We Are in the DVD Business!...

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, then 58 minutes of moving pictures are easily worth 30,000 of them. This is especially true when your subject is a physical discipline, such as martial arts instruction. It was precisely with this idea in mind that we partnered with Speaking Window Productions to develop a line of Martial Arts training videos, the first of which is "German Medieval Martial Arts, Volume One: The Poleaxe".

The poleaxe was one of the premiere weapons of the medieval knight, combining aspects of a spear, hammer and sword into one deadly form. Well-balanced and surprisingly agile, it was optimized to combat a fully armoured man with swift thrusts and heavy blows, making it a preferred weapon in the judicial duel, and in knightly feats of arms fought with sharp weapons.

Noted German swordsmanship researcher Christian Tobler has designed German Medieval Martial Arts, Volume One: The Poleaxe as a complete overview and training curriculum for individuals and study groups alike. Beginning with a discussion of the origin and evolution this fearsome weapon, Christian interviews renowned medieval weapons experts Dr. Lee Jones and Dr. Jeffrey Forgeng of the Higgins Armoury Museum, home to several particularly beautiful and well-preserved specimens. Turning to practical instruction, he then presents a detailed analysis of the principle guards, blows, disarms and throws taken from the writing of medieval masters-at-arms such as Paulus Kal, Hans Talhoffer, Peter Falkner and an anonymous text first translated and documented in his recent "In Saint George’s Name". Techniques are organized thematically, are meticulously depicted and broken down with step-by–step instructions to facilitate learning.

A thorough, practical training guide scripted and filmed with a documentarian’s eye and an historian’s sensibilities, German Medieval Martial Arts, Volume One: The Poleaxe embodies the unique “swordsman-scholar” approach of the modern Western Martial Arts revival. Featuring a soundtrack by the renowned Paul Butler Consort, this is definitely not your usual “garage dojo” martial arts video.

You can also catch a video-trailer and sample clip online. Ready for immediate shipment.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then 58 minutes of moving pictures are easily worth of 208.591.200 words, since there is roughly 208.591,2 pictures in the programme, assuming NTSC frame rate. :D

I wanted to mention too that the DVD is region 0 so it is playable internationally.

Well tried to order and it didn't work, sent a message that I'm repeating here as a copy/paste as a backup and to ask what went wrong ? According to Christian the site should let you choose the shipping method and give the amount so that it can then be paid using Paypal:

COPY OF MESSAGE SENT ON THE SITE:

" Tried to order the two available books and the DVD and the system wouldn't accept an order from Canada or calculate the shipping charges. I also couldn't find a field where I could chose the shipping method of preference ( USPS ).

Tried twice and first got this error message: Sorry, we do not currently ship to the location that you have entered.

Logged back in for a second try and got this error message: No shipping rates are available for your shipping address.

This is sort of frustrating and I think it's just some sort of programming " glitch " unless you really don't want to ship to
Canada ! "

Unless this is fixed or there is a work around I can't buy the DVDs or the two books. :\ :cry:

Hi Jean,

I just tried entering your info and was able to get the USPS selection checked, along with a shipping cost. It's possible this was a passing glitch.

Could you try this again please, and if it fails, could you document each step along the way? We've definitely shipped lots of stuff to Canada.

Let me know what happens!

Sorry for any inconvience,

Christian

Hi Jean!

You can't navigate using the "1) Customer Info 2) Shipping 3) Review & Payment 4) Confirm order" thing at top. That display only tells you where you are in the process.

Instead, you must enter your shipping and billing info, then hit the NEXT button at the bottom right of the screen. That will take you to the shipping page, where you make your selection.

The Next button is what moves you from screen to screen, once you've filled in the info. If you find yourself on the same screen as before, look for red warning messages telling you where you may have omitted information.

In short, you can't select your shipping method (and I think only USPS is available for Canada) until you've successfully entered your customer info (address, etc.)

I hope this helps!

CHT

Ok Jean - we'll get this to work one way or another, so don't worry!

Yours,

Christian, who's off to bed :)

Well as soon as I click on NEXT " I get the we don't ship there message " all the address fields seemed properly filled in as well as billing info as far as I could tell.

Instead of pressing the Paypal option I tried the other checout button just to see if that made a difference but it didn't seem to: The only difference is that pressing Paypal gets me to the Paypal site first and then continue brings me back to your site.

( NOTE: Don't know if using the ordinary checkout permits you to go to Paypal later in the process or not ???? as I couldn't get past that error message ).

One paranoid though: Is your actual shipping handled by you directly or does it go though some sort of DVD publishing house? I ask because our Quebec nanny State language laws requiring French versions or French documentation on DVDs and films means that some outside of Quebec DVD publishing firms block shipping to Quebec of unilingual material to avoid the bureaucratic hassles ..... so if your " outside publishing house has such a policy some " computerized " program is blocking shipping to Quebec because there is no French version of your DVD available. ( That would explain the error message ! ).

Anyway, I could be wrong about this but some people have complained that they can't even get some things from other Canadian Provinces shipped to Quebec because the manufacturers would rather lose the business rather than make a French version of some product or other !

Please handle customer service issues and your own purchasing experience privately with the vendor, not in public where the entire world can read it.

Thank you.

Hi Nathan,

I've taken this to PM with Jean - sorry for the mess here!

Yours,

Christian

Just a quick update: Order placed without any problems and got great customer service to solve the problem which was a software issue. :) :cool:


Looking forward to reading both books and the DVD and will show them around to my HEMA instructors at my group and fellow students.

Just got the DVD and the two books and I'm very pleased with all of them: Detailed reviews this won't be because I don't think I can do justice to the DVD or the books after just a first casual read and viewing to acquaint myself to them but the quality of the DVD is very good in content and production values. The DVD also has historical background about the fighting methods and the weapons themselves as well as interviews. ( The books are also very interesting and useful ).

The techniques are shown clearly and each is done 3 to 4 times in a row and I think this is a great idea as it means that one doesn't have to rewind and play to see the execution of each technique ( sure one can always go back and repeatedly view the action but it would be awkward to constantly go back and forward for every technique: The repeated techniques really help in memorizing them ).

Different angles and counters follow as well as counter to counters.

The DVD can first be viewed " academically " to get a good overview of the general principles and is very good for someone just wanting to understand and learn how these weapons where used. Secondly, one can concentrate on each chapter if one is also training with the poleaxe. ( I would suggest that having a portable DVD player one could use these as a supplement to live demonstration of a technique during class ).

Bottom line I'm looking forward to buying follow up DVDs on this subject and other related subjects.

The customer service was excellent and the only delay in receiving the package was that I made a Typo when writing my address and typed a 3 instead of a 4 in my street address number ...... my fault for the delay otherwise I would have had the package 10 days earlier. :cry: :lol:

I received my DVD in good shape and in timely fashion (I entered my correct address ;) ). The web-based ordering page was a snap.

I'll not provide a review on the review thread until I've had time to absorb the material. I've only watched the DVD twice thus far. The first run through was spent slack-jawed staring at my idiot-box! Wow.

Is this dvd available from anywhere in the UK? The shipping cost to the UK from the US is quite high. Alternatively, is there any chance of a digital download option?