Per La Vita Academy of Western Martial Arts (PLVA) is a club studying Historical Martial Arts in Southern Connecticut, USA. PLVA is committed to a “low threshold – high ceiling” philosophy of welcoming people of all ability levels to find their own personal best.  

Our club focuses on medieval European combative arts with the longsword, dagger, and unarmed techniques of Fiore d'ei Liberi's Flower of Battle at the core of our curriculum. To round out our exploration of the art, we also include elements from other medieval sources including messer, sword and buckler, and materials from the “Augsburg group” for wrestling and armored techniques.

We prioritize student ability to demonstrate the principles of the art in unstructured encounters over rote knowledge of techniques; i.e. to be competent fencers within our system and not performers of rehearsed drills.