Hi!

In my last newsletter I promised you an update on the results of my DEXA scan, which I had on Friday 10th May, at Baseline Scans, in London. I went up to London and lay on a bed, and the machine did its thing, and told me some unpleasant truths. The short version is, I have a bunch of visceral fat (between my organs and muscle, not between muscle and skin), that I need to shift.

The problem with hard data is you can’t really argue with it. Richard Feynman famously said “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”

Writing up the results and what I’m doing about it turned into 700 word article, so I’ve posted it at swordpeople.com in the “Training and Conditioning” space, with this extremely unflattering image:

Does my bum look big in X-ray?

I’m currently working on two TOP SECRET audio projects. Well, alright, not actually very secret… audiobooks of my translations of Fiore and Vadi. This is actually fun to do, and just imagine it- you can be driving to work, doing the laundry, going for a walk, and hearing how you really should be breaking your opponent’s arms, throwing them on the ground, and stabbing them repeatedly. Fun for all the family!

Helsinki Seminar Reminder

I’ll be in Helsinki next week, teaching two seminars, on improving your longsword freeplay (Saturday June 1st) and on how to teach (Sunday June 2nd). The how to teach seminar is full, but there are still some spots open on the Freeplay one.You can find the details (content, exact location, price etc.) here:
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Madison seminar reminder:

While I’m over in the states in July I will be doing a couple of seminars, starting with Improve your Freeplay, in Madison WI on July 6th and 7th, in which we’ll spend a day improving your, you guessed it, freeplay skills with longsword and rapier (a day of each!). You can find the seminar details and registration instructions at guywindsor.net/madison​

This week on The Sword Guy: HEMA and heresy, with Xian Niles

Xian Niles is a fencing instructor, martial artist and the founder of Spada, a recreational Bolognese fencing study group in maritime Canada. He's also the founder of The Niles Fencing Academy in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In our conversation we talk about his move from representing Barbados in sport fencing to getting into HEMA in Canada.

We also hear about how Xian switched from an engineering degree to theatre, and a very challenging job he had working in mental health security, which required serious martial arts skills to safely restrain people in severe distress.

Xian has a different take on HEMA to some other practitioners, which comes from his childhood in Barbados. The culture is such that people settle disputes publicly using sword-like weapons, and Xian witnessed these fights as a child. These experiences have led Xian to question the historical sources: would it work in real life, and did the person who wrote it ever fight for real? This leads our discussion into what Xian refers to as his heretical views about Messers, Vadi, and Liechtenauer.

We chat about a whole load of other stuff in this episode, including a universal language of HEMA, the difference between ice hockey and HEMA, setting up a competition for kids, tournament rule sets to avoid concussions, and why I would rather pour bleach into my eyes than watch HEMA at the Olympics.

You can find the episode here:

yours,

Guy