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!