Bronze Age swordsmanship.

Buncha HEMA-types and some archaeologists looked at the dings in ancient swords then whacked each other trying to replicate.

For Odious: Traditional whip fighting in Madura, Indonesia. Plus music for whip fighting.

Fascinating paper on the longbow, and why it was not adopted to any great extent outside England and Wales.

A ruler who adopted the longbow by creating a culture of archery thus effectively armed a large segment of his population, which in turn created an opportunity that a usurping noble with an eye on the Crown could exploit. Such a noble could organize effective rebellion against his ruler by utilizing the large number of citizens with the human capital required for proficient use of the cheap and easy-to-produce weapon. A ruler therefore had to be confident in his political security to be willing to adopt the bow.

This explanation is of course wrong, as it was entirely due to our greater manly virtue and fortitude.

Modern analogues are left to the reader.

O Amazones! Asgarda!

In the Ukraine, a country where females are victims of sexual trafficking and gender oppression, a new tribe of empowered women is emerging. Calling themselves the “Asgarda”, the women seek complete autonomy from men. Residing in the Carpathian Mountains, the tribe is comprised of 150 women of varying ages, primarily students, led by 30 year-old Katerina Tarnouska. Reviving the tribal traditions of the Scythian Amazons of ancient Greek mythology, the Asgarda train in martial arts, taught by former Soviet karate master, Volodymyr Stepanovytch, and learn life skills and sciences in order to become ideal women.

I have nothing to add to the awesome here. The seventh photo is my favorite.

I should add: hence.

A vicar has revived an ancient law to call members of her parish together for archery practice. (hence)

This is clearly for the sake of their morals.

If we'd known then what we know now.... Slinging.org. Odious and I made several of these, and we achieved respectable distance and power, though never anything approaching accuracy.

T.W.I.A.I.L.W.: Rusty Kanokogi.

Kanokogi learned judo from a man on Flatbush Avenue who had picked it up in the military, but her real fight started in 1959, when she went to Utica, N.Y., for the Y.M.C.A. championships. She was Rusty Glickman, nicknamed for a local stray dog, and because women were not explicitly barred from the Y.M.C.A. championships, she figured it was worth a shot.

Used to changing in broom closets and using the bathroom at a nearby diner, she knew that she would still have to blend in. “It’s not like I walked in like a flower,” she said.

Kanokogi, with her hair cut short, competed with her breasts taped down. Her coach put her in the final bout and she won, although she said her team would have won anyway.

As she puts it, "Can I still clobber somebody if I have to? Absolutely."