Back in the saddle

As I posted two weeks ago, I'm back and bringing fun changes. The fun news is martial arts, but before we get to that, please enjoy the preview image above, as it's the new cover for the upcoming omnibus release of all three books of the System Apocalypse: Kismet trilogy I wrote over the course of a year. I've also just confirmed that the delightful Books and Co in Prince George will now be carrying the paperbacks. If you haven't been yet, now is a good time to visit. They are about to expand, adding a new coffee shop with baked goods to the store. I know it's a bit of a trip for most of my readers, but the road trip to Prince George via the Yellowhead Highway is one of the all-time great driving routes. More often that not, you'll have the highway to yourself. You owe yourself a treat, and that's a good one. Many camping options and backcountry adventures as well, if you feel the call of the wild.

Beyond that, I've started coaching swordfighting again. Jeff Nadwidny and I are collaborating on classes here in McBride, and we had our first one last Monday. It's a bit of a throwback to the old days, being outside in a park. I gotta admit, I kinda love it.

Alright, I absolutely love it.

It was also really interesting to embrace the power of a fresh start, especially regarding curriculum. We did so much review of all of our teaching at Valkyrie that I had copious notes to go over, and was able to adapt some of our more innovative ideas to match the circumstances. Kept the priorities, but adapted.

Most important thing is to respect why people show up to participate. The best way to do that is to make sure you are getting the hell out of their way as much as possible. As a coach, you will impact the course of someone's life. That's a given. Ethically, that means you need to minimize that impact as much as possible, and make sure that what impact you do have aligns with the best possible result for the athlete.

That might sound weird, but here's what's bad: Coming up with your own idea of what perfect swordplay looks like, what perfect students look like, and what the perfect path to your idealized version looks like. If you want people to follow your dream, you can fuck right off. The world has more than enough cults of personality, thank you very much.

A new swordfighter comes in with their own dream, and their own vision of what success means. It's your job as coach to support that. Sometimes that means showing them that what they want or can achieve is maybe vastly different from what they imagine. Sometimes that means that you just give them an excuse to show up and do what they want to do.

Get the hell out of their way. Show them how to succeed without you in the room. That starts right from the first class.

Fitness is half of the art of swordplay, so it's one of the things we covered at the start. I know a ton of exercises that can yield superb results, so what were the main activities we had participants do for exercise? Sit on a bench and stand up. Sit on the ground and stand up. Lie down and stand up. Climb over, or under a fence, and back again. All done for reps, at a good enough pace that 70% of the class was starting to noticeably breath heavy.

This wasn't any kind of "functional fitness" or "natural movement" exercises. What I wanted to get across to students, right from class one, is that the potential for getting stronger and faster is all around you in everyday life. There is nothing special required, just learning to see potential and letting yourself build habits. That's one way I can get out of the students' way...teaching them they never have to rely on me for exercise ideas. Or motivation (that will take a little more time, but we'll get there).

At the same time, the creation of a training group is the start of a local culture. In this case, a culture that can celebrate and participate in swordplay in all of its potential. That is something Jeff and I do have to model, because no one else has seen what that can look like yet. The internet will help with that, but more than that will be having folks from all kinds of other sword groups and martial arts come by and be a part of things. Sure, McBride is pretty remote, but there are SCA groups in Prince George and Kamloops, HEMA groups in those same areas as well as Clearwater, and even active LARPers in PG. And many schools in Alberta with competitions. Western Canada has always been a rich breeding ground for sword folks, and we'll find our way to learn from them all.

And yeah. It's been a while for me. I'll cop to a little more crunch from age, and lingering pandemic weight and stress have given stillness a ton more momentum than I expected. The pain might not be so bad, but I still have that beginner sense rolling all over me. Everything is far harder than I remember, and I have to be smart and not work through the pain, but stop when it shows up and find another way. That's going to take a bit more work, but...

Damn, it's going to be fun.

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Thanks for reading folks, and catch yah next time.