Dos Pueblos High School’s Longsword Dueling Seminar is run by International Baccalaureate History and Film Studies Teacher Adam Shive, who is self-described as a “giant nerd.” The seminar is currently only available to students in the spring semester, and there are currently 25 students enrolled.
The idea of longsword dueling was originally shared by Shive and DPHS Physics Teacher Joshua LaForge, who both wanted to be a part of an enrichment seminar.
“I just threw [the idea] out there, and then, [Laforge] was like, ‘Oh, I want to do that, too,’” Shive said. “He hasn’t been able to so far because he’s been really busy, but maybe he’ll start [running the seminar] that in the fall, and I’ll do mine in the spring.”
Over the course of a session at the Longsword Dueling Seminar, students can learn a new guard position and how they arrive in that position during a duel. Currently, Shive said students are practicing the “cut and thrust” maneuver, which is the last position they need to learn before moving into “slow dueling.”
“Once [students] get confident with [foam swords] and they’re really wailing on each other with the foam blades, then we’re ready to put on protective gear and duel with the wasters,” Shive said. “The swords [they are using now are] only a pound underweight for a real sword. [Students] have to wear helmets [and] wear gauntlets to protect [themselves] … they’ll fight in that so they’ll get bruised, but they’re not going to get hurt. It’s like football; you get bruised.”
Lillian Gren (12) is a new member of the seminar who joined this year, and she said she has really enjoyed her time there.
“I was in the D&D seminar my junior year with a couple of friends, and we would see them practicing longsword dueling outside during that seminar,” Gren said. “I also noticed that it was an option for the spring seminar only, so I went back and forth about it … [and I] decided I was gonna do it senior year, so that’s how I’m here.”
Gren said she enjoys the disciplined and focused environment of the seminar as well as the exercise it gives her.
“It’s been really fun,” Gren said. “I am always very sweaty by the end of it. It is more of a workout than you would think.”
According to Shive, Longsword dueling isn’t the only seminar idea he has had in the works, as his “primary love” has always been horse archery.
“I’ve been trying to get the administration for years to let me run an archery seminar,” Shive said. “They are not keen on the idea of people shooting arrows, so instead, I said, ‘Let me try longsword dueling.’”
Shive shared his “elevator pitch” for anyone on the fence about joining the seminar.
“Do you like Lord of the Rings?” Shive said. “Do you like swords? Do you want to hit someone with one? Do you mind being hit with one? [Then], join longsword dueling.”
Lillian Gren. That’s L, I, L, L, I A N. Gren spelled G, R, E, N. My grade, I’m a senior, so 12th grade, and my pronouns are she her?
very, very hands on, I would say because, I mean, I know people reading this can’t see, but he’s like walking around, teaching people, correcting posture if need be. I actually haven’t been here for a couple of days, so maybe stuff has changed a little bit, but it’s been pretty consistent with him walking around and, like, physically showing you, like, Hey, this is, you know, some corrections that you should do with, like, your form.
I feel like it’s kind of similar to other sports that I’ve played, which is, like, you know, lot of discipline and practice. So, you know, making sure that you’re, like, doing the correct forms, making sure that, like you and the other people around you are staying safe while you’re doing so, because while we’re using, you know, plastic weighted swords in reality of this sort of be, like an actual like, it is a competitive sport. If it were to be competing, like competitively, it would be actual blades. So, yeah, just like learning responsibility for your stuff and the space around you, and just being hyper vigilant and aware of the people around you, yeah?
it’s been really fun. I am always very sweaty by the end of it. It is more of a workout than you would think, because it’s like yoga is the wrong word, but like, some of the poses that we’re holding kind of feel like we’re doing yoga poses with swords. Yeah.
Questions for Shive
Name, pronouns, grade/title, spell name
Adam Shive, Teache,he/him
What is your role within the Longsword Dueling seminar?
Mr. LaForge and him both wanted to put it together
La Forge german
Shive Italian
Work together in Innovate
How did the idea of Longsword Dueling club get started? How did you get involved?
Two paths
Primary love is horse archery
Tried for years to get an archery seminar started
HEMA training
Two competing schools based from two different texts, one German one Italian
Unlike in Asia where combat sport survived due to late industrialization
About how many people do you have enrolled in the seminar? Do they come in with dueling experience beforehand or do you mainly get a lot of beginners?
25
Never less then 18
Total mix.
ACross the board lots of interest
Some have different levels
You can only do what is being taught
Philosophies on the nature of dueling
Defensive positions, cuts connect those positions
All about the cut, after cuts you return to a defensive position
What do you do in a seminar? What does a typical seminar class consist of?
learn a new position
Discuss it’s goals
Practice in pairs
Learning cut and thrust final basic
Slow dueling
Testing starting position
Speed dueling
Then transition to protective gear
If you were to pitch the Longsword Dueling seminar to someone, what would you say?
More women than men
Spring semester only
Students need seminar time
Is there anything else you would like to share?
Okay, so, so I’m a giant nerd, and there’s two paths on this, which is one my primary love is actually horse archery. So like short bow archery, I shoot Korean Harang and a Magyar Hungarian short boat. And I’ve been trying to get the administration for years to let me run an archery seminar. They are not keen on the idea of people shooting arrows. So instead, I said, let me try long sword dueling. So this is actually from an international sport called Historical European Martial Arts, or Hema, H, E, M, a, EMA, yeah, Hema. So a lot of the stuff is straight out of like Hema training. There’s two competing schools, which are based in two manuscripts that survive from the Middle Ages, from the late Middle Ages. So one is by a German fencer named Mayer, and the other one is earlier from Mayer by about 70 years, by a swordsman and knife for hire from Italy named Fiora daily berry um. Liberty’s text is actually at the Getty, and they have published a paperback version of it. So there are almost no words or descriptions. It’s almost all images, so almost all that has been interpreted based upon what’s going on, there’s a lot of contentious debate over what means what, how they’re doing it, and trying to figure it out. So there’s been a lot of backwards mapping. So unlike in Asia, where martial arts survived into the contemporary era, partially because full industrialization didn’t happen till very late. Firearms and industrialization happen early. So almost all of this gets replaced by guns, so early in the 16th century that the only form of martial arts that survived in the modern era was fencing, because it was still used alongside guns. And so as a result, heavier weapons, long swords, halberds, Messer, the Falcon, etc, right? That never got recorded and just disappeared. And so this is the, literally, the only two surviving texts, aside from, like descriptions, which are pretty loose and like Viking sagas and things like that,
there are parameters. So what we are working on is all that you’re allowed to do, right? So it starts small. We start with like basic positions. Meyer and the Barry have very different philosophies on. On the nature and learning dueling. But so for Fiori, for the berry, it is about defensive positions and cuts. Are connections between those defensive positions, right? Yeah, so you’re anchoring defensive positions, connecting with footwork, and then learning how to make strikes to a new defensive position, right? For Meyer, it’s all about the cut, right? So you are learning attacks. It’s a very offensive form. So you are learning attacks and cuts. And cuts move different ways and use the blade in a different direction. And then once you’ve completed your cut, you move towards a different positional reset, right? So you’re not landing in a specific position. In Meyer, you’re cutting in a specific way, right? Yes, you’re cutting in the most efficient way possible. Versus in Liberia, you’re defending in the most efficient way possible, right? And so you can almost watch the fencers work differently. Meyer looks like an overwhelming series of attacks, like it’ll just attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, until they run out of space to do so. The berry will be a lot of footwork, a lot of posing, a lot of like watching each other, and then suddenly a frenzy of activity, and then it ends, so it’s like an explosion, and then somebody has lost the point.
my elevator pitch, yeah, okay. My elevator pitch is this, do you like Lord of the Rings? Do you like swords? Do you want to hit someone with one? Do you mind being hit with one? Join long sword dueling? Interestingly, there are more women than men in long sword dueling. and that
Yeah, this is the second year. right now it’s spring semester only just because of, because, well, partially because, in the fall, I usually teach IB film studies, and I’m teaching IB global conflicts at the same time. I just have too many students with a lot of projects who need seminar to come in and check off on things and getting equipment and that sort of thing.
