Consulting Swordsman
You will never be ready. If you wait until you feel ready to be a parent, or change careers, or take up swordsmanship (I had to sneak that in somewhere), or attend your first event, or write your first book, then you will never do it. In any area worth considering, you become ready by … Read more
Sitting will kill you. It’s almost as bad as smoking. Don’t believe me? Read Arsebestos, by Neal Stephenson in his compilation Some Remarks, or more fully, Deskbound by Dr Kelly Starrett. So as a matter of urgency, I created a standing desk adaptation for my work space at the Waterfront Studios. The heart of the … Read more
Once upon a time in Fairy Land, a chap produced something cool, like an online course, and told all his friends just once. Everyone who was interested went out and bought it straight away, and they all lived happily ever after. But in the real world, what happens when you send out one product launch … Read more
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