Fight Like a Knight

After over 20 years of medieval martial training, I began choreographing combat for film and stage. Directors and producers were overjoyed at the authenticity and intensity of the work, but I would, invariably, receive two comments from the cast; how completely different the training was from anything else they had done, and how rigorous the workout was. This led to the formulation of a class designed to give a well-rounded workout (stretching, strengthening, and aerobic activity) centered on learning how to properly wield a sword. Unlike other classes of this nature, where techniques are taught from books (many of which were penned by people with very little practical experience or by historical figures who were merely guessing at the best-kept secrets of the day), this would be training based on 1000s of full-contact, unchoreographed fights, using techniques that have been proven to be required to deliver a series of killing-blows over the course three-minute fight.