The Sword Guy Podcast

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.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 70                                                                 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/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