Category: Training Blog

On our Friday night open sparring sessions I like to get in and do a few fencing passes like everyone else. It’s not uncomm…

"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 di…

Every martial arts meetup, whether it’s a class, a study group, or a tournament, is a type of gathering. It is so easy to a…

Whether you call it randori, kumite, sparring, or touching hands, many martial arts provide space and time for students to ex…

Many martial traditions, including ours, use martial forms (series of attacks and defences for solo or partnered practice) to…

Solo forms are a part of many different martial arts from around the world, and European martial arts are no exception. Solo …

The main failure I see in most people’s resolution setting is that the resolutions themselves tend to live in a vacuum with…

Which hand should go on top with a two-handed weapon? Across martial arts there are actually a lot of arguments for placing y…

I have long heard that ballet has its origins in historical fencing. It's a romantic idea and as someone who both teaches mar…

The path to mastery is as little as 25% techn…

When I look at my pursuit of mastery and proficiency in the various arts of my life I see more clearly now that truly a very …

I consider myself to be relatively lucky in regards to injuries when it comes to martial arts. I have broken some fingers in …

Language is what makes memorization possible. Memorization is what makes analysis and improvement possible.

Finding the rhythm of your training, and simply enjoying the process, are beautiful states to work toward in your martial end…

Everyone has their own pace of learning. However, there are many strategies that can both help you to make the most of your c…

Let me say first that I am all for the pursuit of excellence. Challenging yourself to be better is daunting, daring, and rewa…

Research has shown that we humans use a tremendous amount of our brains in spaces beyond our conscious awareness. Learning is…

A good teacher doesn’t just impart information to their students, they empower their students to be excellent learners. In …

In many of our classes at Duello we have a section where students of all levels drill with one another, one-on-one. It’s a …

"That is a really inefficient way to attack. What are they doing?" I think, as my opponent winds up some particularly arduous…

This is the second part in a series on Awareness (

Devon Boorman September 9, 2021

Awareness is an essential part of martial performance and learning. It allows you to know and understand your successes and f…

Objective measures can be compelling. They’re easy to inspect and can allow progress in a way you can graph. However, peopl…

The route from learning a new skill to pulling it off in combat is not a simple process. Though you can take some skills like…

One of the first major workshops I ever taught internationally was entitled “The Art of Not Sucking”. This workshop ended…

Recently I began a blog series answering, in broad form, why we teach the rapier and longsword as part of one system at Acade…

Anyone can get caught in a dark place in terms of how they view themselves and their progress in a skill. Making demands of o…

Parries often get a bad rap. Yet it's mostly because people suck at them. They chase, flail with their arms, or simply try to…

A true swordplay bout might be as binary as survivor and vanquished. However, in our modern times no bout is final and all pr…