Medieval Wrestling: the Abrazare of Fiore dei Liberi

When does the course start and finish?

The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.

How long do I have access to the course?

How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.

What if I am unhappy with the course?

We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.

• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Advanced

• General HMA

Someone with a purely academic interest could simply watch all of the technical videos in sections 2-7 without practising at all, but we have assumed that you want the course to guide you in developing the ability to apply the techniques.

You certainly can just work through all the videos in order, but that will only be optimal for a limited subset of the students enrolled. So here is what you should do.

Start with the Introduction section. That is not optional, because it contains the safety briefing, and instruction on how to fall.

Work through Section 2: plays 1-6. This will give you a basic grounding in the basic choreography of these fundamental plays from Fiore’s system.

Then decide whether you want to add more breadth, or more depth. Breadth is learning new techniques; depth is developing skill in techniques you already know.

For depth, study Section 8: How to Train.

For breadth, keep working through the course as written (so, Section 3: plays 7-16; Section 4: the Bastoncello, etc.).

Then build each training session according to this pattern:

Warm up. Be mindful of any limitations, and go gently.
Play a little, such as with the Standing Step Drill (08.01) or the Unarmed Flowdrill (01.08), or any of the games from Section 8.06
Add any breadth you want (such as going to the next technical video)
Play a little more, with games from Section 8.
Repeat steps 3-4 until you run out of time
Add conditioning training at the end if you need to get fitter faster (strength, stamina, etc.), using the Solo Training content in section 09.03.
When you’ve completed the whole course, the work really starts. Pay special attention to the video on the Optimal Rate of Failure (08.02) and apply that mode of practice to the plays and techniques you have learned. Gradually incorporate more intense play.

Above all, always:

FINISH TRAINING HEALTHIER THAN YOU STARTED IT