“You see first with your mind, then with your eyes, then finally it is in your body." -- Yagyu Munenori. Family Traditions on the Art of War, 17th century. Stuck In Your Head Whether it’s swordplay, dancing, or driving a car, when you first learn a skill it exists within the conscious learning part of the…
The route from learning a new skill to pulling it off in combat is not a simple process. Though you can take many skills immediately into combat and make some progress, it is more effective to follow a formal process that targets the skill in a focused manner at each stage of its development. Stage…
One of the slowest ways to build a new combat skill is to try to practice that skill in combat. Yet I have many people who take a class from me in my school or at a workshop, and then attempt to bring that skill into their repertoire through sparring alone. The problem is that…
To any action in combat there are typically multiple responses that can functionally deal with that action (for example you can parry it, control it, strike into it, and so on). The choice of responding action is generally dictated by overall strategy or tactical needs. There are times when you want to strike into an…