Consulting Swordsman
This is a progress report for the “get over boarding school” project. If you’re here looking for some technical sword stuff, I suggest going here or here. I usually edit my posts quite carefully. Not this one, because if I do, I will end up deleting the whole thing. So please bear with me. Shortly … Read more
There is a rather stupid convention common in the upbringing of boys and men: because we are supposed to be strong, we ought not to acknowledge our weaknesses. As any weight-lifter could tell you, that is totally counter-productive. If you realise that your biceps are not as strong as they should be, you can adjust … Read more
Oh my, what a week it has been. I was scared of hitting “publish” on my last post, for obvious reasons. I am a big bad scary martial arty swordsman, or at least that’s how a lot of people seem to see me. And now anyone who reads my blog can see me as … Read more
We often duck and dive to avoid something, when our interests would be better served by meeting it head on. Sometimes it’s better to just take the hit. By the time they are a few weeks old, most babies have mastered the art of the double-dump. Inexperienced parents react to the first load: a stinky … Read more
Fear management is the key skill underlying all martial arts. If you are not afraid of getting hurt or killed, there’s something wrong with you. But if you are frozen in place by that fear, prevented from acting, then your training has failed. As you may have read, I am a great big fraidy-cat, and … Read more
I am writing up the Fear section of my new book, Swordfighting for Writers, Game Designers and Martial Artists. This particular section seemed like a useful snippet. About half the book is blog posts from here, so cannibalising a section of it to make a blog post seems, well, fair. Here goes. “One of the … Read more
One of the most destructive forces in the world we live in is the “talent” mindset. I mean that literally. It underlies not only millions of minor miseries, but also the core of human evil. In short, if you believe in innate talent, you believe that some people are inherently better than others. It is … Read more
There are many reasons why people are afraid to begin training swordsmanship, or indeed choose to follow any path, and many reasons why those who have begun the journey may quit. What follows is by no means an exhaustive list, but it contains some of the more common problems that I have encountered, and my … Read more