Hi, I'm Guy. Welcome!

I am a consulting swordsman, teacher, and writer.

I research and teach medieval and Renaissance Italian swordsmanship (I have a PhD in recreating historical martial arts), blog about it, write books about it, have developed a card game to teach it (which involved founding another company, and crowdfunding), and run Swordschool.

And as if that wasn't enough, you can even contact me here.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Guy Windsor with swords.

Latest Blog Posts

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Find Your Way Into the Art of Arms: A New Beginner’s Course in Historical Martial Arts

When I started out in Historical Martial Arts, it was an entirely new field. There were no maps, no guides, and no signs. Fast forward a couple of decades, and we’ve built a thriving, global community. That’s wonderful—but now the problem isn’t a lack of direction. It’s too many options.

There are dozens of systems, hundreds of schools, and more online courses, books, videos, and interpretations than ever before. For the curious beginner, it can feel overwhelming. Where do you start? Longsword? Rapier? Sword and buckler?  Italian? German? English?

To help with that, I’ve created a brand-new course:

Introduction to the Art of Arms: Get Started in Historical Martial Arts

This course is designed as a clear, accessible starting point for anyone new to Historical Martial Arts. You don’t need prior experience, expensive gear, or an encyclopaedic knowledge of medieval fencing masters. You just need curiosity and a willingness to explore.

We begin with gentle, grounded instruction in the core principles of movement and mechanics—how to stand, how to move, how to hold a weapon. From there, the course expands into two complete beginner paths:

Fiore dei Liberi’s Armizare: A system of knightly combat from 15th-century Italy, covering longsword, grappling, and dagger.

Ridolfo Capoferro’s Rapier: A sophisticated fencing tradition from the early 1600s, ideal for those drawn to the elegance and precision of the Renaissance duel.

These two systems offer very different approaches to the Art of Arms. Having a grounding in both gives you a solid foundation and helps you discover what kind of swordsmanship you’re drawn to.

Once you’ve completed those, we move into the “tasting menu” section of the course, with short, practical introductions to other traditions:

Vadi’s Longsword – bridging Fiore and later traditions

Liechtenauer’s Longsword – from the German school

Von Baumann’s Wrestling – late medieval grappling, straight from the manuscript

Dall’Aggocchie’s Bolognese Swordsmanship – a Renaissance civilian sword style

Sword and Buckler from MS I.33 – the oldest known fencing manual

Each of these tasters is designed to be doable, not daunting. You’ll get a feel for the system, the weapons, and the movement, without needing to dive straight into full commitment.

The idea is simple: give students a real, physical sense of what each system is like, before they choose what to specialise in.

Why So Much Content for So Little?

The course is available by subscription, at just $10/month. I don’t believe beginners should have to drop hundreds of dollars just to find out if Historical Martial Arts are for them. This format means:

•You can try it for the price of a couple of coffees.

•If it’s not for you, you can cancel anytime—no questions asked.

•You can explore at your own pace, with guidance and structure when you need it.

•And yes, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee—just in case.

Who Is It For?

Complete beginners, curious about swords but unsure where to begin.

Students returning after a break, who want to rebuild foundations.

Instructors, looking for a structured, beginner-friendly course to recommend to new students.

Writers, re-enactors, and gamers, who want to get hands-on with authentic historical movement.

Ready to Begin?

You don’t need to be a knight or a duellist to train like one. Just be curious, willing, and maybe a little sword-obsessed.

👉 Start your journey here

Let me know what you think of the new course—I’d love to hear your feedback.

I flew to Belgrade last week to attend the Sword and Balkan event. I arrived on Thursday evening and spent Friday exploring downtown Belgrade to get a sense of Serbian culture. I’ll write that up properly next, but in the meantime: if you’re visiting Serbia, do not skip the National Museum on Republic Square…

The event began on Saturday morning, and right from the start it felt different. We were all invited to break off a piece of bread, dip it in salt, and eat it (I just had the salt, being allergic to wheat). This symbolic act made us part of the family—and that sense of familial warmth and camaraderie set the tone for the whole weekend. Literally everyone I interacted with was relaxed, friendly, and there to enjoy some good swordy fun. It was especially nice to catch up with Francesco Lodà after more than 20 years!

The event’s principal organiser, Željko Glumac, was a game designer before devoting himself fully to swords—and I’ve never encountered a more gamified (in the best possible way) fencing event. There was a creative and intricate token system: participants earned tokens through various activities and could use them to bid for spots in the final tournament, choosing weapons like rapier, smallsword, and so on. You could win tokens from fellow fencers in challenges—unless, when revealing your secret team card (Fiore, Hutton, etc.), it turned out you were on the same team! When challenging instructors, they would award you 1–3 tokens based on the quality of your fencing (regardless of the score).

No wonder the reception table looked like this:

The reception table with bread, salt, and a lot of gaming tokens

That’s Željko on the left.

I knew Željko is a Capoferro man, but I also knew he’d be swamped with organisational duties, so I kidnapped him early Saturday for a quick fencing match. It was a joy. Sometimes fencing feels like an argument between people who don’t speak the same language—but this was a vigorous and friendly conversation between two native speakers of the same dialect.

My class that morning was Skill Development with the Longsword. About 26 students attended, with a wide range of experience levels. They were all a pleasure to teach, and I think everyone got something useful from it.

Guy Windsor with longsword students at Sword and Balkan in Belgrade 2025

I’d twisted my right knee on Wednesday morning, so I was being careful—short lunges, no unnecessary pressure—but still managed to get in two bouts after lunch. First, with Thomas Tassie on smallsword (a quick fencer with a lovely circular parry in quarte), and then with Branislav Petrović, another Capoferro fencer. He hit me with Capoferro’s scanso della vita—a rare thing to see in freeplay! But a little later I got him back with the same technique, which may have been my personal fencing highlight of the weekend.

By evening I was fairly worn out, but I really enjoyed chatting with Viktor, Veronika, and Elay. Fortunately, V and V are early-to-bed types like me, so they gave me a lift back to the hotel and we turned in around 11:15. But I must say—those Serbs understand carnivory at a high level.

On Sunday morning, I did a thorough physio session to keep the knee and neck issues at bay, and then fenced with Karl Rapp from Vienna. We hit each other quite a bit—but he managed to catch me twice with the same move: a thrust to the flank after covering my blade with his left hand. Son of a bitch! (In the best possible way.) It was a delightful bout, swiftly followed by another with Viktor Kachovski—good thing we both got to bed at a decent hour!

That day I taught a smaller class, Skill Development with the Rapier, which meant we could go deeper into the subject. Again, the group included both beginners and veterans with over a decade of experience, and again, everyone was a joy to teach. Special thanks to Pavle Ilijašević (in the red and black poofy pants) for demonstrating with me—with sharps!

Guy Windsor with rapier students, sword and balkan 2025

After lunch (and a bit of tech wrestling with the projector), I gave an hour-long lecture on syllabus design. I think it went well—when I formally ended the session, the room stayed for another 45-minute Q&A, mostly on pedagogy. I sometimes ask the audience to vote on the best question of the session. This time, Daniel won the prize (a Swordschool patch) for getting me going on teaching mixed-level classes.

You may have noticed the total lack of photos or videos of me fencing. That’s because I was having too much fun to remember I even own a phone.

The event wrapped up with the challenge tournament. I was absolutely knackered by this point, but it was clearly enormous fun for everyone involved—team members cheering each other on and nobody taking it too seriously.

All in all, a thoroughly delightful event. Željko and his team got the tone exactly right—and everything else flowed from there.

Philippo Vadi holding a longsword with the text "The Philippo Vadi Longsword Course"

It’s a great week for Vadi fans. My comprehensive new course “The Philippo Vadi Longsword Course” is now live on both Teachable and Swordpeople, and my friend Michael Chidester has also just launched his new crowdfunding campaign for a very high-end and beautiful facsimile of Vadi’s treatise, De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi.

This was a coincidence, and not ideal from a marketing perspective, but it does open up possibilities for co-operations and collaborations. For instance: Michael is offering a $25 discount (that’s over 10% off) on his facsimile for anyone who buys my course. We’re working out the technical details, and I’ll put the discount code in the course materials as soon as I have it.

Speaking of discounts- you can get 40% off the price of the course, in one payment or spread over ten equal payments, while the launch period lasts.

You can find the course here: https://swordschool.teachable.com/p/the-longsword-of-philippo-vadi?coupon_code=VADITASTICLAUNCH&product_id=6204895

If that discount code link isn’t working, go to courses.swordschool.com and use the code VADITASTICLAUNCH at checkout.

So what is the Vadi Longsword course, and what does it cover?

This isn't just another sword course. I've meticulously reconstructed Vadi's complete system from his treatise “De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi,” presenting it in a logical progression that takes you from complete beginner to confident practitioner.

Every martial art is a way of moving and a set of tactical preferences. In this course I have included a lot of movement drills, and a large range of technical and tactical drills: everything you need to become proficient in Vadi’s art. (Except the equipment (swords, masks, etc.) and a training partner (because that would be illegal). But I do expect you to share your course with at least one training partner.)
​You will get over 75 video clips, organised into 8 sections:

  1. Introduction & Safety
  2. Footwork and Sword Handling – Warm-ups, footwork, grips, and mechanics
  3. The Blows of the Sword– Vadi’s blows, including drills based on the guards
  4. The 12 Guards – Every position explained and drilled
  5. Basic Training and Setting up the Plays – Solo and pair training to build a solid foundation
  6. The 25 Plays of the Longsword – All 25 plays from De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi, step-by-step
  7. Plays from Chapters 11 and 15 – Extra drills from Vadi's theory of fencing
  8. Skill Development – Fencing games, timing, and troubleshooting

As you can see, we cover not only all of Vadi’s longsword plays, but also basic sword training, how to get into the plays tactically, and how to become skillful in their application.

Curious? Here’s a sample video, on one of my favourite Vadi-style sword exercises:

Here’s the discount link again: https://swordschool.teachable.com/p/the-longsword-of-philippo-vadi?coupon_code=VADITASTICLAUNCH&product_id=6204895

If that discount code link isn’t working, go to courses.swordschool.com and use the code VADITASTICLAUNCH at checkout.

Swordfighting with Vadi

I started editing the second edition of my book Swordfighting for Writers, Game Designers, and Martial Artists a little while ago and pretty quickly it developed into a total rewrite, aimed solely at writers. I’ve cut 45,000 words already, and will probably end up redoing the whole thing from scratch. Good writing is all about the reader, so I created an online form for writers to ask me questions, to help me figure out what they need to know. Many of the responses have been very on-topic for the book I’m trying to write, and I’ll answer those questions in due course in the book.

But some folk took the opportunity to ask me whatever they wanted (and why not?). As there’s no reasonable prospect of addressing the questions in the book, I thought I’d do it here instead. Some of the questions have lengthy answers that I've already given in books and courses, so while I've tried to give a brief stab at it here, I'll also link to the relevant longer work. I’m running a Swordschool birthday sale until the end of March 2025: use the code SWORDSCHOOL24 at checkout to get 24% off any digital product (ebooks, courses, etc.).

There were a bunch of questions about Vadi, and how he relates to Fiore. I’ll start with them:

Q: I am curious, working from my own copy, how Vadi's implicit tactics compare to Fiore's?

A: Both masters include attacking and countering the defence; and waiting for the attack to counter it. They both agree that you should control your opponent's weapon. Arguably Vadi makes more mention of feints, but other than that I don't see much difference.

Q: Would you include discussion of Vadi's use of measure, feints, and counter-cutting vs slicing-off vs blocking passively in an interpretive section, or within the main body of the text?

A: I wouldn’t include it at all in a book on writing swordfights. It’s way too specific to one source, and way too technical. Also, slicing-off and passive blocking aren’t mentioned anywhere in Vadi that I can find. He also doesn’t explicitly discuss measure.

Q: How do Vadi's regional origins contribute to which techniques or tactics he emphasises (eg does the law code of Vadi's residence effect what kinds of executive action he favours, as compared to other contemporary fencing treatises)?

A: We have no way to know. There are no contemporary sources at all: Fiore was 70 years earlier, the first Bolognese sources 40+ years later. Vadi doesn’t mention law at all, and while there may be a connection between local law codes and what he recommends, it’s impossible to say. Are we talking in Urbino, where the dedicatee was Duke? or in Pisa, where Vadi came from?

Q: Which works were influenced by Vadi's work?

A: I’ve not found any direct evidence of Vadi’s influence in any later works. I go through the possible relationship between Vadi’s guards and the Bolognese guards in the introduction to my book The Art of Sword Fighting in Earnest.

Q: How does Vadi's work relate to Fiore's work?

A: It’s a short question with a very long answer, which you’ll find in the introduction to my book The Art of Sword Fighting in Earnest. Basically, I think it’s unlikely that Vadi was taught in a direct lineage from Fiore, and he may or may not have read a version of Il Fior di Battaglia. There’s not enough internal evidence to say for sure.

Then some more general questions:

Q: Learning fight choreography is challenging enough without running out of breath or not being able to fight with a sword in rehearsals and the actual performance. How do you train actors to get fit for stage sword fighting if they have not already been sword fighting before including arm strength and endurance?

A: I don’t. But I do train anyone who wants to learn, regardless of their physical fitness, so my system includes a huge amount of training solutions for range of motion, strength, joint health, and fitness. You’ll find them in the Solo Training course, or in my book The Principles and Practices of Solo Training.

Q: I'm a martial artist (Shito-Ryu karate) and one of my biggest shifts for fencing vs karate is what moves first (I tend to move hip first/at the same time for MA and have been repeatedly reminded that it's sword first for rapier fighting). Do you have any recommendations to facilitate the change in mindset between picking up a sword in ongoing training and my continuing karate work? IDK how question-y my question is: rewording is sort of how to keep my karate habits and rapier habits separate I guess? While still actively training and building in both and acknowledging that there is crossover for pieces like some stances, mindset, footwork, etc.

A: Yes I do. In short, if you understand why you move in a certain way, not just intellectually but at a fundamental ‘this solves a problem’ level, then you’ll move correctly for whatever you’re doing. In other words, if your mind is on the right thing (solving the problem presented by your opponent), and you’ve been trained to solve that problem correctly, you’ll do it correctly. It’s not a matter of style (which you have to remember), it’s a matter of function (which is made obvious by the context). In the same way that you might talk shit with your mates, but speak politely in a business meeting, you’ll initiate with the hip when doing karate (because it works better that way), and with the point of the sword when doing rapier (because it works better that way).

The best example of this was teaching a student to do a scannatura with a rapier (plate 13 from Capoferro). He kept binding the opponent’s point down and walking onto it, because he wasn’t leading enough with the sword. I took a sharp rapier off the wall and took the part of the opponent. He bound that sharp scary stabby thing the hell away from himself and then stepped in. Problem solved. Don’t try this at home, but you get the idea, I hope.

Q: How would you describe the difference in fighting styles between a Fiore fighter and a Chinese Jian user?

A: I wouldn’t, because I don’t know any Jian users who actually fight. (I’m sure there are many, I just don’t know them). My first step would be to find such people, and watch them train and fence, and ideally fence with them. Then compare that to what I know (Fiore stuff). As a writer, you could find someone using a jian online in the way that works for your character, and someone doing the same with a longsword, and compare what you see.

Q: I teach a Beowulf camp and include a HEMA section. I use Liechtenauer. Is that a good source to pair with Beowulf?

A: No. It’s many centuries later, and a completely different weapon. Beowulf dates to around 1000AD, so they would be using what laypeople think of as “Viking” swords, shields, and armour. The closest we have to that is probably I.33 sword and buckler. (I have a course on it here.) There are folk online working with swords and shields from that period, but it’s always going to be reconstructive archaeology, not based on written sources (because there aren’t any). Doesn’t mean they’re wrong though!

Q: What would be the best content to teach writers as a HEMA instructor? I teach at a writing conference and do the basics of long sword and short sword over three days. My goal is experience over sitting, but there's so much to offer!

A: AFAIK there’s no such thing as “short sword” in historical martial arts. So I don’t know what you’re teaching there. But I’d say that all writers would benefit from either longsword, or rapier, or both, because they are the two most common types of swords used in historical fiction and fantasy. Of course historical fiction writers would be best served with a style from their period. E.g. smallsword or backsword/sabre for Napoleonic era swordsmanship, Liechtenauer or Fiore for late 14th-early 15th century, etc. But that’s probably out of scope for this kind of intro class.

If you have questions you’d like to see answered in the book, here’s the form: https://forms.gle/QHspLZNQ2Lw7A1nT9

Questions that are off-topic for the book are best asked on my social media platform, swordpeople.com in the “advice wanted”, “pub”, or “salle” spaces.

If you want access to any of the courses, the best value is probably the subscription package: access to everything for $45/month. You can get 24% off with the code SWORDSCHOOL24 The code also works for ebooks and audiobooks at swordschool.shop. The code expires on March 31st.

Browse the full library of Dr. Guy Windsor’s work: books in physical, digital and audio formats, workbooks, and video courses.

Guy frequently keeps his blog updated with thoughts, challenges, interviews and more!

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