Who We Are

At High Desert Armizare (Italian for “Art of Arms”) we are dedicated to the study and recreation of historical martial arts. The main teaching at the moment is Spreier Dirty Boxing.

Spreier Dirty Boxing seamlessly combines principles and concepts from Fiore dei Liberi’s “Armizare”, Zachary Wylde’s “English Mode of Defense”, Daniel Mendoza’s pugilism, the Chinese martial art of Xing Yi Quan, Guiseppe Cerri’s 19th century bastone, and Crisis Prevention & Intervention methods into a conglomerate art that teaches striking, grappling, and weapons work. We focus on how to transition between tools as needed, and more importantly when to NOT need them.

Something that sets up apart from most other martial arts schools is our focus on Universals. This allows us to shift our areas of focus/sources without having to completely retrain ourselves because the Universals are everywhere.

We encourage our students to explore and study on their own as their own passions dictate.

Schedule

Our two hour class will feature:

  • Warmup
    • Breathing Exercises
    • Exercises to settle into your body
  • Empty Hand work
    • Striking
    • Grappling
    • Situational Awareness
  • Weapons Work
    • We will pick a principle and follow it as it gets applied across a variety of tools.
  • Cooldown

Instructors

Alex Spreier (he/him)- Instructor

Alex has been studying martial arts most of his life.  He began studying historical swordsmanship in earnest in 2005 at the University of Oregon. He trained at Northwest Fencing Academy in Eugene, OR focusing on Fiore dei Liberi’s Armizare, foil and epee in the Classical Italian school, and I.33 sword and buckler. In 2015 Alex opened High Desert Armizare. Alex has taught classes at WMAW (Western Martial Arts Workshop), Swordsquatch, and other seminars in the Pacific Northwest. He continues his active study of weapon based and empty hand combat systems.

Sean Mueller – Instructor

Sean is now running the Roscommon Sword Study Group in Michigan.

Sean is a true martial arts polymath. He joined HDA in 2015 having already spent many years studying Joachim Meyer’s combat system. Alex converted him to the Italian side of things. Sean has also spent many years studying judo, and Insular broadsword systems. He has recently dived deep into studying the 19th century great stick (armpit length walking stick) of Giuseppe Cerri. Sean has taught classes at Swordsquatch.