Four Ways to Get Back to Enjoyment and Out of Criticality

Practicing does not always mean “working on”. It’s important to give yourself time with the passions and skills in your life to just simply indulge in the activity. It’s vital to allow yourself on occasion to indulge in pure enjoyment. This helps you remember why you do this thing in the first place, and can give you energy for further Read More …

Seven Ideas for Setting Useful Sword Training Goals

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 choose the wrong goals to measure and this has a detrimental effect on their development. For example, when a student gets focused on winning or “getting hits”, a few negative outcomes typically occur: They Read More …

Where’s the Fire? A refreshing message from Coach Sommer

“Where’s the Fire?” asked Christopher Sommer in the last moments of a podcast I was listening to last week. Sommer is the Head Coach of the USA JR National Gymnastics Team and runs an online strength training program called Gymnastic Bodies (which is absolutely worth checking out). When I started listening, I anticipated hearing from him what you hear from many accomplished motivators. I expected Read More …

Getting Out of Your Head

“You see first with your mind, then with your eyes, then finally it is in your body.” — Yagyu Munenori.  Family Traditions on the Art of War, 17th century. Stuck In Your Head Whether it’s swordplay, dancing, or driving a car, when you first learn a skill it exists within the conscious learning part of the mind. This is the space Read More …

Share Your Struggles to Get Through Your Blocks

The path to mastery is as little as 25% technical, and 75% psychological. Not to diminish what it takes to learn and apply a martial art physically, but I have met very few students that I didn’t feel were physically capable, with sufficient practice, of mastering their arts. The real barriers to long-term mastery are inside. It is perhaps only through Read More …