In the 1992 Western Unforgiven, Gene Hackman--no doubt channeling his inner cowboy sports psychologist--details what he believes to be the most important element for success in a gunfight, explaining: "Look son, being a good shot, being quick with a pistol, that don't do no harm, but it don't mean much next to being cool-headed. A man who will keep his head and not get rattled under fire, like as not, he'll kill ya." Unsurprisingly, this advice is applicable beyond a group of guys trying ...

In her latest blog post, Stanford University researcher (and author of Mindsets) Carol Dweck argues against the current trend in US education of emphasizing testing in schools. The result, she claims, "sends the message that intellectual abilities are fixed and that the purpose of school is to measure them. Students come to see school as the place to look smart and, above all, not look dumb—not a place to create and learn." A similar phenomenon can be found in youth sports.
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Fencing exercises should be fun and dynamic. By practicing fencing movements in various--and often unusual--contexts, students learn faster and have way more fun. See our new video below for an example of how to make learning fencing movements more fun and effective. ...

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Curacao is a beautiful Caribbean island with a population of about 140,000, extremely limited resources, and some of the best Little League Baseball players in the world. They qualified for the Little League World Series every year from 2001-2009, winning the title in 2004, and taking second in 2005. Eleven players from Curacao have gone on to play Major League ball. Curacao is a baseball phenomenon.* To put this in perspective: 180,000 teams from 90 countries compete in Little League baseball. ...

Alexandr Romankov is often remembered for his ten World Championships and five Olympic medals, and is generally considered one of the greatest fencers in history. However, what is often overlooked--and, perhaps, is far more interesting--is that Romankov's early fencing career was unexceptional. He spent many years without any great success in the sport. He loved fencing, however, and had a coach that insisted that, with diligence and patience, Romankov would eventually excel, so he continued to ...