Within an environment that develops as quickly as a sword fight there is no time to actively reason your way out of it. You enter with a plan and then…

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

Objective measures can be compelling. They’re easy to inspect and they can allow you to see progress in a way you can graph. However, often people c…

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 m…

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

When the blades are in contact, small movements and having a better sword position (one that applies leverage and body structure in your favour) are e…

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

Though winning can be thrilling, I recommend setting your sites on different targets for the best long-term success in becoming a master of these arts…

Sometimes you just need to allow your body/brain to figure things out through exposure and repetition. Your unconscious mind is far better at identify…