What a grand title. Trust is really important for people to share in many aspects of life – that should not come as a shock to anyone. But how much of a role does it play in martial arts clubs or other shared-interest communities? In this article, …
Swords, sex, and the GDPR
(Possibly a contender for the most interesting title of an article talking about the GDPR?) This is going to be an article about consent and “opting in” when participating in martial arts, using examples that we are familiar with (or should be!) …
Can you wear medieval armour to a longsword tournament?
A few months ago, there was an interesting question on Reddit, which I attempted to answer. I would like to expand upon my answer a little and to preserve it here on my website, because it is a question I see every so often, and I do like to have a …
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Matt Galas on the history of HEMA – reposting a summary from c.2005
Here is a write-up on the history of HEMA that I did back around 2005, to give a bit of perspective on where we are and where we came from. Please note that this is a copy & paste of the article that I wrote at that time, which was long before …
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Thinking about success and failure during training
When we are training martial arts, or any other challenging endeavour such as a sport or a musical instrument or some form of DIY or craft skill, we experience both success and failure. What is a healthy way of understanding these …
Saying yes and no to things
Something that I have been thinking about a lot recently is the duality between saying yes to one thing and saying no to another. Simply by saying yes to one thing, I must necessarily say no to another, and vice versa. Therefore, deciding or agreeing …
Pressure, threat, and stress in martial arts
People often use the word pressure when talking about martial arts. It is quite a useful word, and it can be used to mean many different things. However, that also means that it can sometimes confuse matters slightly, when the instructor uses the …
Sparring with different levels of intensity
A question came up on Reddit recently (thread) about fencing with synthetic or steel swords, and I made my usual reply that I don’t think it matters much from which material the swords are made (from the perspective of safety), but that it is much …
You have to make money to spend money
We are probably all familiar with the phrase that you have to spend money to make money. However, I’d like to talk about the less well-known version of the phrase: you have to make money to spend money. Martial arts clubs often struggle with their …
Technical lessons and skills lessons
I find it helpful to divide the lessons I teach into two kinds of lesson: technical lessons and skills lessons. The same training session might even involve two parts, first one kind and then the other. By separating how I think about these two …
Martial art training games with a pack of cards
With holidays approaching, it can be useful to know some training games so that you can keep up with your training even while clubs are closed. I quite like to use a normal pack of cards because they lend themselves to endless variation and …
Some thoughts about teaching the fundamentals
Every martial arts instructor needs to teach the fundamentals in some fashion. This may depend greatly on the art in question, or on the flavour and focus of the club, or on a variety of other factors. However, everyone should probably agree that the …
Self-fulfilling prophecies in training
I find the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies to be quite an interesting concept. Whether for good or for ill, there are many examples that can be found in any martial arts school, both for students and for instructors. I would like to examine a …
Which details really matter depends on the question
Details are incredibly important when learning and performing a martial art – but which details really matter at any given time? Should you focus more on techniques or skills? Yes. Should you focus more on general physicality or martial arts …
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The role of senior students in a martial arts club
Any martial arts club that has been open for a reasonable length of time will have some senior, more experienced students. These will be the people who have invested plenty of time and effort into training at the club, who have learned well, and who …
The intended audience and purpose of Liechtenauer’s art
Who was the intended audience for Liechtenauer’s art? What was the intended purpose of the Zedel as written? These are questions that are quite often posed and answered in one way or another – during training, at the pub, at events, and online …
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Your words convey a message – but which message?
It should come as no surprise to any of us that your words convey a message. After all, that’s why we do the speaking for the communication. However, it may be a little more surprising what message is actually being conveyed when you choose a …
Some thoughts about sparring and etiquette
Pretty much every HEMA club will engage in some kind of sparring or free play, and every club will have some form of etiquette that governs how people behave and how they handle situations that arise while sparring. It is very easy to get used to …
Motivation in a martial arts club
Motivation can be quite a difficult topic, and yet it is one of the most important things to understand if you want to run a happy, healthy, and successful club. Having had the experience of attending a variety of different martial arts and sports …
Carrots and sticks, rewards and punishments
This is going to be a short article today, with some thoughts about the role of rewards and punishments during martial arts training. Films and TV series often show some kind of punishments in the dojo or training hall, and yet, this is rarely the …