To deflect and counter a sword blow: step up and into the blow, with your arms held against your body. Push at the blow instead of trying to absorb the blow. If the blow is aimed at your head have the sword parallel to the ground and above your head. Always move out toward your opponent, even if you are defending and not attacking.

You may need to know this if you ever travel back through time and have to fight Sir Gawain. It is possible ya know ...soon...through quantum physics. If this is the case we will have a new issue to deal with. Should we change the past? But would be able to change it or rather would we merely attempt to but because we existing in the future we would be futile in our efforts. Our efforts to change the future seem normal and we often feel like we are changing things but maybe we are not changing anything that would already happen. This is a depressing thought that we could never change things. I would rather think I could change the future. We often say we can change the future but not the past. What if we could change the past? We once said we couldnt fly and look now. Theories abound and are never proven but does this make them less true. Even today most of what we take as "real" or "scientific" is being bombarded and questioned. Science is often proven wrong. Art changes science while science changes art. But hey really the only way new theories are formed is by someones creative thinking. We laugh at people's theories but Newton only had an idea and Einstein, Da Vinci, ............ Soon these crazy ideas were "proven" as fact. What can be proven? Only what we choose to believe.

OK..so Ive been sitting at a desk for too long!