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.
The Cherry Blossom Edition
|
Hi! The cherry blossom bloomed in my garden a week ago. A useful reminder that things can be beautiful, and nothing lasts forever. I’ve been eyes-deep into editing the new Vadi course for the last couple of weeks. There is a TON of material- three full days of shooting video. The course is almost ready to launch, and I’ve already added it to the Mastering the Art of Arms packages on Teachable and Sword People. Expect a full launch maybe end of next week. Hurrah! The course covers everything you need to learn to fence with a longsword in the style of Philippo Vadi, based on my interpretation of his book De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi. The main sections are: 2. Warm up, Footwork, and Sword Handling drills. 3. The Blows of the Sword 4. The Twelve Guards 5. Basic Training and Setting up the Plays 6. The 25 Plays of the Longsword 7. Plays from Chapters 11 and 15 8. Skill Development So far we’re at over 70 video clips, and there’s a way to go yet. Would you like a sample? I thought so… Here’s one of the footwork videos: https://vimeo.com/1071693412/cb5884fb8d And here’s one of the plays of the sword: https://vimeo.com/1073158320/887367e819 Keep an eye out for the launch emails (there will be a limited-time discount), or get access now by subscribing to the Mastering the Art of Arms package (on Teachable and Sword People). Cool stuff from the Internet My friend Dr. Antti Ijäs has written the chapter “Written Sources on Medieval Fighting Practices” for the new book Violence and Warfare in Social Context: archaeological and historical studies. His chapter is available for free here: https://sh.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1947237&dswid=-6613 You may recall Antti from episode 155 of The Sword Guy. As you would expect from Antti, this chapter is erudite, well written, and very useful. Go indulge yourself! Paradoxes of Historical Martial Arts My series of Paradoxes is up to #4: “Details matter. Don’t sweat the small stuff.” You can find the series on Swordpeople.com in The Salle space, with the hashtag #paradoxesofhma. I’d love to know what you think! I’ve been re-reading Roland Allen’s The Notebook: a history of thinking on paper. I recently interviewed him for an upcoming episode of the podcast, and it inspired me to dive back into his masterpiece. 100% recommend if you haven’t read it already. And I was chatting to my mum the other day, and for no reason I can think of, David Niven’s autobiography The Moon is a Balloon came up, and last night I decided to re-read it, for maybe the 5th time since I first came across it as a teenager. It’s brilliantly written, and runs the gamut of human experience from appalling child abuse to fame and fortune, warfare and bereavement to madly romantic love, all told with a self-deprecation and humour that never fails to charm. Yes, it’s dated, and a lot of the name-dropping (he was a major Hollywood star, after all) falls a bit flat because you’ve probably never heard of a lot of the people he clearly expects you to know, but still totally worth the read. cheers, Guy |
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.
BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Happy New Year! I guess I'm supposed to do a review of 2025 and a bunch of resolutions for 2026. I might get round to it, but haven't felt any particular urge to so I haven't yet.Maybe that's my resolution for 2026: Don't do things just because there's a general expectation that I should. Or not. So moving on, let's consider this question: What comes first, the treatise or the tournament? For some historical fencers the answer is obvious- we’re here to...
BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! I know, I know, this was supposed to go out yesterday. But I’m running late for one good reason and one bad one. The good reason: My brother and his family came over from Abu Dhabi last Saturday to stay at my mum’s, so I went up to visit on Sunday. I spent the vast majority of the week getting the shit kicked out of me training martial arts with his two young kids. I brought a big bag of swords for them to have a go with, though we spent most of the...
BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! Yes I know we’re not due another newsletter until next week, but I have a long blog post for you, a new podcast episode, and a question, so why wait? Let’s start with the question… (with apologies to the Spice Girls for the terrible subject line) What do you want? I’m thinking about what I produced over the last year. It wasn’t the publishing explosion of 2024, but I did produce two full length courses (Vadi Longsword and Vadi Dagger), created the...