First Blood, First Win? How Important Is the First Exchange
How important is the first exchange? Turns out, it tells you quite a bit.
Articles by Sean Franklin
Describing Motions
In the year 2000 Antoinette Gentile published a framework of understanding and classifying motions based on four controlling dimensions. This framework, which has come to be called the Gentile Taxonomy, can help to classify different actions and identify the prime challenges in accomplishing them.
Degrees of Freedom
A degree of freedom is the number of directions in which something is free to move. You may be thinking of the three directions, but in this case you would be thinking wrong. The maximum number of degrees of freedom of a rigid body is six.
Brittle vs Ductile and Swords in Freezers
Things get more brittle when they get cold. But why?
2019 – Year In Review
And so we come to the end of year number two for Sword STEM.
Totally Scientific Reasons You Need a New Sword
When I published “Do Swords Really Wear Out?” I was accused of robbing people of the ability to justify sword purchases. Fear not, I am here for the community. Just in time for Christmas, here are five totally valid scientific reasons you can use to justify the new sword purchase.
Full Afterblow Smackdown: 1&2 vs 2&3
The most common point allocations for Full Afterblow tournaments are 1&2 and 2&3 points. Thanks to HEMA CM we can observe what difference that makes.
Myth of Knees Over Toes
A common piece of advice you may have heard is to never let your knee move forward beyond the front of your foot. This is well-meaning, but not actually true.
Do Swords Really Wear Out?
Does HEMA gear really wear out? You may be surprised to hear the answer isn’t necessarily yes…
Slow is slow and fast is fast. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise
The quote “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast” is a good reminder to prioritize learning speed through coordination, but it is seriously misleading if you think that it means you can get away with training slowly all the time.