Consulting Swordsman
Intermediates class on Sept 3rd 2012 was run as a freeplay class. The goal of this class was to improve students’ freeplay skills, and to remind them of freeplay’s place in the practice of historical swordsmanship. It went like this: The class ran for 90 minutes and was loosely divided into five sections. We began all … Read more
Last Saturday I taught a singlestick seminar. Singlestick is an odd system for me because it’s the one area of swordsmanship where I am not tied hand and foot to a single source. Having been thoroughly pasted by Terry Brown and his students, I am under no illusions about my current competence with this weapon. … Read more
Entering the Fray with Vigour One of the benefits to running an intermediate level class first thing every Monday evening, is that I get to put the seniors under a bit of pressure, make them work outside their comfort zones, and see what cracks. If a classful of students have difficulty with the same thing, … Read more
Learning about safety in historical martial arts: the hard way. I have often remarked in class that I have broken bones in training so that my students don’t have to. In other words, the safety regulations we have were arrived at through my getting hurt and figuring out ways to avoid it happening again. One … Read more