#vadi

Thought I may as well make some sort of introduction for this blog since I intend to be a bit more active from now on (we will see how that actually manifests but it is the intent). This post will change over time to reflect the current state of the blog.

First things first, my pronouns are they/them. Oh, and fuck off all you Terfs and Facists. Now onto the intro proper:

I am a UK based HEMA/Historical Fencing practitioner and a undergrad student studying history. I have been studying various fencing traditions for about 5 years mainly focusing on Armizare (formerly mostly Fiore but I am now in my Vadi era) but I have also explored systems focused on rapier, sabre, and sidesword.

I would not consider myself any sort of expert or authority on anything (I’m no Mr Vadi) but I am a somewhat knowledgeable fencer and I have spent many hours training, research, and sparring. Another important thing to note is I am disabled - I suffer from Left-sided Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy - while generally quite a minor condition it does impact my fencing (and I may have some things to say on this blog about this soon).

So what about the blog? And why Vadi?

On this blog I seek to entertain, have interesting discussions, and possibly even educate people. It’s pretty simple and not all too serious and I very much welcome questions regarding Vadi and Fiore as well as HEMA more generally.

As to my love for Vadi:

Well, I am an twinkish contrarian and Vadi is the much maligned hipster choice for longsword.

To be more serious, I started off doing Fiore but I just wanted something a little different, I started to feel that Fiore didn’t perfectly fit my style and my physical ability, so I began to find stuff to augment Fiore and that led me to Vadi since he was a later master in the same tradition with a few key differences. I started adding more and more different stuff into my style while still being a “Fiorist” but I eventually found myself even more unsatisfied with my new mishmash style, so I decided to just switch entirely to Vadi since I was enjoying his stuff a lot more. Also Vadi is definitely quite niche and unfairly overlooked and I love to champion the underdog.

All this does not mean I hate Fiore or anything, l love his system, it’s a great system, I just prefer Vadi longsword for me.

So that’s most of why I do Vadi, the other part is that joke at the start - I am a twink (and more than a little pathetic) - and I have this idea of Vadi (which is not really particularly realistic) as a pathetic loser twink.

“So why do you characterise him like that?” You may ask.

Um… have you seen the guy? He’s the closest to a twink you are going to get for a fencing master, and he was a bit of a failure

My personal choice to characterise Vadi as a twink stems from my personal identity and a want to “vibe” with the master I study, Vadi was probably not gay but the descriptor twink has become far more than just gay slang.

Other than that I have a few people to recommend:

@we-are-knight - an excellent fencer and an instructor of mine who is infinitely more knowledgeable and experienced when it comes to this whole fencing thing.

Jamie Maclver aka “Mr Vadi”, and Connor Kemp Cowell aka Sinestrahema - these two fantastic people create lots of great content on Vadi and I would not be able to be a Vadi fender without their channels (to clarify, I know neither of them personally).

The final thing is Marshal Boucicaut is my washed goat :)

M.

21.08.2023

From a lesson taught last night.