Gentlemanly Conduct: Chivalry in Combat

The concept of chivalry originated with the knight. In fact, that’s all it means: knightly. The French word “cheval” means horse, and the thing that separated a knight from other soldiers was his steed. But we all know that chivalry goes beyond horse grooming, it is more closely related to the code of honour expected…

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Guest post: pushing to the next rank

Today's post features another guest poster. Nels Anderson is a recent addition to the Blue Cord. I requested his perspective because, as you'll soon read, Nels had to take an extended break from class, and returned the month before his successful test for Blue Cord.   A great story on the power of practice. Thanks…

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Enjoy yourself! Reasons one should savour the learning experience.

What emotion do you experience when you're training or taking a class? Are you aware of it? What's the expression that you have on your face while you're struggling to implement a new technique or honing the precise movements of a cut with a longsword or lunge with a rapier? This may seem like an…

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Doing things wrong

A sometimes-heard phrase around the Academie is "doing things wrong will help you figure out when something's right."   This is an often-understood but rarely appreciated concept. Truly understanding when things are most-definitely wrong will  provide a deep understanding about when things are right.   Think of all the things that you're doing right. Now…

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On the path of mastery; savour the plateau.

Last week I posted about the 10,000 hours it takes to master an activity and how you must savour the journey and not the destination. One of the biggest challenges that people face in putting in their 10,000 hours of mastery is the feeling of the plateau in learning. Where you don't feel like you're…

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Mastering an activity - Putting in your 10,000 hours

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Blink states that it takes approximately 10,000 hours at an activity to master it. So if you commit one hour a day to practicing an activity, it's going to take you 10,000 days to find mastery, or about 27 years. Woah, that's a lot of years. Fortunately we can probably…

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New Year's Resolutions for Fencing - A Review of the Slight Edge

Over the winter holiday I have been reading a book on the subject of personal mastery called The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. It is a good and relevant read for those interested in mastering fencing (and not just because of the title!) or really any type of new year's resolution or goal you might…

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