At Raglan, my Knight and I continued certain ongoing projects we had more or less started at another event in the early summer. He has been concentrating on really deconstructing elements of fighting and how to train it to logical parts of a functioning system, and I have been leading on efforts to incorporate mental wellbeing and mental training into the sphere of the practice of fighting. There's a lot to be said about that, and I will most likely write several posts about it in the future. Enough to note for now that so far we have run two discussion classes at events, one at Raglan, and they have been well received.
In terms of physical training, we met on four mornings during the event, with me running a short pilates-style core workout, followed by my Knight spending some time talking about the principles of training. We had a couple of people who turned up to every session, but mostly the participants varied. Essentially, this set of sessions was a short series of linked classes on how to train smart in the context of deconstructed fighting. We hope that at some point a version of this series will make its way online in video format.
My endurance and strength have increased considerably over the past year. Not uncoincidentally, I suspect, a little over a year ago my Knight started me on a systematic training programme, which moves on in c. 6 week periods. As mentioned in the previous post, my power generation has also gone up in the past couple of months, although it's not yet consistent enough to my liking.
Main principles of training: cardio & strength
I don't do crossfit or powerlifting (despite the fact that I like lifting very much). Our principle is moderation: doing a moderate amount of training means that you're less likely to be sore the following day, and thus you're able and willing to do another training session. This leads to you training on most days of the week.
For endurance and cardio fitness, I run. I have gone through several 6-week cycles with differing emphases, but as a rule a week's programme includes one short run, one session of sprints, and one long or two longish runs. I am not fast by any manner of means, but I can do 10K in reasonable comfort. We focus on consistency, rather than speed.
For strength, rather than working with an Olympic bar (which I otherwise am very fond of), I do one session a week with dumbbells at the gym, and, if I have time and the relevant machines are free, some further upper body -focused exercises. Because I'm working on gaining strength, I alternate between a heavy set and a light set of weights. At my most recent session I used 2 x 9kg and 2 x 3 kg weights. I do three exercises, 3 reps of heavy weights and 20 reps of light weights each, 3 sets of each.
I also have a set of TRX straps, which I use for bodyweight exercises once a week.
Main principles of training: core
The first thing everyone starting SCA armoured combat is that power comes from the hips, but it seems to me that we should be actually talking about our core: the area of deep muscles around your lower abdomen, and, yes, hips. Engaging the core, activating the muscles of that area as though you were zipping up jeans that are slightly too small, substantially aids with strength and balance. When you engage your core, your hips will tilt slightly forward. Apparently Musashi mentions something very similar. I have found that engaging my core while training & fighting leads to much better footwork and better striking power. A strong core also protects from back and hip injuries.
I do at least one core workout a week. Pilates is fantastic, but due to their cost I don't attend classes at the moment. I strongly recommend it to any fighter, all the same.
Sunday, 25 August 2019
Monday, 19 August 2019
Raglan Fair 1: the fighting
Raglan Fair took place at Raglan Castle in the shire of Mynydd Gwyn (Wales) in the beginning of August. It is the Principality's major event with ten days of camping around a ruined castle, which is our playground for the event. Unfortunately, this time, on the last Friday the event steward made an informed and likely correct call to close the event early and advise those who could to leave due to some very bad weather rolling in. I, in the meantime, had allocated the first part of the event for non-fighting activities I enjoy: cooking, sewing, and camp life, and had intended to devote the second half of the event to fighting. As it was, I got only two days of actual fighting and four pretty intensive sessions of unarmoured training in.
Wednesday: I sponsored several tourneys during this Raglan. One of them I called the Path of Chivalry, which was adapted from the concept of Tournament of Chivalry from Double Wars in the Principality of Nordmark, which is less of a tournament and more of a large practice with knights. In the end, only two knights out of our very small chivalric population were available on the day, so the King, who was ill, was substituted by two of his squires, me and my brother. The tenans were arranged in different spots of the castle, where challengers could come fight them for feedback, circling between the locations on the evolving Path.
In the afternoon, I participated in small melees to amuse Her Highness the Princess, which was great fun.
Thursday: In the morning, I took part in the Principality Protectors Tournament, which is an hour-long bearpit and one of my favourite tourneys. There's always a great, relaxed atmosphere, despite the victory of the tourney being prestigious. In the late evening, my very favourite tournament took place: torchlight Pas d'Armes, where tenans with closed face helms fight challengers in the castle courtyard lit by (gas) torches. This time, the misfortune that was the second weekend's bad weather already started on Thursday evening, so we all got soaked to the bone and eventually the King ended the tournament early. Usually I have fought this tourney as a tenans, but during the past year I sold my closed face helm due to being broke, so this year I was fighting as one of the challengers. As the conditions deteriorated, my invisible marshal hat sank deeper and deeper in my head, and I found it difficult to simply enjoy the fighting without being distracted by safety conditions.
Analysis: I am reasonably happy with how I fought overall, although realistically I was only just about getting warmed up. The Protectors went the best of the lot - I think I got six points out of it. I had spent the two months previously basically practicing footwork out of armour, with very little else, and it seems to have borne fruit in that my footwork was better, even if still not great, and my power generation had improved considerably. As an important progress and success marker, I killed someone on their knees exactly the way Duke Gerhardt taught me at Double Wars. However, I need to keep working further on the footwork and start properly applying weight shifts to change angles and keep adding power. I also wasn't paying attention to range sufficiently well, ending up too close a lot, and failing to take much advantage of sideways and diagonal movement. I think what is happening at the moment is that I hold myself back too much, in an attempt to retain control of myself, my equipment and the fight, but by doing that I'm blocking my own natural flow. For much of the summer, I have felt like I have been right on the threshold of cracking the next level of movement and controlling the space of the fight, and I had had hopes that I could actually crack it Raglan. It was not yet to be.
I do seem to have got over the idea that I still need to desperately prove myself to other fighters, though. I felt much less need to fight on every single opportunity to demonstrate keenness, as I would have had in the past, even when there was something else on at the same time that I very much wanted to do. It seems that I am now pretty confident that other fighters know where I'm at, and I am comfortable with that.
Wednesday: I sponsored several tourneys during this Raglan. One of them I called the Path of Chivalry, which was adapted from the concept of Tournament of Chivalry from Double Wars in the Principality of Nordmark, which is less of a tournament and more of a large practice with knights. In the end, only two knights out of our very small chivalric population were available on the day, so the King, who was ill, was substituted by two of his squires, me and my brother. The tenans were arranged in different spots of the castle, where challengers could come fight them for feedback, circling between the locations on the evolving Path.
In the afternoon, I participated in small melees to amuse Her Highness the Princess, which was great fun.
Thursday: In the morning, I took part in the Principality Protectors Tournament, which is an hour-long bearpit and one of my favourite tourneys. There's always a great, relaxed atmosphere, despite the victory of the tourney being prestigious. In the late evening, my very favourite tournament took place: torchlight Pas d'Armes, where tenans with closed face helms fight challengers in the castle courtyard lit by (gas) torches. This time, the misfortune that was the second weekend's bad weather already started on Thursday evening, so we all got soaked to the bone and eventually the King ended the tournament early. Usually I have fought this tourney as a tenans, but during the past year I sold my closed face helm due to being broke, so this year I was fighting as one of the challengers. As the conditions deteriorated, my invisible marshal hat sank deeper and deeper in my head, and I found it difficult to simply enjoy the fighting without being distracted by safety conditions.
Analysis: I am reasonably happy with how I fought overall, although realistically I was only just about getting warmed up. The Protectors went the best of the lot - I think I got six points out of it. I had spent the two months previously basically practicing footwork out of armour, with very little else, and it seems to have borne fruit in that my footwork was better, even if still not great, and my power generation had improved considerably. As an important progress and success marker, I killed someone on their knees exactly the way Duke Gerhardt taught me at Double Wars. However, I need to keep working further on the footwork and start properly applying weight shifts to change angles and keep adding power. I also wasn't paying attention to range sufficiently well, ending up too close a lot, and failing to take much advantage of sideways and diagonal movement. I think what is happening at the moment is that I hold myself back too much, in an attempt to retain control of myself, my equipment and the fight, but by doing that I'm blocking my own natural flow. For much of the summer, I have felt like I have been right on the threshold of cracking the next level of movement and controlling the space of the fight, and I had had hopes that I could actually crack it Raglan. It was not yet to be.
I do seem to have got over the idea that I still need to desperately prove myself to other fighters, though. I felt much less need to fight on every single opportunity to demonstrate keenness, as I would have had in the past, even when there was something else on at the same time that I very much wanted to do. It seems that I am now pretty confident that other fighters know where I'm at, and I am comfortable with that.
Sunday, 2 June 2019
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.
Thursday, 30 May 2019
To make a mistake
At Double Wars I spoke briefly with a young female squire, who is fairly fresh at fighting, and she mentioned an issue that has plagued me as well: that in melee scenarios, she finds herself hanging back, afraid that she might do something wrong.
It hasn't really left me since, and I wonder whether this is an inherent issue in minority fighters, or whether it is more widespread but doesn't get acknowledged. Further, I wonder whether this translates into one-to-one fighting, as well, and whether it is a factor in holding us back.
I suspect that this issue becomes more sensitive with people who have been socialised to avoid making any kind of fuss, to strive for perfectionism in all areas of life. Some people say "Sorry" excessively, apologising for any minor real and imagined trespass. Many people are socialised to feel accountable to (patriarchal) authority figures. SCA fighting is full of patriarchal authority figures, and those who are not but feel that they ought to be. Many people are also socialised to be afraid of male anger and its unpredictable consequences. I can see a situation where a less experienced fighter makes a mistake, and some others on the same side lose it a bit in the heat of the moment and adrenaline and say things they don't necessarily mean in tones and volume they don't necessarily mean at all.
They're your mates. But you've accidentally made them angry. You did that. Holy shit.
And you've disappointed them.
And they're going to go away thinking, wow, Agnes is such a noobass, never going to want to play with her again.
And what if they're not going to like you again?
My best fights have happened when I have not been emotionally invested in the outcome, or I have been in the very fine zone just before exhaustion, when I move in what to me feels like exaggerated patterns. I get into the flow when I let go. Imagine if you could just let go in all your fights, one to one and melee alike. Not be afraid to throw yourself into it, go full on Leeroy Jenkins with the knowledge that even if it doesn't work out, at least it'll be awesome, in some direction.
I don't know how to address this issue. Some of it seems to get a bit better simply with experience. Maybe we should all talk about our fuckups more. Maybe the commanders of melee teams need to explicitly say in the beginning of a melee tourney that making mistakes is okay (and if it was me, I'd say they'll be welcome, because a mistake means that something was done, so at least there was activity). And maybe those of us who are affected by this issue need to have a deep extended look at ourselves, and see what we can do for ourselves. Listen to the usual encouragement in the beginning of any tourney to have fun, and be aware that those words in themselves contain the permission to make mistakes. And each fighter everywhere can keep an eye out for others. Don't let anyone get away with losing their temper in the field. If someone makes a mistake, let them know that it's okay - because it has to be okay.
It hasn't really left me since, and I wonder whether this is an inherent issue in minority fighters, or whether it is more widespread but doesn't get acknowledged. Further, I wonder whether this translates into one-to-one fighting, as well, and whether it is a factor in holding us back.
I suspect that this issue becomes more sensitive with people who have been socialised to avoid making any kind of fuss, to strive for perfectionism in all areas of life. Some people say "Sorry" excessively, apologising for any minor real and imagined trespass. Many people are socialised to feel accountable to (patriarchal) authority figures. SCA fighting is full of patriarchal authority figures, and those who are not but feel that they ought to be. Many people are also socialised to be afraid of male anger and its unpredictable consequences. I can see a situation where a less experienced fighter makes a mistake, and some others on the same side lose it a bit in the heat of the moment and adrenaline and say things they don't necessarily mean in tones and volume they don't necessarily mean at all.
They're your mates. But you've accidentally made them angry. You did that. Holy shit.
And you've disappointed them.
And they're going to go away thinking, wow, Agnes is such a noobass, never going to want to play with her again.
And what if they're not going to like you again?
My best fights have happened when I have not been emotionally invested in the outcome, or I have been in the very fine zone just before exhaustion, when I move in what to me feels like exaggerated patterns. I get into the flow when I let go. Imagine if you could just let go in all your fights, one to one and melee alike. Not be afraid to throw yourself into it, go full on Leeroy Jenkins with the knowledge that even if it doesn't work out, at least it'll be awesome, in some direction.
I don't know how to address this issue. Some of it seems to get a bit better simply with experience. Maybe we should all talk about our fuckups more. Maybe the commanders of melee teams need to explicitly say in the beginning of a melee tourney that making mistakes is okay (and if it was me, I'd say they'll be welcome, because a mistake means that something was done, so at least there was activity). And maybe those of us who are affected by this issue need to have a deep extended look at ourselves, and see what we can do for ourselves. Listen to the usual encouragement in the beginning of any tourney to have fun, and be aware that those words in themselves contain the permission to make mistakes. And each fighter everywhere can keep an eye out for others. Don't let anyone get away with losing their temper in the field. If someone makes a mistake, let them know that it's okay - because it has to be okay.
Double Wars
Drachenwald's premier fighting event is the ten-day long Double Wars, which takes place in the Principality of Nordmark (Sweden) every May during the week Ascension Day falls on. The main war concerns the lasting debate of which side a slice of crispbread (knackebrod) should be buttered on: the flat side or the hol(e)y side. Otherwise, the event includes plenty of tourneys and training opportunities, as well as other usual SCA activities. For me, it is the year's best opportunity to get training from the top fighters of the kingdom and to connect with fighters outside Insulae Draconis. It is also the base of the extended household I belong to: the lineage of Duke Matthew Blackleaf.
This year, work has been inconvenient, and I had not planned to go at all, but the aspects of fighting and family weighed on me so much that only a few weeks ago I made the decision to go for the first half of the event, as it would interfere with work less.
I had three full days available, so I wanted to get in as much fighting and training as possible. In practice, I was forced to conclude once more that especially in the case of training, when you are actively working with your head as well as your body, you can only keep going so long.
1. Rose Tourney
I wasn't sure to begin with whether to fight in the tourney or to just do pickups, but I'm glad I went. The tourney was great fun. You issued a challenge and queued up to the list field with your partner, and the loser would retrieve a rose from the Queen and bring it to the winner's consort, or whoever they wished. Towards the end of the tourney, the marshal set up a few last man standing scenarios, which awarded more than one rose to the winner or winners. I fought for my friend Jasper and brought him six roses, for which he was very proud for the rest of the time I spent at the event.
2. Tournament of Chivalry
This is more of a three-hour high-level fighter practice with members of the Order of Chivalry. You invite a Knight to fight you, and possibly another one to observe, and you can ask for guidance in a particular element or just get general feedback. I had a list of things to get out of this one, which were:
1) Get time with my Uncle Knight George
2) Get time with Duke Gerhardt
3) Find every belted two-stick fighter and make them train me how to fight against them until I couldn't train no more.
I proceeded to do exactly this. I got some very useful pointers on fighting against two-stickers from Sirs Morales, Gilliam, Rok, and King William, but I feel that I need to put in a lot of further work towards figuring that one out properly.
Afterwards, my Knight invited me to do some pickups with him, but soon enough he sent me off to get out of armour, observing that I was too tired to do anything useful. The intensity of learning from the Knights and fighting them had creeped up without me noticing, and I held off from attending the fun pirate melee in the afternoon I had greatly enjoyed in previous years.
3. Training
On my third full day, I had offered to help marshal a new fighters tournament, but there were only two participants, so I wasn't needed. I got into armour nonetheless around noon hoping for pickups and training (although the previous night had been very late and involved a great deal of gin with other squires). I ended up spending most of the afternoon with Duke Gerhardt, who's one of my favourite trainers, working on how to control the fight in various ways. It was intense, but we took breaks and talked about what we had worked on, then put our hats back on and trained some more. Other people came and went, but we must have been working for about three hours. Afterwards I did a few pickups with Sir Wlfric and my own Knight.
More analysis and thoughts forthcoming, now that I have introduced the event.
Thursday, 2 May 2019
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.
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.
Saturday, 27 April 2019
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.
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.
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