Meet Our Founders

Learn about the masters who founded Vitae Vi Virtus Institute and their journey in martial arts.

Adrian Paul

Co-Founder & Sword Master

Adrian is best known for his lead role as Duncan Macleod in the action series, Highlander. A show that spanned 6 seasons117 episodes and ran in over 90 countries worldwide. With over 40 years in the entertainment industry, including two Highlander films, he has performed and choreographed hundreds of sword fights and action sequences. He has also directed and produced projects for both television and film, hosted a radio for charity with over 600 hours of airtime, as well as founding his own charity, The PEACE Fund (Protect, Educate, Aid Children Everywhere) that was in operation for over 25 years. Many call Adrian Paul a sword expert, but Adrian knows it takes many years to become master of the sword and dismisses this title, saying we all have “sword experts” inside us, if are willing to work hard to achieve it. This philosophy stems from having studied Hung Gar and Shaolin Kung Fu for over 25 years, (Kung meaning skillful work, hard training). In February 2016, Adrian also founded The Sword Experience, as a way to pass on some of the knowledge he learned while working with world-renowned action stars, stunt choreographers, and sword masters. To date, he has successful trained thousands of participants, from martial artists, choreographers and those who were just fans of his work. Not only has it given people a chance to receive the best sword fighting tips and techniques, it has also allowed people to improve their fitness, their communication skills, and the chance to do something they may have only dreamed about. When Adrian was looking for someone to assist him at one of the first SXP Florida events, he met Richard Ganey. Hearing about the Star Wars curriculum that Richard had started Adrian saw the potential in developing the program further, by incorporating the sword experience sword techniques and numbering system. Over the following three years the system was developed into its current structure and is now available as A sword Experience program.

Richard Ganey

Co-Founder & Master Instructor

Richard has been training in the martial arts since the age of 13, and has been teaching both Japanese Karate and Japanese Sword for the last 40 years. He currently holds a 5th degree black belt in Wado-Ryu Jujutsu Kempo, a 3rd degree in Japanese Iaido/Kenjutsu, and a 1st degree black belt in Japanese Jodo. Although his primary focus is Japanese karate and sword, he has trained in various other martial arts such as Aikido, Kendo, Arnis/Kali, Kung-fu, and the MMA system of KFM to name a few. Richard was also an FDLE certified law enforcement instructor in the areas of firearms, and defensive tactics, an FBI certified chemical agents’ instructor, as well as being an instructor in less-lethal munitions, impact weapons, close-quarters battle, and assorted special weapon systems. He has extensive experience in the area of tactical operations, and has 10 years of operational experience in Special Weapons and Tactics. He helped found Haines City Police Department’s first SWAT team and held the position of team leader, assault element operator, sniper, and chief instructor for 5 years. During a meditation session in early 2012 Richard had an epiphany concerning the high attrition rates in traditional martial arts schools and set pen to paper creating a complete balanced training curriculum based on the concept of what it would be like to train with the sci-fi Jedi from George Lucas’s Star Wars Universe. In doing so he pulled from all the original inspirations and influences that Lucas had done to create his first Star wars curriculum. By utilizing multiple sources of mythology, philosophy, various styles of martial arts, he opened a main school teaching the curriculum in 2014. In 2016 he began a student club based on the curriculum at Florida Polytechnic University that has been in effect ever since. Then in 2019 Richard worked with Adrian Paul to assist him on several Sword experience events. Realizing the benefits of their two experiences, they decided to partner up and bring their training and experiences together to create the current VVVI curriculum. This giving a real-world format to fantasy genre and bringing maximum potential for aspiring VVVI students.