Blog Posts New Look, New Directions Hopefully you’ve noticed the new look. It’s fall here, which is my favourite time for change. It’s also a time to start thinking about
Blog Posts Espresso Love Mark Knopfler used to write some pretty bad lyrics that still managed to make for some really awesome songs. Or my teenage hormones are still dictating my adult tastes. Hard
40 One Thing Leads To Another Deeper and deeper. Kind of a Fixx sort of morning. It’s coming up on nine months since we started up Valkyrie. I think the biggest change can be
Blog Posts Kings, Queens and Giants Once in a while you just run across people who have all the natural gifts. The one bar I was bouncing at seemed to only attract giants, as an example.
Blog Posts Bitter Beans Make Smooth Coffee Let’s say I open up a small coffee shop. I have world class baristas, the best beans and machines money can buy, and we make utterly killer coffee.
Blog Posts Bitter Words and Black Hearts A couple of months ago, we hit our favourite after-class eatery. It was a biggish class, and we over-filled a booth with a table added on at the end. The
24 The Fencers Body No one really cares about an old sprinter, but old fencers? That’s not a bad thing to be. An aged fencing master is a pretty revered thing. We
40 Strong Body Strength is everything. It’s the key to real mobility. It’s the key to a balanced and happy body. Real flexibility comes from strength, as does speed.
167 Healthy Body Rough week for a number of friends of mine. A person who spanned a few communities and was friends with my friends passed away suddenly in his sleep. I remotely
167 Good Then Bad Some nights are good, some are bad. A month or so ago I had a night where I didn’t land a single touch on any of my students.
167 A Wasted Life I am a martial artist. I always have been one. My daydreams have always been about fighting, since I was old enough to know that meant. My nights are spent
40 Less Crunchy Than I Thought The odyssey of getting older continues. It continues to be not at all what I expected. Forty five in a few days, that’s supposed to be old. Not
Soapbox Roll Over We bought ourselves a shiny new camera on our honeymoon last year. I just loaded up the card with photos from Monday’s class in it and noticed that
Blog Posts Trips and Jumps The joy of grand plans can be when they completely fall apart. I had grand plans for my Valkyrie WMA students when we got the school going. I had previously
Soapbox Moving On Weird to get a text message from my mom this morning. I suppose her phone is working again. It’s sometimes weird to realize just how much things have
Soapbox No update today, holiday! I’m enjoying a lovely day off with my wife. We’re going to get in a quick workout, enjoy a beautiful sunny Vancouver day, and have a
24 The Wolf Lord of Blades Has A Drill For You Let’s tie together all that we’ve learned in the over the last few posts into one simple drill. It’s quite easy. There are eight
24 The Wolf Lord of Blades Takes It In Both Hands She was trying to sneak in low. Her blade rolled from side to side, never committing to one line or another. I watched her down the length of my blade.
24 The Wolf Lord of Blades Goes Down Under Runs Crocodile Dundee through, takes the girl, and wonders anyone would bring a knife to a sword fight. But now I’m stepping out of my brief attempt at
24 The Wolf Lord Of Blades Draws A Line We’re just going to step back from the progression of the plates today. Before he starts talking about how to stick the other guy, the Wolf Lord of
24 The Wolf Lord Of Blades Takes A Shot As a teacher, you learn a lot from blank stares. The kind of stares you get when you clearly describe a simple technique, smile at the students and look around
24 The Wolf Lord of Blades Takes An Extra Step Apologies for missing yesterday’s post. I spent the morning working with my brother and his excellent landscaping crew, bombing very heavy trees up a difficult series of grades.
24 The Wolf Lord of Blades Shows a Little Leg So the Wolf Lord taught us a nice basic technique, and smidge of principle. Gain the inside line, threaten with the point, roll to palm down to maintain control if
22 The Wolf Lord of Blades Capo Ferro sounds so much better when you make him all “Game of Thrones,” doesn’t he? Sounds a lot more badass. Would you rather learn the
Blog Posts Threading the Needle Capoferro has always been the father system. Marozzo is our grandfather. SCA rapier fencing was a mess, a Darwinian hot pool that ate the weak and pitted the strong against
