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
24 Sword and Dagger Picked my dagger up last night. I’ve been fighting single sword exclusively for maybe three or four years now. I made the decision to stick to sword alone
167 Leaving the Past Behind I don’t know why Achille Marozzo wrote his New Work on swordplay. I know the result of it, but I don’t know what made him sit
24 Overlooked Despite the lack of time, I’ve really been missing my blog posts here. I’m going to find a way to carve out a little bit of
24 Cut and Thrust and Step Cutting was next up in our basics rotation last class. The idea was to spend the first five minutes or so of the rapier portion of class just doing a
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
24 Anabasis Marozzo We’re transitioning to three days a week of training at Valkyrie WMAA. The plan is to keep the Monday and Thursday night slots ongoing at One Thousand Rivers,
24 March of Marozzo Marozzo’s progression…I have taught that damned thing so many times, in so many different ways…I’m always eager to abandon it from my
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 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 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
22 Boxing Marozzo We had a complex technique to learn, so I decided to start the class out with warm up drills. In theory, an angled off-line step is a simple thing, even
24 Measuring Marozzo With only a simple lunge to deal with, measure control with a rapier can still be a complex issue. You need to build skill in absolute measure…knowing your
24 Family Day Provincial holiday here in British Columbia today. A nice day off and what should have been a good sleep in, ruined a bit by some odd dreams. Not bad dreams,
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
24 Progressive Structure and the Art of Teaching Scattered about me on the floor are printouts of Marozzo’s progression. A copy of Talhoffer propped in a little tent on a page I’d noted to
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
24 Deep Funk and Heavy Grooves Sometimes I feel bad for what I put my students through. I throw the new students in the deep end and give them a moment or two before throwing them
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
167 To suck or to not suck Spending the morning cruising through the websites of various WMA groups, checking out youtube videos. Painful experience. I know bad video is a thing that can happen to anyone. It&
Academie Duello Week 51, Year of the Naked Bear Let’s try something a little different. I’ve been trying to take one day a week off from blog writing, but I always feel a smidge bad
167 Guard, Line, Measure... When I first took up rapier, it was a nightmare. It took me a solid year to overcome all my martial arts instincts. Twenty years of training had taught me
22 Fimbulwinter delayed Going back to part-time work next week, thank god. It was nice having full-time pay for a bit, but I’ve been suffering from a surfeit of imagination sans
