Because there's nowhere else to put this.

We're quarantined, there's shit to do.  I think I've found a great, cheap way to make a modular pell and so I go down a HEMA rabbit hole seeing if anyone has my idea and has put in the research. (Kee Klamps and car tyres- there's a good chance it will work, be semi permanent and massively modular)

I didn't find anything related to that, but I found an amusing... divergence from who I am and what I could have been.  It's wrapped up in an interview about a new club opening near the site of my old one and I kind of want to re-write it as if I was the interviewee.  It's about a school with a very special idea.

"You began your practice in HEMA with British sources, later started practicing Italian Swordsmanship and, now running a new school with a curious framework"

I did- the reason I went with English sources was because I didn't need to rely on translations. It just happened that Olde English was really easy for me thanks to endless visits to the museum as a kid.  Handwriting gives me a headache, but printed with the ligatures and everything was easy. Even with the absolute lack of editors or dictionaries. Through sheer, dumb luck, going to that category of text was no harder than reading the Hobbit.

"but it was the mid 2000's and competition... blah blah blah"

I'm shocked that competition was much of a question in the mid 2000's. A pedant would say that the mid 2000's is another 30 years away.  I was young 13 years ago and new to HEMA.  Let's assume good faith and bad transcription- There was no judge training back then, competition rules were being worked out- Hanwei Practicals were the best rapier around and the best backsword simulator was a shinai with a ballcock and Fightcamp was held at a museum.

I got roped into competitions to make the maths easier. First time I held steel, I used my biker jacket for puncture resistance. I look back at those videos and- oh god no, personal safety and technique. I tell my guys to try judging before competition because that's far more difficult. It's not a halcyon day of super skill- it's a lot of people learning very quickly.

"that might have been the end of my HEMA career until I saw one particular Italian system in use"

Firstly- Citation Needed.  Which particular Italian system.   I had 2-3 weeks on Guy Windsor's rapier before competition. Then I went to reading Cappo in the translated repro by the Thomases.  I've seen the same system used by escrima students and more English types and as much as the Escrima looks swish.

"bad student.... pester instructors"

I have troubles getting my lot to understand how difficult it is to pester me for new information.  I find it hard to have lesson plans because my guys keep asking good questions and I get derailed trying to answer them. This stuff is cool. Every instructor I rate will talk about this for hours given a beer and a good question.    There's little money or fame in HEMA- you teach to get better opponents. You talk about it because it's really interesting.

"blah blah blah...Shakespeare.. blah blah 'Italy was seen to be the sinful centre of the Christian world"

Will was a hack, he wrote satire and fart jokes for a bunch of people who would rather be whoring and drinking instead of attending "high art", his universality and timelessness is down to that. The target could be master fencer Saviolo, or it could be master singer Whigfield. He was probably taking the piss out of the fencing schools in the same way that he was using iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets to mimic the Dick Van Dyke school of cockney accents.. "Christian world"... Yeah, I'm not going to start talking about Protestants and Catholics at that time.

If you're reading this- you know the article, you know the person.

Jeez, what I could have done if I had an ego.