Training Update

Ugh. It's been way too long since my last update. Wouldn't be surprised if anyone thought I'd given up on the blog, but no, just schoolwork and general blahs getting in the way.

It's definitely not that training hasn't been ongoing. Just this Monday I managed to get to the Fiore intermediate class for the first time in a long while, and it was definitely worth it. We worked on breaking cadence. This is fairly subtle stuff and technically challenging, and really the first time we've covered this in class, so it was quite exciting.

We began with attacks from coda longa distesa, a guard that previously hasn't seen much use in training. It's actually a versatile position, from which one can make a range of attacks, and quite effectively disguise what's coming because the sword is mostly hidden from one's opponent. With the right mechanics, most of the attacks look very similar in initiation, so it's hard to identify the line of attack until the strike is well on its way.

So after a fair bit of practice at throwing those strikes and dealing with them, we moved on to the concept of breaking cadence. The idea is to be able to act at different speeds, and accelerate and decelerate rapidly. This sets up a rhythm to which your opponent must conform; then when you break that rhythm, he is unable to deal with the change in timing.

For example, say your opponent throws a mandritto fendente. You parry at a fairly leisurely pace - just quickly enough to make your cover. You counter with your own fendente. At this point your opponent yields with the parry and comes to the close, but his action is dictated by the timing of your parry, so he'll be moving somewhat slowly as well. If you suddenly accelerate at this point, your fendente will get through his cover before it's properly formed. His defence fails because you've broken the cadence and acted in a tempo he didn't know was available to you.

The interesting thing about this concept is that it's the perfect counter to speed-blitzing, where someone tries to win by just going really fast. It's possible to force Senor Gonzalez to conform to your relatively glacial pace, and then just when he slows down to match, you kick things up a notch and smack him before he knows what's happening.

It's something that is found in other arts as well. Many striking arts place a high value on being able to dictate the tempo of an encounter: not just whether it's fast or slow, but being able to choose when to go faster or slower. It's not the speed per se that's important, but the acceleration that makes it difficult for one's opponent to time his actions. Good stuff, very interesting and subtle, devastating in action and definitely something to train.

Today's rapier session with Ilkka (Guy is in London just now) was also pretty cool. It began with some Bolognese-looking actions, provocations using cuts and large beats and tramazzoni. There were actually complaints from some quarters about it not being sufficiently rapier-like! But of course there was a method to the madness; Ilkka had adapted the exercise from Capo Ferro plate ten, and the whole idea was to give us very obvious, clear provocations to work with. It illustrated very well the notion of drawing particular actions from the opponent by making threats they have to deal with in a certain way.

There was good energy during the session, and after it ended there was an opportunity to do some light freeplay. I wasn't super convinced to begin with but we went at it quite gently and slowly, working things out rather than looking for the win. There's a time and place for being competitive, but I think most freeplay should really be about pressure testing of techniques, tactical thinking and diagnostics. Getting a hit should be secondary to good execution of technique. I actually did learn something from it so it was quite fruitful! A lot boils down to having the right training partner, someone who will work with you rather than going all out to win. Basically, the balance most of the time should be less 'free' but more 'play'.

And to end off, a technical note: a revision to the drill of the punta falsa. The remedy to the initial mezano is now the same as the remedy in the largo version of covers from the right, ie. cover with frontale, step off the line to the right dropping a fendente onto the hands, step in with a thrust. The punta falsa is executed as normal, but the change now makes the counter to the punta falsa a lot more aggressive, because instead of circling round the scholar can now make the counter with a pass straight across the line of the player. It's a lot faster and easier to execute, and pretty brutal. Perform with care, because done right it'll dump the player on his butt because that's better than taking a point through his mask!

I'm taking a Fiore class tomorrow, and there'll be wrestling on Saturday at Liikuntamylly where we'll try plays from Codex Wallerstein. So there will be interesting stuff happening, and I'll try to make a record of it here. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up a more frequent update schedule now that the days are getting longer and I've re-sharpened my training focus.