Don’t Judge Your Performance Based on One Training Event

I’ve had many frustrating training and combat encounters. Ones where I have felt suddenly incapable of accomplishing something that may have seemed simple weeks before. It’s easy to jump to a conclusion “I’m just not practicing enough”, “I’m not learning”, “My opponent is just way better than me”. Yet there are so many factors that go into a given performance. Read More …

Settling into the Down

Some weeks you’re in the groove. Some weeks you’re not. Tonight I’m feeling decidedly disconnected from the music. I feel like I’m astral projecting above my body as it moves to the rhythm of its own synth. I’m syncopating out of sync. Usually I would feel verklempt about this. Swimming in a frustration of non-connection; with the music, my body, Read More …

Consistency is Vital

About 18 years ago I took over running a rapier practice and class for the Society for Creative Anachronism. I was new to being in a leadership role and I sought out the advice of one of the senior members in the area about how to run a successful group. He gave me one piece of advice: Without fail, always Read More …

Loss

I am missing the woman I love. A friend has lost his son. My cheeks are sticky from my small sorrow. I lament not feeling her touch, smelling her hair, tasting her breath alongside mine. A man has lost his son. What is the measure of my small grief? Alongside one so large. Soon I will hear her voice. I Read More …

Lying Fallow

Our culture demands so much of us as producers. We demand such a rhythm of achievement. The best of us are seen to be relentless, constantly uniformly driving forward, unceasing in our progress. Yet all land must lie fallow. This message gives us such cause to be hard on ourselves when we falter; When we allow ourselves to be caught Read More …