Never had the chance to learn the art of fencing , but did learn a little from from my Hapkido instructor years ago with the Korean Battle Sword. The damn thing was so heavy i was played out after 5 minutes practice. But after a few practice sessions my instructor showed me how to handle it without exausting myself. Any type of sword discipline requires a good set of lungs and strength.
The comments were funny- many thought the author was "condescending". Who cares- I don't pick a surgeon because he has a good bedside manner, or because he is self effacing, but because he is the best one available, niceties be damned. Touchy-feely sword fighters, who woulda thunk it?!
My last fencing instructor was pretty touchy-feeley. He could touchy me faster than I could blink and I feeley'ed some of my bruises for a week afterwards. We were doing saber and Elizabethan English rapier and dagger.
I do agree that the author appears to be very taken with himself and a bit more condescending than most I know who have survived a real fight of any kind. Without the attitude he could have made the important points, and there were some good points, using about one third of the words. That being said, I do have a few of his products on my bookshelf. Get him a good editor and his articles may be as worthwhile as his books.
I saw him in the NatGeo documentary "Medieval Fight Book" about Talhoffer, and he did some pretty amazing demonstrations in there- the speed itself was stunning. You can tell in writing this, he was addressing a pet peeve, so the tone is understandable.
I believe he is probably very good at what he does. His word smithing makes it apparent that he is very taken with himself and has no problem venting his spleen about his pet peeves on unsuspecting literary passers by. That was my only issue. If I had realized that it was principally an "I love me and hate them" article from the beginning I would be more generous in my understanding. As it is, I kept reading for some real information and enlightenment and feel vaguely soiled. I'll get over it, but it also colours my perception of the man.
6 comments:
Never had the chance to learn the art of fencing , but did learn a little from from my Hapkido instructor years ago with the Korean Battle Sword. The damn thing was so heavy i was played out after 5 minutes practice. But after a few practice sessions my instructor showed me how to handle it without exausting myself. Any type of sword discipline requires a good set of lungs and strength.
The comments were funny- many thought the author was "condescending". Who cares- I don't pick a surgeon because he has a good bedside manner, or because he is self effacing, but because he is the best one available, niceties be damned.
Touchy-feely sword fighters, who woulda thunk it?!
My last fencing instructor was pretty touchy-feeley. He could touchy me faster than I could blink and I feeley'ed some of my bruises for a week afterwards. We were doing saber and Elizabethan English rapier and dagger.
LittleRed1
I do agree that the author appears to be very taken with himself and a bit more condescending than most I know who have survived a real fight of any kind. Without the attitude he could have made the important points, and there were some good points, using about one third of the words. That being said, I do have a few of his products on my bookshelf. Get him a good editor and his articles may be as worthwhile as his books.
William sends.
I saw him in the NatGeo documentary "Medieval Fight Book" about Talhoffer, and he did some pretty amazing demonstrations in there- the speed itself was stunning. You can tell in writing this, he was addressing a pet peeve, so the tone is understandable.
I believe he is probably very good at what he does. His word smithing makes it apparent that he is very taken with himself and has no problem venting his spleen about his pet peeves on unsuspecting literary passers by. That was my only issue. If I had realized that it was principally an "I love me and hate them" article from the beginning I would be more generous in my understanding. As it is, I kept reading for some real information and enlightenment and feel vaguely soiled. I'll get over it, but it also colours my perception of the man.
William sends.
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