Consulting Swordsman
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
A little while ago I went to the National Fencing Museum to photograph some of Malcolm Fare’s amazing book collection. Most researchers and other interested folk find a compiled pdf of the photos much more useful than the raw footage, not least because the raw footage is not usually in order; for technical reasons, the … Read more
If you stick your head above the parapet, someone will take a shot at it. This is true and always will be. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re doing, or how well you’re doing it, if enough people see it some of them will hate it. It’s just how people are. But … Read more
I’ve been taking a break from working on The Art of Sword Fighting in Earnest: Philippo Vadi’s De Arte Gladiatioria Dimicandi (the long-awaited second edition of Veni Vadi Vici), and putting my shoulder to the wheel of getting my Magnum Opus ready: this is the accurately but not very inspiringly titled The Theory and Practice … Read more
The OURA Ring: the future of fitness wearables? One of the challenges of maintaining my fitness since retiring from teaching classes four nights a week is getting reliable feedback. I’ve been looking into heart rate monitors for this purpose, specifically to track recovery times (how long it takes my heart rate to come back to … Read more
Last week I checked Piermarco Terminiello’s translation of Giganti’s Second Book, published in 1608. I took issue with his translation of tirar di punte di piede fermo as “delivering a lunge”. I would render it as ‘thrust with the fixed foot”. This sparked a very useful discussion thread on Facebook, which was far too interesting … Read more