Consulting Swordsman
Would you like a complete interpretation and training method for Vadi’s Art of Arms, as found in his De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi? Well now you can have it, with the Philippo Vadi courses bundle, which includes my Philippo Vadi Longsword Course, and my Philippo Vadi Dagger Course. The courses also include all of Vadi’s other … Read more
Once upon a time in Fairy Land, a chap produced something cool, like an online course, and told all his friends just once. Everyone who was interested went out and bought it straight away, and they all lived happily ever after. But in the real world, what happens when you send out one product launch … Read more
Back in the bad old days I used to have to choose between swinging swords and working. Every time I picked up a sword, my wrists would swell up and my hands would be useless. It was hell. Then I met a kung-fu instructor, Num, who in 20 agonising minutes fixed my wrists. And in the … Read more
I have just created a syllabus for creating a syllabus. You read that right. The end product of my Recreate Historical Swordsmanship from Historical Sources course is a complete syllabus for the style of swordsmanship that you are researching. You can see the spiffy video intro here: https://youtu.be/zYMBassGxJ8 I created this course because many people have difficulty … Read more
Just yesterday Louise Mann, a student on my Knee Maintenance course, sent me a review she had written. It blew me away, so I’m sharing it here, with her permission. Part 1: A gentle warm up. Excellent safety advice regarding not following along slavishly, but actually knowing and understanding your own physical limitations and acting appropriately. … 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
I’m a Luddite, it’s true. I resist the march of technological progress because I think that most new technologies aren’t labour saving life enhancing devices at all. I was saying this back in the ‘80s when people were extolling the new ‘desktop publishing’ thing. “What used to take two weeks can now be done in … Read more
I loathe bureaucracy in all its forms. And I really don’t understand why so many companies, organisations, and people feel the need to clutter up other people’s houses with pieces of paper that aren’t either proper letters (I’m a big fan) or nice cards (also a fan). As you may know I did a major … Read more
Tomorrow, I’ll pull the trigger on my latest venture: an online course. It is called “Recreate Historical Swordsmanship from Historical Sources” and by the time it is done, it will be a clear and systematic way for people to learn how to do the academic side of historical swordsmanship. You know, the bit that makes … Read more
Last week I ran a survey to find out what I should be working on next. This generated a very clear ‘get on with the “systems from sources” online course’ response. I am following orders, and hope to have the first couple of modules up for beta-testers next week. I will set it up so … Read more