LearningLife
Tumbling Down the "Why" Hole
Why do you practice martial arts? If it's for fun, once you've achieved a good level of fun, why seek to get better? If it's to win, why does winning matter? If it's for artistic or personal mastery,...
Learning
55 posts in this category
Page 3 of 6
LearningSwordplay
Growing HEMA in Istanbul
This past weekend, I was teaching in Istanbul, Turkey, a city that was arguably the centre of the western world at one time. It is a city steeped in both European and Asian history. Every site you...
Learning
Reading & Writing Strategies for In-Class Learning of MA
If you feel that you learn best by reading or writing, you are not alone. For many these are the learning skills that they've had the most practice with, since our school system focuses so much on...
Learning
Kinesthetic Learning: Just Do It!
Luis Preto gave a wonderful analogy in the instructor section of his Jogo do Pau level 1 instructor seminar where he compared how we teach martial arts to how we teach someone to catch a ball. The...
Learning
Strategies for Auditory Learning
At the end of a workshop delivered by Guy Windsor recently, Guy asked all of his students "Did you have every opportunity to get what you wanted from today's session?" This was a subtle shift from a...
Learning
Strategies for Visual Learning
Understanding your strongest and weakest learning styles can be a useful and illuminating tool for becoming a more engaged and effective student. This week we examine effective strategies for...
Learning
Being an Empowered Learner: Know Your Learning Style
Your learning is only based partly on the effectiveness of your teacher. It is largely based on your own personal effectiveness as a learner. Good teachers should certainly help you on this journey,...
Learning
The Pursuit of Learning Should Not Be Partisan
It is easy to fall into the idea that there are right approaches and wrong approaches, true paths and false paths. If your group does things one way, if you've invested your time in one path, it can...
LearningSuccess
What Have You Failed At Today?
"What have you failed at today?" This question is one that a friend's father used to ask her and her brother every day at dinner. I found the story inspiring. This question, as well as her father's...
LearningSwordplay
Giving Yourself an Idiot Mark
We’ve all got one. That self-inflicted bump on your head, scrape on your arm, or a knick on your cheek. We’ve all had that moment. The moment when you made a bad parry and deflected your sword into...