Teaching Teachers, part 1: Class instruction

by

If I wasn’t teaching swordsmanship I’d be teaching something else. Giving instruction is my best learning environment. If ever I’m having difficulty with any skill, be it woodwork, writing, or getting my sword to go where it should, I conjure up an imaginary student and in my mind teach them how to do it. Instant … Read more

Bob’s daggers done

by

The last of the daggers is done, so I’ve trimmed the ends, sanded and oiled them, and here they are 🙂 All a bit different, but all with about the same proportions, and the same overall dimensions, more or less.

In the beginning was the (s)word, part 4

by

So we are now half way through the beginners’ course, with no drop-outs. Fully half the course showed up for the basic class on Thursday last week as I mentioned in the previous post, another excellent sign. And though we never require a student to buy a sword, the fact that two of the beginners … Read more

¡Viva España!

by

I spent the weekend 13-14 October in El Escorial, Spain, attending the Asociación Española de Esgrima Antigua annual meeting, as an invited instructor. It was a welcome opportunity to catch up with  their chief instructor, an old friend (and a fellow full-time professional colleague), Alberto Bomprezzi, and to see how things are done in Spain. La primera … Read more

In the beginning was the (s)word, part 3

by

This course is proceeding apace, helped along by the exemplary attendance record, and their tendency to show up on Thursdays. 21 out of 24 were there on Tuesday, which is pretty good. We began with the warm-up and as usual took a familiar pattern of exercises and added a few bits and pieces. This week … Read more

In the beginning was the (s)word, part 2

by

Between last week’s class and this one (on the 9th of October) we saw six out of the 24 attend class on Thursday 4th – this is an excellent proportion, especially for the first week. It takes some guts to show up with so little prior experience, but they all got stuck in, and seemed to … Read more

I Am Slow

by

I am slow. So I study speed. The first advanced Fiore class every month is a freeplay-based session, in which we use freeplay and related exercises to expose specific weaknesses in individual students, for them to work on, and general weaknesses in the group as a whole, which sets the theme for the next month … Read more

In the beginning was the (s)word…

by

One thing I have never done before is keep an exact record of what I (and others) teach over the eight weekly sessions of a beginners’ course at the Helsinki branch of my school. Of course it is never exactly the same twice; every group is different, and as we usually have only two such … Read more

Training Daggers

by

About a year ago, my colleague and fellow Fiorista Bob Charrette kindly agreed to let me use some tracings he had made from Il Fior di Battaglia,  originally for his book Armizare, in my own little book of mnemonic verses, the Armizare Vade Mecum. As a token royalty payment I offered to make him four wooden … Read more

All by myself? Um…no.

by

One of the many joys of having kids is their charming misconceptions about how the world really works. For example, both my daughters love driving my car. When bringing them home from daycare, as we get off the public road and onto our parking area, I often take them one at a time onto my … Read more