I recently had a discussion on social media about this particular item: They are a kind of cutesy self defense device being marketed to women. Now, these are stupid, illegal, and unlikely to even offer an advantage in a self defense scenario. Not only that, but they are explicitly sold as a weapon, and therefore…
It is easy to fall into the idea that there are right approaches and wrong approaches, true paths and false paths. If your group does things one way, if you've invested your time in one path, it can be difficult to allow that those who practice a different system, approach, or have invested in a different strategy,…
Read More... from The Pursuit of Learning Should Not Be Partisan
More than two years ago, I got together with Greg Reimer, a group of other Duello students and a filmmaker to lay down the footage for a new DVD: Introduction to Italian Longsword. After two years of post-production problem solving it is finally available to the public!! This DVD is an efficient and thorough approach to…
Say that your car has broken down. You go ask your friends for recommendations of a good mechanic. You don’t ask for recommendations on how to fix it yourself with zero automotive knowledge, and then do your best to follow the instructions on what “worked for them”. Health and fitness are weird. You can do…
Let me say first that I am all for the pursuit of excellence. Challenging yourself to be better is daunting, daring, and rewarding. On this road, you must find the edges of your comfort, push beyond your physical limitations, and surmount many an emotional hurdle. And though much of this is truly hard, little of…
Read More... from Excellence, Machismo, and Hardcore Training
How long is a workout? A better question is how long do you have? In a conversation with a student this week, the subject of giving 100% came up and how they were training. Due to illness and stress, they were not training at the capacity that they had previously been at. They were happy…
Read More... from Give What You Can Spare; Keep What You Need.
"At their heart, martial arts are a solitary path. No one can walk that path for you." I'm paraphrasing one of many great bits of wisdom shared by Mark Mikita, a 50-year martial arts practitioner and teacher, at his talk on longevity in martial arts at the 2017 edition of the Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium…
Read More... from Walking the Path - Reflections on VISS 2017
If you attend the gym a lot, you will see that some people spend their entire time frustrated. They pace back and forth, hassle people about when they will be done with a piece of equipment they need, and just generally don’t seem to be having a good time. They have needs, they have a…
I am not someone who defers to authority easily, but often the difference between success and failure can be our willingness to trust a professional. We waste a lot of time and a lot of headspace on self-teaching. This is an important and valid part of any process, but most people delay, hinder, or even…
Read More... from Bow to Authority! Seek Professionals to Maximise Success
This coming weekend is the Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium. This is a three day weekend of martial arts workshops, intensives, sparring, socializing, and more. Over the past 20 years, I have attended my fair share of conferences both as a student and as a teacher across disciplines of eastern or western origin. These events are…
Read More... from 5 Martial Arts Conference Survival Strategies
Functional training is all the rage but how often do we actually question whether our training is, in fact, functional? Not “Functional™” but functional. Could you lift a log, climb a rope, throw a punch, carry a wounded person or wrestle an assailant to the ground if you needed to do those things in a life…
Read More... from Focus on Disaster: How to Use Impending Doom to Set Training Goals.
At the end of January, we finished up the fourth 30-for-30 Swordplay Challenge. The Facebook group this year had over 250 members with reports coming from at least 100 of them throughout the entire month. I enjoyed reading posts from practitioners throughout the world with varying levels of experience and coming from different backgrounds and…
Plants grow because the environment is right. Often a seed will sit waiting inert in the ground until the conditions are perfect to give it the best chance of success before it starts to grow. The only difference between you and that seed is that you can change your environment to create the best possible…
Read More... from Changing behaviors: Shape Your Environment to Guarantee Success
I began my practice of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) without any personal connection to its original historical sources. My real connection was to movies and stories of swordsmanship. I had musketeers and knights running through my mind when I first connected with a group training in rapier fencing. Yet, what I really connected with…
Read More... from How to Connect with the Historical in HEMA
When it comes to healthy living, what’s better: 100% or 80%? You probably immediately went with 100%. We all want to stick to the plan 100%, we want to hit the gym 100% of the time we are meant to, and we want to see 100% of the results. In fact, we tend to see…
Not everyone has the luxury of being able to regularly attend classes at a school like Academie Duello or get together with regular training partners. So, how do you train on your own in a way that is effective? In this last week's DTV Livestream we discussed just that. Here's a round-up of some of…
We are just past the halfway point in the 30-for-30 Swordplay Challenge! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can learn more about this 30-day swordplay training challenge in this DTV blog post. Halfway points are both exciting and challenging. On one front, you've made it half way! However, you also have…
"What have you failed at today?" This question is one that a friend's father used to ask her and her brother every day at dinner. I found the story inspiring. This question, as well as her father's warm approach in how he asked it, contained so many positive questions and affirmations: What did you try today?…