Author: Clint

At Polaris Fellowship we study a few different types of sword and shield fighting. In our white belt curriculum we teach cruciform sword and round shield, also known as  the targe.   We find the targe to be a good place to begin our student’s education. It comes directly after the students learn the basics of…

In my free time, outside of my martial arts community, I recently watched the skateboarding competition in the Tokyo Olympics. Later I learned that the street competition bronze medalist, Jagger Eaton, was skating on a broken ankle. On the one hand, it seems obvious that he should probably take some time away from skateboarding to…

I occasionally get asked why I do martial arts. Though there are a lot of different reasons I could give to answer this question, the base of it all is that martial arts are fun.  We often spend time focusing on the physical, and mental benefits of martial arts, but sometimes we miss that they…

Polaris Fellowship is returning to in person classes in June of 2021, and safety is our top concern.  If you’ve ever read any of our book reviews or other posts, you’ll notice that safety is almost always mentioned in some capacity. Safety is very important to us. In resuming classes as the pandemic recedes (we…

During sparring at Polaris, our students are responsible for calling shots when they are hit. If a student feels contact from their opponents weapons, it is their responsibility to acknowledge and respond to the contact. They analyze the strikes that make contact and adjusts to replicate any potential injuries that the strike would have inflicted.…

Since Polaris Fellowship of Weapons Study was founded in 2008, the question that we have often been asked “Why do you use padded training weapons?” HEMA schools in Michigan train with various types of weapons including blunted steel, wooden wasters, and various plastic wasters. However, it is fairly uncommon to find martial arts that study…