Consulting Swordsman
I spent the first week of October on a data detox. No emails, no whatsapp, no socialz, no scrolling. It’s been a lovely mental break. My initial reason for trying this was to allow my inner visionary to be heard, as per this post. The single biggest surprise is how little I missed it. I was … Read more
As I posted on Sword People last week, I’m taking 100 days off alcohol. Why would I do that? The DEXA Scan: an uncomfortable truth I was in London a couple of weeks ago for a family reunion, and took the opportunity to wiggle along for another DEXA scan (at BodyScan UK). My last was … Read more
You may recall that my recent trip to Mexico blew me away. What a country, what people. And yes, what food. I’ve had lots of “Mexican” food before: some awesome, some so-so. But nothing prepared me for the breadth and depth of the Mexican food experience. I ate everywhere from people’s homes, to roadside shacks, … Read more
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
Do you ever have days when it feels like you’re carrying an invisible anvil around with you? Probably. Most people do. I’ve been going to a therapist for the last few weeks to try to sort out why I’ve been having irrational downswings. Everything in life is going splendidly, and yet I can sink into … Read more
In “Following my own advice” I described how I try to get something important done every day before checking emails, because prioritising the important over the apparently urgent is key. In that post I rather blithely referred to concentrating on ‘creating assets’, and loosely defined assets as “anything that adds value to your life. Value … Read more
“If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything!” Truer words were never spoken, certainly not by Count Rugen anyway.* Way back in the dawn of time when I began training martial arts, I was enraptured by the idea of martial arts training being a balance between breaking people and fixing them, by the … Read more
Safety Guidelines for the Practice of Swordsmanship These safety guidelines come from my Recreate Historical Swordsmanship from Historical Sources Course (included in our Mastering the Art of Arms and Solo Training packages here) and have been adapted from guidelines in The Medieval Longsword, The Duellist’s Companion, and The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts. All … Read more
Everybody breathes, but some do it better than others. Breathing training is the foundation of my martial practice, and as with everything else I do, I’m happy to teach it to you. The topic for the latest instalment of The Swordsman’s Quick Guide was chosen by my student Cecilia Äijälä, and she picked Breathing Training. … Read more
We’ve been in Ipswich for a couple of months, and perhaps the most common question I’ve been asked is “what’s it like” followed in popularity by “Ipswich? Why?” So I thought I’d summarise some of the key points, in the form of a tennis match. Because this is England, and it’s summer. Or at least … Read more