Consulting Swordsman
Guy Windsor I am delighted to announce that Henry Sainct Didier’s beautiful and comprehensive treatise from 1573, Traicté contenant les secrets du premier livre sur l’éspée seule (Treatise containing the secrets of the first book on the sword alone), is ready for you to download in full colour (at 670mb). The book is lavishly illustrated with 64 woodcuts showing … Read more
One of the key skills in research is being able to judge when you have sufficient data to form a tentative conclusion, or a firm conclusion that’s open to revision, or case-closed no point discussing it any more certainty. This last case is relatively rare, but it does exist: nobody seriously doubts that King George … Read more
Do you ever have days when it feels like you’re carrying an invisible anvil around with you? Probably. Most people do. I’ve been going to a therapist for the last few weeks to try to sort out why I’ve been having irrational downswings. Everything in life is going splendidly, and yet I can sink into … Read more
It took me about seven years to get my head round the idea of videoing the training we do in my School and putting it out onto the internet; a succession of senior students suggested that we do so, and eventually I came round to the idea. I tend to jump right into things though, … Read more
Last week I talked about the importance of swordsmen learning dagger techniques, and I promised I’d explain how to integrate training the dagger material with the longsword material. This needs to be done at the level of syllabus design, as well as within specific training sessions or classes. Let’s start with the syllabus. NOTE: In this … Read more
I include dagger techniques in almost every longsword class I teach, but just about everyone who comes to my classes does so because they’re mad about swords. So why do I insist they learn the dagger stuff? For Fiore scholars, I’m preaching to the choir, I know. But for the rest of the swordiverse (yes, … Read more
At first glance this is a restaurant review, but bear with me: I’ll get to the martial arts point in due course. I was in London this week on my way home from teaching in Germany, and my kind brother in law David* took me out to lunch to a restaurant run by his kick-boxing … Read more
Perhaps the most famous fencing treatise of the 1600s, Ridolfo Capoferro’s Gran Simulacro is a wonderful book, and an essential read for all fencing scholars. Characteristically, he spells his name as both Capoferro, and Capo Ferro, in the book itself; just one of it’s many interesting quirks! It covers fencing theory, rapier alone, rapier and … Read more
Jussi Alarauhio is the graphics genius behind the art for Audatia the medieval combat card game I developed a few years ago. A while back he sent me the poster you see above, which he made for a HEMA club practising (you guessed it) Lechkuchner’s messer combat style. It is way too cool not to … Read more
I have been meaning to sort out a standing desk solution for my workspace for oh, about 7 months now. A couple of weeks ago I started reading Kelly Starrett’s book Deskbound. (Potted review: great information, bitty presentation. Thorough, but repetitive, and way too much referring to his super-cool fighter pilot clients. Essential reading for ergonomics … Read more