Curriculum: Class 5

(The class happened before Double Wars; I'm writing it up after Double Wars - some memory loss will have occurred.)

I had been reminded of the importance of warm-up, so we went through a few warm-up exercises as a group: First some gentle running across the length of the covered yard, followed by some sideways canter. The ground at our practice place is artificial lawn, so it's not something that particularly encourages burpees, bear walk or similar. We did squats and lunges instead.

1. Revision: footwork and the Compass Drill

We spent a few minutes revising footwork. I introduced the Compass Drill, as learned from Duke Sean - stepping in all the directions of the compass without crossing your feet, in both directions. I had the learners go through the drill first as it was, and then had them repeat the drill stepping around a person standing in the middle, so that they could see how the exercise worked in practice. 

2. Revision: Minimum blocking

We took another few minutes to remind ourselves of the basics of shield work in terms of moving it the minimum amount necessary to block the incoming shot.

3. Three states of shieldwork

I introduced the notion that your shield has three different states.

1) If you have not engaged, or are not in an active situation (for instance, during breaks between bouts), you shield is at rest. A strapped heater wearer like myself is likely to have their arm resting, pointing down, with the shield just hanging on as an attachment. The shield provides no protection. As it is important to conserve energy, you want to make sure your shield is at rest whenever possible.

2) As you prepare to engage, you bring your shield to its guard position, but, for the moment, the protection the shield provides is passive. Your opponent may be able to strike you over the shield's top edge, or around its sides. Your shield is on standby.

3) On engagement, you activate the shield. For me, due to the way my shield is strapped, this means pulling the straps my left hand is grasping more strongly, effectively towards me, so that the point of the shield is raised. You are now fully protected and your shield should be ready to react at the shortest possible notice. Your shield is now active.

These states may be different for centre grip users, but I do not feel fully qualified to discuss those kind of shields.Transitions from 1 to 2 and 2 to 3, obviously, depend on the situation.

4. Range

We spent the rest of the class discussing and practicing concepts of range. My thinking of it is strongly influenced by Count Wlfric and his classes on the subject I took a few years ago.

"A" range - You are up close and personal with your opponent. For most people, it is very difficult to conduct any reasonable actions from here as you are blocked by the opponent's body as much as their weapon and shield.

"B" range - You are at a comfortable range regarding your opponent. You have enough space between yourself and them to operate, and you are able to hit your opponent without reaching or having to take an extra step.

"C" range - In order to reach your opponent with a good blow, you need to take a step.

"D" range - You are fully out of range of your opponent, but the engagement has started.

"F" range - The engagement has not yet started.

I pointed out that in a fight, ranges of different people may be different becauses of differences in height and positioning. I invited the learners to consider and practice how they could position themselves best in order to gain advantage over their opponent. How does the positioning change, when the main intention is to strike, and how does it change, when the main intention is to block?

We will be working on range much more in future practices. The learners have now learned how to use the sword and how to use the shield - the next stage is learning how to use them together.


The curriculum will be disrupted for the summer, as one of the new fighters has travelled to Calontir to work there until early autumn, and another has decided that fighting is not for them at this point. We have a further new learner, who started several weeks after the others, so I intend to be primarily working with them until they catch up, at which point we can proceed with two people at roughly at the same point of their learning.     

Curriculum: Class 4

Spring is far enough in Ireland that we were able to move our practice outside, to the schoolyard, where we like to train during the brighter part of the year. We have lots and lots more space there, part of which is covered, so it's possible for us to train with extra space even when it rains.

1. Revision

Each class starts with a quick revision of what we have covered so far. Even if it's just a mention of the concept, it helps to bring it to mind.

2. Different types of shield

While the learners have been handling shields in previous classes, tonight we moved from talking about the basics of handling the sword to the basics of handling the shield. As my experience is, to a large extent, with heaters, I had Aodh talk about round and oval centre-grip shields and how they mechanically differ from strapped heaters in terms of range of movement and blocking. With a heater, you catch the incoming blows with the corners as much as possible; with a centre-grip, you track the opponent's sword hilt with your shield boss, and punch the incoming blow out of the way. These days, we have many different kinds of shields available at our practice, which has not always been the case, so we encouraged the learners to try out different shields to see which one they liked best.

We also briefly talked about other weapon forms that are available, and the benefits and disadvantages of the sword & shield against them.

3. What you can and cannot do with a shield

As I cover mechanics of topics, I try to do that in conjunction with the relevant rules and accepted customs of the list. It's no use to know how to use the shield if you are taken by surprise by a shield hook you didn't expect because you didn't know it could be done. So we talked about how you are not allowed to slam your shield against the body of your opponent, but you can use the shield to manipulate your opponent's shield and weapon. I demonstrated the shield hook (opening a tin can is how I like to think about it) and how to lock your opponent's defence in place by exerting pressure on their shield. 

4. Efficient blocking: the concept of minimum movement

Next was the time for the concept of the minimum movement: how to move your shield the minimum necessary distance to block the incoming blow, in order to preserve your energy, and in order to be able to return the shield quickly to your basic guard. The concept is the same as with the sword: a shot is not complete until you have recovered your sword to where you are comfortable and able to strike again with ease; and a block is not complete until you have returned your shield home.

Which led us to....

5. Finding your guard and keeping it while in motion

I talked about how you need to make sure after each block and each blow you need to return "home", to your basic stance where you are protected and ready to attack as well as defend yourself. People have different preferred positions for their shields and their swords, which can really only be discovered through practice, so I invited them to adopt a guard in which they felt comfortable. The trick is to maintain this guard in motion, particularly in the fast movements of a fight. 

 6. Drill: Keeping your shield in place while you strike

We practiced the above by adapting the previous week's exercise of connecting footwork with blows. So we proceeded across the shorter side of the yard, now with quite a few different elements to keep in mind: footwork, for sure, but also ensuring that the shield didn't leave its safe spot while blows were being struck in the air and returned. As we know, this one is tricky.... and an exercise I will be getting back to many times.

7. Drill: Minimum movement

One of my favourite drills involves learning the practical aspect of the minimum movement concept. I learned it from Master Cernac. This exercise involves working in pairs. Person A observes Person B, who adopts their guard. Having identified a gap, Person A gently and very slowly directs a blow into that gap. Person B takes careful notice of this. Person A recovers, and repeats exactly the same thing, but this time, Person B moves their shield as little as necessary to block/deflect/take out (assumed) power of the incoming blow. Roles are switched over, and repeated several times. 

8. Slow work

After all of the above, it was time for slow work once more to try to make use of the things learned during the class.

Curriculum: Class 3

By the time of writing this, Class 3 of the Curriculum was two weeks ago, and annoyingly I'm struggling a bit to remember what we did. I was pleased that all three newbies were still present, and displayed every sign of being keen to continue. One of them is ambidexterous, with a preference for using her left hand, so I was very pleased that our resident leftie Mícheál was present as well.

Once more, we started by quickly revising what we had done so far in order to keep the flow of new information untangled. I outsourced this to Aodh while I was getting into armour.

1. Third shot: The Wrap

I remember having fierce trouble with the wrap shot. I don't feel that I properly "got" it until late last year, in fact. Many other people have also reported difficulty with this shot, so I wanted to spend some extra time with it. Annoyingly, we don't have a pell at the practice, but we did have three spare people, so (as very often) we used those people and swords held upright by them as pells. I explained my method, and then had them practice the shot, reviewing it for each one at a time.

I started out by talking about targeting, and how many people forget that the legal target areas extend to the back of the body as well as the front. The wrap is a way to access those hard to reach target areas.

My disclaimer is always that I can only teach as I have been taught. With the wrap, this is particularly pronounced, as my Knight teaches it in a very specific way. The shot starts the same way as the two others. From your basic guard, your hip moves forward, letting its force to extend your arm, in a throwing motion, so that the sword moves forward, pommel first, in a straight line, as though you are planning to throw an onside shot. Instead of keeping your palm facing upright for the entire shot, at the point where the momentum has pushed the sword to its halfway point, you turn your elbow outward so that the point of your elbow faces out. This turns your hand so that when the strike lands, your palm is facing downwards.

I demonstrated the arm movement without a stick - it's like clasping someone around the neck or back with your stick - and asked them to do it to each other. Then we moved on to practicing it with swords, and I was pleased to see that the learners picked up the shot reasonably well.

2. Connecting shots and footwork

I warned the learners that I was about to introduce them to a very tedious exercise, which resembled the previous week's Statues game but was nowhere near as fun. I found that it was a very useful exercise, though, as it forces you to think about connecting your feet and your sword from early on.

You assume your basic stance, and then proceed a distance using the basic footwork. With each step, you strike against an invisible opponent, or, alternatively, recover your sword. The step and the strike must be in sync. You can strike using any of the three blows you have learned, but each must be fully recovered before you strike another one. You repeat the distance a few times, including backwards.

3. Active spectating and commentary

While I have deliberately - partly because of their own request, and partly because of my own judgement - not put the newbies in armour yet, I have wanted them to get a good idea of what they're getting into. Each time a new person appeared, we started out by doing a quick introduction to the concept of the fighting and the gear we use, and then I demonstrated with someone else what the fighting was actually like.

In subsequent cases where the newbies have had to be idle while fighting has taken place, due to space restrictions, for instance, I have used what I call the method of active spectating. That simply means that they have a more experienced fighter watching with them, providing commentary of what is actually taking place - and why. The commentator points out things like, "Did you see that wrap?" or "Do you see how she's moving her shield, only a little bit" or "Look at how he's using his height and longer range to get at her". The commentator attempts to show that any fight consists of elements that the learners already know, it is simply matter of being able to isolate them from the overall whole - just as when you're learning a new language.

4. Power and movement

To end this session, which contained a lot of things to take in, I wanted to give the learners the experience of putting the lessons in use and to get the experience of hitting something for real, without having to be nervous of being hit in return. Mícheál and I, in armour, went on full defence, and got each of the learners to practice trying to hit us with power, while keeping moving at all times. I was pleased with the results - there is, of course, a lot to be done, but the very solid base was definitely there.

Curriculum: Class 2

I am having the luxury problem that there is too much heavy stuff happening for me to actually keep up with it here. I will have to condense the Curriculum classes 2 and 3 somewhat.

We had a third new person start at my Class 2.  It was relatively straightforward to integrate her along the other two, as I wanted to do substantial revision of the first class in the beginning of the second one anyway. Revision is something I want to keep carrying on through the curriculum, as I want to keep working on the structured framework of building new lessons on the previous ones, so that everything works together and makes sense together as much as possible.

1. Recovery - the concept

Having finished revision, I pointed out that a shot is not finished until you have recovered it to a position where you are able to strike again. For a beginner, this will mean returning to your base stance. We practiced striking with the hip, and using the hip to recover the arm back into the starting position. I asked them to keep the concept in mind as we moved on, since we'd need to come back to it in a bit.

2. Second shot: the off-side

Time to introduce the second basic shot of the three: the off-side. Start exactly as you would your on-side shot. Hip brings the sword forward, pommel-first, until the momentum forces the rest of the sword to move. Turn your wrist to a backhand so that the sword edge hits your opponent's right side (your left side) and your palm ends up pointing downward.

Once you have got the hang of this shot, practice completing the shot by recovering from the off-side to the basic stance.

3. Introduction to transitions

So we have worked out two different shots, and talked about the concept of recovery, so we are now ready to think about how we might move from one shot to another. Efficient recovery is the key here. A minimal recovery can be performed by allowing the sword tip to fall back, while your hand and arm still stay out front. Practicing the very simple on-side/off-side transition/combo allows you to instinctively get a better grasp of the mechanics of the two shots, pay attention to how your hips move to enable the exercise, and likewise intuitively let you perform the transition.

4. Game: Statues

I strongly believe in incorporating an element of fun and a bit of lightheartedness into training. Last week we played tag using footwork, this time we did another footwork exercise in the guise of another children's game. With a sword and shield, the players line up at one end of the hall, while one person takes their place at the far end, without any equipment, facing away from them. The players must proceed through the hall, but the person at the other end - the watcher - will periodically turn around, and if they see anyone move, they will send that person back to the end of the hall. Kind of like Doctor Who's Weeping Angels. The object is to touch the watcher GENTLY with a sword tip, and take the watcher's place. We played a few rounds of this.

5. Slow work

The concept of slow work was introduced to the new person, and the learners were set at each other under a careful eye.



 
  

Curriculum: Class 1

In the SCA, we typically teach fighting in a fairly haphazard way: here are the three shots, here's your armour, go fight people, figure the rest of it out yourself. As far as I know - and would be very happy to be corrected in this - in Drachenwald, only Master Robert of Canterbury has put together a structured curriculum in order to teach complete newcomers. I am very keen to explore the curriculum approach, as I think a solid 6-8 week step-by-step curriculum would substantially help new fighters, improve retention rate, and avoid the development of many bad habits that will later have to be unlearned. 

In Dun In Mara, we have had the good fortune of two newcomers starting within a space of a week, so I'm using them as my guinea pigs, and recording the "class notes" here. 

Introduction to Heavy Fighting: Class One 

1. Concept - what are you getting yourself into? 

A form of full contact martial art c.50 years old, derived from boxing, American military and how people thought Medieval tournament fighting ought to be. Rigorous safety regulations in terms of protective gear, gear inspections and marshalling. 

No one true correct way to do things. 

Victories decided by honour system: you never win, your opponent always grants you victory. Conceptual difference between light and good blows. 

Gender - women and men train together and fight together, no segregation of genders in tournaments. My experiences as a gender minority fighter in Drachenwald have been 100% positive (but not necessarily the case everywhere). 

2. Fighting demo with commentary of what's happening from a third person - do you still want to stay after seeing what it's like? 

3. Introduction to footwork

Importance of body parts regarding effective fighting decreases as you move upwards on your body.
Feet - the most important
Hips - the second important
Arms - not really all that important 

Start by familiarisation with the fighting stance: feet roughly hip width apart, shield foot in front of the sword foot, both sets of toes pointing forward. Knees very gently bent to allow for maximum movement and reaction. Back and head straight. Core engaged.

Footwork exercises individually and in pairs, forward and backwards: tap-and-step to train testing the step before committing, never cross your legs. Retain the position of the feet - even as you step, keep the sword foot behind the shield foot.

Footwork tag: We played a game of tag in a group of unarmoured fighters, using the footwork, in order to train not only the footwork itself but how to employ it in a quick, dynamic situation involving many other people. 

4. Using the hip  

Assume the fighting stance and engage your core. Now pretend you're carrying a full tray in your hands and you need to close an open drawer in front of you. Close the imaginary drawer with your dominant side hip. That is the motion that you are looking for. Your heel may come up off the ground, that is fine. 

Ragdoll exercise: With your core engaged, move your hips back and forth, side to side, but completely relax your upper body. Pay attention to how your hips move your arms. Now repeat with a sword. The arms should be totally relaxed, and the sword movement powered by the movement alone. 

Demonstrate the differences between an arm-powered and a hip-powered shot. 

5. Introduction to flatsnap

There are three basic shots, but we will focus on each individually. Handily, they are all more or less the same shot, with the wrist movement at the end determining which shot the blow lands at. 

Flatsnap/on-side shot moves in a straight line from the starting point to the target. Hip moves forward, simultaneously bringing the hand holding the sword hilt with it. The tip of the sword follows behind the hand/hilt but remains on the same straight line. Using the power provided by the hip, extend your arm in a strong forward-moving motion as though throwing a tennis ball. When the sword connects with the target, your palm should be facing upwards.

Learners practice on the pell until it looks like their focus is suffering - and bear in mind they have had a lot of new things already to take in.   

Ideally, finish off with some very controlled slow work to combine the elements of the class.

Plan for next time: Revision of footwork and the snap, completing your shots through recovery, introduction to the off-side shot, introduction to transition from one shot to the next.