4-Part Routine for the Ultimate Warmup
Like a morning routine, your warm-up ritual is all about starting right and getting the most out of your sword time. Great pe…
Category: Training Blog
Don’t Get Hung Up on Perfect Practice
There is an interesting phrase pair I have been hearing from a lot of instructors:
I don’t like my training partner
You know that person who stands across from you and just can’t seem to do their part correctly in the exercise? Perhaps the…
How Top Performers Deal with Bad Training Days
Not every training day is a brilliant one. Not every tournament is your best. Not every performance shows all that you’re c…
Three Sources of Quality Feedback
If you plan to improve in your martial practice you need outside feedback. Here are three quality sources that you can seek o…
Three Types of Practice
I was talking with a student of mine one evening, encouraging them to start pushing themselves toward their next rank at my s…
Three Things You Should Be Saying to Your Swordfighting Students
When teaching an European Martial Arts class you have an opportunity to not only convey technique but to positively shape thinking. The psychol…
Using Curiosity to Stay Slow in Slow-Fencing
You may already know that I’m an advocate of slow-speed fencing. However I also know that slow fencing is often difficult for new adopters who frequ…
Learn the Language of Swordplay, Not Just its Tricks
Tricks and secret techniques have been a part of sword fighting since the beginning. From masters who advertised their “botti segreti” to teach fo…
Combat Mindset: Fight All The Way to the End
I have noted a phenomenon in sparring—especially when fencing someone who feels themselves to be less experienced or less skilled than me—of someo…
Criticality versus Judgment
Criticality is the process of analyzing how you could do something better. Judgment is the process of applying a subjective, emotional, value to that …
A Peek Inside the Swordplay Masterclass
What makes something a Masterclass?
This term has become increasingly more popular around the Internet over the past year in particular. I s…
30-for-30 Swordplay Challenge 2021
If you haven't heard already, the eighth annual 30-for-30 Swordplay Challenge starts on January 2nd. If you’ve heard of yoga challenges, you know wh…
Tune Your Training, Part 4: Universal-Systematic vs Specialized-Focused
We’ve looked at the benefits and pitfalls of training specialization. And we’ve explored the goals of a more general training focus. I personally …
Tune Your Training, Part 3: Why Generalize
Recently we looked at specialization—tuning your training toward a single discipline and a single context. This could be a competition for example, …
Tune Your Training, Part 2: At-Home Environment
We've just come off of launching the first ever online Swordplay Masterclass for January. Devon and I worked our tails off to put together an awesome …
Training Mindset: How to Practice Attitude
Our psychology has a tremendous impact on our performance, whether in a competition or even in practice sparring or drilling. Many people who are perf…
Tune Your Training, Part 1: Specialization
A specialist martial artist, at their most focused, tunes their training toward a single discipline and a single context. This type of specialization …
How swordplay shapes our life journey
I revisit the question “Why do swordplay?” on a regular basis. Many people ask me what my reason is for practicing someth…
Do Less Than You Think You Can Do
Setting up a practice system is an essential part of good training. In fact the most essential part of that system is its regularity. Generally the in…
Crispness, Smoothness, then Quickness
What makes a technique in swordplay appear graceful, fast, and—most of all—effective, is usually the efficiency and preci…
Soft Work: Flowing Your Art
Students often spike during slow work in their speed or strength. This 1) distracts you from finding the easier, and more effective, answer, and 2) le…
Spikes Along the Slow Road
I have written several posts on the merits of “Slow Work” which is the act of fencing at a slow and consistent speed. In summary, slow fencing giv…
Fearsome Acts: Ruminations on Examination
At Academie Duello there are concluding exams at the end of each level of study. Early on in their journey, the students are suitably nervous at the o…
Blocked Practice & Varied Practice, Part 2
There are two primary practice schema that can be applied when acquiring new skills: Blocked Practice and Varied Practice. In Blocked Practice you le…
Blocked Practice & Varied Practice, Part 1
Learning physical skills is a tricky thing. It’s important as a student to practice in the most effective and efficient manner for getting results i…
How Rules Influence the Art You Practice
Duello was founded on two tenets: Proper Arms and Proper Respect. The goal of these principles was to provide a guiding light and a …
Do the Wrong Thing Right
To any action in combat there are typically multiple responses that can functionally deal with that action, i.e., parry it, avoid it, strike into it, …