Teaching
The Five Minutes Per Day Practice Regimen
Rhythm is the most important thing to cultivate on the path to mastery. This small tool has been essential to keeping the practice of swordplay alive as well as many other practices such as...
Teaching
9 posts in this category
LearningTeaching
The Pedestal: What We Expect From Our Teachers
I have come to wonder if placing our teachers on pedestals is about elevating them, or if it's really about lowering and restricting ourselves? Elevating our teachers to a realm beyond what is...
Teaching
The Solitary Path of Mastery
"At their heart, martial arts are a solitary path. No one can walk that path for you." I'm paraphrasing one of many great bits of wisdom shared by Mark Mikita, a 50-year martial arts practitioner and...
SwordplayTeaching
Am I Learning Fast Enough?
It is tempting as a teacher to always respond to this question with “Yes”. I have found that people these days seem to be hard on themselves and are terrible at accurately assessing their own...
SwordplayTeaching
How to Create Empowered Learners; Not Just Competent Practitioners
A good teacher doesn’t just impart information to their students, they empower their students to be excellent learners. In my classes, I’m thinking not just about how I can increase my students'...
SwordplayTeaching
10 Steps for Running a Successful HEMA Study Group
A study group is a group of peers devoted to helping each other get better in a particular martial practice. If you don’t have an experienced and savvy instructor in your area, or you want to pursue...
SuccessSwordplay
Three Things You Should Be Saying to Your Martial Arts Students
When you're standing in front of your students you have an opportunity to not only convey martial arts technique but also to positively shape thinking. The psychology with which we approach learning...
Teaching
Taking Agency in Learning
The drone of uniformly delivered content to rows of kids locked into desks is the initiation into formal learning that many of us come from. A system designed to output little industrial cogs who are...
RelationshipsTeaching
Fathers and Sons; Teachers and Students
When I was a young boy I remember truly revering my father. He was intelligent and wise, he read to me, shared insights into the world around me. He read me the hobbit, introduced me to Narnia, he...