Teaching Swordplay Across Languages: Five Days in Taipei

I've just finished five intense and rewarding days of teaching here in Taipei. Eleven students, ten hours a day, and a lot of rapier, longsword, wrestling, and teaching methodology!

One of the most interesting parts of this intensive was teaching such rich material across a language barrier. It challenged me to think more deeply about how we learn, how we teach, and how much we can communicate through movement, experience, and the structure of our exercises.

Five Days of Swordplay and Teaching in Taipei

Our Level 1 Duello Armizare Instructor Intensive took place at Sakura Sanguines in New Taipei City, hosted by principal instructor Tai Lee, a Senior Student and Duello Armizare Instructor.

We had a full house of 11 participants, completely maxing out our space. Students came from across Taiwan, representing several different schools, including the CHIMEI Museum in Tainan, where I'll be teaching in a few days.

These intensives really live up to their name. Over five days we cover 50 hours of training in rapier, longsword, wrestling, and teaching methodology. It's a demanding schedule, but the intensity also comes from the depth of the material. We're not simply learning techniques. We're exploring why they work, how the body produces them, how to recognize and correct problems, and how to effectively pass these skills on to others.

Some students spoke English, while many relied on Tai to translate. Tai did a marvelous job, and I really appreciated the attentiveness and enthusiasm of everyone involved.

Teaching through translation is an interesting challenge. It encouraged me to communicate concepts through as many different learning modes as possible: the structure of exercises, group problem-solving, demonstrations, physical experience, and opportunities for students to discover principles through their own movement.

I was thrilled with the results. The students made tremendous progress, particularly in their understanding of body mechanics and the processes of teaching and learning.

One of the most rewarding pieces of feedback was hearing how many participants felt that the experience would transform not just how they teach Duello Armizare, but how they teach everything.

That's something I find especially meaningful. Good martial arts teaching is about much more than transmitting techniques. It's about helping people become better observers, problem-solvers, learners, and teachers themselves.

A huge thank you to Tai and everyone who participated for making this such a wonderful five days!

Next stops in Taiwan

I'm heading next to Taichung, where intensive participant Ryan (方品鈞) has recently moved his school, Cold Steel Lab, into its own dedicated training space. I'm excited to see what he's building there.

Then it's down to Tainan for teaching at the beautiful CHIMEI Museum and a local school, where we'll be running a combat clinic focused on the specific challenges students are encountering in sparring.

Then, finally, a few days off!

More Improvements on DuelloTV: Live Classes and Resources

Meanwhile, lots of exciting improvements have been happening on the newly rebuilt DuelloTV.

The entire Live area has been significantly reorganized to make it easier to browse past classes and find the material you're looking for. We've also posted new high-resolution videos covering more than 30 hours of instructional content.

The Resources area has received a complete overhaul as well. It's now much easier to explore our growing library of bonus lessons, workshops, webinars, and teaching resources.

We're continuing to polish and improve the site, and it's exciting to see all of this material becoming easier to find and use.

If you haven't explored the new Resources area yet, I encourage you to take a look. There is a lot of great material there, including some recent bonus lessons you can jump into right away.

Watch: Explore Bonus Lessons and Resources on DuelloTV

Thanks for following along on my travels and for being part of this community of martial artists and learners.