Tag: fencing
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Causing Attraction: Non-Dominant Foot Forward in Longsword Fencing
In ecological dynamics, the term Attractor or Movement Attractor shows up every now and then. Attractors can be seen as preferred motor pattern solutions in the current activity context. When an action is seen as intuitive or habitual, it might be the attractor at work. Habit and intuition can be nebulous concepts however, so to…
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On External Triggers
A core tenet of the ecological approach states that fencing is mostly defined by a constant interaction loop between the two fencers: the decisions I make are based on my opponent’s behaviour, and these will in turn influence their next action. This obvious claim should not be news to most HEMA fencers (or at least,…
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Flow State in the Ecological Approach
Since I have started digging into the rabbit hole that is the ecological approach, it is interesting to revisit topics and concepts that I had previously learned and known about, and see how they fit into the ecological approach. It’s kind of like when you drink alcohol the first time, and then you want to…
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Longsword Takedowns: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
To say that takedowns are a contentious topic in HEMA would be an understatement. For some takedowns make the game too dangerous, for others you are watering down and ruining the sport if you don’t include them, and everything in between. In this article, I’m not going to dig deeply into that debate, or proffer…
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Low Guards in Longsword: A Lew-Inspired Perspective
This is a brief description of my opinion on the low guard vs point high guard matchup, and how I like to play it. This is based on an RDL background, primarily Lew. A “low guard” will be defined here as any guard where the hands are low and the sword is angled downward. A…
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Cool New Feature: HEMA Games Archive
I’m proud to share a new feature I’ve been working hard on: the HEMA Games Archive
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Putting it into games: Keep fencers playing
For any coach or instructor interested in tuning your sessions to be more based around games, a useful early consideration is how you structure your sessions to keep fencers focused on the task of the game and what they want to achieve with it. When I first started using more game-like sessions it wasn’t initially…
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Introducing Students to Fencing through a Constraints-Led Approach
When talking about using an environmental approach for coaching, one of the first questions which people bring up is typically aIong the lines of “ok so that sounds like it might work well for more advanced fencers, but how would you handle a newbie? Surely you have to teach them techniques first, right?”. Well, no,…
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Fencing and Street Design
I’m going to write about street design for a short while, but trust me, I promise I will relate it to fencing. This will be especially relatable for people who grew up in a car-dependent suburban area like I did. If you did, I’m sure you have been on a street that is very straight…