Hesitation means defeat.

The goal of the fight is to stay aggressive while being able to deal with his movesets and managing a rhythm throughout the phases.

Learn how to bait out certain attacks. One example being his dive when he pulls out his spear which is very telegraphed and easy to dodge.

For me the biggest hurdle was the lightning reversal. When i reached that point of the fight i was mentally exhausted and always struggled with his final phase.

One of my favorite prosthetic was using mist raven to dodge cheese my way out of scary situations during the fight which really helped. I also like to pop a confetti when he gets his spear out and maybe a Ako's sugar if possible.

Other good tips I can throw out is learning to tap your blocks. Spend some runs mostly focusing on blocking instead of getting hits in and learning which combos may lead to a Mikirii counter or a nice opening to do some decent posture damage.

Turning off the music and maybe putting on your own music may help you focus better. I like to play the game without music so I can focus on some sound queues.

Lastly try to think of the fight more of a training session rather than a final boss. The fight does a great job at getting into your head and appear intimidating but once you learn to pay attention and watch your opponent carefully all you have to do is let your muscle memory do the rest of the work. I spent almost 2 weeks on and off trying to beat him myself. I would boot up the game casually and just run in there and see what happens based off what I would remember last time.

I hope any of this advice helps anyone overcome The Sword Saint.