's The School of Fencing and of Vincentio Saviolo’s Of Honour and Honorable Quarrels. He also re-published McBane’s The Expert Swordsman’s Companion, and has co-authored Staging Shakespeare's Violence. We have a geek out about Capoferro’s 1609 treatise, and you can find the pictures on the blog at https://swordschool.com/podcast/sword-geekery-and-stunts-with-jared-kirby/ He was one of the founders and organizers of the International Swordplay and Martial Arts Convention, my first international gig back in 2001, which morphed into CombatCon, which he continues to run. Jared gives a shout out to my SwordPeople social media platform. If you haven’t yet joined, click here to join your fellow sword people: https://swordpeople.com/ To find out more about Jared, see: https://www.jaredkirby.com/ Stunt Reel: https://youtu.be/litxb97CQZc Sword Skills Reel: https://youtu.be/HhOAkUmz_08 Books: https://www.amazon.com/Italian-Rapier-Combat-Ferros-Simulacro/dp/178438691X/ and https://www.amazon.com/Staging-Shakespeares-Violence-Fight-Domestic/dp/1526762404/

Duration:01:41:11

Cutting and Calligrams, with Brittany Reeves

7/21/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/cutting-and-calligrams-with-brittany-reeves/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy In this episode, I welcome back Brittany Reeves, who is the head instructor of Mordhau Historical Combat in Mesa, Arizona. She is a seasoned instructor, having taught across Europe and North America with a specialisation in test cutting with sharp blades. She is of course most famous for her first appearance on this show in Episode 22. In our conversation we talk about the value of cutting with sharps, how the cutting tournament scene has been developing in the United States, and issues with sourcing tatami and getting insurance. We talk about potential alternatives to tatami, practising with moving targets, and how competitions are judged. Brittany has lots of cutting videos on her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrittanySaintLeafy We then move on to talk about art history and Fabris. What’s going on with the images of people in the 1601 Fabris manuscript? Why might they look so weird? As Brittany runs her own club, we also discuss her best and worst business decisions so far, and Brittany has a potentially excellent business idea for what to do with $1 million.

Duration:01:28:21

THC, tournaments and training, with David Ito

7/7/2023
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/thc-tournaments-and-training-with-david-ito/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy There is a slightly different intro to this episode as Guy is in Kansas being medievally wrestled by Jessica Finley. Hear the noises here! Onto the interview: David Ito is a fire eater, an epee coach and former kendo player who plays with longswords now, based in Toronto, Canada. Of course, his main claim to fame, top of the resume, is he appeared on episode 25 of this show, back in December 2020. With the world reopening David is living the life of a literary swashbuckler: fighting with swords, hanging out with glamorous show people, and attending all the scandalous parties. To find out more about David and his work, you can find him on Instagram @ittoswords, or the Toronto Historical Combatants at www.torontohistoricalcombatants.ca. Our conversation covers David’s training routine – does he really still do 100 burpees every morning? We talk about keeping track of progress and the overlap between training for epee and for historical martial arts. When we last spoke on episode 25, David’s best idea he hadn’t acted on yet was to start his own club. Well, he’s done it! He explains his goals for the club and where it fits within the sword community in Toronto. David has also got into the tournament scene since we last spoke, with great success. He talks about how he trains and even if you don’t have as many hours in the week to train as he does, he has some advice on where to focus if you have limited time.

Duration:01:02:46

Brains, Biology, and Better Teaching, with Sara Lewis

6/23/2023
Photo Credit: Angel Uribe For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/brains-biology-and-better-teaching-with-sara-lewis/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Dr Sara Lewis is a neuroscientist specializing in the biology of childhood movement disorders, and a longtime historical martial artist starting in the SCA in 1999, where she is known as Perin De La Serena. Since 2016 Sara has been with the Phoenix Society for Historical Swordsmanship, where she has written many articles on improving diversity and inclusiveness in historical martial arts, and has written reports on the challenges facing women rapier fencers in the SCA, which we discuss in the episode and are linked below. Sara has also produced a series of videos on applying the neuroscience of learning motor skills to teaching historical combat, again, links below. We start our conversation, however, by talking about a traumatic injury that Sara received during longsword training. Sara explains what led to the injury, the consequences for her personally, and the (lack of) consequences for the instructor responsible. Here are the useful links from Sara: Video play list: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC3Lv55IrIsikIoCLNbnPhHBOuYWBbMhE Blog articles about improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in historical combat: https://valkyriebootcamp.blogspot.com/ Study on gender differences in recognition: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LP3tbBdqfMkvQit-jr05zkEqC4reo0XP/view Study of variables predicting retention and envisioning success: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MFnDP8XiMGPZ4L4XvNbd--vGX4_U36yZ1GBfIhMsxD0/edit?usp=sharing. The missing stair: http://pervocracy.blogspot.com/2012/06/missing-stair.html

Duration:01:38:26