One of the finest and most prestigious stage combat academies in California, Samurai Stage Combat Academy teaches its students all fields of stage combat including hand to hand, weapons combat and advanced stunt combat. The primary instructor of the Samurai Stage Combat Academy is Michi Yamato, a professionally trained Tokyo native with more than 20 years of experience in stage combat and traditional martial arts with the Ono sword and other weaponry. The class is geared toward teaching aspiring actors and already prominent individuals who want to effectively participate in stage combat.
The Xtreme Martial Arts, XMA World Headquarters in Hollywood is another prominent school for teaching hand-to-hand combat. XMA specializes in sword fighting, staff fighting, kama fighting and nunchuck fighting. The classes focus on actual fighting techniques melded into choreographic principals to form the finest quality of stage-combat training. The training sessions take place every weekend from Friday at 2 p.m. and ends on Sunday at 5 p.m.
Located in Burbank, the Academy of Theatrical Combat offers courses year-round on the more astounding techniques for staged stunt combat and aerobics that can be used in any stunt situations. Classes in stage combat focus on stage sword combat, quarterstaff training and different variations of swords and unarmed combat. Classes incorporate stage combat with stage aerobics that allow students to get a feel for the different stunts they should know about.
Trapeze High is a school dedicated to teaching students about stunts performed on the high trapeze. Classes are kept small so that students get plenty of air time once they have learned the basics in the introductory and theory classes. About four classes of 10 students are accepted, so students should register early. The classes mainly focus on trapeze-style stunts, but also delve into aerobics, flexibility and other similar stunt-based exercises.