We started working on new footwork techniques about a month ago, and experimenting with new guard positions for rapier. We changed up our stance, and altered our hand position. This gave us some interesting new tactics to explore. Some worked out, some didn’t. I think it’s a valuable course to follow, but will require significant […]
Month: October 2013
Painting Death
Ditch all the drama of martial arts, and you are left with a reality that doesn’t jive with our spoken or even understood reasons for training. Mostly we spend time justifying our interest. A lot of the justifications I hear don’t stand up under some scrutiny, but we still use those justifications amongst ourselves to […]
Where The Wild Things Are
At Valkyrie, our semi-official motto is “We Make Monsters.” “Monsters” means a few things to us. The obvious is that after almost a year of our unique physical training, we’ve made some impressive gains in athleticism and martial prowess. Shirts that were loose a year ago barely fit our shoulders now. I remember getting into […]
Integration and the Silly Dance
Sipping my coffee in our chilly library this morning, bleary eyed and reading facebook while I slowly came awake, I read a post by Ido Portal talking about his day’s training in Thailand. He talked about it being an integration day. What he meant by this is that it was a day to start letting […]
Myriad Paths
Handwork has certain character to it. In Valkyrie, our handwork is mostly modern boxing, with legwork thrown in from Savate and Shotokan. It’s a good blend, workable and enjoyable. Very practical. But it’s not a complete game. Modern boxing is a distillation of things that work, but much as we see in modern fencing, it’s […]
Con Permiso: An Honest Look at Self-Defence
The truth is, the fancy police or military-based combatives training isn’t really going to do shit for you. I know, they seem so tough. All yell-y and camo’ed up, taught by guys who’ve killed with their bare hands. The techniques are simple, practical, and lethal. They can be used in high stress situations. All very […]