News

Find here some notes about events and history of my art. The info is randomly put in here and does not follow any specific order. Follow Facebook page for newly updates of events and workshops.

8 April 2023: “A Brief Introduction to Verdadera Destreza: The Nerdiest Fencing System Ever”. Legends of the Lake, hosted by Matthew Pawlowski and UVM Historical Fencing Club invited André Hajjar to do a Workshop on Destreza. As well, André participated in the tournaments for Saber, Rapier and Sword and Buckler, in which he achieved silver and two golds respectively.

16 Jan. 2023: 6-Hours Workshop: “Principles of Destreza” by André Hajjar. This was an amazing event of 4 hours. Fabulous people from all levels came from Ontario and around Quebec to learn more about Destreza. These was the program content: – History & Context
– Posture
– Movements of the Sword
– Attacks
– Control of the Sword
– Spatial Concepts
– Planning tactics for a duel

July, 2022 André travels to Alexandria (Ontario) to meet the Clann a´Cleidheimh. Such group of amazing people study the blade from Scottish Historical Fencing treatises and were interested in knowing André´s approach on de Brea’s and understand the work of Deestreza Nova behind it.

June, 2022 What is it now?! Merchandise?! 

Yes you are right, this is Destreza Nova Merchandise. Why? How?

Well… at first the T-shirts and hoodies just for André, so he can go and promote the knowledge all around. However, the general people started liking it and asked where and how to get them… André was like: No idea!

So, we found that Threadless.com has print-on-demand and they send all around the globe. So here it is! Find here many stuff with the logo, towels, bags… you can get even a puzzle! Go to Merchandise and get your Destreza Nova item!
GOOD CAUSE! Part of the tiny benefits will go to United World Schools (UWS) which works in hard-to-reach areas to give every child access to quality, inclusive education. 

July 1-3, 2022 Invited to Lord Baltimore´s Challenge André Hajjar gave two workshops, one of Verdadera Destreza, called “Absolute Control”. The second workshop, called “Absolute Chaos” was about Common Destreza Techniques. André also participated in Solo Rapier competition, where he obtained the gold medal. But that indeed it´s a less interesting history.
For more information click here.

15th of May, 2022 André Hajjar was invited by “Club d’arts martiaux médiévaux de Sherbrooke” (CAMMS) to give an introductive workshop on Destreza. Find all the information about their club in their website –> here or in their facebook page.

7th of May, 2022 Destreza Nova and Vivientes sign an alliance in order to promote and develop knowledge. Vivientes/ Círculo de Espadas is a platform based in Ecuador for national and international students who want to learn swordsmanship among many other subjects. Find more info in their website: https://circulodeespadas.com/

10th of March, 2022 The art became a brand and now we have patches for it! They are available to the public. Shipping NOT included (expect 1 to 5 extra dollars).
10 CAD small patches
25 CAD big ones.

12th of February 2022:
A Youtube channel has been created. Better late than ever. I will add the old videos on theorical concepts but also some workouts to do at home.

6th of February 2022:
10 AM (10h) East Coast Time2 hour Workshop (2nd part) of Destreza for the Destreza Nova Study Group in Outaouais . New participants are still welcome, even if they missed the first part. Contact group for more info.

1st of February 2022:
7 PM (19h) East Coast Time. Join for the usual 30 ish min of workout, good for anyone who wants to join for some HEMA-Rapier exercises to do at home. You can either participate jumping with us or just stare from the couch like a creep. Contact me in this same website.

31st of January 2022:
7 PM (19h) East Coast Time, MSS Terra Nova, hosted by Phil Swift invited me to talk about a dark subject, HEMA competitions. Here is the video!

25th of January 2022, a new Logo is coming to town! Destreza Nova has now an image and a brand, a seal of quality and reassurance. The hands of Dave Bergeron made possible such artistic master piece. This is the beginning of a new era.

8th of December 2021:
This month I started giving free workout sessions by Zoom in a weekly basis and I had a blast already with the first session. I got a nice request after talking to a colleague of mine:
An organization called Aman Lara is working hard in order to evacuate from Afghanistan a lot of vulnerable people that worked with Canadian Forces. The life of many depend on donations from people, therefore all benefits from donations I receive until the end of the year will be for such organization. You can as well decide to donate to them directly on: https://amanlara.org/
Remember the Second Zoom-Workout on Wednesday 8th of December!!!
Same as the other: INSCRIPTION: SEND REQUEST TO https://destrezanova.ca/contact/ – It’s a simple drills-exercise with little margin for high technical concepts but more focused on body coordination. I still believe you will enjoy it. – Select your weapon accordingly or no weapon at all (picture for reference).- Get yourself water or a towel around if you need it.- If you can’t follow the rhythm 0 worries, do what you can, we all do – Try to have your micro muted during the whole meeting, there might be a bunch of people and there would be too much noise around.- Do not hesitate to write to me with any questions.
More Info:
1) It’s free
2) You just need some space if you want to participate actively
3) Once inside you can follow as much as you can/want. You can even close the cam and spy like a creep if you don’t want to be seen, we don’t judge
4) No need of swords, you can use tools you have at home, check old picture as example
5) Time: around 30 min
6) Date: 8th December, Wednesday. 7 PM Eastern Coast time (Toronto Area) and I will send invitation I will try to do it every week, and I might have to change hours due to my schedule
7) If you like the initiative and want to invite me to a coffee, the gesture is always welcome https://www.buymeacoffee.com/destrezanova By default I invited all previous participants, write to me to unsubscribe, no worries.

August 2021: In collaboration with Steeve Malette the Destreza Study Group in Outaouais is born.
This is a Study Group for Destreza Rapier Swordmanship, the ancient Spanish historical Martial Art of fencing. The goal is to increase the interest of such Art in the area of Outaouais (Canada), but it is open to expand the limits to whoever wants to learn, even online. Occasionally (about once a month) there will be scheduled face-to-face classes in a place to be determined, most probably in the area of Gatineau. Depending on the growth of the group it is not discarded to have online meetings or special workshops once a year, bringing some personalities of the Destreza around the world. This is a healthy group in order to gain knowledge of Destreza among nice people and it is the duty of all the components to keep it like that. Respect, inclusivity and humility are core values of this group. Anyone who does not follow them would be banned. Click here for more information.
Here a picture of the first encounter in Wakefield, 22nd of August.

October 2018: 2-day / 16 hrs workshop on Destreza in Shanghai, Hosted by Shanghai Historical Martial Arts. SHMA.

Year 2017-2022: Due to the need of a big tournament for Montreal and Quebec André Hajjar worked hard with La Compagnie Medievale in the creation of a Quebecois event of HEMA with International Expectations. +2 years after we have a huge event with a hundred of participants in the tournaments and workshops, international instructors and multiple sponsors from around the globe. Whatever you do in life, do not surrender! https://www.facebook.com/montrealswordmeisters/

Québec 2019: André was invited by the Académie Scrimicie to give a workshop of 6 hours on Destreza. In such a short time we could only grasps the basics of such art. Nevertheless we had a small taste of the greatness of Destreza and what is beyond.

Montreal 2018: For second year in a row we had Event in Montreal 2018, organized by EMR and Escrime Nouvellle-France. Introduction to Destreza Rapier and Smallsword, following de Brea doctrine. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/fencing-tournament-montreal-1.4689532

Year 2018: Invited by Elite Fencing Club André did a workshop on Destreza and uses of the off-hand with rapier in the Schwertkampf Mexico 2018. Exercises for Destreza on Rapier, control of distance and perfection of basic concepts.

Year 2017: André was invited by the American Smallsword Symposium to participate in their annual event. In such workshop he united the smallsword and rapier fencers in one group in order to learn Destreza. All thanks to the disciplines of Manuel de Brea 1805. There, a new vision to both weapons came to live. Picture by Ian Bell.

Summer 2016. André participated in many tournaments along his career but never wants to brag about it. Specially because the context of a competition differs dramatically from that of the historical fencing treatises. The results would never determine “who knows more”. But, in any case, by his choice, the finals of HEMA-Villeneuve Rapier Tournament (FRANCE), organized by Médiéval Combat was one finals to be highlighted. There he fought the best opponent he probably faced until now, Pascal Theriault. His Marozzo technique obliged André to avoid sword contact, going to a Vulgar stance and movement. André was attempting to protect himself by using Atajo Virtual, technique well described by Rada (1705), so that way he could strike without being hit. Find the fight in here, courtesy of Medieval Combat.

Year 2015: André was invited by Sala d’Armes Creu de Sant Jordi to participate in their International Event HALBSCHWERT BARCELONA. In there he had the pleasure to give a workshop in Rapier & Dagger as well as being the main Judge for the discipline of rapier. Video by Sergi Tous and Toni Alcalde

Year 2015: Invited by Sala d’Armes Creu de Sant Jordi to participate in their annual Exhibition of Historical Fencing in Poble Espanyol.

Year 2012-2015 For at least three consecutive years André had the honor to participate with my former club AEACC, AEAS and Sala d’Armes Creu de Sant Jordi in exhibitions of historical fencing in the World Finals of Sport fencing epee Junior category, invited by the Catalan Federation of Fencing (Federació Catalana d’Esgrima).

2020: André Hajjar first talks about Destreza Nova and many other subjects in a Zoom/meetings with diestros. The event was organized byvthe Sacramento Sword school, hosted by Puck Curtis and Eric Myers. In such talk André was critic with some aspects of Destreza and was open to deconstruct the system in order to not be seen as a Dogma but a tool for any new fencers. https://youtu.be/ZRZqQ7c5gug

I put many hours of my life in fencing, teaching and making clubs and
events bigger with little or no reward on the way. If you think that my spent time has been helpful to you, in any way, feel humble to get me a coffee in the following link: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/destrezanova
Much Appreciated!!
or also at: