WarriorFit SwordSchool Self-Study

In case you weren’t aware of it: I’m a GIANT nerd.

I love all things medieval, fantasy, swords, dragons, wizards, swords, and of course: Rangers (like Aragorn). I truly wish there was a good dark overload that needed killing, a magic artifact of epicness that needed activating, some sort of person in distress to rescue by way of chopping off the head of some terrible otherworldly monster thing, or a nifty cup of immortality to find.

I love functional fitness, hard exercise, and pushing my body beyond what I could ever imagine. I love swords. I love learning new things, creating new things, and iterating on existing ideas until I have refined them to a point where they are precisely what I want them to be. I love martial arts, but mostly I LOVE LOVE LOVE swords.

Several years ago Amazon told me I would like the book The Medieval Longsword (Mastering the Art of Arms Book 2) by Guy Windsor. As it clearly involved swords I bought it, and began to read it. As the title suggests it is a manual for learning how to use the Medieval Longsword.

I was thrilled beyond reason. I read some of the book, fell down several rabbit holes of reference material, then got discouraged and moved on. At the time I was incredibly overweight, and even the simplest physical activities were trying. Also, learning a very kinesthetic skill from a book is super hard!

A few years later I got excited to get in shape and wanted to take Martial Arts. I started taking Tae Kwon Do, and had a great time. I was beginning to get fit, and knew it wouldn’t be long before I could try learning to Sword Fight! Then I was struck with a personal tragedy and dove back into unhealthy habits thus further delaying my journey. As I’ve mentioned in other articles, I eventually found my way back to wellness, and have had great success. As such, it is now time to learn the blade!

I’ve also been thinking about martial arts, but as I live in a fairly rural area the options there are limited to “sport” styles, and those really don’t interest me.  I’ve also noticed that workouts in martial arts are of inconsistent difficulty. Sometimes I get an amazing workout, and other times I barely break a sweat. This has led me to feel that I won’t enjoy trading CrossFit for Martial Arts of any sort I currently have access too.

It has also led me toward a mental exercise where I am thinking about what I want from a martial art, how I would design  my perfect martial art, and seriously dude its time to learn how to sword fight!

Thankfully, in the intervening years since I got that first book, much of the rest of the world (or at least the internet and reality TV) has become interested in this idea of sword fighting as well. With this interest as well as access to streaming video technology it is (at least theoretically) possible to learn to sword fight online by video.

In fact, the author of the original book I got even has a online sword school through teachable which can be found here. I have undertaken to learn the sword by purchasing his solo training course, his dagger course and his longsword course. In the solo training course there is a good bit of info on the different things one must work on to become a solid sword fighter such as breath control, sword skills, and range of motion. One aspect that is missing currently though, is a solid conditioning course (more on this later).

I’ve recruited one of my favorite nerd friends to be a training partner, and have developed a personal training plan. (Note: If you would like to train along with me I suggest you purchase the solo training course, and the longsword course. Use the discount coupon “HALFOFFFORMICHAELSREADERS” for a whopping 50% discount on any of Guy’s courses. You should also join my training group “WarriorFitSwordSchoolTrainingGroup” on Facebook.)

As I was working on my personal training plan to go with Guy’s training, it occurred to me that I was in effect creating my very own martial arts course. One that is customized for me, and entails everything I want. I’ve also been thinking in terms of Functional Fitness workout programming, and have come up with several I’m going to work in to my weekly routine.

To make a long story a bit longer; I am developing a training program, calling it “WarriorFit Sword School”, and will be writing articles about various aspects of it here. I will not be posting any specific Sword Fighting training other than referencing the material from Guy’s courses. Guy’s Online School of European Swordsmanship handles the actual sword training (as well as dagger, rapier,wrestling, and other things) better than I ever could, and you should purchase his courses if you want to learn those things the same way I am (use the above coupon code for a huge discount).

My work will be focused on developing a functional fitness methodology to go along with Mr. Windsor’s excellent sword training one. I will be posting a range of workouts as well as my weekly practice schedule along with which lessons from the sword school I am working on during a given week. Again, I won’t be posting the sword lessons themselves just the skills I’m working on. I plan to post my weekly training plan Sunday nights as well as a reflection on the previous week’s training.

Here’s what I’m working on this week:

Monday:

6:00 AM – Breath Control 10 Minutes Practice (Fundamentals: Breathing Week 1)

5:15 PM – CrossFit (Strength Training)

6:30 PM – Yoga

Tuesday:

6:00 AM – Range of Motion Exercises (Footwork Class: 01. Safety – Video 2 “How To Increase Your range of Motion) or Morning ROM

4:15 PM – CrossFit (Strength Training)

Wednesday:

6:00 AM – Breath Control 10 Minutes Practice (Fundamentals: Breathing Week 1)

Evening: (The Medieval Longsword Complete Course: The First Class)

Thursday:

6:00 AM – Range of Motion Exercises (Footwork Class: Safety Module, Video 1&2) or Morning ROM

4:15 PM – CrossFit (Strength Training)

Friday:

6:00 AM – Breath Control 10 Minutes Practice (Fundamentals: Breathing Week 1)

5:15 PM – CrossFit (Strength Training)

Saturday:

Active Rest Day

Sunday:

Longsword or Dagger blade handling work, and some sort of Yoga/Range of Motion work.

The astute amongst you will note that there’ a good bit of “CrossFit/Strength Training” on my training calendar. This is intentional. Despite having lost over 60 pounds in the last 2 years I still have at least 40 pounds of fat left to get rid of. The best way to do this is through high intensity strength training. If you are not a member of a CrossFit Gym (or some other functional fitness gym), you can replace those items with any of the metcon (metabolic conditioning) workouts I have developed. They can be found here. The workouts are designed to be performed daily (or as many times per week as you are comfortable), and to alternate each week.

Note: I am not a doctor, not your doctor, not a personal trainer, nor am I your personal trainer. If you become injured by doing this workout I assume no liability. I recommend that you consult your physician and/or fitness training professional prior to undertaking any strenuous physical activity.

I hope this article helps you discover whatever your best body happens to be, that you have fun learning the sword with me, and that above all else you remain injury free!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

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