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Greetings from Helsinki!

It’s good to be back, swinging swords in my old salle, and catching up with old friends.

Last weekend’s seminars went really well: Angelo Smallsword on the Friday, Vadi Longsword on the Saturday, and Polearms (spears and pollaxes) on the Sunday. One part of me wishes I was better at taking time during seminars to take photos for the socialz, but the rest of me is quite happy focussing exclusively on the students in my class. I did take one quick snaphshot for SwordPeople.com, but that’s it.

I’ve also had four sessions with my physiotherapist here, to great effect. I’ll need to write up some of it properly, but here’s one key takeaway:

Slippage

You may recall that a while ago Eki (of Fysio Sakura) fixed my knee with a simple exercise for the posterior tibialis muscle. I did that faithfully, and things got better. But something weird started happening in my knees, on both sides. One of the things we needed to fix this time was that… which turned out to be probably caused by the exercise…. because I was doing it wrong!

I’m sure it was right in the beginning, and it was right enough to fix the thing it was supposed to fix, but somewhere along the way a couple of key details slipped away, and I ended up doing it wrong.

And get this: he encourages clients to video the exercises he sets. I checked the video a few months ago and went “yup, that’s what I’m doing”. When it wasn’t.

This is entirely normal human brain stuff. Your brain wants to make your life easier, so elides and ignores and glosses over things. What I had thought was my posterior tibialis getting dramatically stronger was actually my form slipping.

I have seen this a thousand times in students who get the drill right in class, then go away and practice… and end up doing it wrong. It’s not their fault. And even if you check yourself against a reference point like a video (or even a treatise!), your brain will try to show you what you want to see.

This is why I try to include mechanical tests for actions, which can’t be fudged so easily because they involve another person whose brain is not trying to give you an easy ride.

And it’s also why every single time I come back to a club or group they will have slipped in some way. It’s entirely normal, and common, and when I realised what was going on in my own damn head (and knees), I literally laughed out loud (which I think surprised Eki and his student).

So my friends: what do you think you are doing correctly, but hasn’t been properly externally checked in a while??? Are you holding your sword properly?

In other physio news, my knees are much better, my left piriformis muscle is now working again, and my neck hasn’t been this mobile for decades.

News about the Dagger book

Calloo callay! The print proof has come back and received its hopefully final tweaks… and so the print files are uploaded to the printer and a final print proof is in the works. Assuming all’s well, we may even get the preorders of From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice: the Dagger Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi out slightly before the due date of November 15th. You can find the book only at swordschool.shop for now. It will go out to the other platforms, libraries, your local bookshop etc. in a few months.

On the Podcast: Salute before you cross swords with Damon Young

My guest today, Damon Young, is an Australian philosopher, author and martial artist. He has written 14 books or so, including Philosophy in the Garden, Distraction, and On Getting Off: Sex and Philosophy. He has also edited a couple of books on philosophy and martial arts, such as Engagement: Philosophy and the Martial Arts, and Martial Arts and Philosophy: Beating and Nothingness, perhaps my favourite title. His latest work is Immortal Gestures, Journeys in the Unspoken.

You might remember Damon from his previous appearances on this show in Episode 31, Why Swords Are Cool, and again in Episode 44, What is a Sword?

Unfortunately for Damon, he’s not doing a lot of sword swinging at the moment because of an as yet unidentified issue with his arms. We discuss how he might get this issue sorted – which may involve flying to Helsinki – and how it can be tricky to prioritise your own health over other priorities and difficult life stuff.

We also revisit the definition of a sword. What is a sword? When is a sword-like object not a sword?

Damon’s new book is about gestures, and we talk about the weird politeness of a salute or a bow that’s absolutely essential before you try and murder someone with a kilo of sharp steel. A gesture can be an important symbol of trust and respect, and this courtesy separates martial arts or duels from a more bestial act or something a commoner might do.

Our conversation goes off in several tangents, discussing whether philosophy is a scam, pens, getting rid of stuff, cataloguing your book collection, notebooks and the history of sticking two fingers up to the French. (Apologies to my French subscribers: Agincourt throws a very long shadow. Vive la France!)

cheers,

Guy

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