Consulting Swordsman
Finding myself at odds with a colleague regarding what it is fair to call “Fiore’s Art” (or indeed any other historical master’s), I have decided to get down on virtual paper my views on the subject. It is obvious that coming from a different time and culture we cannot ever perfectly recreate the Art as … Read more
What is Real Swordfighting? What do you consider “real swordfighting”? For some, only tournament bouts really count. For others, there has to be a corpse by the end. My answer to this vexing question is below. When I was a little boy I want nothing more than to learn real swordfighting. My mum told me … Read more
The second day of the Sydney seminar began with revision and expansion on the first day’s work, taking some of the dagger plays into a freeplay-type context, then going over much of the sword material again. This established a base, upon which we built an understanding of how the material fits together, and how we … Read more
The works of Dave Lowry should need no introduction to readers of this blog, who, I assume, have at least a passing interest in the martial arts. Mr Lowry has been training since the late sixties and writing about it since the early eighties. His latest book, The Essence of Budo: A Practitioner’s Guide to … Read more
I could get used to this. Sat outside in the shade tap-tapping away, (still at a lugubrious 10wpm or so) in glorious 30 degree weather. Not sure I’d get much work done in the long run though. But Sydney is a lovely city. I spent Thursday and Friday being shown the sights, including the most … Read more
I have been in Australia for a week now, and enjoying the sunshine (why do I live in such a freezing cold country?), the warmth of which has been eclipsed by the generous hospitality of my hosts. In Melbourne Scott Nimmo and his wife and kids welcomed me into their home with enthusiasm, and here … Read more
I am not known for my sense of proportion when it comes to the Art I serve. OF COURSE everyone should train. OF COURSE it’s more important than jobs or other distractions (I make an exception for children. Only for children). But the Art itself is based on proportion. For any action to work, it … Read more
I am typing this very slowly, without looking at the keyboard (much). This may seem trivial to those of you that learned to touch-type young, but I have twenty years of bad habits to overcome: five published books and God knows how many thousand emails, all written by poke and pray. I got pretty quick … Read more
The rights to my first two books just reverted to me (thanks Greg and the lawyers!) and I am in the process of making them available at a fair price (not the hundreds of dollars that second-hand copies currently command). I have just got the Duellist’s Companion up on Scribd for the very reasonable price … Read more
I don’t believe in innate talent. I’ve never seen it in a student, and I have noticed no correlation between early successes in training and long-term achievement. But you can draw a linear relationship between hours spent in class and acknowledged skill. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is my sort-of-ex-student (in that he … Read more