Announcing Duello.TV

On March 1st we will be launching a new Academie Duello website: Duello.TV. This is the evolution of the Academie Duello learning channelon youtube, that we have been experimenting with over the past 6 months. This will be a subscription based online fencing academy that will give users access to a library of organized lessons on the art of the rapier and eventually the longsword, sidesword, mounted combat, stage combat, bartitsu, archery, and any other awesome things that Academie Duello dips its toes into. Eventually I envision Duello.TV providing streaming access to workshops and seminars, offering live Q&A sessions, ability for people to follow the Duello curriculum and examinations from abroad and many more like features.

Don't Worry There's Still Free Stuff

For those who have been enjoying following this content up until now for free, don't worry that won't be going away. We will be continuing to offer videos pertinent to what we're teaching in class for free each week. The archive of past lessons will however only be accessible to subscribers and the subscription fee will be modest.

We will also be expanding what is in the free area to include a collection of exercises and drills pertinent to all of Academie Duello's disciplines. It's important to us to share this content with our students in Vancouver and abroad and to give others an opportunity to experience Western Martial Arts if they're unable to come out to a class in person.

Why Charge a Fee?

The Duello Learning channel had very humble beginnings last summer, it was just me and an iPad doing one take wonders and posting straight to the Internet. Since then we have taken on volunteers who have been contributing an increasing amount of their time to make sure that the sound and lighting are solid (and improving), that the videos are edited and sensibly put together, and that I have a demonstration partner. To keep this going and to expand it to all the other disciplines of Duello we need to recoup our costs. Also provided that the service is a hit, we can use the proceeds to offer more features like those that I spoke about above.

The Future

Who knows where Duello.TV will go, we hope that it will provide an opportunity for swordplay enthusiasts around the globe to connect with our school and for those who are only able to attend Duello for a short time to have a means to stay connected even when they are abroad. It's an exciting project and we're opent o your feedback. If you have thoughts on how this can be done well, what types of content and delivery you would like, or any other thoughts on how to do this right, please fire them off by email or in the comments.

Devon