Consulting Swordsman
I have the enormous privilege of owning an original copy of Salvatore Fabris’s Sienza e Pratica d’Arme, printed in 1606. I bought it from Sr. Roberto Gotti, of Brescia, in 2014. It is in incredibly good condition, and an excellent, clean print. It is still in its original binding. The value of the book comes … Read more
I have always made sure that there are at least some women in the photos in all of my training manuals. This photo from The Swordsman’s Companion is one of my favourite pictures ever: Last weekend, teaching at Lonin in Seattle, one of the women students told me that the only reason she had started … Read more
Training happens in the brain, and in my experience, the biggest barriers to training exist between a student’s ears. One of the most common problems I have seen (and experienced myself), is the tendency to stop and make judgements when things aren’t going well. For example, I’m practising my still-imperfect mandritto fendente, as part of … Read more
I get asked a lot about crowdfunding campaigns, especially for writers, so I thought I would do a complete breakdown of exactly where all the money came from and went to in my last campaign, which raised 12,093 euros in 30 days. Be warned, this post will make the accountants among you happy, but has … Read more
Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of my School. I date it to the first demonstration and class I gave in a small room in the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki on March 17th 2001. While going through the accumulated paperwork of the last 18 years or so, recycling most of it, scanning and … Read more
Everybody gets sick or injured every now and then, and I’ve had a pretty rough winter so far in that regard which has got me thinking about how I train when sick. In this post I’ll lay out my general principles for dealing with the problem and let me apologise in advance if it ever … Read more
I am currently digitising a metric fuck-ton of paper, prior to moving to the UK. If you’re interested in the actual process of going more-or-less paperless, then I’ll be happy to post it here in detail; let me know in the comments below (here. I don’t necessarily see every comment on Twitter or Facebook). This … Read more
Spring is in the air, the grass is pushing up under the snow, and books are making their way from my dusty hard drive and out into the world. Ok, in Finland, spring is nowhere to be seen. My kids are going ice-skating and everyone I know has a cold. Bear with me. I have … Read more
I like reading about lifestyles I have no intention of emulating, but might learn something from. Such as the “travel the world for ten years with only one pair of underwear” minimalist types. It’s all very “I’ve got an ultralight laptop and that’s all I need”. Which is fine if you’re only a writer or … Read more
It is an exciting time to be a Fiore scholar; the Getty recently released hi-res scans of the treatise, Michael Chidester of Wiktenauer fame has just released his concordance of the techniques in the four version of the manuscript that survive, and Freelance Academy Press has announced it is bringing out a scholarly edition of … Read more