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Praise for Christian Tobler's new Poleaxe DVD

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Das Bill:
There's been a lot of talk about Christian Tobler's new DVD "German Medieval Martial Arts: The Poleaxe", available at Freelance Academy Press. ( http://www.freelanceacademypress.com/poleaxedvd.aspx ) Now that I've finally gotten a chance to watch it in full, I see exactly why. This is a wonderful presentation of an often misunderstood medieval weapon. The production value is excellent, and it flows quite nicely with the feel of a documentary combined with a martial arts instruction video. A lot of praise needs to go to Chris Valli at Speaking Window Productions.

The DVD opens with a choreographed judicial duel (showcasing some *beautiful* armour), and moves into a very nice general overview of the weapon itself. There is some excellent commentary from Dr. Jeffrey Forgeng and Dr. Lee Jones about the historical and practical context as well as the etymology of the word.

The DVD then proceeds to go through a number of techniques from various 15th century Liechtenauer sources. If the viewer is a beginner, this gives a very nice overview of several important techniques, and gives plenty of good drills to help that beginner really gain a good grasp of the weapon. If the viewer is a more experienced practitioner, this is an excellent catalog of techniques that can easily be referenced. The drills that follow the techniques provide several easy yet vital training methods to help students of the art progress.

I think that my favorite thing about this DVD is how accessible it is to anyone. I can recommend this to my advanced students, of course (many of whom already own it and love it), but I also teach a number of youth students (ages 9 and up) who will love it as well. In fact, I think a number of the younger guys will have parents who will eat it up for both the educational factor as well as the way it will get them even more interested in learning. I also think this DVD will be very interesting to medieval arms and armour enthusiasts who are not necessarily martial artists but are still interested in understanding how this prominent weapon was used.

Dragonlover:
Sounds like a great reference source for the 'ol library! :)

Sir Edward:

Yeah, I'm dying to get my hands on this one. Can't wait!

Sir Edward:
I just watched it tonight, and it's great! Very professionally done, and I like the fact that it goes both into the history as well as an explanation and demonstration of various techniques involving the weapon. From a technical aspect, it's also well made, with good lighting and backdrops.

It's not really a criticism, but the only thing I found odd was that the trailer in the special features section was the only part that was in anamorphic widescreen. The rest was in widescreen, but forced into 4:3 via letterboxing (encoding the black bars). Also, the freeze-frames weren't de-interlaced, so you get very jagged double-images when it freezes on something in motion. But otherwise, the editing is very tight, the image quality is great, and the sound quality is good as well. You can see they really took the time to get it right.

You're right, the content is very accessible and informative, and can appeal to anyone with even a passing interest. The poleaxe is really an under-appreciated weapon. Popular culture focuses so much on the sword, that it's almost completely forgotten that the poleaxe was a knightly weapon used primarily between two armored knights.

I definitely will highly recommend this DVD!

Sir Wolf:
wow what a great video.

Sir Edward and I watched it this weekend... and boy what an overload of great information. I am just sorry my little brain could not handle it all. hehehe I was so busy trying to remember things in the video that towards the end my brain was overcrowded and I began to forget everything hehehe. I can not wait until the next video.

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