Musketeer Highlights for September 2019
Musketeer Highlights for September 2019
It’s that time again where we turn the spotlight on you, our wonderful Musketeers. We’re proud to announce that the Top Musketeer for September is none other than Joe Estee.
Joe was a fantastic Sword Partner for our Boston Experience, but his work did there! Joe absolutely went above and beyond in bringing Boston together by helping us find a wonderful location, a photographer, and a videographer. He also helped promote the event, which was a huge success.
Thank you, Joe, and keep up the incredible work.
As with every month, it’s not always easy to pick our Top Musketeer, so we’d like to mention Shan O’Connor. Shan has been actively promoting the Sword Experience on social media and we’ve noticed the incredible work she has been doing.
Thank you for your continued support Shan.
Now, for a special piece for our blog, Adrian Paul took time out of his busy schedule to discuss how the Sword Experience has evolved over time. Learn how Adrian decided to start the Sword Academy, as well as what he has learned through his time with you at his events.
So, get ready for a two-part series on how sword fighting, sword choreography and physical fitness can be used to…
Upgrade your Life Part 1
When I was looking for a name for this new business, I called this company the Sword Experience because I didn’t want to state that I was teaching a particular style of sword work. I knew there were many martial arts groups and practitioners, who adhered to the style they practiced and there would be those critiquing what we were about to launch.
I realized that my job was not to teach a sword style but instead give people the experience of handling one. Let’s face it, Duncan Macleod’s “style” grew to be a collection of many that he had learned along the way, in order to face the enemies who confronted him.
So, starting the Sword Experience, my goal was to give people a taste of the art, in the hopes that they would enjoy it and perhaps begin studying in whatever style they felt a connection to. But to many, it has become more than that.
Our initial events were structured to learn the choreography from certain television shows and movies, allowing you to participate in something that you could only watch on screen, and perhaps secretly wished you could.
The comments we received from the more than 70 events we have offered, across several countries and in a variety of amazing locations, has made me learn how powerful putting a sword in someone’s hands can be. I am not talking about strength, but what it does to your spirit.
Some have taken away the need to study a martial art or return to one they abandoned many years before. For others, it has given them the inspiration to get fitter, to be able to accomplish something they never thought possible, even get on a plane for the first time to take an amazing vacation or visit places that they only read in history books.
Being a teacher, I learned that the way someone handled a sword was a pretty good indication of their character, or how they approached their lives.
If they held the bokkens too tightly, they would sometimes be holding on to things in their personal life. If they struck their partner with too much strength venom it showed me that they may be too aggressive. If they didn’t want to swing the sword and held back, they were probably doing the same thing when approaching situations that they were faced with in life.
Being A Sword Partner
We recently reached out to our wonderful Sword Partners to ask them what it’s like to work with the Sword Experience and Adrian Paul. We thought it would be interesting to get to know a little bit more about the people that help make the Sword Experience such a success.
Sword Partner Jay McCabe has worked with the Sword Experience for two of our events in the UK, and he was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to give us an inside scoop into his background with sword choreography and his relationship with the Sword Experience.
Sword Partner Jay McCabe
‘Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance’ – Confucius
My journey to being part of the Sword Experience, I imagine, will be slightly different from others. As a young man, I trained in Latin American dance and Tae Kwon Do and it wasn’t for a long time until I was introduced to the amazing world of swords.
After training as a performer, I was fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time. I began working at Warwick Castle and was introduced to a company called ‘Dressed to Kill’, a company that not only makes and manufactures armor but also provides, performances, education, and team building in the form of archery, axe throwing, and sword training.
I began working with them providing shows as a knight for castles around the UK. Fast forward nine years later, and here I am, a 15th Century knight (war of the roses) for most of my daily life, performing at some of the most amazing sites that the UK has to offer as ‘The Warwick Warriors’
As the Warwick Warriors, we have three main shows, all of which are combat-based. The Warwick Warriors show is where we use a mixture of historically accurate sword fighting, storytelling and myth-busting to entertain and educate in a fun way.
Though we have another 15th Century show ‘Tournament of the Knights’ a mixture of choreographed historical combat with competitive combat between the four knights who take part including swords, axes, pole hammers, and maces.
Great fun! Our third main show is ‘Georgian Duelling Gents’ set in the 15th Century that is akin to the Warwick Warriors though this time fighting with rapiers, daggers, and Sabers!
After 9 years of full-time fighting, we have gone from strength to strength, fighting for hundreds of thousands of people, in castles, halls, stages, streets, and even nightclubs!
It has been an unbelievable journey and every day I get strapped into my armor; I can’t help but think of how incredibly lucky I am!
It was at Warwick Castle where I first met Adrian Paul. I was a Sword Partner for the Sword Experience Warwick event two years ago. I overcame my small amount of being starstruck, having been a big fan of the Highlander television series, and fell quickly into my usual relaxed manner and was happy to see that I was able to have a laugh with him whilst we rehearsed and ran through the fight.
Having been a Sword Partner for two Sword Experience events I can say It’s been a huge amount of fun. The dedication the team has to making sword fighting accessible to everyone regardless of previous training is truly great. Everyone can do it and everyone will have fun doing so.
That, more than anything, is what I hope to add to future events to come. It’s great to swing a sword, it’s great to meet Adrian, but it’s even more great to do it in a safe and fun way!
