The Sword Guy Podcast theswordguy

One of the great advantages of starting a podcast has been getting to talk to people I've not yet met, but whom my friends speak highly of. I think you'll see why several other guests suggested I talk to Tan when you listen to what she has to say! You can find our conversation here:Tan runs Rogue Fencing, a historical martial arts school in New York, and is also a successful tournament fencer. You can find her online at Rogue fencing, and on Patreon. 

In this episode of The Sword Guy, I talk to Kaja Sadowski, author of the must-read Fear is the Mind-Killer, about training with two swords, training in high-stress situations, and lots more training besides! Kaja has been a physical instructor since 2004, teaching figure skating, rock climbing, and mountaineering before coming to martial arts in 2010. She joined the coaching team at Valkyrie Western Martial Arts Assembly in 2012, and created their beginner program shortly afterwards. She currently teaches group and private lessons to students of all experience levels, and run the school’s self defense program.Her primary weapon is the rapier, and she also teaches unarmed striking, grappling, and knife combat. Her interests vary from the historical to the modern, and range from recreational martial arts to practical self defense and professional use of force. She has been a civilian auxiliary with the Vancouver Police Department’s Force Options Training Unit since 2015, participating in realistic tactical training scenarios and providing guest instruction to their Special Municipal Constable program.

Airrion Scott is an Italian Rapier and Sabre Fencer and Instructor out of the Mid-Atlantic Society for Historic Swordsmanship in Annapolis, Maryland. Since joining them in 2016, Airrion has judiciously followed the methodology of the club which encourages the martial study of HMA through historically accurate techniques gleaned from the manuals and treatises, using historically accurate weapons. Airrion's study at MASHS has led him to become a proponent of the philosophy, "if you follow the text, you will prevail"; subsequently, he has reached the podium in tournaments in 2018 and 2019, earning Gold and Sportsman/Technical Prizes for rapier, rapier and dagger, and sabre play along the way. Airrion would not have enjoyed this success, or HMA in general, if it were not for his love of fantasy and the swashbuckling stories of stage and screen; his path to rapier and sabre began with a fascination with lightsabers and his involvement with The Saber Legion, a full-contact LED saber combat organization.

Sam -also called Samantha- Swords has been passionate about swordfighting since he was old enough to hold a stick. Strongly inspired by the stories of western warrior culture as a child, he has grown up to build his life around those same values, specialising in historical swordsmanship as well as being a professional craftsperson for the film and theatre industry, and immersing himself in creative projects on the side.Sam grew up in Australia and New Zealand, where he learned Western Martial Arts with Colin McKinstry through the New Zealand schools of historical swordsmanship. He was also able to learn the basics of mounted Medieval combat through the Upper Hutt Martial Arts Academy’s cavalry reenactment group, the Order of the Boar. Sam went on to travel widely and train with a vast range of instructors across North America and South East Asia, especially fighters who specialised in some form of personal self defence.Samantha became well known as female swordfighting role model in 2013 after successfully winning the Harcourt Park longsword competition in New Zealand. This led to much global attention and enabled him to expose many people to Europe’s historical martial arts legacy, as well as inspire many women (and people of other genders!) to start their journey with the sword.Sam proudly upholds the work and legacy that he was able to create as a female role model before his transition to male in 2018, although his focus is now on using his platform to inspiring people to be true to themselves and courageously live their passions, whatever those might be. He has also spoken on the relationship between martial arts, storytelling and heroism at the Hero Round Table in 2016.Sam enjoys most forms of historical combat but is especially excited about the study and practice of sword and buckler, as well as the potential of sport-based LARPs to enable field combat simulations that are not safely available to weapons practitioners in other ways.Sam is very active on social media through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. He also has a clothing brand on Etsy and is currently building a community on Patreon.Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SamanthaSwordsPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/samtheswordInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/samthesword/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samthesword/Twitter: https://twitter.com/SamanthaSwordsYou can also listen to his Hero Round Table talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBET_-0aRl8The sword Sam mentions in the podcast is this one:

Francesca Terminiello is lead instructor at The School of the Sword’s Godalming chapter, having studied Bolognese swordplay and rapier since 2010. She has a further interest and some experience in renaissance dagger-fighting, Bartitsu and longsword. Fran has instructed at several high-profile events in Britain, Europe and the US; and has placed in and won a number of international tournaments. As a writer, Fran has demonstrated, panelled and presented on historical fencing and real-world violence at various lectures and writers’ conventions, including Fantasycon and at the Wallace Collection. She was a main organiser of the International Rapier Seminar 2016; co-founded Waterloo Sparring Group in 2012, which facilitates inter-group sparring from clubs all over the south of England and beyond; is a founder of the Wessex League series of events; is a key organiser of the Albion Cup; runs the Spring Sword Workshops and Swords of Winter events; organises By The Sword – an annual women’s event running since 2017; and was a founding member of Esfinges, a worldwide organisation for women in HEMA. 

Jess Finley has had a sword in her had for the past twenty years. Her initial interest was in stage combat, but not too long after beginning that pursuit began to ask "... but how did they really fight" and from that question branched out to German Medieval Martial Arts. She is the head instructor at Ritterkunst Turhalle in Lawrence, Kansas.She has taught and competed internationally at events like the Western Martial Arts Workshop in Chicago, USA; Paddy Crean International Workshop in Banff, Canada; Swordfish in Gothenburg, Sweden; and Longpoint in Baltimore, USA and has taught intensives at various events and schools, as well as weekend private intensives at her home.Jess is a published author, having written Medieval Wrestling on the fifteenth century Master Ott's wrestling treatise of German wrestling techniques. She also researches medieval clothing construction and fabric armor, and has presented her findings at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo and published an article in Medieval Clothing and Textiles on her study of a 15th century quilted armor.Jess currently lives in Lawrence, Kansas with her family. In between “kid-wrangling” her children and remodeling her house, she writes books and does her assigned physical therapy exercises.You can find her on Patreon at https://patreon.com/jessfinleyIn this episode she talks to Guy about swords, wrestling, horses, medieval tree illustrations, medieval combat gear, and other things.