Today marks the 2-year anniversary of one of the most formative days in my study of historic Italian rapier fencing. Initially, I didn’t write about the day because it always seemed that I’d have even more insight about the day in the near future. This continued until months had passed, then years and it no […]
Archive for the ‘Journal’ Category
A Cold Day in January 2 comments
Journaling 17 comments
With almost every contributor and potential contributor to the Warfare I’ve urged them to maintain an active, visible journal of their practice so that others can observe and learn from their progress in learning the art, and those who’ve experienced the same challenges can provide feedback. Journaling and the detailed thought and reflection, and post-hoc […]
Breakthroughs 9 comments
Giacomo has a funny story he’ll tell. It goes something like this: Determined to broaden his skills, one evening Giacomo decided to sew a seam on his pants. His wife set him up with a sewing machine, gave some basic instruction, and left him to it. Manfully, Giacomo applied himself to the task. He held […]
Rambling: First Blood Part 2 11 comments
It’s been a good year. At the start of it, I pursued physical therapy to correct a twenty-year-long issue with my left shoulder, and experienced firsthand just how difficult it is to access tiny muscles you never knew existed, and re-learn common movement patterns by telling other, bigger muscles to shut up. Shortly after, I […]
Rambling, Part 1: Plate 32 9 comments
I’ve not posted here in several weeks. This is not reflective of a lack of things to say, or even a lack of free time. Instead I am motivated by the thought that I should be spending more time doing things, rather than merely writing about it, particularly since every week brings some new insight […]
Fencing Journal, 7/18 4 comments
I’ve secured a new job with evening hours, which means I won’t often make Thursday practices and will have to sharply cut back on my eventing. So these posts may end up being more about teaching than about fighting. Shape I did some one-on-one work with Andrew, one of my TSG students, on Sunday before […]
Practice Log, 6/23 7 comments
There’s nothing that energizes me so much as the moment of epiphany, of rediscovering some shred of lost knowledge or some new pedagogical tool that can aid in the completeness or quickness of our reconstruction. This is rare. Most of my progression involves learning that I’ve been doing something wrong – possibly for years, possibly […]
Practice Log, 6/17 15 comments
Let’s get to it … Thursday We’ve recently introduced our students to the concepts of measure, tempo, and line. Naturally they’ve already had some exposure through osmosis. Thursday’s drill was based on the idea that we can only safely attack an opponent who has given us a tempo. So: to start, agente finds, patiente performs […]
Practice Log, 6/9 16 comments
After a month of demos, meetings, and events eating up my Sundays, Elvegast practice resumed yesterday. As usual, most of my time was dedicated to teaching. This is fine; I’m learning enough on my own time. What’s Good Enough? First, a question for all the other longtime teachers out there: at what point do you […]
My Weekend at Dante’s 7 comments
The last week in January Gawin and I headed up to Maestro Dante’s for some one-on-one intensive training. Ben helped. Snow covered the ground and the wind chill had us in the single digits, but our love of Atlantia kept us warm. Saturday We expected drills, and Dante delivered in spades; there were nine. These […]