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 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
167 Being Most Excellent I like to be perfect, but I’m not very good at it. Despite my efforts, I’m constantly making mistakes. It’s pretty obvious, with all
24 Slow work Some of my favourite moments when fencing have been in slow work. Moments of sublime joy, and surprise, can come out of the steady pace. It’s a place
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
24 Sex and Swordplay I’ve always thought of swordplay as being one of those rare sports where women have an equal chance to compete with men. Strength and speed are factors in
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
22 Quarter of a second First things first: The new website is up for the school. You can find the link above, in the top right corner, for Valkyrie WMA Classes. And if you head
22 East meets West Five more days til our first class. I’ve added a nice new sidebar for our Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for insurance and hopefully a few other things.
167 Revelations to no one but me. Spent a little while this morning watching video of myself sparring with Jordan last …Summer? Wow..that long ago? Tempus fugit, not just for other people. I’ve
24 Blade choice I’m in the mood for some feedback this morning. I’m still a little sick, but feeling a lot better. An online conversation this morning got me
221 Some pics from the old days! Demoing in Palaestra with Chris Moone Justin Ring, Jonathon Whitely, and me The old school was really a beautiful location. We put so much work into it. Yeah…I
216 Cascadia North Accolade Tournament 2012 Right, part one of my recollections of Cascadia North. First up will be my raw notes, taken at various points in the weekend and only edited for spelling and grammar.
24 The problem with drills It’s fun, but also a little sad to beat up a technically superior fighter. A few years ago a good friend of mine, Chris Moone, and I were
24 Peace, love, and swordplay One of the most courageous things I’ve ever done was slap my bare hand down on a piece of dried animal skin. It made a noise. A noise
24 Sorry, was this your knife? A few years ago I was doing my BC AST (advanced security training) course. It’s required in order to carry and use handcuffs at work. As part of
competition And the winner is... To be honest, I think my first tournament experience probably soured me on the entire experience. I think I was sixteen, and training in Shotokan Karate-do. The tournament was a
216 Grabbing my swords, hopping on a boat... In August I’ll be teaching at CNAT, the Cascadia North Accolade Tournament. I’m always leery of teaching at WMA events. My teaching style just doesn’
feminism Is Chivalry dead? Sexism and Swordplay My morning routine was starting nicely. I woke up just after 3pm (I work graveyards,) had breakfast, made coffee, planned to do some housework and prep dinner for when my
24 Science of Swordplay: Broken Posture Proving I was right in my beliefs was always a tricky process. In a pool of competitive people, I was at a disadvantage. At thirty years of age, I no
24 Swordplay and Perception We’d been on horseback since early morning. The day had started cool and beautiful, not a cloud in the sky. We plodded along next to the fenceline all
24 Kill em all: How to be a winner I stabbed this one guy in the face maybe fourteen times. It was the same technique, over and over. He’d line up his shot on me, aiming at
