Consulting Swordsman
Guy Windsor 
We have to move. If a shark stops swimming it dies- and if we stop moving it doesn’t take long before the problems mount up. We can get away with it for a bit longer than sharks, but sooner or later the bill comes due. Swords are cool- cool enough to get people who have … Read more
I wrote Max Your Lunge in 2007, long before this blog was conceived. It’s past time it became a properly formatted post! My research into Capoferro’s Gran Simulacro (1610) has lead me to rethink the lunge (which he calls l’incredibile accrescimento della botta lunga, “the incredible increase of the long blow”). He is absolutely clear … Read more
What the world really needs right now is obviously a better beginners’ guide to training in Fiore’s Art of Arms, right? So I have created one. So what’s special about that? I always, always, try to instil self-direction into my students. My job is to make myself redundant. I do this in practice by giving … Read more
21 years ago today I taught my first class as a professional instructor. It was in a small room in the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. I expected about six people to show up, but we had over 70, from as far afield as Turku and Tampere. My class plan went out of the window because there … Read more
Holding the sword correctly is safer One of my students mentioned tendonitis problems in his wrist on the Swordschool Discord server this week. It’s probably caused by holding his sword incorrectly, which forces the small stabiliser muscles to do more work than they evolved for. He is by no means the first student I’ve seen … Read more
One of the things I’m enjoying most about learning to fly is being an absolute beginner, and making beginners’ mistakes. Such as: Getting my radio check and airfield information call in to the office (we don’t have a tower at this airfield), and wondering why I couldn’t get a reply even though the radio seemed … Read more
You probably remember the moment you first held a sword. It’s electric. For some of my students, they hadn’t realised what was missing until they came to their first class. For others, they had dreamed about becoming a swordswoman for years. It’s not reducible to practicalities or psychoanalysis. There is no need to know how … Read more
I get asked a lot of questions about the nitty-gritty of swordsmanship mechanics, and interpreting historical sources. I recently received a very long and involved question about the mezani blows in Il Fior di Battaglia from Dustin Jones. In short, he believed that I’ve read the manuscript incorrectly, and these horizontal blows should be done … Read more
For the first time in my life, on Sunday night I actually, deliberately, watched a football game. My kids’ friends were heavily invested in the outcome and so my kids wanted to watch what their friends were watching. Before I go on: to my English friends, I’m sorry you didn’t get what you wanted. E … Read more
My friend Eleonora Rebecchi has designed several covers for my short ebooks, including the entire The Swordsman’s Quick Guide series, and my Swords in the Time of Corona. So it seemed apt to me to show her that I can make book covers too! And I thought that putting her initials on the cover, in … Read more