Consulting Swordsman
As our community grows, it seems to be following the completely normal progression of human tribes: what began as a couple of hundred folk who were so overwhelmed with joy to find other people who really like swords that most other considerations just fell by the wayside, has now grown like a bacterial culture: groups … Read more
I spent last weekend on the Isle of Wight taking part in the Action Challenge Ultra event, which raised a chunky £844 (so far) for the excellent charity Room to Read. Six writers set out at 8am on Saturday morning, lead by Joanna Penn who had invited her podcast listeners to join her on the … Read more
I’m just back from a teaching trip to Seattle, and not too jet-lagged… which is good because I’m re-packing my bag for a trip to the Isle of Wight tomorrow. I’ll be spending the weekend walking round in enormous circles: two full circumnavigations of the island, totalling about 106km. Why, you may ask? Well to … Read more
My book on Vadi’s manuscript De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi is available now as The Art of Sword Fighting in Earnest. As with my first attempt at translating this manuscript I have released the translation for free, under a creative commons attribution 4.0 licence. This means you can do whatever you want with it, provided you give … Read more
“This should be the core book in every HEMA practitioner’s library” Comments like this are what authors live for. My new book The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts has picked up eleven five star reviews on Amazon.com in its first week in the wild. I couldn’t be happier. The reviews come from beginners and highly … Read more
I’ve been thinking a lot about health lately, which will come as no surprise if you’ve read my previous blog about injuring my back. I think of health as a three-legged stool. The legs are sleep, nutrition, and exercise. I cover the principles I use in some detail in my new book The Theory and Practice … Read more
My latest book encapsulates my entire approach to recreating historical martial arts; 25 years of experience in 350 pages! With this book you can train your mind and body to become an expert in historical martial arts. It includes the seven principles of mastery, considers the ethics of martial arts, and goes into detail about … Read more
I’m in the process of recovering from a nasty injury. Why am I telling you this? Because shit happens to everyone, and I thought it might be useful to you to see how I deal with it. This is not my first training injury, and I’d be very surprised if it was my last. My … Read more
Many years ago, while I was teaching at the Dawn Duellists Society, I fenced rapier with a visiting student. He was not a very experienced swordsman so I managed to stab him five times in the chest in quick succession. That did not stop him from closing in, and, being an experienced wrestler, getting me … Read more
I love seeing sword-themed art being created, and so far this year my eye has already been caught by two fantastic, and quite different, approaches. I’m not affiliated to either, and get no commission from anything you buy. I just like their stuff. What do you think of these? On the left we have classically … Read more