Consulting Swordsman
Do you have asthma? If so, you might find that breathing exercises can help. But don’t just take my word for it…. I have been teaching breathing exercises for as long as I have been teaching martial arts- to my mind they go hand in hand. Over the last twenty years or so many of … Read more
I read a lot. Most writers do. You may think I spend most of my time reading sword books, but it isn’t so. Probably the most important books I’ve read in the last year or so are entirely sword-free! My home is filled with books- and about half of them are in boxes in the … Read more
I came across the idea of a book nook quite recently; one just popped up in a search for something else (a book, I think). And I just had to have a go, as it’s a perfect crossover between several of my interests. I was about half way into it when I realised it would … Read more
I’ve been practising various forms of breathing exercises for about 30 years now. They are the foundation of all my training, to the point that literally every exercise of any kind is always first and foremost a breathing exercise for me. You can see that in this recording of last Friday’s trainalong class: the topic … Read more
My parents watch the 10 o’clock news every night. While I was staying with them recently I took that as my cue to wander upstairs and do my evening stretching and breathing routines, and read before bed. I just don’t need to see interviews with people complaining about lockdown restrictions, or the latest speculation about … Read more
Watermelon is worse for me than Skittles.* Who’d have thought? If you haven’t read my post on testing blood sugar response to foods, you’d better do that before proceeding. Just to recap briefly, here are the assumptions/opinions/beliefs I’m working from: 1) it is better to avoid spiking your blood sugar levels 2) your blood sugar … Read more
It’s generally accepted that it’s a healthy idea to avoid spiking your blood sugar. Spiking your blood sugar regularly can cause insulin resistance, obesity, cancer, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and so on. Some years ago I came across a study from Drs. Segal and Erinav of the Weizmann Institute which proved to my … Read more
I can’t imagine how this passed me by all these many years. Have you heard of Allen Hemberger’s Alinea Project? It’s a thing of glory. He ate at Alinea, one of the top restaurants in the world, the sort of place where food is magic, theatre, and gastronomic bliss, all rolled into one. (I’ve not … Read more
Meditation is a crucially important practice for martial artists. It enables you to gain control over your state of mind, your level of arousal, and above all teaches you to be able to direct your attention. I have been teaching meditation in one form or another for many years, but never before over the internet. … Read more
In From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice I took the innovative step of using redirect links to video clips instead of photographs to illustrate my interpretation. This is much better in terms of representing movement, but it can be tedious to type out the links in a browser. Given that you need a web browsing device to … Read more