This week’s Woodland Watch article will be relatively short because its purpose is to encourage each of you to respond to the following Fencing Journal prompt:

“What Will You Accomplish This Week?”

I encourage you to think about this prompt and come up with an answer that suits your goals and will help you progress as a fencer and individual. I would also encourage you to be as specific as possible, even making a SMART Goal that I described in the Setting Goals article.

As you are thinking of what you’d like to achieve this week, don’t trap yourself into things that are only Skill based. Perhaps think of something relating to Safety, Honor, or Attitude along with a Skill-based goal. In the Order of the Rose, we don’t just want to help train great Swordsmen. We want to train great people and provide a place where we can practice all aspects of personal development. 

What I’m Going to Achieve This Week

As an example and to be fair, I’d like to share my own response to the journal prompt and, hopefully, give you an idea of what your response might look like. If yours doesn’t look like mine in the end, don’t worry. Your response can be short and simple or long and elaborate. Just make sure that it will help you prepare and have something in mind for practice this week. After you come up with your own response, consider sharing it in the comments below and help inspire others with your own goals.

What Will I Accomplish This Week? – April 20, 2018

This week, I will accomplish two things. The first will be working with my apprentices during the Open Workshop and introduce them to the idea of their “Sleeping Mind” and the five pillars of my own style, which are:

1. Footwork
2. Proficiency
3. Body Mechanics
4. Attack Their Weapons
5. Mentality

The second thing that I will accomplish this week is to give a compliment to each fighter I cross blades with, no matter the result. For duels, I will aim to give them at the end of the bout. For melees, I will need to make sure that I give the compliment during the exchange or else I may miss the opportunity since melees are so chaotic.Kane Driscol

Striving to achieve your goals will help you become a Safe, Honorable, Positive, and Skilled Swordsman hopefully a Master Swordsman one day. It is this committed culture of self-improvement and reaching out to others that provides a safe haven for outcasts, misfits, and vagabonds, those whom we are trying to reach, and welcome around our fire. In Terrasylvae, we can all practice the skills that interest us, and the many aspects of personal development we need in life, without fear of ridicule or judgement.