Aegis Consulting Martial Arts Academy – FAQs

Why Swordfighting?: Swordsmanship is a truly Western martial art with a 1,000+ year history. Like any martial art, swordsmanship is a discipline that you can use for your personal growth and development while also having a lot of fun!

But I Don't Carry A Sword Every Day! Can I Learn Self-Defense by Studying Swordfighting?: Swordsmanship is just the beginning of the martial arts (and thus self-defense) classes offered by Aegis Consulting. We begin with Swordsmanship because it's such a strong foundation for other martial arts like hand-to-hand and knife-fighting. Blocking a sword shot is great training for blocking a punch or a knife.

In addition, you don't just study swordfighting when you learn swordfighting – you also learn how to observe and respond to your environment so you can avoid a dangerous situations altogether.

How Old Do I Have To Be To Take Aegis Classes?: Aegis accepts students as young as 16 years old with permission of a parent or guardian; otherwise, any person 18 or over is welcome to apply for our classes.

Why Do You Teach Wilderness Survival Skills, Tactics and Command, and Classes Like Rhetoric at a Martial Arts Academy?: The short answer is that we teach Wilderness Survival and Tactics and Command because our founder and lead instructor, Sal Sanfratello, has an extensive background in these skills. We teach Rhetoric because the ability to speak in public effectively enhances our ability to do everything from make a presentation at work to interviewing for the job in the first place.

But these classes and the other classes we offer also fit into the overall mission of Aegis Consulting: the pursuit of personal excellence. When you take on and master a challenge – whether that challenge is being able to face and win against a larger opponent on the field, learning how to steal fire from the sun, or learning how to negotiate for a raise – you build self-confidence and learn a set of skills that will enhance, and may even save, your life.

Aegis Consulting students have used their skills to help out at the site of car accidents, build their professional careers, help run events, patch up injured students and others, and survive a drowning.

Why Does Aegis Consulting Appear at Science Fiction Conventions and World Steam Con?: Our instructors and students do demos at events like Science Fiction conventions and World Steam Con for many reasons:

• We go to practice and perfect our skills in event creation and management
• We go because these events are great opportunities to market our school to “our” kind of people
• We go to show off what we've learned
• We go because the Aegis community is made up of geeks of all stripes: Science Fiction fans, gamers, Steampunkers, computer geniuses, and more
• We go because it's fun!

How Can I Schedule an Aegis Appearance at My Event?: Aegis Consulting is available for everything from several hours of programming (Usually called the “Mayhem Track”) to fighting demonstrations and self-defense seminars.