KUT News Now

Anna Beard fell in love with swords when she saw ‘Return of the Jedi’ as a child. But it was only a few years ago that she finally learned the sport of sword fighting. Now she finds her joy in swords, sword fighting, and teaching others how to sword fight.

The full transcript of this episode of KUT News Now is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.

This Is My Thing: Sword Fighting!

Michael Lee [00:00:14] I’m Michael Lee and you’re listening to This Is My Thing. If you’re hearing this show on your podcast player of choice, that’s probably because it showed up on the KUT News Now podcast, and you may or may not be delighted to know that despite that, this show is not at all about the news. On This Is My Thing, we talk to people about the things they do just for themselves – it’s not their job and it’s not a responsibility, it’s just a thing that brings them joy or feeds their soul.
This week, sword fighting!
Our guest Anna Beard loves swords, especially the messer, a Renaissance-era weapon also known as a peasant’s knife. She also loves teaching others how to fight with swords.

Anna Beard [00:00:51] I’m Anna Beard and I’m into historical European martial arts, otherwise known as sword fighting.

Michael Lee [00:01:02] Tell me how that got started. How did you decide that you wanted to start swinging a sword around?

Anna Beard [00:01:07] I wanted to start swinging a sword around as soon as I saw Return of the Jedi. So that’s where swords started, as a lot of, young girls at that time. I’m 42. So at that point, Princess Leia was kind of the coolest role model that we had. And unfortunately, she doesn’t get to swing a sword. But she’s got lots of other cool qualities, but definitely sword fighting through my exposure to that, as well as reading things like the Lord of the rings. I love to read any kind of fantasy books, and it’s not a book that’s not worth its salt unless somebody swinging a long sword at some point and talking about the name of their sword and how cool it looks. And so that was my life also being introduced to Dungeons and Dragons at a really young age by two very patient and accommodating older brothers. So that’s kind of what got me down the path of, like, swords are cool. I didn’t actually do formalized sword training until. Let’s see. Public math. Until I was in my late 30s. For lots of reasons. Just accessibility for someone who was like, I want to go sword fighting. Where do I do that? I don’t know. So it took me a long time to come to the hobby. And also being a woman and trying to understand what my space in a, in a combat sport like that is took some time. But it really was my move from Michigan to Austin. I left my entire dance community that I had built myself behind and had nothing here, and actually a, gaming friend of mine who lives in England who is into sword fighting was like, you know what you should do? Sword fighting. Go do that. And I was like, what? I just Google sword fighting. And he was like, yup. So I was like, okay. Googled sword fighting. Austin found a school, and yeah, that was that.

Anna Beard [at the sword fighting studio, showing us their collection of swords] So we saw the messer. We talked briefly about the long sword. We also have, a fetter which has a shield. Right. So these are different. This is an arming sword. So this is going to be used with the little buckler, which is just enough to cover your hand. So sword and buckler, if you saw someone walking down the street with a sword and buckler, that person was absolutely up to no good. There’s no other reason to be carrying that around town than you’re just, like, looking for trouble. And that’s where a swashbuckler comes from, because your buckler is swooshing. Let’s see. So this is more of a a side sword, right? It’s a thicker blade than our rapier. Rapiers, once they come on the scene…

Michael Lee [00:03:50] So when are you finally able to, like, get your hands on a sword?

Anna Beard [00:03:55] I would say it was. I mean, really, I didn’t get a hand truly on a weapon until 2018 that I had the nerve to do it as well. Because, a woman looking at a combat sport, there’s a lot of feelings that come up that kind of buried the excitement about learning something new pretty quickly. Am I safe here or am I accepted here? What’s the culture here? Am I going to have to just, like, prove myself every week to the other people that I belong here? And that’s exhausting. So there was a lot of fear associated with wanting to step into that world. And it wasn’t until I found the school here in Austin that I really felt safe and comfortable and encouraged.

Michael Lee [00:04:41] Tell me how that happened – what that part of the journey was like.

Anna Beard [00:04:44] So that was literally a Google search because I was like, I don’t know how many historical sword fighting schools there are out there. I wasn’t interested in Olympic fencing. I really wanted to. I really wanted to learn Long Sword, because that’s just the iconic, beautiful thing that we all think about and we think about kind of fantasy and sword fighting. So I met the owner of the school actually, before I started taking classes and just in talking to him. So Anthony Buonomo is the founder of Austin Historical Weapons Guild. And in talking to him, discovered that just he was so excited to share his knowledge with anyone and everyone that he just wants to make more sword fighters in the world because more nerds is better. And his was really dedicated to how can I teach this information in a way that feels good? How can this be supportive? And I’m here to answer any questions. And so at no point did I feel like, well, I’m patronizing you because you’re a girl or anything like that. So my first interaction with him before I even stepped into a classroom is what really kind of sealed the deal for me. And like, yes, I want to go here. I want to do it by just him being really welcoming, really knowledgeable and really kind. And then there was still fear stepping into that room. Like, what are these other people going to be like? So I’m going to have to trust them. We’re going to have to fight each other. Like, so what’s that going to be like? But honestly, that first night I got my hands on a sword and there’s an exercise you do where you cut at each other. So we’re using wooden trainer swords, but still. And I remember there was this moment I was thinking about all the things I, I’d been told about structure, about safety. And I’m processing it. And I swing my sword at someone and they swing their sword at me. And our swords meet what we call in the bind, which is like this beautiful X, right? And they just meet. And I was safe. And that was such an awesome feeling of like, I am holding a weapon. And someone literally swung a weapon at me and I’m safe. And that was I was hooked after that. That was a thrilling, amazing moment of I didn’t have to be afraid and knowledge is power. And I was kind of like, okay, I’m ready for the next step. Like, I want to know more that that was it. I never wanted to not sword fight again.

Michael Lee [00:07:05] And that was only a few years ago. That was like four years ago.

Anna Beard [00:07:09] Yeah. So a quick decline into obsession! [laughs]

Michael Lee [00:07:17] My co-producer, Juan Garcia, and I met up with Ana at the Austin Historical Weapons Guild, where we also met the founder of the Guild, Anthony Buonomo.

Anthony Buonomo [00:07:25] I’m Anthony Buonomo. I’m the co-owner and founder of Austin Historical Weapons Guild.

Michael Lee [00:07:29] It’s pretty safe to say that Anna and Anthony have bonded over swordplay in the past few years.

Anthony Buonomo [00:07:34] I am Anna’s husband and her first sword teacher.

Anna Beard [00:07:38] I met Anthony through doing swords and then I loved swords so much that now we’re married and we own the school together, so spoiler alert – it is addictive, but nobody else can marry him. I already did that.

Michael Lee [00:07:53] Anthony and Anna now co-own and run the guild together, but that’s in addition to what Anna calls “their real grown up jobs.” This podcast, theoretically, is about the things you do that aren’t your job. You guys both have paying jobs and then you also do this. Is that right?

Anna Beard [00:08:07] Yeah, we both have like, real grown up, full time jobs. Because this school cannot pay rent and feed us, right? We pay our our instructors, we compensate our instructors, but we don’t pay ourselves, because that’s just not what it is for us. Like, if we could do it for free, we would do it for free. And we would just teach people for swords and charge them nothing. It is an incredible feeling to watch someone pick up a sword and you see their body change, and they kind of get this playful smile, kind of like they can’t believe that it’s. Happening, and then you teach them how to use that weapon in a way that is real. And it’s just it’s electric. I love it every single time it happens. Yeah. I just want to do this forever. I kind of don’t ever want to have to make it a job, because being able to just do it from a joyful place makes it that much more fun.

Michael Lee [00:09:09] On the day we were there, Anna and Anthony planned to do some fighting with Anna’s weapon of choice, the messer. But I wasn’t sure if they were planning a competitive sword fight or a simple demonstration.

Anna Beard (at the sword fighting studio) [00:09:19] There is no difference between competition and demonstration in HEMA because there is no choreographed… there is no set routine that you learn and then you can deviate from like it is just fighting. We’re going to step in. I have no idea what he’s going to do. He has no idea what I’m going to do. We both have things in our training that we like. Like he has some go to things. I have some go to thing. So our fighting styles are very different. How we move our height takes that into account. So we are two very different trained fighters who are going to fight with no idea what the outcome will be.

Anthony Buonomo (at the sword fighting studio) [00:09:49] I like to tell people that whenever we’re doing something in this building, in this house, with with people in the school, it’s not a competition. My goal isn’t to beat the other person. My goal is to improve myself as a martial artist or like as an instructor. My goal should be helping my opponent get better, help my sparring partner give it out. So like when I’m working with students, I’ll say like, hey, is this thing you want to work on tonight? Is something you want me to pretend to be any and behaviors you want me to emulate, anything you want me to do so I can help make you better.

Anna Beard (at the sword fighting studio) [00:10:18] So I just put on a gorget, right? So this is to protect my neck. Then. The jacket I have on is called a gambeson. So this is not far off from a medieval style of layering fabric and wool and stitching. You can see it’s reinforced on my forearms. As a woman in HEMA, a lot of stuff is not designed for me, right? So this is a really nice jacket. That is a women’s fit that I paid to have tailored to my measurements. Right? Because until I invested in my own thing, like trying to wear a dude’s jacket was a little bit difficult. And then I have, a fencing mask here. And then, because we’re doing messer and I don’t have to worry about holding a weapon with two hands and being hit. We’re just using heavy lacrosse gloves.

Anna Beard (to Anthony as they prepare to fight) [00:11:05] Ready? Yes. All right.

Anna Beard [00:11:13] So he just got me in the hand. So I self-call, pat. Let him know that I got it.

Michael Lee [00:11:33] What is this as a hobby? What does it do for your heart and for your brain? What is it giving to you?

Anna Beard [00:11:40] It’s multifaceted. So it’s from a physical point of view. It’s a it’s a really fun way to be active. Right? I hate jogging. I really, really hate jogging. But being able to, swing a sword and do something that’s really fun, and then afterwards, you’re like, oh, my gosh, was that a workout? Like, that alone is a is really, really great. From a kind of mental place, I love understanding the whys and wherefores of how body mechanics work and noodling that out and then putting it into practice against someone else.

And feeling like, oh my gosh, like I did it. Like that’s a really fun mental exercise. So it always has me problem solving and thinking. And so I feel that excitement of, puzzles all the time.

Anna Beard (as she and Anthony fight) So he’s taunting me slightly right now because he’s in a position that exposes him greatly, but he’s holding his sword in such a way that he could really land a blow. So that’s why he’s grinning. Because, yeah, he’s taunting me.

And then it really does just feed my heart, because this community brings together such a cool group of misfits and outcasts, like generally people who don’t feel like they necessarily belong other places. And you come here and it’s like, oh, do you want to talk about Dungeons and Dragons? Oh, do you want to talk about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers? Do you want to talk about like 1980s Transformers? Like, do you want to talk about, the struggle of the English Crown? Like, whatever. There are people who are just excited to share and talk, and so just walking into that community on a weekly basis is it feeds, feeds my heart.

Anna Beard (as she and Anthony finish their fight) [00:13:50] Always end our fight with acknowledgment. However you choose. Whether it’s a hug to some high five.

Anthony Buonomo (as he and Anna finish their fight) [00:14:03] Just making sure that everyone knows. No hard feelings. Leave it on the mat kind of mentality of yes, we fought hard. Yes, we tried to hit each other, but anything that happened is gone. Forgiven. In the spirit of the other sport, of the game, of the martial art.

Anna Beard (as she removes her protective gear) [00:14:19] [laughing] I mean, Anthony won. Because he got… wait. Two hand hits, a double, a double. And after blow I got you in the arm. And then. And then the grapple at the end. We didn’t. We just called that. So yeah, that’s like an unscripted just standing there fighting, not knowing what the other person’s going to do.

Michael Lee [00:14:43] It sounds like for you that the hobby and the passion isn’t just for sword fighting, but for sharing it with others and teaching other, getting other people to know how to do it safely.

Anna Beard [00:14:55] So teaching is something that’s really important to me. I’ve been teaching dance since I was 15. That’s the first time I was handed a, a little kid beginner tap class. Teaching methods has always been at the core focus of me being an artist and how to share that with others. So being able to share knowledge with other people in a way that makes them feel welcomed, accomplished, and empowered. That is what I wake up every day excited to do. Days where I am so tired and it’s just been rough and I step into a classroom. Whether I’m teaching swords or historical dance or ballet, within five minutes, I’m on top of the world because I’m getting to create a space for other people where they get to explore themselves. And whether that means getting to do a thing that they never thought they’d be able to do, like ballet. Hearing people say, well, I’m too old for ballet because I didn’t start when I was five. Pssh. That’s that’s hooha. Right. So being able to essentially give people a space where they learn to trust themselves is incredibly powerful. And that’s very sacred to me. And so that is a huge driving force behind why I love having this school.

Anna Beard (at the sword fighting studio, instructing producer Juan Garcia) So you’re just going to give a gentle cut? I’m going to catch it on my guard. So you cut. Cool. We’re here. Okay. I’m safe. But also you’re exposed. And I would like to do something with this. So from here, I’m going to reach through my little portal of safety. Right. I’m going to come in here. I’m going to grapple you. You can’t get away now. Like, go ahead and try and get away..

Juan Garcia (at the sword fighting studio) [00:16:41] No, no. Not happening No, just…

Anna Beard (at the sword fighting studio) [00:16:41] And then I can do this, I can do the. So whatever.

Juan Garcia (at the sword fighting studio) [00:16:41] I’m done.

Anna Beard (at the sword fighting studio) [00:16:41] Yeah.

Juan Garcia (at the sword fighting studio) [00:16:43] I’m toast.

Anna Beard (at the sword fighting studio) [00:16:44] So I’m going to do that again for you. And then you’ll be able to do it to me. So there’s a lot of different ways…

Michael Lee [00:16:47] Is there any part of you that feels conflicted at all that your hobby is something that’s based on weapons and violence?

Anna Beard [00:16:55] Yes. And I think the way I face that is that, this is fun. Like, our tagline at the school is teaching you how to safely hit your friends. And that’s what it’s about. It is just about safe fun. And there are definitely people that you’ll encounter in any kind of combat sport which are like, you know, I mean, we jokingly call them Cobra Kai, right? Like, oh, that’s a Cobra Kai person or whatever, because they have that mentality of strike first. No mercy. I’m just here to like, prove that I’m the best. I really don’t care about what happens along the way. Like, that’s just who I am. And I think if I ever found myself feeling that, I would question what I was doing, but because it’s literally just in the realm of my first job in fighting is to keep my partner safe. Right. And then the second job is to make sure we both learn something, by keeping those at the core of what we’re doing. It removes it from the fact that I actually want to pick up a sharp sword and put these into, like, real application with someone. But I think that I’m just more aware of that when I’m teaching younger people. And so I, all the time reiterating that there are specific ways in which people were permitted to use this. And then, you know, and I’ll whether they’re adults or kids, we say, if I see you being unsafe, even in an accidental way, timeout. Right. Like no tolerance on being reckless or aggressive. Yeah.

Michael Lee [00:18:35] Is this something that you think you’re going to do for the rest of your life?

Anna Beard [00:18:38] I certainly hope so, yeah. I kind of can’t think of anything cooler than being, like a 70-year-old lady all tattooed and, like, running around with a messer by then. Maybe I’ll be tired and it’ll have to be a dagger, but I don’t know.

Michael Lee [00:18:53] When you get older, would you consider getting one of those canes that has a sword hidden inside of it?

Anna Beard [00:18:58] That’s some fancy sword fighting, though, Mike, right? Like then I’d have… I don’t know if I’m ready to, like, give up cow farmer fighting and just, like, move laterally to bog witch fighting. (laughing) Like, I think having a sword in a cane is just going to be a level of fancy that I just don’t know that I’ll ever be able to fully welcome into my life.

Michael Lee [00:19:16] (laughing) Certainly your choice. It feels like it’d be something fun to have as an older lady who likes to swordfight.

Anna Beard [00:19:21] (laughing) I don’t know, I think as you get older, like you definitely your, your caring-about-what-people-think-of-you meter definitely goes down. And I feel like I’m just not even gonna conceal the sword. I’m just kind of just gonna wear it out in regular day life. And we’ll see how that goes for me.

Michael Lee [00:19:41] Thanks for listening to This Is My Thing. I’m Michael Lee and I produced the show. I got some help on this episode from producer Juan Garcia, who you heard a few minutes ago getting a sword fighting lesson from Anna. Special thanks, of course, to Anna Beard for sharing her love of swords and sword fighting with us.
We’ve got a lot more This Is My Thing coming soon – we recently talked with folks about building with LEGO, about aggressive roller skating, and about lumber milling, which is a hobby and not a job if you do it in your driveway in Cedar Park instead of at a lumber mill. Keep listening to hear those stories and a lot more. If you’d like to tell us about your thing, and maybe be a part of a future episode of the show, that is easy. Just go to the This Is My Thing show page at kut.org. You’ll find a form on that page to let you tell us about the thing you love. And if that was fun and you’re looking for more online forms to fill out, there’s also a form on kut.org that will let you become a member of the station. So, you know, feel free to fill that one out too if you’re so inclined. Our members make this and everything we do possible.

Laurie Gallardo [00:20:47] Support for This Is My Thing comes from locally-owned Eckert Insurance. Worry less, live more.