The Seven Principles of Mastery

by Guy Windsor

*This instalment of The Swordsman’s Quick Guide has been included as a chapter in the author’s book The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts.*Guy Windsor has been training swordsmen and swordswomen for a very long time. This short book distills his principles of training swordsmanship into seven key ideas, divided into three internal principles, and four external principles. They Mindfulness2) Flow3) Adopt Useful No Injuries5) The Pareto Principle6) Run a Diagnostic7) Distinguish between knowledge and skillThis essential short guide describes each principle, and gives exercises for developing your ability to apply each of them.Follow these for maximum effectiveness in your art, work, and life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Martial Arts, Ebooks

37 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 7, 2015

About the author

Dr. Guy Windsor is a world-renowned instructor and a pioneering researcher of medieval and renaissance martial arts. He has been teaching the Art of Arms full-time since founding The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland, in 2001. His day job is finding and analysing historical swordsmanship treatises, figuring out the systems they represent, creating a syllabus from the treatises for his students to train with, and teaching the system to his students all over the world. Guy is the author of numerous classic books about the art of swordsmanship and has consulted on swordfighting game design and stage combat. He developed the card game, Audatia, based on Fiore dei Liberi's Art of Arms, his primary field of study. In 2018 Edinburgh University awarded him a PhD by Research Publications for his work recreating historical combat systems. When not studying medieval and renaissance swordsmanship or writing books Guy can be found in his shed woodworking or spending time with his family.

Reviews

[SD Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick read but very informative

The book is written in a very normal down to earth tone. I really enjoyed it. The author doesn't really instruct you in methods but deals mostly with mindset. He gives very solid wise advise. I would highly recommend you get the book.

[Jerrell Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not any instruction on sword

He goes on and on about how he does things but I didn't get this book to be told how I think is wrong or that my belief system is wrong both such take major work outside of the book but also have nothing do with what the book

[K.V. Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was free and as I'm learning how to swordfight, I figured it would be helpful. It was pretty short but had some helpful advice - more about working on your state of mind than sword-related content.

[Felix Sax · Rating 3 out of 5]

A seeming vapidity aroused

This is a a small pamphlet, broaching a warriors mindset, it's no easy feat. It leaves me wanting more though.

[Amy Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lot of this book boils down to the author's personal opinion on how to focus your mind. A few of these I disagree with, but that again comes down to opinion and preference. For other people who share the same mindset I'm sure that this will be a good read for them. Also, for something with less that 50 pages it does try to sell other books to you. I wouldn't mind it it was a longer scholarly piece, but here it became irritating pretty quickly.

[Paul A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extremely quick read on the author's philosophy for maximizing learning outcomes and working through problems. The methods and mindsets that he uses to approach sword fighting and training are useful for anyone attempting to learn a new skill.

[Katia M. Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I expected this short book to be more than it was. I thought there may have been a discussion on various techniques or different sword types but it was more about the author's method of thinking about swordsmanship and training, a lot of which was common sense such as pacing, focusing on small errors to improve overall performance etc. So I was a bit disappointed and felt it was more of a promo to get people interested in the other books in the series.