HEL WEEKEND TRAINING AND GRADING by Tyr Neilsen

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Last year a US production company sent a film team to Norway to make a documentary about Academy instructor Bjørn Braathen, training and taking a grading in the ancient Viking martial art of Laustak.

Before Bjørn went into the military, he took his grading in sport and combat Laustak, a 2 day training and grading course called Hel Weekend! The film team flew to Norway and filmed the whole weekend. The first was Viking wrestling inside a nice warm building with mats. The second day was combat Laustak outside on snow and ice .

At the end of the grueling weekend, several Academy students received diplomas and belts from instructors Lars Gulbrandsen and Bjørn.

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Bjørn is 2 x Norwegian Glima Championship Gold medal winner and 3 X Junior Norwegian Glima Champion. He was also Gudvangen Glima Champion in 2017 and was responsible for the Borre Glima Championship in 2018. To see how Bjørn does in his Hel Weekend grading, check out the documentary at the links.

https://watch.insight.tv/power/season:2/videos/glima-bjorn-braathen

VIKINGS and KINGS - AVK on TRAVEL CHANNEL

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VIKINGS and KINGS - Episode one of Travel Channel's TV series Follow Your Past. 

Vikings and Kings is the first episode of the Travel Channel series Follow Your Past. This episode follows two brothers who find out they are descendants of the mighty Viking chief, Rollo. 

The brothers travel to the Academy of Viking Martial arts in Norway to learn Laustak, the martial art of the Vikings, from AVK instructor Tyr Neilsen and 2 x Norwegian Glima Champion Andreas Sørensen. 

The brothers ancestor, Rollo, was the Viking chief who conquered the part of France called Normandy (meaning land of the Northemen). Rollo’s descendants conquered England and changed world history.

GOING a VIKING

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In Old Norse, the word Víkingr means a person, while the word Víking means an activity. According to the sagas, the phrase "to go a-Viking" was used to describe the people from the north who went on voyages of discovery.

Here is a short video of Academy senior instructor Tyr Neilsen who went ‘a viking’, and traveled 15,000 km to 9 countries and several islands, to discover how it was to live and train as a Viking for a whole year.