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Guy Windsor's Swordschool

Dr. Guy Windsor is a world-renowned instructor and a pioneering researcher of medieval and renaissance martial arts. He has been teaching the Art of Arms full-time since founding The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland, in 2001. His day job is finding and analysing historical swordsmanship treatises, figuring out the systems they represent, creating a syllabus from the treatises for his students to train with, and teaching the system to his students all over the world. Guy is the author of numerous classic books about the art of swordsmanship and has consulted on swordfighting game design and stage combat. He developed the card game, Audatia, based on Fiore dei Liberi's Art of Arms, his primary field of study. In 2018 Edinburgh University awarded him a PhD by Research Publications for his work recreating historical combat systems. When not studying medieval and renaissance swordsmanship or writing books Guy can be found in his shed woodworking or spending time with his family.

Philippo Vadi's longsword and dagger course bundle
Featured Post

Learn Vadi’s Art of Arms, Move like Fiore, and Write Great Swordfights!

BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! I’m running a flash sale starting today, on the combined Philippo Vadi Longsword and Dagger courses bundle. Bought separately these courses cost $850. The Bundle is $600. And you can get 30% off the bundle for the next few days. Just put the code WELOVEVADI2025 into the little box at checkout. Hurrah! That’s still a lot of money though, so you can also find both courses in the Mastering the Art of Arms and the Italian Medieval Combat subscriptions...

Alexander Fürgut

BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! I have a couple of seminars coming up! Suffolk, UK, October 18th: Move Like Fiore: Improve your structure, flow, and control in Fiore’s art of arms Good movement is the foundation of great fencing. It keeps you safe from injury, helps you control your level of force, protects your training partners, and lets you fight harder and longer without fatigue. In this full-day seminar, you’ll develop practical skills to make your fencing smoother, stronger,...

Hi! I'm teaching a seminar here in Suffolk for my friends at Suffolk HEMA on Saturday October 18th. If you'd like to learn to move better, and to analyse any guard position or movement from a structural perspective, you should come! My very clever email list thinks you live close enough that you might make the trip. Sorry if that isn't the case.Move Like Fiore:Improve your structure, flow, and control in Fiore’s art of arms.Good movement is the foundation of great fencing. It keeps you safe...

Roland Allen, author of The Notebook

BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! I spent the last weekend of August at Swords of the Renaissance (my fourth time at this jewel of an event). It was a delight from start to finish, as expected! I taught three classes: “Attack with Capoferro”, which included a lengthy digression into how to hold the sword properly, “Lessons from Vadi”, which included an overview of Vadi’s movement mechanics, and various ways to set up the basic plays, and a short breakout session on “Boredom and...

the dagger between the legs defence from Fiore's 9th dagger master.

well, not quite yet. Hi. Yesterday I sent the final draft of From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice: the Dagger Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi off to the editor. Hurrah! There's a lot of admin work to do from here, checking edits, sending to layout, making sure all the links work etc., but let's put it this way: if I became incapacitated, my highly competent assistant could get the book finished and into your hands no problem. Which means that it's ready to preorder, in ebook, paperback,...

a folder of printed first draft, being edited.

BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! I was in London a couple of weeks ago for a family reunion, and took the opportunity to wiggle along for another DEXA scan. My last was a year ago. On the positive side, I’ve put on about 2.4kg of ‘lean tissue’ (the scan can identify fat, bone, and ‘lean tissue’, which is everything else), mostly in the upper torso. So all that weight training and eating protein is paying off. And my overall fat percentage has come down from 24.8% in May 2024, to 21.5%...

fedoras on a rack

BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! Firstly thanks to everyone who sent me questions to answer in the upcoming dagger book. I’ve answered every email I received, so if you’ve sent a question but haven’t heard back please send it again. This book is part of the From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice series, so has my transcription, translation, and interpretation of every one of the dagger plays in the Getty Ms, with a video clip of how I do it in practice, as well as discussion on...

a dagger with a sonnet

BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! It was only last Friday when you got an email from me saying I was still completely stuck on From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice: the Dagger Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi. When that email arrived in my inbox (yes I'm subscribed to my own newsletter: it's quality control not narcissism, I promise), I thought I'd just open the book file and see how far along it was. Somehow that triggered a rash of productivity, and at about 7.30am this morning...

Guy in some discomfort

BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! I’m back from my holidays, featuring ten days in Spain with the whole family then a six-day post-exams road trip with Daughter 2. This included visiting Manchester, York, and Edinburgh. And we popped in to Rosslyn Chapel on the way down south. You can see why conspiracy theorists go nuts for this place; it’s an astonishing bit of late medieval stonework, complete with weird and wonderful carvings such as this fallen angel: And a Green Man: You’re not...

Sitges at dusk

BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! Safety in HMA There has been an especially egregious rash of HMA injuries lately: one friend losing a chunk of her bicep through blunt force trauma; an internet-famous stabbing in a rapier tournament; a(nother) re-enactor getting a sword in their skull through an ocular (the eye-hole in a historical closed-face helmet). What do these all have in common? The idea that it’s the equipment that keeps you safe. I have two main takeaways: 1. Do not trust...