Consulting Swordsman
Guy Windsor I was expecting to be far more nostalgic about seeing Helsinki again after nine months away. It’s by far the longest time I’ve been absent from my city since 2001. There are changes here and there- most excitingly perhaps a bespoke shoemaker has opened a workshop near Kamppi. Good thing I’ve been too busy to … Read more
Today is an auspicious day. It marks the 16th anniversary of the founding of my School, with my first demonstration class held in a small training hall inside the Olympic Stadium. One of the greatest challenges from the beginning was that the people who are most interested in the training I have to offer are … Read more
I employ freelancers a lot, for artwork, layout, editing, copywriting, sword-making and all sorts of things. Basically, anything I need to get done but lack the skills to do myself. In the light of the recent grotesque Fiverr advert, a platform that connects freelancers with clients (like me- I found the person who transcribes my … Read more
One fencing manual above all has a special place in my heart. I found Donald McBane’s The Expert Sword-man’s Companion from 1728 in the National Library of Scotland back in the early nineties, and persuaded my University tutor to let it onto the course she was teaching. My essay “The Gallant Pander” was in truth the … Read more
I have just created a syllabus for creating a syllabus. You read that right. The end product of my Recreate Historical Swordsmanship from Historical Sources course is a complete syllabus for the style of swordsmanship that you are researching. You can see the spiffy video intro here: https://youtu.be/zYMBassGxJ8 I created this course because many people have difficulty … Read more
To Share or Not To Share? A good martial artist is responsive, not reactive. This is one of the key life benefits from martial arts training, so I’ll explain in some detail. Recently, some anonymous fool posted a long and completely valueless article dissing HEMA on the grounds that it is not optimised for street … Read more
My urgent desire to snuggle up to Philippo Vadi has been gratified, and now you can do the same too. This lovely facsimile went live today, and you can get it from Amazon US, Amazon UK, or order it from any bookshop with the ISBN: 978-9527157091 Not every online store stocks it, probably because … Read more
My younger daughter is something of a handful, so I’ve been thinking a lot about things like obedience, virtue, loyalty, and authority lately. These are often associated with martial arts training, so I thought I’d share my views here. I think it is important to distinguish between skills and virtues. Skills are abilities cultivated by … Read more
What’s this? A new book? Or an old one? My recent fascination with producing affordable facsimiles of fencing manuscripts began with wanting to curl up in a chair with Vadi. Mission accomplished. The proof copy arrived this week, and I have released it for distribution. It will go on sale on February 28th. I set … Read more
A student once asked me, “when can I call myself a swordsman?” I think he was expecting my answer to be a certain number of years spent training, but I said “when swordsmanship is your primary means for analysing and solving problems.” This was not what he was expecting. It is why I think of … Read more