Guy's Blog

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

Category: Learning Swordsmanship

Holiday Fun: 25% birthday discount on books and courses, and free trainalongs

guy's birthday sale banner with discount codes guysbirthday25 and birthdayprint10

I’ll be turning 52 on Sunday, and we’re celebrating in the usual way with a 25% discount on all digital products, with the code GUYSBIRTHDAY25. This works for all products (courses, subscriptions etc.) at courses.swordschool.com, and also for all digital products (ebooks, audiobooks, print-at-home decks etc.) at swordschool.shop

Digital products are great because they have negligible fixed costs- it doesn’t cost me money every time someone buys one. Print does, so I have to be careful about giving out too chunky discounts on print books. But: You can also get 10% off any print book (including the brand-new dagger book) with the code birthdayprint10 at swordschool.shop.

Also, Christmas is coming up, which is a lovely time for many, and a miserable time for some. And a total non-event for billions of people around the world. It falls on a Thursday this year, which is very convenient. I’ll be running my usual morning trainalongs on Wednesday 24th and Friday 26th, which you can find in the “support sword people” area of the swordpeople.com. That is behind a very small paywall. If you’d like to join us but don’t want to create a swordpeople account, or are short of cash, just email me and I’ll send you the zoom link (no need to justify your request in the email, just ask for the link).

The sessions are at 8.30am UK time. The session opens at 8.25, and we run for an hour, with a bit of time at the end for chat etc. It’s not a formal class, just an opportunity to do some good-for-you physical training. Some folk follow along with what I’m doing, some just do their own thing but in company, and others mix and match. Join us if you dare!

Here's a sample trainalong session. I've been doing these since lockdown, but am very slack about recording them, so this dates back a loooong time:

Such fun!
Newsletter subscribers have had access to these discounts for a week already, so if you want to stay in the loop and aren't already signed up, join us with the form below.

And stay tuned for a 100 days no booze update, expected end of next week.

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Master Vadi’s Art of Arms: Complete Longsword and Dagger Training Bundle

Flash sale on Philippo Vadi's longsword and dagger courses bundle

Would you like a complete interpretation and training method for Vadi’s Art of Arms, as found in his De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi?

Well now you can have it, with the Philippo Vadi courses bundle, which includes my Philippo Vadi Longsword Course, and my Philippo Vadi Dagger Course.

The courses also include all of Vadi's other plays, such as sword in armour, pollax, and spear.

Bought individually, these courses cost $850. The Bundle is only $600. And you can get 30% off until Wednesday (October 15th).

 

Click here to enrol, and use the code WELOVEVADI2025 at checkout to get the discount.

The Longsword course includes over 75 video lessons, across 8 modules:

  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

Sample video:

The Dagger course includes over 55 video lessons, across 5 modules:

  1. Introduction & Safety
  2. Basic Training: Falling and Mechanics – Warm-ups, footwork, and mechanics
  3. Dagger Grips and Strikes
  4. The Dagger Plays from De Arte Gladitoria Dimicandi – Every play explained and drilled
  5. How to Train – Solo and pair training to build a solid foundation

Sample video:

 

Who This Bundle Is For

  • Beginners looking for a structured, complete introduction to longsword
  • Experienced martial artists who want to explore Vadi’s unique system
  • HMA students seeking historical accuracy and practical application
  • Anyone who’s ever dreamed of mastering the knightly art of the sword

What’s Included

  • Full lifetime access to all course materials
  • Train at your own pace, anytime, anywhere
  • Mobile and desktop friendly
  • Immediate start—no prerequisites required
  • Get Started Now

You don’t need fancy gear or years of experience to begin. Just a sword (or even a stick), a mask, a friend, some space, and the willingness to train.

Sound like your sort of thing? Go here and use the code WELOVEVADI2025 at checkout to get 30% off.

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Move Like Fiore: body mechanics, structure and flow in Fiore’s art of arms

Guy holding a sharp longsword with decent mechanics

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!

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, and more efficient. Together we will cover:
1. Analysing and improving the structural qualities of Fiore’s guard positions
2. Refining transitions between the guards
3. Different ways to hold the sword for specific purposes
4. Centres of rotation and how they affect different plays
5. How to strike with speed, power, and control
6. Applying these mechanics to wrestling, dagger, and longsword plays

Event Details

•When: Saturday, October 18 · 11am–5pm (with a lunch break)
•Where: The Coddenham Centre, Mary Day Cl, Coddenham, Ipswich IP6 9PS
•Cost: £50
•Bring: Longsword, fencing mask, dagger (if you have one), water, lunch. Freeplay kit is optional, but bring it if you like.
Sign up with this paypal link.
I would highly recommend having a look at my free Fundamentals: Body Mechanics course to prepare (or in case you can't make it over here from New Zealand). It will familiarise you with my approach, and the more people who know the basics of this method, the more stuff we'll be able to cover on the day.
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Fiore’s 76 Dagger Plays: a complete interpretation

On Monday this week 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. Some authors call this the “truck draft”, as in, if I were hit by a truck, the book would still come out.

Which means that it's ready to preorder, in ebook, paperback, or hardback. I expect the book back from the editor this month, and back from layout in October, so if all goes well it should ship in mid-November.

You can find it here.

So what's the book about?

It's my complete interpretation of Fiore dei Liberi's dagger plays. Every single one of the 76 plays we see in the Getty manuscript is there, with the illustration from the manuscript, my transcription, my translation, my explanation of how it works, and a link to a video clip showing my interpretation in action.

There is also a comprehensive introduction about Fiore himself, the treatise, and the four known manuscript versions of his work, and various asides and digressions about elements of practice. Going by word count, the actual dagger plays and interpretation text are about 60% of the book, so there's a lot of extra material.

Sound like fun? Preorder here.

Here's an example of what you'll get (it will look better when the layout is done by a professional: this is just me pasting stuff into an email program).

The Seventh and Eighth Plays of the Ninth Master

F18v

Fiore's 7th play of the 9th master, dagger between the legs, interpreted by Guy Windsor​
​La presa del mie magistro non abandonai in fin che questo zugador vidi vidi che non lassava la presa. E luy se inchina cum la daga in verso terra. E io subito piglai la sua mane cum la mia mancha per enfra le soi gambe. E quando la sua mane hebbe ben afferada, dredo de lu passai. Comomo possete vedere chello non si po discavalcare senza cadere. E questo zogho che me dredo posso fare. La man dritta dela daga lassa, e per lo pe lo vegno a piglare per farlo in terra del tutto andare, e a torgli la daga no mi po manchare.

I will not abandon the grip of my master so that this player saw that he could not leave the grip. And he leant down with the dagger towards the ground. And I immediately will grip his hand with my left hand between his legs. And when his hand has been well secured, I will pass behind him. As you can see, he cannot dismount [from my grip] without falling. And this play that is after me I can do. The right hand leaves the dagger, and I will come to grab him by the foot to put him completely on the ground, and I will not forget to take his dagger from him.

Fiore's 8th play of the 9th master, with the leg lift, interpreted by Guy Windsor

Questo scolaro che me denanzi a fatto lo principio, et io fazo del so zogho la fine de mandarlo in terra como ello ha ben ditto. Per che questo zogho non habia corso in larte, volemo mostrare che in tutta liei habiamo parte.

This scholar that is before me has done the start, and I do the end of the play, by sending him to the ground as he has well said. Because this play is not common in the art, we want to show that we have a part in all of it.

This technique is fascinating, and lots of fun to practice if you’re careful. It works best if the player is pulling back on contact, or you can create some space for it by a sneaky backfist to the groin with your left hand. Having made the cover, you slam their wrist into their groin, then let go with your left hand (unless you already did to do the backfist) and reach around their leg to grab their wrist again from behind. This is quite easy because you are just finding your own right hand. Then let go with your right hand and bring that around too. You’re now holding their wrist between their legs from behind. If you just yank upwards they will fall on their face, or you can grab their ankle and yank that up for extra vim. Fiore recommends doing the disarm too, which we see in the first image.

You can see this play here: guywindsor.net/dagger064​

I'm hoping it's really obvious to you whether this is your kind of thing or not. If not, no worries, there's plenty of other material for you. But if it is your thing, you can preorder here. And if you think your friends will like it, do share.

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Get Started with a New Beginner’s Course in Historical Martial Arts

banner image for Introduction to HMA beginners course

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.

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Salt, Steel, and Serbian Hospitality in Belgrade

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.

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Vadi Lives! The awesome new Vadi Longsword Course is live!

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.

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Medieval German Wrestling: the Twirchringen of the Von Baumann MS

Jessica Finley throwing Guy Windsor with a twirchringen from Von Baumann. Medieval german wrestling for the win!

Medieval German Wrestling Course: the Twirchringen of the Von Baumann manuscript

The long-awaited Medieval German Wrestling course from Jessica Finley is finally ready!

Last June I flew to Kansas to shoot Fiore dagger plays with Jessica Finley. While I was there she asked if we could also shoot a course on Von Baumann’s wrestling plays, because they formed such a handy mini-system. A great introduction to German wrestling, and also useful to broaden the education of Fiore scholars. She had helped me with the Abrazare (Fiore’s wrestling) course the previous year, so she knew what it Fiore covered- and what he left out. And she thought Von Baumann’s Twirchringen plays would fill some of the gaps.

That was a very easy HELL YES! for me, and so we set to work.

I love Fiore, as you probably know. And I think his abrazare section, taken in context with especially the dagger plays, is relatively complete. But it’s not intended to be anything like a comprehensive wrestling method: it’s just the abrazare plays you need as a foundation for the entire knightly combat system.

Assisting Jessica on this course on the Twirchringen added a great deal of breadth to my own wrestling knowledge, and I think every Fiore scholar who doesn’t yet have a solid wrestling background (which includes me! My unarmed experience is mostly punching and kicking) will find this a really useful way to broaden their base.

This comprehensive course delves into the fascinating world of medieval German wrestling, exploring the seven Twirchringen (cross-wrestling) plays from the 15th-century Von Baumann manuscript. You’ll learn the core techniques, their counters, and the counter-counters that make this selection of techniques such a useful mini-system.

This course is ideal for:

•Beginners looking for an accessible introduction to medieval wrestling.

•Practitioners of German or Italian medieval martial arts seeking to expand their knowledge of unarmed combat.

•Anyone with an interest in historical martial arts and the rich traditions of medieval combat.

Course Structure:

  1. Introduction: Course overview, safety briefing, and academic materials (transcription and translation of the Von Baumann manuscript).
  2. First Twirchringen: The first play, its counter, and the counter to the counter.
  3. Second Twirchringen: The second play, its counter, and the counter to the counter.
  4. Third Twirchringen: The third play, its counter, and the counter to the counter.
  5. Fourth Twirchringen: The fourth play, its counter, and the counter to the counter.
  6. Fifth Twirchringen: The fifth play, its counter, and the counter to the counter.
  7. Sixth Twirchringen: The sixth play, its counter, and the counter to the counter.
  8. Seventh Twirchringen: The seventh play, its counter, and the counter to the counter.
  9. Connecting the Plays: Techniques for setting up the plays, and ways to link them together for fluid combat.

You can check out the entire first section for free on the sales page here.

Please do share that link wherever you like, and with any friends you have who you think might be interested. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

The 40% discount ends on February 9th at midnight.

If you are a Patron, or have bought the Abrazare or Hauptstucke courses, you should already have received an even bigger discount code. If that's not the case, drop me an email and I'll send it to you.

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2024 Roundup, and plans for 2025

Guy with three Mexican students, all with thought bubbles. Mexico City 2024

7 Countries. 4 Continents. 6 books. Two online courses. And one really good idea (I think).

It’s kind of absurd to summarise an entire year in a single blog post, especially such a busy and yet somehow still productive year as the last 12 months have been, but I need to get a handle on what my actual choices were. It’s all very well to say you prioritise x or emphasise y, but looking back you may well find that you actually prioritised z.

It seems that this year I’ve prioritised pushing books out the door (sometimes faster than they should be), and travelling as much as I can handle. Leaving aside family travel (such as starting the year on holiday in Italy with my wife and kids, taking my wife to Porto for a weekend, and the whole family to Spain for a summer holiday, and visiting my mum in Scotland (which is a whole other country)), in 2024 I went to:

  • Helsinki, in February and again in May, teaching seminars for the Gladiolus School of Arms (which I’ll be doing again in mid-January 2025)
  • Singapore in April, to teach seminars for PHEMAS
  • Wellington, New Zealand, in April, to teach a seminar for a friend’s club (I segued through Melbourne on my way home to catch up with friends)
  • The USA: Lawrence, Kansas to shoot video with Jessica Finley, Madison Wisconsin to teach a couple of seminars, and Minneapolis likewise
  • Potsdam, Germany, for Swords of the Renaissance
  • Mexico City for the Panoplia Iberica, and then Queretaro for a smaller event.

That’s a total of 73 nights away from home for work trips. Damn. I’ve loved it, and will be doing some travelling in 2025, but both my daughters have major exams coming up in June (A-levels for one, GCSEs for the other), so I need to be home for much of at least the first half of the year.

Publishing

In January 2024 I published From Your Head to Their Hands: how to write, publish, and market training manuals for historical martial artists. Perhaps the nichiest book I’ve ever written, but it was there in my head in between editing drafts of the wrestling book (see below), so I got it out of my head and into your hands. See what I did there?

In March I published the long-awaited and technically “first” volume in the From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice series: The Wrestling Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi. Only 4 years after what will become the third volume (The Longsword Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi). It took me that long because the pandemic stopped me from going to Kansas to shoot the supporting video material with Jessica Finley. Well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. It was also just bloody hard to write.

The second volume (on the Dagger Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi) should be out in early 2025, and at that point I’ll re-cover the Wrestling and Longsword volumes and make them look and behave more like a book series.

Proof if ever you needed it that there’s no need to do things in order.

In August I published Get Them Moving: How to Teach Historical Martial Arts. This is another super-nichey book. I’m not aiming at the mass market here, just clearing things out of my head so I can get on with other things. Books do that: they simply insist on being written and published, and won’t let me alone until I’ve got them out the door.

I also managed to edit all the new material for my Medieval Dagger Course, which I had shot in Kansas. I also have a bunch of longsword material to publish, and an entire course on German Medieval Wrestling (Jessica Finley’s work).

In September I published the celebratory 20th Anniversary edition of my first book, The Swordsman’s Companion, and I’ve made the ebook free on all platforms. The book is hopelessly out of date as regards interpretation, but it’s an interesting window into the state of the art as it was in 2004. And it got a lot of people into historical martial arts.

In November we published the magnificent facsimile of the Getty manuscript, with my complete translation. Unfortunately that ran into some bizarre technical problems after the first 50 or so orders had come through, so at the time of writing we are fixing the problem and reprinting the books. I also created a companion volume which includes the complete transcription as well; it’s not intended as a standalone, but it is finished and has been sent out to all the buyers of the facsimile, so I guess that counts as two more books, taking the year’s total to a somewhat absurd 6. If you consider that my first book came out 20 years ago, and in that time I’ve written and published about 18 books: a full third of them in this year alone.

Of course, publishing comes after writing, and a lot of this year’s output were mostly or at least partly written over the last few years; they just happened to be ready all at once.

My podcast The Sword Guy hit 200 episodes in December 2024, and I’ve decided to pause a while to think about what I want to do for the next 20, 50, or 100 episodes.

Business stuff

I had two main goals for 2024: to figure out how to open up my platform to other instructors, and to create partnerships with other businesses serving the HMA community. I’ve made progress on both those fronts.

Esko Ronimus’s course “Introduction to Bolognese Swordsmanship” went live on courses.swordschool.com in October this year. This is different to the collaborations I’ve done before (such as Jessica Finley’s Medieval Wrestling course) because I was not directly involved in creating it. I didn’t direct the shoot, edit the video, or take part in the production in any way. I just provided a platform to host it on, and some advice on structuring the course and marketing it. So far both Esko and I are happy with the results, and I’m open to requests from other instructors…

If you’ve bought a sword from Malleus Martialis in the past year you may well have got a discount code for one or other of my online courses, or a code to get one of my ebooks for free. This kind of thing is good for Malleus (they can offer more to their customers at no cost to themselves, and make an affiliate fee on any course sales), good for the customer (they get free or discounted stuff they are likely to be interested in), and me (I get some of the course sales money, and someone who may not know my work becomes familiar with it, and may go and buy a bunch more of my books). So if you’re in the business, and want to set something up, let me know.

Research stuff

This year there has been one significant change to my interpretation of Fiore’s Armizare: the three turns of the sword. This doesn’t change much about how we actually do things, but it affects the underlying theory behind the art, and solves a mystery that has been plaguing us for decades. Full credit to Dario Alberto Magnani. You can listen to the entire conversation here.

It also meant updating my translation of the Flower of Battle: I deleted one word. A very critical word. “Also”. Yes, it makes a difference.

Plans for 2025

I came back from Mexico with one clear vision of a problem to solve. Namely, I travel about a lot giving seminars, and so I get to see a lot of students, but only every now and then, and many of them I’ll never see again. This is unsatisfying. I don’t get to see the long-term effects of the things they have learned from me. I don’t get to see them develop over time. Of course there is some continuity, especially when I go back to teach at clubs regularly, but it’s not ideal for either me or the students.

So what to do about it? The thing that blows the students’ minds most consistently are insights into swordsmanship mechanics. Ask Leon in Mexico or Rigel in Singapore about the rapier guard quarta, and how stringering works. The look of utter startlement on students’ faces when they get it is the absolute best thing. I’m thinking about creating an online course that goes into the absolute fundamentals (ie the most important but least flashy) of how sword mechanics work, and making it free: but required for anyone signing up to one of my seminars when I travel. This will let me cover a lot more stuff in the class itself, and prepare them better to actually make use of the insights. And it will hopefully bring them more into my orbit, make them more likely to show up on swordpeople.com with good questions, more likely to come to the next seminar, etc.

I also want to create an online course on Vadi’s longsword (might as well shoot my interpretation of the entire manuscript while we’re at it), publish the dagger volume of From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice, maybe shoot the video for the armoured combat and/or mounted combat volumes, and finish The Armizare Workbook Part Two (which has been more than half written for over a year… but is still stuck in hard-drive purgatory). Part One came out in 2022, and I meant to get Part Two out in mid ’23. Oh well.

I’m planning to make all of the supporting video for From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice (so, clips of every play from Folio 1 to Folio 31v of the Getty ms) free online. They are currently only visible through the links in the books. But making them open to all should help my fellow scholars, and also provide advertising for the books. Another win-win.

The key thing to remember here is that planning is vital but plans are useless. There is no way to predict the future, and all sorts of things might get in the way of any or all of my intentions for the year. But having a think about what I want to accomplish, and why, makes it much more likely that I’ll be able to look back on 2025 with some degree of satisfaction. Let’s see what actually happens…

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New Fiore Facsimile, and Guy’s Birthday Sale

It’s an exiting time this week. We have a brand-new book out today, and, as it’s my birthday on Saturday (I'll be 51), we’re also running a birthday sale on all ebooks, audiobooks, and online courses. Hurrah! Just use the code GUYSBIRTHDAY30 to get 30% off at checkout (code is valid for all digital products- not print books or t-shirts).

First up, the new book:

 

I have completed my translation of Fiore’s Il Fior di Battaglia, as found in the Getty manuscript. You may recall I produced an affordable facsimile of the Getty a few years ago. Well, we’ve now produced an updated version, that reproduces the Getty manuscript in its entirety, in full colour, and as close as possible to the size of the original. But there’s a twist:

The second half of this volume is a second reproduction of the manuscript with the original Italian text replaced by my English translation. This recreates the experience of reading the original Italian as closely as possible. The book also includes an introduction to Fiore and his life and times, the provenance of the manuscript, and suggestions for further study.

This way, you get the original, and the translation, in one volume… for the same price as the original facsimile-only edition. Because we can. And it’s my birthday.

The excellent Katie Mackenzie has done a gorgeous job on the cover and layout:

A page from the translation laid out on the facsimile
Sample page from part 2

The translation section includes tags on the pages so you can find the section you want from the page edges. You can find it here:

Glorious Getty!

I don’t know if the book will get to you in time for Christmas- much depends on how busy the printer is, and the shipping options you select at checkout. But we’ve done our best to get it out fast enough that there’s a fair chance…

You can also get an audiobook of me reading my translation (remember to use your discount code!) here.

This birthday sale will end on Tuesday December 3rd, so timing is everything…

The code: GUYSBIRTHDAY30

Ebooks and audiobooks: https://swordschool.shop

Courses: https://courses.swordschool.com

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