Tag Archives: Sword & dagger

Improve Your Combat Skills: Insights from Sparring

We regularly film our sparring sessions for review. This week, we’ll be analysing this exchange in detail and discussing the lessons learned in class next week, examining both the successes and areas for improvement. The taller fighter is playing a patient waiting game, looking to work from behind the timing and make effective use ofContinue reading “Improve Your Combat Skills: Insights from Sparring”

Learn Pencak Silat and More at KORA

New students are always welcome, with the best intake points being the January and July sessions. We teach these arts in separate classes: • Pencak Silat• Sword & Dagger• KORA Combat Essentials If you’re interested in joining, these are the ideal times to begin training and get fully embedded in the syllabus.

Improving Combat Skills: Insights from Recent KORA Classes

Great classes yesterday, I taught the hourglass in the KORA sword class and some basic striking and hitting in the KORA Serak class. The hourglass comes jointly from my training in the Spanish short sword and the Ilustrisimo sword. I use it to teach the student basics and also faints or enganios. Always grateful toContinue reading “Improving Combat Skills: Insights from Recent KORA Classes”

Ilustrisimo vs KORA: Hourglass Sword Comparison

For those in the KORA sword class, part of this very nice video (around the 3 min mark) shows what they call in Spanish sword, the hourglass, sometimes called the X or half X in FMA. I don’t like to use the term half X because it misleads the student; we want our students toContinue reading “Ilustrisimo vs KORA: Hourglass Sword Comparison”

KORA’s Successful Year: Safety and Self-Defense Skills

2025 has been a highly successful year for KORA. There have been clear improvements in student skill, confidence, and overall training quality. I have noticed positive developments in my own teaching approach as well. During the first half of the year, the primary focus was on improving intention and awareness. This was within the trainingContinue reading “KORA’s Successful Year: Safety and Self-Defense Skills”

Indonesia: Warrior Arts – Culture – Mysteries

Hi all, I was very lucky. I managed to slot in a podcast with Johnny Silmon whilst resting between jobs and job interviews. Please go and watch on YouTube, and if you can, like it, it helps the algorithm get the episode out. I am very grateful to Johnny for giving me a space toContinue reading “Indonesia: Warrior Arts – Culture – Mysteries”

Continuous Improvement in Martial Arts Education: A Proven Method

In our school year, every class must give 100% to achieve genuine growth. There’s still time to move ahead and make progress. I divide the year into two terms: January to August, and September to December. After forty years of experimentation, I’ve found this structure to be the most effective. It allows my students toContinue reading “Continuous Improvement in Martial Arts Education: A Proven Method”

Mastering Doble Carrera: Enhancing Sword Movement

I taught something important in the sword class yesterday. It was a drill and a must-have movement. I initially dismissed this until looking at some of my 2005 Spanish short sword notes. Doble Carrera, or what we call Flamenco footwork, in our system. The ability to move is enhanced if you are already moving, evenContinue reading “Mastering Doble Carrera: Enhancing Sword Movement”