For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-193-kinesiology-and-concussions-with-jane-strange 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Jane Strange represented Team North America at the 2019 European games in Minsk, and she is a competition medallist at longsword in both open and women's competitions. She is currently teaching and training at Edmonton Historical Martial Arts but is mainly focused on pursuing her degree in kinesiology.

We talk about what kinesiology is and her approach to coaching psychology. Find out what way of training works best for improving someone’s ability with a sword, and how Jane’s approach differs from Guy’s.

We also talk about Jane’s experience at the Minsk European Games. The experience was a bit of a mixed bag, including food poisoning, gear issues, and even a concussion. Jane has taught a seminar on Concussion Awareness and Prevention, having suffered a serious concussion from a car crash. Click here for her slides.

In the episode we discuss preventing and treating concussion – whether there’s any mask that can prevent it, and how we need to change the culture within HEMA to make concussion less likely.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-192-solo-training-and-an-interview-with-guy 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Hello Sword People, and welcome to episode 192 of the podcast!

Training alone is an essential skill. You can train anywhere, any time, and practice things that would be unethical with a partner. Enjoy some sample chapters from my book, The Principles and Practices of Solo Training, followed by a reprise of episode 100, where I’m interviewed by Ariel Anderssen about a whole load of stuff, including how I got into swords in the first place, the vision up a Scottish mountain that told me to open my school in Helsinki, injuries from duelling, my best ever sword fight, feminism, getting through the pandemic, and learning to fly.

Find The Principles and Practices of Solo Training at guywindsor.net/solo.  

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/want-to-write-a-training-manual-how-to-write-training-manuals-for-historical-martial-artists-with-guy-windsor/

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

This episode is an unusual one because there’s no interview. Instead, it’s an extended sample from my new audiobook, From Your Head to Their Hands: How to write, publish, and market training manuals for Historical Martial Artists. The book is designed to be short, clear and to the point, with zero fluff! Listen to this episode to get a good idea of what’s in the book.

The chapters from the audiobook that this episode includes are:

• Introduction: what is a training manual?
• Clarity
• Things that get in the way: procrastination, imposter syndrome, fear, and other things
• The publishing process
• Publishing platforms
• What is marketing?
• Content marketing

To buy the book, head to swordschool.shop, or your can find it on your usual audiobook retailer.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 90

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/swords_in_the_movies_episode90/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Peter Lyon is a swordsmith and weapons maker from New Zealand. He originally started out making swords to use in medieval re-enactment in the 1980s, and was asked to make the swords for the Lord of the Rings movies. Since then Peter has worked on many other film productions with Wētā Workshop including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Hobbit trilogy, The Last Samurai, and Avatar.

In this fascinating conversation Peter explains some of the tricks and behind the scenes detail about making swords as movie props. You will look at weapons in films in a whole different light after this.

Here’s a picture of Boromir’s sword, which we talk about in the episode, and if you click on this link it’ll take you to the Wētā website which has the dimensions and stats:

Peter’s website is Lyonesse Armoury, which has lots of pictures of Peter’s swords, resources and further reading.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 89

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/wooden-weapons-and-wing-chun-episode89/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

This week’s episode is with Carina Cirrincione of Raven Studios, based in Oracle, Arizona. Carina makes wooden training weapons such as longsword wasters, rondel daggers, and implements for Eastern martial arts. She's also a Tai Chi and Wing Chun practitioner and instructor.

We talk about woodwork, Eastern martial arts, turning a hobby into a business and the challenges involved.

Photos to accompany this episode

This is Guy’s little chest of drawers:

Here’s a photo of a pair of Carina’s Wing Chun Bot Jaam Do, or butterfly swords:

And this is a wooden dummy used in Wing Chun, which Carina describes making:

You can find all Carina’s products at www.little-raven.com and if you’re in the Oracle area and want to train in Wing Chun or Tai Chi, get in touch with her through the website.

Raven Studios is also on Facebook and Instagram.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 88

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/bolognese-episode88/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Joshua Wiest is an instructor at the Triangle Sword Guild, North Carolina, USA. He focuses on the fighting systems of masters Achilles Marozzo, Giovanni dall’Agocchie, Antonio Manciolino, and Camillo Palladini. He's also a successful tournament fencer and host of the historical martial arts podcast l’Arte dell Armi.

In this bumper episode we take a deep dive into these rockstars of 16th century Italian fencing. If you want to know anything about Bolognese fencing, this is the podcast for you.

Here is a link to the Talhoffer treatises on Wiktenauer, as promised.

Joshua’s YouTube channel is here. He is in the process of posting videos for all of Lignitzer's Sword and Buckler plays at the moment, but he managed to get the Palladini play shot for you here: https://youtu.be/DrKzNiGQtqM

Here is Marozzo’s guardia d’intrare, from Guy’s 1568:

And this is a copy of Viggiani’s Tree of Guards:

The Duel of the Century:

The two sword duel between Ascanio and Giovanni Taddei, in which Ascanio appears to be doing Marozzo’s eighth play. You can read about it here: https://guywindsor.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Terminiello-Piermarco-Reich-Steven-Fighting-with-two-swords-according-to-Altoni-and-Docciolini-2013.pdf

F

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 87

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/ballet-for-swordfighters-episode87/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Anna Beard is a historical dancing and ballet and historical fencing instructor at Austin Historical Weapons Guild. She has been dancing since she was four and went on to get her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Dance from the University of Michigan, followed by teaching in studios, and running her own projects, performances and small dance companies. A move to Texas in 2018 ignited a passion for HEMA that has led to her becoming a co-owner of the Austin Historical Weapons Guild.

Anna’s 20 years of teaching dance have given her a love and deep understanding of pedagogy and in our conversation we talk about training teachers and how to teach children or adults. She has taught workshops at events like Swordsquatch on ballet for swordfighters, renaissance dance, and exploring teaching methods.

Whether she manages to change Guy’s mind on his dislike of ballet remains to be seen…

Useful Links:

• The teacher that Anna mentioned as being a huge influence on her is Liz Lerman.
• Austin Historical Weapons Guild is on Twitter and Facebook, as well as other social media platforms.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 86

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/two-handed-swords-episode86/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Hello Sword People! Welcome to the Sword Guy podcast. This is your host, Dr Guy Windsor, consulting swordsman, teacher, and writer. Join me for interviews with historical fencing instructors and experts from a wide range of related disciplines, as we discuss swords, history, training, and bringing the joy of historical martial arts into our modern lives.

As this show is going out on the last day of 2021, I thought I’d share some thoughts about the year gone by, and some ideas for the year ahead. All the links and information can be found in the blog post on my website.

Then, we welcome Neil Melville, author of The Two-Handed Sword History, Design and Use. So of course we talk about two-handed swords. How do we decide what is a true two-handed sword? What is the difference between a longsword, a bastard sword, a zweihander and a montante? And how were these enormous swords used?

Neil has been collecting swords since he bought his first sword in an antique shop in the 1960s. There are some pictures of his beautiful swords in the blog post.

You won’t find Neil on any social media, but you can support him in the good old way of going out and buying his book, which is available in the usual places. The Two-Handed Sword History, Design and Use.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 85

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/the-mathematics-of-fencing-episode85/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Pamela Muir is the founder of the Academy of Chivalric Martial Arts in Arlington, Virginia. She's been doing historical martial arts since about 2003, and I've met her at several events. In this episode we talk about theoretical maths, Liechtenauer, chivalry, and representation for women in HEMA. Pamela also talks about the adult education class she teaches on historical fencing, and what a popular class it has turned out to be.

A couple of things we said would be in the show notes: The Mike Loades interview is episode 48, and it was Dori Coblentz in episode 67 who suggested that there ought to be free childcare at all events.

The web page for Pamela’s Academy of Chivalric Martial Arts is https://academychivalricma.org/ And also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AcademyChivalricMA/

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 84

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/katanas-and-koryu-episode84/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

This week’s episode is with Jaredd Wilson. Jaredd is the host of the Martial Thoughts podcast, which I appeared on back in January. You can find a link to our “The Pen is Mightier than the Podcast” episode here, or on Stitcher or iTunes. In today’s conversation we talk about what prompted Jaredd to start up the podcast, and the joy of getting to interview interesting people.

Jaredd is also a presenter at CombatCon and a long time practitioner of Japanese swordsmanship and other martial arts. We talk about how Japanese martial arts have evolved over the years and how training works. The conversation also take a slightly unlikely turn when we end up talking about a potential foray into the manufacture of high fashion silk ties.

You can find The Martial Thoughts Podcast on Twitter and The Martial Thoughts blog.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 83

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/swordsmanship-is-woodwork-episode83/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Shanee Nishry is a historical martial arts instructor and founder of Stratford Swords, which is in Stratford-upon-Avon in the West Midlands of England. She's also a software engineer in the games industry. We first interacted when she posted some photos of a very ambitious woodworking projects she's working on, because I'm a complete woodworking nerd and it turns out that Shanee is turning into one too.

A couple of woodworking YouTube links for you:

Xyla Foxlin’s impossible table: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk1l9tIjbEs

More woodworking ideas from Tamar 3X3 Custom: https://www.youtube.com/c/3x3CustomTamar

We also talk about the swordsmanship community and a project Shanee would like to complete which would bring together the community into one cohesive place, where everyone can go to find all the publications and discuss and debate them. We talk about the difficulty in getting alignment on the interpretation of sources, and how to make secondary sources more accessible to everyone.

Shanee can be found on her blog: https://shanee.io/ and Twitter: https://twitter.com/lunarsong

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/your-challenge-for-december-episode82/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Hello Sword People, and welcome to the final monthly challenge of the year. This one is a little different.

Before I introduce it, let me just refresh your memory about what the challenges are. Basically, they are alternatives to New Year's resolutions because I don't like New Year's resolutions very much, and the challenges so far this year have been: breaking a habit, adding a habit, sleeping - in other words, how to sleep better, food, (so eating better,) learning a new skill, working on stamina, working on strength, working on range of motion, working on footwork and working on striking. Now you may very well suppose that this month's challenge will have something to do with perhaps, well, we've done striking, let's have a look at throws. Or we’ve done striking, let's have a look at parrying or something like that. But no, we've done most of the aspects of solo training as I discuss in my book, The Windsor Method: The Principles of Solo Training. So the focus of these challenges is on solo training and rest is part of training. So the question we are addressing this month, December, is how do you recover?

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 81

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/orcs_in_space_episode81/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Content warning: Within this podcast are descriptions of the horrific neglect of very elderly swords.

Edoardo Albert is a London-based writer who writes about Britain in the early medieval period (between the Romans leaving and the Normans arriving), the 40th millennium in the Warhammer universe, and lots of other things besides. Find out more by visiting his website. This podcast is different to usual format in that Edoardo contacted me with a question, and rather than reply by email, I got him on the podcast instead.

We talk about the research project at Bamburgh castle in Northumbria, which sparked Edoardo’s interest in the early medieval period. If you’ve never visited, please do, because it truly is the most impressive castle.

Edoardo’s question relates to two pattern welded swords found at Bamburgh and how they would have been fought with. As you may know, this early medieval period is known as the "Dark Ages" because of a lack of sources relating to the period, and so it is an interesting question to discuss. One thing is for sure, the owners of these swords would have been a lot more proficient with their weapons than even the most dedicated HEMA practitioner today.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/messers-and-more-with-bob-brooks/

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Robert (Bob) Brooks is one of the original generation of historical fencers, who began training with me in the Dawn Duellists’ Society in the early 90s. He founded the Hotspur School of Defence in 2003. So it's turning 20 this year. He has been teaching primarily German historical martial arts and he has taught in over 30 countries on five continents.

Bob is the author of the new book At Your Mercy: The Foundational Guide to the Messer. We talk about why it was needed and what the book covers. You can find it for yourself here: At Your Mercy on Lulu.

We also talk about a fascinating academic study into Bronze age weapons, which Bob and his school were involved in. Here’s a link to the study: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10816-020-09451-0.pdf

And here’s a link to the James Dilley episode where we also talked about the battle of Tollense and forging bronze swords.

See here for a picture of Guy's bronze sword: https://swordschool.com/podcast/messers-and-more-with-bob-brooks/ 

Other links we promised to share:

The Book of Judith – the one and only Italian Storta treatise. https://guywindsor.net/2015/04/previously-unknown-falchion-treatise-discovered/

Hans Sebald Beham woodcuts of the 12 months images, showing Messers in daily use: https://swordschool.com/podcast/messers-and-more-with-bob-brooks/ 

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 80

Photo credit: The Royal Armouries

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/asian-and-african-arms-and-armour-episode80/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Natasha Bennett is the Curator of Oriental Collections at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, working with the Asian and African collections. These include an enormous spread of arms and armour mostly dating from between the 14th and 20th centuries, so her research interests are necessarily wide-ranging. She has presented specialist study sessions and seminars on mounted warfare in Asia, South Asian arms and armour, Islamic arms and armour, Asian swords, and textiles in Japanese armour.

In our conversation we talk about guns, specifically the “15 Rupee Jezail” and how the popularity of the matchlock mechanism persisted because of its simplicity and functionality, even when elsewhere in the world newer technologies took over.

In case you were wondering, this is what a jezail looks like:

Photo credit: The Royal Armouries

And this is the Tusken Cycler rifle from Star Wars:

We also talk about Natasha’s work with the Anglo Sikh Virtual Museum and the amazing benefits of 3-D technology. You can have a good, close-up, 3-D look at the objects on the museum’s website: https://www.anglosikhmuseum.com/

This leads us into a discussion about the circumstances in which many items ended up in British museum collections, i.e. as colonial loot, which is a tricky issue for museums to navigate.

Listen in to find out whether Indian steel weapons are the best, and also how Natasha plans to get her baby doing horseback archery before they can walk.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 79

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/medieval-myths-mindsword-mounted-combat-episode79/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

This episode is with Jason Kingsley OBE, 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 his horse Warlord, which goes into depth and detail regarding many aspects of medieval life, most notably combat and horsemanship, but also aspects of daily life.

We talk about misconceptions people have about medieval warfare, life, and horsemanship, and how Jason busts some of the myths on Modern History TV. We also chat about how Jason came to start a videogames company, create a YouTube channel and his role as the owner/custodian of 2000AD and the Treasury of British Comics.

Here are a couple of YouTube videos to get started with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM6abbGll0s Guy and Jason discuss Fiore’s play where one combatant is on horseback and the other is on foot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RsCHNx0cis Jason gets to play with the Mindsword.

Note: It was in Ewart Oakeshott’s book, European Weapons and Armour: From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, that he discusses how appalling it seemed when one side started shooting with actual guns, because if that was the case, war could become really dangerous.

Jason is on Twitter: @rebellionjason

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 78

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/improve-your-striking-in-november/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Your challenge for November is to improve your striking. Really, what we are looking at more than anything else is your precision and accuracy, which you can apply to any domain. Someone who drives a car might look at the smoothness of their gear changes, or the precision with which they take a corner. There is no domain in life that this cannot be applied to. Of course, as sword people, we will tend to apply it to swords first, but it is no bad thing to let it leak out into other areas of your life.

Whether you are striking with a fist, a foot, a stick, or a sword, there are fundamental components in common. I’ll cover these in this episode, along with ideas for training, equipment you can utilise, and the use of forms.

The bulk of this episode is taken from my book, The Windsor Method: The Principles of Solo Training, which is available to buy now.

For all the other monthly challenges so far this year, head over to the Challenge of the Month category of my blog. We have covered topics including sleep, getting stronger and more flexible, meditation and more.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 77

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/strategy-and-war-episode77/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Dr. Lynette Nusbacher is a Strategist and Devil’s Advocate. Her work has included being a logistics officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, a writer of books such as Bannockburn 1314, a lecturer at Reading University, the senior intelligence advisor to the UK Government Cabinet Office, as well as a TV presenter of various military history shows, and she now runs a management consulting company, Nusbacher and Associates. Of course, most importantly from my perspective, she is also a historical martial arts instructor.

Our conversation covers military strategy, government policy, Clausewitz, Iraq and Afghanistan. We do bring all this back to HEMA and talk about the difference between strategy and tactics and how this applies to fencing. You might also like to hear that Lynette thinks of George Silver as a “bit of a bullshit artist”.

As promised, here is the link to the Rob Roy final duel: https://youtu.be/ERmM5l2ceoY

You can find Lynette on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nusbacher

The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 76

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/armour-of-the-english-knight-episode76/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Dr Tobias Capwell has a lifelong love of arms and armour, since being taken to the Met Museum in New York as a small child. He has made this passion into a career and is now the curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London. We talk about how he got the job as a museum curator, including offering his services to the Met Museum at the tender age of twelve.

If you are in the vicinity of London and are interested in seeing the wonderful Wallace Collection, or if you are far away but want to check out the online content, have a look on their website. And here is a video by Toby from The Wallace Collection, Armour as Renaissance Art.

In our conversation Toby tells us how he came to be one of two mounted knights in armour escorting the procession at the recent re-burial of Richard III, whose remains were found buried under a car park in Leicester, in the East Midlands of England. Click on the link for a YouTube video covering the event.

We talk about Toby’s ground breaking research into English stone funerary effigies that depict armour in exquisite detail, including showing repairs and bits which don’t match the rest of the armour. This research formed his Ph.D. and then became his trilogy of books, Armour of the English Knight. His eagerly awaited second book, Armour of the English Knight 1450-1500 is out now. His first book is sold out so get your hands on this one quick!

A couple more links:

• Toby’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tobiascapwell
• How Real Is It? on YouTube, with Toby on the treatment of medieval arms and armour in cinema. It’s very entertaining!

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 75

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/youtube-lauren-danger-episode75/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Lauren Shaw is from Calgary, Canada and is a founder of the Calgary Fellowship of the Sword, where they practice 14th – 19th century martial arts, including longsword, sword and buckler, and - since Covid social distancing rules came in - quarterstaff.

Lauren is also known for her YouTube videos as Lauren Danger Adventure Ranger, where Lauren posts videos on just about every single historical martial arts topic imaginable, and each one of them starts with a rhyme. We talk about Lauren’s skill for rhyming and why she includes them in her videos, as well as her passion for welcoming people into the HEMA world.

The answer to the usual question of “what would you do with a million pounds to improve historical martial arts worldwide?” is one that really got me thinking and is an excellent and potentially very doable suggestion.

You can find Lauren on Twitter, and of course, YouTube.

As mentioned in the introduction, you can access Guy’s new Sword and Buckler course with the 50% discount (expires on Wednesday 20th October) at www.guywindsor.net/buckler. Don’t miss out!

The Sword Guy Podcast Episode 74

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/hope-and-black-powder-episode74/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Milo Thurston is the founder of the Linacre School of Defence in Oxford, UK. He’s an absolute bastard with a single stick and a leading expert in the work of Sir William Hope. In our conversation we talk about the essence of Hope’s New Method of Fencing and what is so good about it.

We also talk about Napoleonic battle reenactment, being late to class, Ken Monschein’s PhD, and why Milo would use Guy’s imaginary millions to pay off his mortgage.

Milo’s books:

A Newer, Shorter and Easier Method of Fencing

Defence in the Street: Translated from Jean-Joseph Renaud's La Defense dans la Rue (Amazon Kindle edition)

Link to The Linacre School of Defence, which has Hope’s works and poetry, plus works from other masters from the period.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/october-challenge-episode73/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Today’s episode is your October Challenge. This year I have been setting a different challenge every month, as I really don't like New Year's resolutions, and it struck me that there was an opportunity for self-development and self-improvement that we were missing by making these nebulous resolutions at pretty much the worst point in the year to make any kind of changes. It's right after Christmas and if you're in the northern hemisphere, it’s in the middle of winter. Not a great time to be trying to make a resolution that's going to last all year. So instead, we have a different challenge every month.

So far we have looked at breaking and making habits, prioritising sleep, prioritising food, learning a new skill, stamina and strength. Last month we looked at improving our range of motion. If you want to have a look back at all of those monthly challenges, you can go to guywindsor.net/blog and look at the category called “Challenge of the Month”.

Your challenge this month is to improve your footwork. And I borrowed this from my new book, The Windsor Method, The Principles of Solo Training, which you should definitely go and buy, of course, at guywindsor.net/solo.

There is a transcription of this episode on my website for you to read at your leisure.

The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 72

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/viruses-and-bats-episode72/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Emilia Skirmuntt runs the Oxford branch of The School of the Sword, and in this episode we talk about running a school with different branches and specialisations, and improving diversity and inclusivity within historical martial arts schools.

Emilia is also a virologist at the University of Oxford, which brings up some topical questions about a certain virus. We talk about her fascinating research into virus-like genes in bat genomes and some truly game-changing theories about memories and consciousness.

Emilia has started a cookery blog, called The Corgi, The Princess and The Kitchen, which we also chat about in the podcast. The molecular gastronomy book that Guy refers to is: On Food And Cooking: The Science And Lore Of The Kitchen by Harold McGee.

You can find Emilia on Twitter @ESkirmuntt, or look out for her on Sky News and other news outlets where she is frequently interviewed about the pandemic.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 71

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/talking-tempo-episode71/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Today’s episode is a bit different to the usual format. Dr Cornelius Berthold, who is a well-known historical fencing instructor in Hamburg, Germany, contacted me because he is doing a series of YouTube videos on the topic of tempo and had some questions for me.

We had never met or spoken before, but Cornelius very kindly agreed to have the discussion in the form of a podcast, so that you all can listen in to two absolute tempo geeks geeking out about tempo.

Here’s a link to Cornelius’s fencing school in Hamburg, Dimicator Schola, and the Dimicator Schola YouTube channel.

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/

Rachel Bown-Williams

Ruth Cooper-Brown

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/guns-blood-and-swords-episode70/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Ruth Cooper-Brown and Rachel Bown-Williams are the founders of RC-Annie, the UK’s leading dramatic violence company, specialising in training, fight direction and intimacy direction for stage and screen. They hire out guns and swords (not to just anyone!) They are also purveyors of fake blood; thick or thin, “splat or spurt”, depending on your needs.

When creating a fight, Ruth and Rachel like it to look real and messy and painful, and in our conversation we talk about good fight scenes and bad, and why so many films show great unarmed combat, but are absolutely terrible as soon as the actor picks up a weapon. We also talk about sex, or rather what intimacy direction is for, and the difference between the ways sex and violence are portrayed on screen.

Here's a showreel of some of the fights RC-Annie have directed: https://youtu.be/yg3WMXRt3P0

For more on intimacy direction, you can also listen to episode 9 with Siobhan Richardson.

RC-Annie’s website: https://www.rc-annie.com/

Their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqBl-eaYxK0KN5b_j_RZ8Aw

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/monthly-challenge-get-more-flexible-in-september/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Your challenge this month is to engage with your ranges of motion. Much of this episode is adapted from my new book The Windsor Method: The Principles of Solo Training.

You can follow along with a pre-recorded flexibility-based training session at:

Guywindsor.net/hamstrings

Guywindsor.net/trainalong

The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 69

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/love-poems-to-welsh-bucklers-episode69/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Paul Wagner has been involved in historical swordsmanship since the 1990s, and was present at the first night of the Stoccata School of Defence in 1998, a HEMA school which now has several branches in Australia. Paul is a Provost at Stoccata, teaching courses in Single Sword according to George Silver, Highland Broadsword according to Thomas Page, Sword and Buckler according to I.33, Rapier according to Joseph Swetnam, English quarterstaff and English longsword. He has written many books and articles on the subject too.

This week’s episode is a must-listen for all sorts of talk about about bum daggers, Swetnam the woman hater, fighting while half drunk, or how you could go about leaving your body to HEMA.

But first, here’s a link to the love poem to the Welsh Buckler: https://guywindsor.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Welsh-Bucklers.pdf

Welsh buckler https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-2645.html Shield - Buckler (1540) From Wrexham, Wales. Located at the Leeds, Self Defence Gallery, UK. Royal Armouries.

We cover quite a lot in this conversation, and there are a few accompanying links:

Paul’s new armoured jacket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHcgIAD583A

The McHowarth "Fencing" text - i.e. the missing Art of Defence on Foot - is going to be on https://stephen-hand.selz.com/. It’s not up yet but hopefully soon. There'll be some kind of nominal fee to cover the cost of the platform.

Alehouse Dagger article: https://stoccata.org/2017/05/14/english-knife-fighting-the-alehouse-dagger/ 

Alehouse Dagger Video: https://youtu.be/bTNbpoqgYkE 

English Buckler videos: 

• https://youtu.be/uaMVpzP2aSU
• https://youtu.be/U2Ym9GynDBM
• https://youtu.be/lBkqTK_0_Qw

Comparison of Dagger and Buckler: 

• https://youtu.be/pM4ZmRgJV0M

English Longsword videos: 

• https://youtu.be/VB3kt3y7EPU
• https://youtu.be/ZO52-watCOM
• https://youtu.be/oP_Ay-Bkgr8
• https://youtu.be/PW-e_gt7p5M

Articles on English Longsword: 

• “Common Themes in the Fighting Tradition of the British Isles” in Late Medieval and Early Modern Fight Books, Brill (2016) 
• “English Longsword: a Tactical Approach” in In the Service of Mars, Vol. II   Proceedings from the Western Martial Arts Workshop 1999–2009, Volume II (2015) 
• “Hawks, Rabbits, and Tumbling Cats: An Analysis of English Longsword Terminology” in In the Service of Mars. Vol. I Proceedings from the Western Martial Arts Workshop 1999–2009, Volume I(2011) 

The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 67

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/classical-fencing-digital-pedagogy-episode67/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

This week’s episode is with Dr Dori Coblenz, lecturer in Communications at Georgia Tech, specialising in early modern English drama, digital pedagogy and the history of fencing. She's the author of many papers and the book Fundamentals of Italian Rapier: a modern manual for teachers and students of historical fencing, with David Coblentz.

In our conversation we talk about the differences between classical Italian fencing and historical fencing. Dori’s passion is for teaching teachers, geeking out about sources and how we apply that to teaching contexts.  

When it comes to swords, is there is anything at all that is better taught online than in person? Dori makes some great points about the benefits of online teaching, and has some great ideas for how to make using digital media more effective: a must-listen for anyone who teaches or has an interest in pedagogy.  

Dori’s website: http://www.doricoblentz.com/

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 66

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/swashbuckling-episode66/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Sebastien de Castell lives a life of music, adventure and swordplay. He is the author of the Greatcoats series, which is full of sword action, and the Spellslinger series, which features magic finger guns!

For all Sebastien’s books, see here: https://decastell.com/all-books/

In this episode we talk about how to write a great sword fight for stage, screen and literature, including these two classic scenes:

• Inigo and Westley in The Princess Bride
• The first duel in The Duellists

Sebastien’s ulterior motive for coming on the podcast was to ask Guy’s opinion on how a rapier might be modified to contain a pistol. Have a listen and see if you agree or have a better idea of how it could be done.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 65

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/the-armoured-knight-episode65/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Dr. Amanda Taylor is a Research Fellow at the Oakeshott Institute and a Research Affiliate at the Center for Early Modern History, University of Minnesota. She is the author of several academic papers such as The Body of Law: Bodies, Combat and Rhetoric in Sir Thomas Mallory's Quest for Justice and the forthcoming Domesticating War: Women, Medicine and Military Activity in Premodern Europe. She has presented at conferences on topics such as martial women and political power in Shakespeare's history plays and battlefield wounds and treatment in English and Italian sixteenth century epic romances and surgical practise. As well as all that, she works for a medical equipment company.

In our conversation we cover lady knights, battlefield wounds, PTSD in returning soldiers, academic publishing, and more. It’s quite a wide ranging one!

These are the books recommended in this episode:

• Tamora Pierce: Song of the Lioness Quartet
• Edmund Spenser: The Faerie Queene
• Ludovico Ariosto: Orlando Furioso
• Matteo Maria Boiardo: Orlando Innamorato
• Elizabeth Lev: The Tigress of Forli: The Life of Caterina Sforza

More information on Amanda’s Ph.D., Fabricating the Martial Body: Anatomy Affect and Armour in Early Modern England and Italy, can be found here: https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/206363

Amanda has a love for armour, and her favourite is the Lion Armour, which can be found at the Royal Armouries: https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-34482.html

Here’s Guy’s favourite Avant Armour: https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/collections/collection-highlights/avant-armour

Amanda mentions Craig Johnson a few times, and if you would like to listen again to his episode, it’s episode 33.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 64

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

My interview today is with Malcolm Fare, who is a collector of historical fencing books, a fencer himself and proprietor of the National Fencing Museum in the UK. The museum houses a library of over 300 books, 250 paintings and prints, 200 weapons, numerous masks, kit, trophies, posters, programmes, medals, stamps, postcards and other ephemera. You can click through on the museum’s website to see photos of the items.

In 2017 I spent three days at the National Fencing Museum with a decent camera and a book-photography rig, taking hi-res images of the cream of their amazing collection of treatises, with the kind assistance of James Hester, and Malcolm himself. Here is a link to the Senese: https://guywindsor.net/2018/06/the-last-of-the-bolognese-seneses-the-true-handling-of-the-sword-yours-free/ and De La Touche: https://guywindsor.net/2017/07/the-true-principles-of-the-sword/

In the interview I mention the photos I took of McBane’s The Expert Sword Man’s Companion. They are sadly still in a disorderly state on my hard drive, and not yet fit to share. If anyone would like to organise them, please get in touch!

Listen to this episode to hear how Malcolm got his hands on some of his favourite books. It’s a wonderful tale involving auctions, barons, and chance encounters.

You can get in touch with Malcolm and arrange a visit to the National Fencing Museum at http://www.fencingmuseum.com/

Guy’s new book, as mentioned in the intro, can be found at www.guywindsor.net/solo 

The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 62

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/drawing-swords-episode62/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Yael Nathan is a comic artist who draws swords as part of her Warriors series. She has also worked with IDW on several Star Wars comics. Find her work at https://elcomics.gumroad.com/# and https://yaeln.com.

Yael is also the author of the Serpent webcomic. https://tapas.io/series/Serpent/info and https://www.facebook.com/SerpentWebcomic Serpent is the story of a girl born into a guild that does not accept her, in a land where women are no more than property. Through determination and deceit, she leaves her home and infiltrates the assassin’s guild, rises up through the ranks to become the king’s personal assassin; only to be betrayed and extradited to the enemy land of Dane, where she’ll fall in love and help bring about a revolution in her homeland.

We talk about her grandfather’s Kris sword. Here are some photos of it:

In our conversation we mention Gunpowder Milkshake, the new film written by Yael’s friend and collaborator, Ehud Lavski: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8368408/

Guy’s new book, as mentioned in the intro, can be found at guywindsor.net/solo

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/your-challenge-for-august-get-stronger/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Your challenge for August is to get stronger, following the principles of conditioning as described in Guy Windsor's new book, The Windsor Method. In this episode Guy reads the chapter aloud for you (with minor changes).

The Sword Guy Podcast Episode 61

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/steven-pressfield-episode-61/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Steven Pressfield is the author of The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Gates of Fire, The War of Art, and many other novels and non-fiction titles about writing. His latest book is A Man at Arms, and he has a YouTube channel in which he investigates the warrior archetype.

In our conversation we discuss what it takes to become an overnight success. We also talk about writing about Spartans, what a sword actually is, the rules of war and what happens when those rules are broken.

Steven has written film scripts for both Steven Seagal and Dolph Lundgren (amongst others). Listen to this episode to find out who he thinks would win in a fight between the two men.

A Man At Arms is Steven’s new book. We talk about this, of course, and the MacGuffin in the story. From Steven’s website: “A Man at Arms starts with Telamon, the seemingly amoral mercenary of the ancient world, accepting an assignment from Rome to intercept and destroy a certain letter bound from Ephesus in Asia Minor to Corinth in Greece.”

Steven has a very different answer to the usual question of “what is the best idea you have never acted upon?” which is well worth a listen.   

www.stevenpressfield.com

Guy’s new book, as mentioned in the intro, can be found at www.guywindsor.net/solo  

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.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/pirates-and-batons-episode60/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

This week’s guest is Julie Olson, senior instructor at the Athena School of Arms in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a director of the Iron Gate Exhibition, the largest New England historical martial arts event. She's also well-known on the longsword tournament circuit. Julie was placed 7th in the Longsword Triathlon at Longpoint 2019, the highest ranking woman in that event. In our chat we get into the nitty gritty of running a club and competing in tournaments.

We also talk about Julie’s really fun idea of creating a pirate ship LARP and her current favourite niche weapon, the Italian baton from Giuseppe Cerri’s 1854 treatise. Here's the playlist Julie mentions in the show from Zsolt Sander: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFo_vW1NCyGRA1xWzn5fqn6PI_lV2mKQE You can clearly see how each movement is performed.

If stick fighting is your thing, also check out episode 38 of the podcast, with Jessica Gomez, where we talk about Portuguese stick fighting, Jogo do Pau: https://guywindsor.net/2021/03/portuguese-party-weapons-episode38/

For the Athena School of Arms: http://athenaschoolofarms.org/

The Iron Gate Exhibition: http://www.irongateexhibition.com/

Guy’s new book, as mentioned in the intro, can be found at guywindsor.net/solo

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 59

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/who-whacked-talhoffer-epsiode59/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

This episode is with Dierk Hagedorn, who is something of a legend in our community. He is a translator and author of very many books. Last summer he had seven new books on the go at once. Dierk has translated and produced scholarly editions of Gladiatoria and Lecküchner’s Messer fencing treatise, Peter von Danzig’s manuscript, Albrecht Dürer, and many more.

Last year, when Dierk was working on a translation and transcription with Christian Tobler, he discovered a passage which somebody had taken great pains to try and erase. With a lot of detective work and perseverance, he discovered that the deleted passage referred to Hans Talhoffer being sliced in the hand and whacked on the head. We discuss why it might have been deleted, and why it was there in the first place.

And of course, I have to quote Dierk when he said “Liechtenauer possibly wasn’t that good.” You’ll have to listen to the episode to find out the context of that!

Useful Links

• Dierk Hagedorn on Wiktenauer
• Dierk Hagedorn design
• Hammaborg Historischer Schwertkampf
• Dierk’s YouTube channel

Guy’s new book, as mentioned in the intro, can be found at guywindsor.net/solo

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 58

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/lightsaber-twirling-episode58/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Jill Bearup is a stage combatant, YouTuber and a lightsaber twirler. I first came across her work through her YouTube channel critiquing swordfights in TV and movies, which is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRrvZqCL1YsqRA8IpXrhYQQ. Jill loves pretending to fight people on stage and screen and her videos cover how a good fight can add to the story being told, and also, in case you need it, how to sword fight in a dress.

You can find her online at www.patreon.dot.com/JillBearup and her website is www.jillbearup.com.

In our conversation we talk a lot about Star Wars and lightsabers. The lightsabers Jill has are from Saberzone www.saberzonecosplay.com.

To watch the Kylo Ren and Rey Throne Room fight with all that random twirling from the Red Guards, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4cugJ7JzvM

We don’t just talk about Star Wars, we discuss other swordfights on the big and small screen. This is a favourite of ours; the final duel in Rob Roy, with Liam Neeson and Tim Roth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERmM5l2ceoY. It’s not all good though, we also talk about the sword fighting in Game of Thrones.

You might be interested in Jill’s YouTube channel for hair tutorials, where she recreates hair styles from film, including Princess Leia’s braids: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSCElWJIZPQnf4_ZuGpI8RA

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/monthly-challenge-breathe-better-in-july-the-sword-guy-episode-57/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Your monthly challenge for July 2021: breathe better.

For more on this subject, please see The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts, also available as an audiobook read by Kelley Costigan. Or the try my online course, Fundamentals: Breathing, which covers much of my breathing practice. It’s included with the monthly subscription package, and with the Solo Training course. The first class is available as part of my free Human Maintenance course. 

Episode 56

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/persian-martial-arts-episode56/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani is a Frankfurt-based museum analyst, university professor, author of many books and over one hundred and eighty articles on the historical martial arts of Iran. He is a highly skilled martial artist and is currently waiting for the pandemic to be over so he can get his third Dan black belt in Kyokushin Karate.

Manouchehr is a highly skilled wrestler, and in this episode we talk about the importance of wrestling in Iranian culture, and how it is an integral part of his Razmafzar school of Iranian/Persian martial arts, which also uses swords, shields, knives, spears and bows.

https://youtu.be/Q-jOZRoOyR8 Here is a video of some of the weapons used in the Razmafzar system.

You can find Manouchehr online at https://www.moshtaghkhorasani.com/, where you will find a really extraordinary range of articles and resources on Persian martial arts. His books include The Lexicon of Arms and Armour from Iran; Persian Archery and Swordsmanship: Historical Martial Arts of Iran; and Arms and Armor from Iran: The Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Period.

There are lots of videos of Razmafzar in action on Manouchehr’s Facebook and Instagram pages, and there is absolutely loads of content on RazmafzarTV’s YouTube channel, including both Persian weapons, armour, archery and martial arts, and also Manouchehr’s swimming, solo training and Kyokushin katas, which we talk about in the second half of the episode.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 55

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/shakespeare-and-silver-epsiode55/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Ben Crystal is an actor, author, producer, and explorer of original practices in Shakespeare rehearsal and production. In this episode we talk about Ben’s work in exploring how actors would have rehearsed, staged, and performed Shakespeare’s plays in the 16th century, and how the original rhymes and pronunciation would have sounded. It makes for a completely different experience to what we think of as “Shakespearean” in modern times. Even if you aren’t into Shakespeare this is a fascinating conversation about theatre, memory, language, and of course, swords.

Which leads us on to George Silver. Find out what Ben thinks of Silver and whether he would have wanted to go to the pub with him. For those of you unaware of our project, in 1599 George Silver published his Paradoxes of Defence, offering a window into the Tudor and medieval martial arts as practiced in England. I am bringing that book to life in glorious audio, both in modern pronunciation (narrated by Jonathan Hartman), and Original Pronunciation (narrated by Ben Crystal).  Renowned historical harpist Andrew Lawrence-King is providing the musical punctuation. You can support the project here: www.guywindsor.net/silver and listen to a sample of Ben’s original pronunciation towards the end of the episode here: https://guywindsor.net/2021/05/paradoxes-of-defence-in-audio/.

Visit Ben Crystal’s website at www.bencrystal.com and find him on Twitter @bencrystal.

The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 54

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/movement-matters-with-katy-bowman/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Bestselling author, speaker, and a leader in the Movement movement, biomechanist Katy Bowman has been changing the way we move and think about our need for movement. Her eight books, including the groundbreaking “Move Your DNA” and “Movement Matters” have been translated into more than a dozen languages worldwide. Bowman teaches movement globally and speaks about sedentarism and movement ecology to academic and scientific audiences. Her work has been featured in diverse media such as the Today Show, CBC Radio One, the Seattle Times, and Good Housekeeping. One of Maria Shriver’s “Architects of Change” and an America Walks “Woman of the Walking Movement”, Katy has worked with companies like Patagonia, Nike and Google as well as a wide range of non-profits and other communities, sharing her “move more, move more body parts, move more for what you need” message.  Her movement education company, Nutritious Movement, is based in Washington State, where she lives with her family. 

In our conversation we talk about form, feet, injuries, and Jess Finley’s ‘hooky’ acromion process (it’s part of your shoulder). When you use swords, or do any other sport, the movements - or lack of - that you do all of the rest of the time when you are not doing swords create your ability to move freely and effectively with a sword in your hand. What is your body doing when it is not doing swords?

We mention Ruth Goodman’s book, How to be a Tudor. You can find out more here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/287/287072/how-to-be-a-tudor/9780241973714.html and listen to our podcast episode here: https://guywindsor.net/2021/04/fire-and-cauldrons-episode44/

If the section on barefoot shoes inspires you, check out Freet shoes https://freetbarefoot.com Use this code at checkout: THESWORDGUY10 to get 10% off- and if you do, I’ll also get a small commission. Yay!

The author mentioned when we are talking about Finland is Robert Holdstock, the Mythago Wood series.

We also discuss sedentary culture, what it’s doing to us and our kids, and how we might improve our environment to make movement more likely. Human movement is at an all-time low and our children are currently facing both a movement and nature deficiency, with physical, mental and environmental consequences.  The good news is, while the problem feels massive, the solution is quite simple…and fun! Katy’s forthcoming book, “Grow Wild: The Whole-Child, Whole-Family, Nature-Rich Guide to Moving More” is out in the UK on 24th June, SRP £24.99, published by Propriometrics Press; distributed by Chelsea Green Publishing. 

On Bookshop UK: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/grow-wild-the-whole-child-whole-family-nature-rich-guide-to-moving-more/9781943370160

On amazon UK.: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grow-Wild-Whole-Child-Whole-Family-Nature-Rich/dp/1943370168/ref=sr_1_1?crid=29X0ZIYTB1DAG&dchild=1&keywords=grow+wild+book+katy+bowman&qid=1615844073&sprefix=grow+wild%2Caps%2C225&sr=8-1

Katy’s web/social media links:

https://www.nutritiousmovement.com

https://www.facebook.com/NutritiousMovement/

https://www.instagram.com/nutritiousmovement/

The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 53

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/turning-the-tables-episode53/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

To celebrate a whole year of The Sword Guy Podcast, we are going right back to where it all began, with Jess Finley. Except this time the tables are turned and it’s Jess interviewing me! In our wide-ranging conversation we talk about my history of antiques restoration and starting a sword school. We also talk in depth about flipping hierarchies on their head to give students what they want, and how to deal with those rare students who roll their eyes at our teaching. Jess also gets to ask the now very familiar question: "What’s the best idea you have never acted upon?”

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/challenge-of-the-month-meditate-in-june/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

For a free meditation class, see: https://swordschool.teachable.com/p/free-courses-human-maintenance-longsword-rapier

And check out the Paradoxes of Defence audiobook here: guywindsor.net/silver

Episode 52

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/the-sparkle-school-episode52/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Claire Wemyss lives in Vancouver and is a coach, educator, and co-founder of Kunst des Funkelns, which focusses on the martial arts of medieval Germany and runs from Valkyrie Western Martial Arts Assembly. In this episode, Claire describes how she and her training partner Jon Mills came up with the name of Kunst des Funkelns, her love for the Messer, and why play-based learning is so important. 

Claire is also an ADHD coach, and towards the end of our conversation, she describes how coaches can best work with neurodivergent students, and how neurodivergent students themselves can self-advocate to ensure they get the most out of the learning environment.

Useful links:

• Kunst des Funkelns on Instagram. 
• I said in the episode I would post a link to Foametheus Forge, but they don’t appear to be in business any more.
• Episode 5 with Kaja Sadowski
• Episode 23 with Da’Mon Stith

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

Episode 51

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/mines-and-mimeographs-episode51/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Professor Steven Muhlberger is an absolute legend in the historical martial arts community and is a 50 year veteran of the SCA. In this episode we talk about the very early days of the SCA, and how newsletters were vital in spreading the word.

His books are foundationally important for anyone who is studying medieval martial arts, and they include Deeds of Arms, Jousts and Tournaments, Formal Combat in the Fourteenth Century, Royal Jousts, Murder, Rape and Treason: Judicial Combat in the Late Middle Ages and all sorts of other titles too. You can find more information at http://smuhlberger.weebly.com/

As you can see from the list of book titles, Steven is something of an expert in chivalric combat in the 14th century, and in our conversation he describes some that took place in France, and his favourite story of the Duke of Bourbon fighting some English roughnecks in a tiny mine, which led to a great result for all involved.

Read more from Steven in Muhlberger's World History blog:  http://smuhlberger.blogspot.com/

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/paradoxes-of-defence-in-audio/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

guywindsor.net/silver

In 1599 George Silver, gentleman, published his Paradoxes of Defence, which lambastes the outlandish (i.e. foreign) Italian rapier fencing that was becoming popular in England, and offers an extraordinary window into the medieval martial arts that the rapier was superceding.

Whatever you think about Silver, or rapier fencing, his book is simply essential reading for all historical martial artists. It is one of the few historical fencing sources that doesn't rely on images, so it struck me that it would make an excellent audiobook. Why not listen to Silver in the car, while cooking, doing housework, or whatever else?

And, why not have him read not only in our modern pronunciation, but also in Original pronunciation?

I hired Jonathan Hartman to do a modern narration, and Ben Crystal to do the Original pronunciation. Renowned historical harpist Andrew Lawrence-King is providing the musical punctuation.

This project provides Silver's work in an accessible format, and an unmissable opportunity to compare and contrast the two versions. If you are a sword person, a historian, a linguist, re-enactor or a Shakespeare fan, this is for you.

I've put together a crowdfunding campaign to help raise funds to pay for the rest of the work. If you think this is a good idea, please support it! 

The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 50

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/revolution-cooking-knitting-episode50/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

It’s the 50th episode! This week I’m in conversation with Monica Gaudio, known in the SCA as Illadore de Bedegrayne, and she is a cook, fencer, Marshal, Seneschal, knitter, Laurel and Master of Defence. We get into what all those titles mean in the episode.

Monica has been studying medieval cookery for 30 years, with a mostly hands-on approach, i.e. trying to feed anywhere from 40 to 150 people at feast or dinner in the most "period" way possible. She is known for an internet furore concerning a plagiarised apple pie recipe, which kicked off a massive “nerd rage”. So much so, there is a Wikipedia page about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooks_Source_infringement_controversy

Here's the medieval cooking website that Monica manages: http://www.godecookery.com/godeboke/godeboke.htm

When we talk about knitting, the book mentioned is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/History-Hand-Knitting-Richard-Rutt/dp/0979607345 and this is what a Monmouth Cap looks like:

(Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monmouth_cap)

As well as medieval cookery and knitting, we discuss the antagonism between the SCA and HEMA communities, and go into a bit of detail about how the SCA is structured and what all the different titles mean. Monica is an accomplished fencer, currently ranked 35th, and she shares her techniques for getting into the right mindset for the many tournaments that she competes in. For more on mindset, check out my Solo Training course, which Monica very kindly recommends: https://swordschool.teachable.com/p/solo-training

And finally, listen to the end to hear about the revolution Monica is starting in the SCA, and the wider historical martial arts world. To join her, contact Monica on: monica.gaudio@gmail.com