Jean Philipe Wojas is now a level 1 mentor. From Montreal, Compagnie Medieval, he and did his training under Jay Maas

Preforming beautifully at the 2022 Glengarry games has taken seminars with Jay Maas, Wyatt Campbell and Jonathan MacKenzie Gordon. He has made big improvements in the past few years, made it to semi finals in singlestick!

“The Broadsword Academy Germany is happy and proud to announce, that 6 excellent swordfighters of Show of Arms and MERCS Malta received their next level mentor certifications during an event held on the fortifications of Fort St. Angelo, Birgu. Robert Grima, Dylan Sultana, Michael Joseph Bonett and Ismael Bonello all four applied for Level 1: Regimental Broadsword and passed the final tests with bravura! Well done, all of you, was really pleased to work with you guys. Michael and Ismael will now concentrate on Level 3: Sword & Shield/Double-weapons, while Robert and Dylan will focus on Level 4: MacGregor Method/Auxiliary Arts. Christine Montebello and Mikal Suleiman both were nominated to pass the final tests for Level 3: Sword & Shield/Double-Weapons and were doing so with excellent skills and mindset. Both will now focus on Level 1: Regimental Broadsword. I like to congratulate all of them and thank them again for their dedicated work and friendship.

The Broadsword Academy Germany is happy and proud to announce, that Edward Lindey has been certified as Level 1 Mentor (Regimental Broadsword) within the Cateran Society Program.

Edward trained with us over the last years regularly in class and also online. He is a dedicated swordsman with a lot of experience from other combat disciplines, a spirited fencer with great combat spirit, and he participated with us in all types of sparrings and freeplay, always willing to learn and improve his skills. We worked with him focused on his mentor-certification before he left Germany going back to the USA. In the final test he had to do several sparring in different levels with different tasks all in a row with changing fresh opponents. He mastered this final test very good and earned his rank as Level 1 mentor. We will miss him, his dry sense of humor, his spirit and dedication and wish him and his family all the best for the new chapter in their life.

May we meet each other again soon to cross blades again. Congratulations, Edward, well deserved!

We are very proud and happy to announce, that Joel Anajao (aka Kalis Magani) and Ariel B. Ramos (Philippines) both earned the certification for the rank of Level 1 Mentor (Regimental Broadsword). They both trained regulary together and worked through our online apprenticeship program under the mentorship of Heiko Große.

Both gentlemen are very experienced martial artists, coming from a lifelong background of different martial arts. Joel aka Kalis started training already since childhood, learning escrima and boxing as his family tradition. Later he also trained and competed in Japanese Karate-Do, Arnis, Judo and Muay Thai. With weapons he already trained in Niten Ichi Ryu and Katori Shinto Ryu Kenjutsu. Next to being a badass martial arts teacher and fighter, he is a professor at the Cavite State University teaching sport science classes. Ariel is also a very experienced martial artist, training FMA and Japanese martial arts under the instruction of Joel since a long time. He is very dedicated and open-minded as well, fighting with a wide range of weapons from HEMA, Japanese combat arts and FMA. They both train and fight within our Online Apprenticeship program, but also with various other weapons like Military Sabre, Cutlass, Stickfighting, Longsword, Bokken and much more.

Check out their youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCALXlXWc-U0CCbOz9rfsbxg/videos

They are the very first certified Cateran Society mentors on the Philippines. Well done, gentlemen, very good work.

Dear Caterans, mentors and students of the Cateran Society, fans, friends and collagues,

This is propably going to come a bit of a surprise, but with relatively immedietly effect, I will step down from my position as president of the Cateran Society. The reasons are many, but most of all my recent private occupations with family and a new home give me less time for takeing care of all as good as it would be necessary for the position of president. And as I held this position since 2016, so I find it is time for a new president.

Chris Thompson and I discussed about it and agreed, that we both like to move to an arrangement where the president is elected. Until this future election is prepare properly, we are proud and happy to annunce, that Mathew Park agreed to fill the role of president and Head-instructor. He will be the third president of the Cateran Society. He has my full support and hopefully yours too.

This means he will run things from now on, he will take over the Cateran Online Program and homepage, but of course I will go on supporting him in his work as well as taking care of my online students as a mentor. Of course I still run the Broadsword Academy Germany as Part of the Cateran Society and all, so not too many things change. So no worries, I still train and teach Broadsword and all

For the position as vice-president, which was held by Mathew before, Seth Robinson volunteered to fill it. Thanks a lot for his commitment and dedication.

So please give Mathew and Seth a warm welcome and support them as good as you all can in their work as the third president and VP of the Cateran Society.

With that said, I would like to thank all of you for your constant support, dedication to the Cateran Society and friendship. Special thanks to Chris Thompson for his trust and support of me as the second president of the Cateran Societys. It was a great honor to me and I hope I served you all with my best knowledge and skills.

Most of you I never met outside of the online world, but I feel a connection and brotherhood beyond this online world. We all are connected by the same passion and focus and it is great that all of you contribute as much as you can to the Cateran Society being alive and growing. Especially in this fragile world it is good that people connect globaly over all borders with the same love and passion.

Kind regards,
Heiko

The Broadsword Academy is happy and proud to announce that hereby our long-time student and 4th degree mentor Peter Stabel is certified as Cateran.

Peter proofed over the last 10+ years he trained with us, that he is a disciplined, dedicated and concentrated fencer. Not only that he really is adapting the historical material in training and in sparring like it should look, he is also good in fencing tactics, learns from his errors and is always open to learn something new.

He also proofed again and again, that he can use Broadsword (and related weapons) in sparring against other weapons and styles very good. He is also always open for experiments with different weapons, weird weapons and fun stuff as well as unarmed combat and always has the ability to adapt his skills and arsenal on these with effectiveness.

Finally he is also a very nice guy, humble and gentle, well mannered and has good spirit. He never shows unnecessary aggression or brutality. He is not a big talker, but when he says something, it has value for our training and the group. And he is also happy to try out new toys. Being a natural lefty, he was able to adapt over the years using his right hand nearly as good as his left with all kinds of weapons.

Over the last 10 years he participated in many HEMA and other martial arts events, did crossover sparrings meetings and assisted as instructor in regular practice-sessions as well as during workshops and seminars. And he is the guy in most of our videos 😉

In a final test training he had to work through several drills as well as being tested in sparring facing different weapons and finishing with a one vs three Smallsword-bouts, where he had to hit at least one or two opponents successfully per round. He showed again good form and spirit even when being under pressure.

Here you can see one of my favourite bouts with him.

He really deserves the position as Cateran. Well done, old chap!

Dear Cateran Society members, students, mentors and caterans all over the World. I wish you all a Merry Christmas, God Jul, Frohe Weihnachten and Nollaig Chridheil!

The Cateran Society is proud and happy to congratulate Ben Hamilton of the Saorsa Scottish Swordsmanship School for his bronze medal in the Fight Camp Open Tournament. The tournament was held for two full days with the target ot get as many fights as possible. A tough challenge indeed. Ben was able to manage 27 fights with the Highland Broadsword and won 97% of the fights at hand. This is an awesome feat!

Congratulations, Ben, very well done!

We are happy and proud to announce, that Mark Inc has fullfilled all requirements to be hereby certified as Level 1 Mentor (Regimental Broadsword). He did a great job working through this level, his attention and will to correct even the finest details is outstanding. He works very clear and technical and is very good in analyzing his sparring bouts for tactics, strategy etc.

Mark tested himself in regular sparring and did also several bouts for his official certification, inclueding a very fine technical bout versus a fencer armed with a Rapier and using the Spanish style of fencing known as Verdadera Destreza. Broadsword vs Spanish Rapier is an interesting combination and it was to my greatest pleasure seeing and reviewing it for his official certification.

Mark will open up the official Cateran Society Training group by the name of Broadsword Academy Sacramento. He is now starting his work to study Level 2 (Old Style).

Congratulations, well done!

We are happy and gratefull to announce that hereby our friend Ruadhán MacFadden (Heidelberg, Germany/Ireland) is certified as a 1st degree member in our Bardic Assembly (Lore).

Ruadhán is best known as martial arts instructor, blogger and youtuber (see The Hero with a Thousand Holds), where he researches, explores and explains the old wrestling style from his irish Motherland known as Collar & Elbow. As he explains on his website:

“Collar and Elbow (in Irish “Coiléar agus Uille” or “Brollaidheacht”) is the national wrestling style of Ireland. Historically it has also been practiced in regions of the world with large Irish diaspora populations, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It is characterised by the fixed grips that wrestlers are required to take on their opponents’ jackets, and by its focus on leg techniques such as trips, footsweeps, and hip throws.”

Through intense research and study, Ruadhán started a revival of this style, which was once very popular, but declined unfortunately. While other folk wrestling styles exist still today, Ireland nearly lost its own. He started with his research and in Heidelberg in 2019 a series of Collar and Elbow bouts were held. In 2020, a Collar and Elbow society was established at Dublin City University (DCU) – the first club dedicated to the wrestling style in Ireland in roughly 100 years.

In 2021 Ruadhán published his book on the history, tradition and techniques of Irish Collar & Elbow Wrestling (check out Fallenrooks Publishing), an excellent work for everyone interested in the history of Ireland, Folk Wrestling styles, historical martial arts and grappling in general.

For this and all his other contributions, as the president and head-instructor of the Cateran Society it is my pleasure to announce the admission of Ruadhán into our Bardic Assembly.

Congratulations!

We are very happy and proud to announce, that Thomas L. Proctor, St.Louis Broadsword Academy (Missouri, USA) successfully fullfilled all needed requierments in Level V and is now certified as Cateran.

With his dedication and hard work, Thomas focussed on different strength exercises and physical feats of traditional Highland Games, feats in dexterity and agility, but also trained the feats of legendary hero Cu Chulainn and celtic weaponry.

He proofed a deep understanding in his art and fullfulled all requirments as a Cateran over the last years under the guidance of his mentors Chris Thompson and Heiko Große.

Congratulations, you can be very proud!