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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 ability with a given technique in that moment but what I can give them that will help them meaningfully practice, implement, and build from that technique after.
Devon Boorman ·
In many of our classes at Duello we have a section where students of all levels drill with one another, one-on-one. It’s a great opportunity for inexperienced students to gain from the physical knowledge of experienced partners, for members of the school to meet and connect with one another, and for technique to be tested…
Devon Boorman ·
I've entered into combat with an opponent expecting a particular type of response, only to have them defy my expectations. They may do something that is foolish, inefficient, or simply unorthodox and I find myself taken off-guard because I had not properly understood what I was facing and I left too many options open to consider. In the final part of this series on awareness, we look at the "understanding" side of awareness.
Devon Boorman ·
Within an environment that develops as quickly as a sword fight there is no time to actively reason your way out of it. You enter with a plan and then you have to leave it to your conditioning to execute appropriate tactical responses in the situation you encounter.
Devon Boorman ·
Awareness is an essential part of martial performance and learning. It allows you to know and understand your successes and failures—an important goal of good training. The sense of where your body is in space is at the heart of of bio-mechanical conditioning, and without sharp and broad perception in a fight, it's hard to adapt, respond, and take opportunity when required.
Devon Boorman ·
Objective measures can be compelling. They’re easy to inspect and they can allow you to see progress in a way you can graph. However, often people choose the wrong goals to measure and this has a detrimental effect on their development.
Devon Boorman ·
The route from learning a new skill to pulling it off in combat is not a simple process. Though you can take many skills immediately into combat and make some progress, it is more effective to follow a formal process that targets the skill in a focused manner at each stage of its development.
Devon Boorman ·
One of the first major workshops I ever taught internationally was entitled “The Art of Not Sucking”. This workshop ended up being so popular that it has become one of my most delivered (at well over a dozen). I would bring students through concepts I have honed over years of practice and teaching about how…
Devon Boorman ·
Anyone can get caught in a dark place in terms of how they view themselves and their progress in a skill. Making demands of ourselves to be at our best can be a powerful motivating force, but it can also be supremely destructive. In my own growth as both a swordsman and a dancer I…
Devon Boorman ·
Parries often get a bad rap. Yet it's mostly because people suck at them. In today's post I am going to teach you how to make a strong and efficient parry that will allow you to defeat the most powerful of attacks and counter-attack like a wizard.
Devon Boorman ·
