23 Double Death Decisions I hate double kills. It annoys me to no end when I see students do it, I hate it when it happens to me, and I find it inexcusable when
22 Fighting Fear At Valkyrie we make it no secret that we’re owned and run by women. We constantly, actively recruit women as students. When the subject of women, fear, and
167 Cultivating Awareness When I demonstrate a technique, I do want you to perform it the way I do. Last night we did wrestling, and explored some pinning movements from a couple of
22 Post Assessment First run of assessments done. Rapier sparring took up our entire night on the previous Monday, and the wrestling assessments completely destroyed the whole class and left us exhausted enough
167 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
22 Strong or sharp? I dearly love to punch people in the head, but not as much as I like to kick them in the thigh. Alright…I lie a little. I like
22 Transition to the Bridge You see the knife in the hand, and all your training tells you to do anything other than what you are about to do. Block, parry, run, kick, grab the
22 Jab, Hook...and Cut Jab. Jab. Jab. Over and over, feet moving around, playing at measure, dodging each shot that comes back at you. Constantly sticking that left hand in your opponents’ face,
23 Wrestling to Lunge: Mechanics of Speed As part of our usual rotation, last night’s unarmed portion of the class was a wrestling focus. We started with a variation on the fireman’s throw,
23 A look behind the doors If we had doors to hide behind, anyways… Putting together the first promo clip for the Valkyrie WMA Assembly was a bit of a challenge. Our camera has been
22 Matadora By the Numbers We got a lot of excellent photos in last night’s class. It was in part due to a lack of equipment, which meant Courtney/She-hulk was able to
22 Take Five, From the Top I’m working on a new description of classes for students interested in training with the Valkyrie WMA Alliance. It’s not a difficult thing to do, but
22 Movements subtle, strong, swift, supple and bold At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And
22 Top Five Feeling a little under the weather this morning, and have an early start at work, so just a quick one this morning. The site has been running long enough to
23 Strong enough? I’m not sure when strength became a swear word to the historical fencing community. The knee-jerk reaction is to comment that weights slow you down. I’ve
22 Balance, Timing, and the War. The problem with most martial arts teaching, especially in written form, stems from a basic misunderstanding. In order for me to explain the technique I want to teach, I have
23 Grappling with Wrestling Coffee and pain are my morning companions today. I’m reviewing the entire class in my head, trying to catalog each iota of pain to a particular activity. Forearms
22 Measure Control From Sword to Hand Swordfighting can give you a great sense of measure. With good work and attention, you can reliably lean back out of an attack so it misses you by millimeters. You
22 Tenacity There is that lovely moment in an instructors life when you are pinned on your back, and you can feel your arm on the verge of breaking. A younger, fitter,
22 Lessons About Lessons I’m a little sore this morning. Moving seems to take a little more effort than expected. My joints feel tender on the inside. We had a great class
22 Two Months Gone By Fourteen classes of training behind us. Twenty eight hours of class time. A hundred minutes of maximum muscle tension during sprints and strength exercises. Two hundred minutes of movement and
22 Giant Killing When I was 19, I was studying Hung Gar Gung Fu. I trained really hard, five or six days a week, lots of weight training and full-contact work. At one
22 Dead Angles of the Sword and Needle Lying in the dentist’s chair yesterday was a good stoic check-point for me. I grew up with a terrible fear of dentists, and needles in particular. Previous appointments
167 The good, the bad, and the oh-hell-no... It was cold yesterday, and the forecast called for clear skies. It was sunny all day. When I went out last night to take the garbage out, it was the
