The Man Behind Swords, Fighting and the Arts of Mars

This is a short introduction about me, that is Colin Richards, I am 53 years old and live in a small village about 25 miles south west of Hannover, Germany. I live with my darling wonderful wife, Sandra, and our two sons Jason and Ewan.

I am a professional martial arts instructor and teach various Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). My main interest being Italian School martial arts from the treatises of Fiore die Liberi, though also including German school from the Glossaries on the master Liechtenaur, The Tower Fechtbuch 1.33 (about sword and buckler fighting and the earliest known european fighting treatise), Viking Era weapons with shield, smatterings of Quarter staff from various authors and Back sword of George Silver among other things. I will be adding to these subjects shortly.

These treatises include the use of the following weapons or fighting styles:

• Wrestling
• Dagger
• Longsword used in two hands
• Longsword used in one hand
• Single handed sword
• Sword and buckler (small shield)
• weapons and Shield (large shield)
• Spear
• Quarterstaff
• Sax (large knife), Langesmesser
  
• Pole axe
• Fighting on horse back (though I must admit not my cup of tea)
• And a host of others which would get boring to list!

I am an author of the book: Fiore dei Liberi 1409: Wrestling and Dagger (in English and German), which was designed by my wife and she did the 920 photographs, oh and translated and arranged and she runs the selling of the book and did the website! Yes, she is a remarkable woman, without whom I would still be in the stone age cooking food with hot stones. Sandra also runs our 5 businesses which includes her own which deals with creating projects for children involving medieval handwork and lifestyle creation.

Well that is all for now, I hope your sword is sharp and your shield large and fast as you can always do with help in today's hectic world!

Best Regards

Colin Richards