The Sword Guy Podcast

Listen in as Guy interviews a wide variety of interesting swordspeople and historians from around the world. Learn more about the practical, the tactical, the theoretical and the just plain awesome from a diverse group of voices.

Podcast Tag: running a club

Jo York is a provost of the Hotspur School of Defence, which is based in the north east of England, and an entrepreneur in her work life, as well as an avid listener of this show. Jo talks about her home town of Knaresborough, with its annual Bed Race. There are pictures here: https://www.bedrace.co.uk/gallery/2022-race And this is the fabulous Yorkshire-accented raven at Knaresborough castle: Jo works with start-up businesses and has started her own […]
Today’s episode is with Steaphen Fick, who is a historical martial arts instructor and a fight choreographer, and also an old comrade in arms since we met in Edinburgh in the nineties. In fact, in this episode you will hear about a certain naked escapade involving swords in Finland in 1999. Here’s a picture of us, fully clothed, from the same trip: Steaphen founded the Davenriche European Martial Arts School in Santa Clara, California […]
Riri Nitihardjo is a martial arts (and ballet) practitioner from Jakarta, Indonesia. Riri first got interested in swords when she discovered The Lord of the Rings and wanted to learn how to wield a sword like Aragorn. She became so hooked on Tolkein that she took a linguistics programme at university – though they wouldn’t let her do her graduate thesis on Elvish languages. The historical European martial arts scene is very small in […]
Welcome to episode 100 of The Sword Guy Podcast! In this special episode, Ariel Anderssen (episode 93) interviews Guy about a whole load of stuff, including how Guy got into swords in the first place, the vision up a Scottish mountain that told him to open his school in Helsinki, injuries from duelling, Guy’s best ever sword fight, feminism, getting through the pandemic, and learning to fly. Ariel also asks Guy about his typical […]
Pradana Pandu Mahardhika lives in Bandung, Indonesia. He describes himself as a freelance translator/interpreter, amateur tailor, and professional procrastinator. In this episode we talk about how Pradana set up a historical martial arts club, Gwaith-i-Megyr, which was founded in 2016. He had been fencing as part of an informal group for a while, but when he decided to get some wooden swords made up, he found that the enthusiasm was really high, mainly from members […]
Lauren Shaw is from Calgary, Canada and is a founder of the Calgary Fellowship of the Sword, where they practice 14th – 19th century martial arts, including longsword, sword and buckler, and – since Covid social distancing rules came in – quarterstaff. Lauren is also known for her YouTube videos as Lauren Danger Adventure Ranger, where Lauren posts videos on just about every single historical martial arts topic imaginable, and each one of them […]
Dr. Emilia Skirmuntt runs the Oxford branch of The School of the Sword, and in this episode we talk about running a school with different branches and specialisations, and improving diversity and inclusivity within historical martial arts schools. Emilia is also a virologist at the University of Oxford, which brings up some topical questions about a certain virus. We talk about her fascinating research into virus-like genes in bat genomes and some truly game-changing […]
Jessica Gomes runs her own club, the Velha Guarda Marcial, in beautiful Sintra, Portugal. She focuses on Fiore’s system, Capoferro rapier, and Portuguese staff fighting, Jogo do Pau. Jessica explains what this Iberian “party weapon” is all about, and how it influences and complements training with other systems. There are some pictures of the Portuguese staffs here, with English translation: https://www.jogodopau.pt/category/media/fotos/feiras-e-romarias/ We talk about teaching different weapons systems alongside one another, such as Jogo […]
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! 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 […]