John Golden’s fencing journey began during his undergrad years when he helped revive the dormant fencing program at UC Davis, where he trained in foil and saber. After leaving UC Davis his focus switched for a time to Chinese martial arts, including Northern Shaolin, Gao-style Ba Gua, and Xing Yi, coinciding with his pursuit of Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Traditional Chinese Medicine. When he relocated to the Sacramento area to begin practice as a Licensed Acupuncturist he heard the call of the European sword arts again, and was delighted to discover that Puck Curtis, Eric Myers, and Kevin Murakoshi of Sacramento Sword School were teaching those very arts right around the corner. He immediately fell in love with the philosophical and practical rigor of La Verdadera Destreza, and went on to test before a board of fencing masters to achieve the rank of Certified Instructor at Arms in that tradition.