You know you've done something right as a teacher or writer when somebody takes your stuff and recombines it into something new and meaningful. In my latest book, Swordfighting for Writers, Game … [Read more...]
How to Win More Fights, in one easy step.
I have been stuck in bed with some ghastly ailment for the last week or so, and am still not recovered yet (don't tell my wife I'm working!), so I'll be brief. The question on many fencers' minds … [Read more...]
Games and swords: digital v analogue
Swordfights are resolutely, absolutely, analogue. It is random, chaotic, non-linear to a degree. But for centuries, millennia even, man has been imposing order on the chaos, cataloguing the actions, … [Read more...]
Function first, then form. A lesson from the rapier.
In the midst of the annual Fiore Extravaganza, there is little time for blogging. So here is something I prepared earlier. The core lesson is: in most cases, it is better to have something that … [Read more...]
5 barriers to success, and my solutions to them.
(Edited to expand on point 5 and add hyperlinks) 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 … [Read more...]
Stretto Drills Revisited
One of the major drivers of syllabus development is the difficulties the senior students have either with the drills themselves, or with making sense of them. Recently the stretto form of second drill … [Read more...]