Guy Windsor > Quotes

“Every martial art, from T’ai Chi Chuan to the nuclear deterrent, is based on a doctrine—an idea of how combat works.”
― Guy Windsor, The Medieval Longsword: A Training Manual

“Some martial arts, or combat sports at least, offer a career path that includes fame and riches. An Olympic gold medal, perhaps. But that is not true of ours. I train martial arts because they can offer moments of utter transcendence. The ineffable made manifest. This is traditionally described as “beyond words” or “indescribable” but, as a martial artist and a writer, that would feel like a cop-out. I will take this feeling and wrestle it down onto the page, or at least give it my best shot. It is a moment when every atom in your body is exactly where it should be. Every step you have taken on life’s path makes sense, and is part of a coherent story. The pain of every mistake is made worthwhile by the lessons contained within. There is a feeling of physical power without limit; strength without stiffness; flow without randomness; precision without pedantry; focus without blinkers; breadth and depth; massive destructive capability, but utter gentleness; self-awareness without self-consciousness; force without fury; your body alive as it has never been, all fear and pain burned away in a moment of absolute clarity; certainty without dogma; and an overpowering love, even for your enemies, that enables you to destroy them without degrading them. For a religious person it is the breath of God within you; for an atheist it is a moment of attaining perfection as a human being.”
― Guy Windsor, Swordfighting, for Writers, Game Designers and Martial Artists

“George Silver’s Paradoxes of Defence. The original reads: I speake not against Maisters of Defence indeed, they are to be honoured, nor against the Science, it is noble, and in mine opiniõ to be preferred next to Diuinitie; for as Diuinitie preserveth the soule from hell and the diuell, so doth this noble Science defend the bodie from wounds & slaughter. And moreouer, the exercising of weapons putteth away aches, griefes, and diseases, it increaseth strength, and sharpneth the wits. It giueth a perfect iudgement, it expelleth melancholy, cholericke and euill conceits, it keepeth a man in breath, perfect health, and long life. It is unto him that hath the perfection thereof, a most friendly and comfortable companion when he is alone, having but only his weapon about him. It putteth him out of feare, & in the warres and places of most danger, it maketh him bold, hardie and valiant. This encapsulates for me most of the benefits of training.”
― Guy Windsor, The Swordsman's Companion: A modern training manual for Medieval Longsword, 20th Anniversary Edition

“when entering into measure to strike, there should be a clear threat made.”
― Guy Windsor, The Medieval Longsword: A Training Manual

“It is of course also possible that the attacker is deliberately feinting to draw the parry to bind it, and will strike on the same side if he manages to open the line, or on the other side if not. Feints”
― Guy Windsor, The Medieval Longsword: A Training Manual

“As a general rule, like counters like. So you can try counterattacking with roverso fendente against roverso fendente, and so forth.”
― Guy Windsor, The Medieval Longsword: A Training Manual

“To work on a movement you need: A clear picture or feeling of how it is now A clear picture or feeling of how it should be A real-time feedback mechanism for identifying the difference. And”
― Guy Windsor, The Medieval Longsword: A Training Manual

“Lep: They say that one can’t feint, nor disengage, and that there isn’t enough time to perform body evasions and similar things. Gio: They say this because one rarely finds men who aren’t moved by wrath or fear or something else when it comes to acting in earnest, which causes their intellect to become clouded and for this reason they can’t employ them. But I say to you that if they don’t allow themselves to be defeated by these circumstances, and they keep their heads, although they may be difficult, they’ll do them safely. Lep. But what’s the reason for teaching them if they’re so difficult to employ in earnest? Gio: They’re taught so that courageous men can avail themselves of them in the appropriate occasions. Because one often sees many who were somewhat timid and fearful, yet nonetheless were able to perform them excellently when done in play; but then they were unable to avail themselves of them when the occasion arose in which to do them in earnest. Lep: I believe it, because when one loses spirit, one consequently loses art as well.”
― Guy Windsor, The Medieval Longsword: A Training Manual

“A properly constructed warm-up involves three things: loosening the joints, warming the body, and light stretching. Ideally it will also activate core stabiliser muscles, increase strength, and increase both aerobic and anaerobic endurance.”
― Guy Windsor, The Medieval Longsword: A Training Manual

“I hope that one day the audience will demand the same degree of martial realism in a fight as it demands visual realism in special effects. The”
― Guy Windsor, The Swordsman's Companion: A modern training manual for Medieval Longsword, 20th Anniversary Edition

“First one, then the other, describes in clear fencing language, in detail exactly what occurred. For example: “Mary was in coda longa, I was in posta di donna. Mary attacked with a thrust to my face. I tried to exchange the thrust, but my sword caught on the back of my mask and I missed my parry. Mary’s thrust landed in my face”. Then Mary describes what she thought happened “well, I started in tutta porta di ferro, and attacked with a mandritto fendente … (you’ll be amazed how rarely you’ll agree with each other to start with). Lastly, the observer states what he thought happened. If the observer doesn’t have a reliable fencing memory, use a video camera too. When”
― Guy Windsor, The Medieval Longsword: A Training Manual

“The rules of feinting are pretty simple: you must create a credible threat. As your opponent responds, your strike should take less time than his second parry. Your end position should also close the line of his riposte. He may not notice that his parry has failed, and may hit you as you hit him. That he has made a mistake doesn’t make his blow any less effective. In”
― Guy Windsor, The Medieval Longsword: A Training Manual

“No one ever throws a perfect blow in the exact line it is supposed to be in—but by having a set of lines with which to classify blows, we can improve our own efforts, and respond more effectively to our opponent’s. Fencing principles help us draw general conclusions from a basically chaotic situation.”
― Guy Windsor, The Medieval Longsword: A Training Manual

“Four aspects of any action: time, measure, structure, flow p.”
― Guy Windsor, The Medieval Longsword: A Training Manual

“Any position you find yourself in can be considered a guard if you understand its tactical and technical properties. Slavishly copying a position from the treatise is useless unless you have some idea of what the position is for, what openings it leaves and what strengths it possesses.”
― Guy Windsor, The Medieval Longsword: A Training Manual

“The optimal mental state for training in is called “the flow state”, most famously defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his 1988 book Flow. Buy it, read it, you won’t regret it. This book made me realise that the thing I was really trying to teach most of my students was how to develop an autotelic personality, which means a person who is able to set their own goals.”
― Guy Windsor, The Seven Principles of Mastery