Consulting Swordsman
It’s the beginning of “Mental Health Week”, so I thought I’d share the chapter “Mental Health” from The Principles and Practices of Solo Training. This comes after a chapter on visualising your mental model for training as a tree, with mental health as the roots, physical health as the trunk, and specific attributes as … Read more
The AI revolution has been growing behind the scenes for a very long time, and now with chat bots like Chat GPT and image bots like Midjourney, the iceberg is breaking the surface. It puts me in mind of the machine-tool revolution in woodwork that occurred in the 60s and 70s, and the quartz … Read more
Who was la Chevalière d’Eon? As well as being a spy, soldier, and diplomat, la Chevalière d’Eon was one of the greatest fencers in the world. She was a regular dinner guest at Domenico Angelo’s house, and most famously fenced with le Chevalier St. Georges (also a soldier, and a composer and musician), in a … Read more
Life is worth living because of the people you love, and who love you. But everybody dies. In a perfect world, children would still bury their parents, but parents would never bury their children. My father died recently, peacefully at home at the age of 83. The circumstances really couldn’t have been improved upon, and … Read more
There’s a lot of doom and gloom going around at the moment. As the pestilence has subsided a bit, we’ve got war and famine instead. If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed and crap, it’s not your fault. But I have one key idea and two practices that may help. The key idea: Your experience is … Read more
My father Roger Windsor died on Tuesday 22nd, at home. Sometime in the night- so peacefully that my mum didn’t wake up. He was 83, and lived to see seven grandchildren. Here he is on his 83rd birthday. Losing a parent at the age of 8 is a tragedy. At 48, it’s a privilege. But … Read more
There is a ton of jargon in most specialised fields, and historical martial arts are no different. A smallsword fencer cares about the difference between a colichemarde and a spadroon; falchion folk distinguish between messer, storta, and hanger. The same is true of academics who study old books and ways of writing (palaeographers. Not to … Read more
My course How to Teach Historical Martial Arts is now live, and for the next week only you can get 40% off with this link: https://swordschool.teachable.com/p/how-to-teach-historical-martial-arts-or-anything-else?coupon_code=LEARNTOTEACH If you are currently leading classes but think your students are not progressing as well as they could; or you are thinking about teaching historical martial arts one day; … Read more
Don’t tell anyone I said this, but there’s more to life than swords. Pens are important too. As are chisels, saws, planes… Pencil Box in Brown Oak, Maple, Cherry, Walnut, and Resin On my recent trip to the USA I was sitting in my friend Heidi Zimmerman’s garden when she dropped a truth bomb on … Read more
Now that we have a working Jaegerstock, let’s take a look at lessons two and three of the system. This is part three of the Jaegerstock series. You can find the rest here: https://www.guywindsor.net/tag/jaegerstock/