It seems that Guy is having a burst of productivity! He's produced a workbook for rapierists, listing the hierarchy of actions in Capoferro, as well as a table of contents for the work. Useful stuff! Print out and bring along to training.
I'm also disappointed to have missed out on the charity tournament Sunday, but I was feeling pretty sick, and continue to do so. Training might be missed this week, depending on how it goes. Don't want to be infecting my training partners with anything nasty!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Article on instructing and leading classes
Guy's written a short piece giving advice on how to instruct or lead a class. It's useful stuff for anyone who finds himself or herself in front of a group of eager swordsmen, and needing to give them something useful to do!
I'd recommend this in particular to Chris Chak, who's going to be in charge of some free training sessions. But really, all senior students should have a look.
I'd recommend this in particular to Chris Chak, who's going to be in charge of some free training sessions. But really, all senior students should have a look.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
The Breakthrough
As has been alluded to on this blog, there has been a dramatic breakthrough in Guy's interpretation of the art: specifically, in the meaning of the crossing of swords in zogho largo and zogho stretto.
His article on the subject is available here.
In short: largo is wide because the points of the swords are wide at the crossing; stretto is close because the points are in presence. That's it. It's a really simple way of looking at it, but it throws much light on the structure of the treatise.
In the wake of this discovery, there will be significant changes to the SES syllabus. I'll post on them when appropriate.
Interesting times!
His article on the subject is available here.
In short: largo is wide because the points of the swords are wide at the crossing; stretto is close because the points are in presence. That's it. It's a really simple way of looking at it, but it throws much light on the structure of the treatise.
In the wake of this discovery, there will be significant changes to the SES syllabus. I'll post on them when appropriate.
Interesting times!
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Training update
On Thursday I got a call from Guy: he wasn't feeling well, and could I lead the longsword class? I was going to be there anyway, and it turned out I would be the only class leader present that day, so the responsibility definitely fell to me.
I'm always a bit nervous leading anything here. I'm very well aware that a lot of people have as much experience as I do in swordsmanship, and a fair number quite a bit more. There's also the question of manner - I'm not as sure of myself as I was in Singapore, because it's harder for me to read the reactions and especially body language of Finns (although to be fair, I'm told this is a problem for Finns themselves as well!). That said, I got to salle early, sat myself down and put together a training plan so I wouldn't be stuck thinking about what to do.
Inspiration struck, and I took up a simple idea - working on the outside line. So I had the class practice the eighth play of First Master of Dagger, which is a deflection to the inside. This opens up the outside of the opponent. From there, Fiore doesn't show continuations, but there were enough intermediates in the class that I could ask them to explore what to do from there, and they came up with lots of interesting options. We then moved on to Third Master of Dagger, whose cover leads to a similar position.
Sword work continued the theme. I began with the canonical first three steps of First Drill, up to the entry with the pommel strike. From here (again, an outside position, with the opponent's elbow checked) I split the class into two groups - the beginners and basic students to practice up to that point, and work on stepping across the line to get a strong elbow push, and the intermediates to try out different variations to the pommel strike. We ended up with disarms and takedowns and strikes, so there was a nice assortment of techniques.
So the intermediates got to play a bit on their own, and also to show the beginners what they could do, and also a bit about how the different material in the treatise works together. Hopefully everyone had fun and got some useful training out of it.
I'm always a bit nervous leading anything here. I'm very well aware that a lot of people have as much experience as I do in swordsmanship, and a fair number quite a bit more. There's also the question of manner - I'm not as sure of myself as I was in Singapore, because it's harder for me to read the reactions and especially body language of Finns (although to be fair, I'm told this is a problem for Finns themselves as well!). That said, I got to salle early, sat myself down and put together a training plan so I wouldn't be stuck thinking about what to do.
Inspiration struck, and I took up a simple idea - working on the outside line. So I had the class practice the eighth play of First Master of Dagger, which is a deflection to the inside. This opens up the outside of the opponent. From there, Fiore doesn't show continuations, but there were enough intermediates in the class that I could ask them to explore what to do from there, and they came up with lots of interesting options. We then moved on to Third Master of Dagger, whose cover leads to a similar position.
Sword work continued the theme. I began with the canonical first three steps of First Drill, up to the entry with the pommel strike. From here (again, an outside position, with the opponent's elbow checked) I split the class into two groups - the beginners and basic students to practice up to that point, and work on stepping across the line to get a strong elbow push, and the intermediates to try out different variations to the pommel strike. We ended up with disarms and takedowns and strikes, so there was a nice assortment of techniques.
So the intermediates got to play a bit on their own, and also to show the beginners what they could do, and also a bit about how the different material in the treatise works together. Hopefully everyone had fun and got some useful training out of it.
New links
I've updated my links section, so Ilkka's link points to www.marozzo.com, and added another swordsman's blog, http://finlandbaby.blogspot.com/ as well. Do have a look!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Abrazare video up!
For those who don't click on the comments sections, the abrazare video referenced in my previous post is now available on Ilkka's website. It's still quite raw, and we were walking through the execution rather than going all-out (not a good idea on concrete....) but it shows what I was talking about. Comments are very welcome!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Training Update
Two updates in the space of a week? *shock, horror*
I was really eager to do this one, because it's fun and exciting. What with the big breakthrough in the sword sections of Fiore, Ilkka and I have been working through the plays of abrazare, and we think that we're on to something there as well - or at least, Ilkka had the idea, and I came along for the (very wild and bumpy) ride.
Previously, the setup for abrazare has been quite static and artificial - who starts wrestling in that position? Because of that, the plays have also been somewhat stilted, and their application not obvious, or easy to execute. All manner of explanations have been given for this, but nothing that was really convincing.
So what we did was to begin with more intuitive and dynamic starting points. How does one come to grips? If you start out of distance, you generally grab the arms, or get into something like a collar-and-elbow hold. From there, the most basic thing to do is pull or push. Most wrestling starts from there - by pushing or pulling your opponent, you make him step. That gives you a tempo from which you can throw him. Depending on your footwork, you get an inside or outside throw.
Working from the assumption that your opponent is going to pull you and try a lock or throw of some sort, the plays of abrazare begin to make sense as remedies. They work, and in a pretty intuitive and thoroughly nasty manner too. As a nice bonus, we also think we've cracked the seventh play of abrazare.
I'm not going to go into great detail here, as the videos should soon be up on Ilkka's blog. It's a lot easier to show than to tell, and I think the videos will speak for themselves on the value of the concept.
The flip side of this is that doing it our way requires a fair bit of control and restraint in practice. What with all the throws and counterthrows, there's a higher risk element - as will be seen in the videos as well. It's probably a good idea to practice these on a padded floor rather than the concrete of the salle. We got through two and a half hours of wrestling (and quite a lot of freeform dagger work as well, just for warmup) without any injury, but then we train a lot with each other, we're quite careful and we're experienced enough with falling that we can get away with it. I wouldn't do this with anyone else aside from Guy and a few other people.
Still, it's been an exciting month for Fiore studies here. There'll be revisions to First and Second drills soon as well, and once the videos are up I'll be sure to link them from here.
I was really eager to do this one, because it's fun and exciting. What with the big breakthrough in the sword sections of Fiore, Ilkka and I have been working through the plays of abrazare, and we think that we're on to something there as well - or at least, Ilkka had the idea, and I came along for the (very wild and bumpy) ride.
Previously, the setup for abrazare has been quite static and artificial - who starts wrestling in that position? Because of that, the plays have also been somewhat stilted, and their application not obvious, or easy to execute. All manner of explanations have been given for this, but nothing that was really convincing.
So what we did was to begin with more intuitive and dynamic starting points. How does one come to grips? If you start out of distance, you generally grab the arms, or get into something like a collar-and-elbow hold. From there, the most basic thing to do is pull or push. Most wrestling starts from there - by pushing or pulling your opponent, you make him step. That gives you a tempo from which you can throw him. Depending on your footwork, you get an inside or outside throw.
Working from the assumption that your opponent is going to pull you and try a lock or throw of some sort, the plays of abrazare begin to make sense as remedies. They work, and in a pretty intuitive and thoroughly nasty manner too. As a nice bonus, we also think we've cracked the seventh play of abrazare.
I'm not going to go into great detail here, as the videos should soon be up on Ilkka's blog. It's a lot easier to show than to tell, and I think the videos will speak for themselves on the value of the concept.
The flip side of this is that doing it our way requires a fair bit of control and restraint in practice. What with all the throws and counterthrows, there's a higher risk element - as will be seen in the videos as well. It's probably a good idea to practice these on a padded floor rather than the concrete of the salle. We got through two and a half hours of wrestling (and quite a lot of freeform dagger work as well, just for warmup) without any injury, but then we train a lot with each other, we're quite careful and we're experienced enough with falling that we can get away with it. I wouldn't do this with anyone else aside from Guy and a few other people.
Still, it's been an exciting month for Fiore studies here. There'll be revisions to First and Second drills soon as well, and once the videos are up I'll be sure to link them from here.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Training Update
It's been a month! School and sickness have kept me from updating, though not so much from training. But part of the reason has been that I've been keeping mum about a very exciting development in our understanding of Fiore, and trying to blog about training without mentioning it is quite frustrating. The nature of that change will be formally presented soon, and I'll talk about it at length when that happens, but until then I'll keep it under wraps.
Instead, a mention of rapier: I'm still trying to get used to the very different movement dynamic of rapier, and it just happened that Wednesday's rapier class offered an excellent opportunity to get some practice in it. A 'footwork boot camp' of sorts, it began with us taking off our shoes and getting a literal feel for moving barefoot. Guy took us through a set of exercises to make us really aware of how our feet should move; the ultimate goal was to demonstrate how, within the context of the body positions in rapier fencing, the footwork should feel very natural. It simply happens, in the process of moving the body - which is the real point.
We went on from there (putting our shoes back on) to a set of drills for controlling measure. This is a key skill, obviously, and one thing we learned is just how subtle the timing of the fencing motions has to be. The drill was simply for the attacker to stringere, and the defender to cavazione and lunge. The idea was for the attacker to be able to use footwork to retreat out of range of the lunge. It was surprisingly easy, which reveals that most of us don't time our disengages properly. But time it such that you enter your lunge when the attacker's weight is shifting and his foot moving, and you make it much harder for him to shift out of your range.
The third step was for the attacker to execute a scanso in response to the cavazione. This too was a footwork exercise - depending on which foot was free, the attacker had to do a scanso della vita or a scanso dell' pie dritto. In essence, the defender chose which technique he had to do, because it was the timing of the cavazione that determined which foot was free.
Finishing off the sequence, the defender then performed a scannatura against whichever technique the attacker used.
All in all, it was a fascinating class - good training for all skill levels, and it gave me at least an opportunity to work on some things that really needed training!
Thursday longsword was also good, involving among other things new versions of first and second drills, which will now clearly illustrate the principles of the recent breakthrough. Full descriptions and videos will hit the school website in the proper time, but suffice to say they're pretty cool.
And of course, it just isn't training if we don't get in some wrestling, so Ilkka and I went back through the abrazare material, working on the individual plays as counters to specific techniques. Worked like a charm - and we have one or two leads on understanding the section as well. We'll do more on it and if it seems interesting and useful, it'll come up here.
Instead, a mention of rapier: I'm still trying to get used to the very different movement dynamic of rapier, and it just happened that Wednesday's rapier class offered an excellent opportunity to get some practice in it. A 'footwork boot camp' of sorts, it began with us taking off our shoes and getting a literal feel for moving barefoot. Guy took us through a set of exercises to make us really aware of how our feet should move; the ultimate goal was to demonstrate how, within the context of the body positions in rapier fencing, the footwork should feel very natural. It simply happens, in the process of moving the body - which is the real point.
We went on from there (putting our shoes back on) to a set of drills for controlling measure. This is a key skill, obviously, and one thing we learned is just how subtle the timing of the fencing motions has to be. The drill was simply for the attacker to stringere, and the defender to cavazione and lunge. The idea was for the attacker to be able to use footwork to retreat out of range of the lunge. It was surprisingly easy, which reveals that most of us don't time our disengages properly. But time it such that you enter your lunge when the attacker's weight is shifting and his foot moving, and you make it much harder for him to shift out of your range.
The third step was for the attacker to execute a scanso in response to the cavazione. This too was a footwork exercise - depending on which foot was free, the attacker had to do a scanso della vita or a scanso dell' pie dritto. In essence, the defender chose which technique he had to do, because it was the timing of the cavazione that determined which foot was free.
Finishing off the sequence, the defender then performed a scannatura against whichever technique the attacker used.
All in all, it was a fascinating class - good training for all skill levels, and it gave me at least an opportunity to work on some things that really needed training!
Thursday longsword was also good, involving among other things new versions of first and second drills, which will now clearly illustrate the principles of the recent breakthrough. Full descriptions and videos will hit the school website in the proper time, but suffice to say they're pretty cool.
And of course, it just isn't training if we don't get in some wrestling, so Ilkka and I went back through the abrazare material, working on the individual plays as counters to specific techniques. Worked like a charm - and we have one or two leads on understanding the section as well. We'll do more on it and if it seems interesting and useful, it'll come up here.
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