Training was good. We started with breathing and assessing our Crane form. I don't do the Crane as much as I should but at least my form hasn't got too bad. I still need to work on getting sufficient curve in the back and keeping the rear leg up in the final position, but that's an issue for almost everyone anyway.
Lots of practice with the covers from the right. Attacker throws different variations on the mandritto fendente, leading to different crossings. The defender has to identify the crossings, and respond accordingly. I liked that Guy had the more advanced students training together for this so we got clear input. Someone who's been training for a while can throw consistent strikes and make the differences clear, so you can learn the feel of the different crosses. It makes training so much easier - not in the sense that it takes less effort, but that you know what's going on and you're not frustrated by sloppiness or lack of precision. Any mistakes you make are your own, so to speak, and not created by your training partner. So there's more pressure in one sense, but also a better environment for learning.
The new syllabus helps with this as well. As Guy readily admitted, dropping the venerable five-drill structure isn't going to be wildly popular with the grognards who've been training it for years, but the new drill organization makes more sense. It classifies actions clearly and follows the tactical structure of Fiore's system, rather than an arbitrary listing of actions. It does mean that the covers from the right drill has a ton of variations, but I like that they now fit into a category and can be trained systematically rather than haphazardly introducing degrees of freedom.
We also worked on a specific issue, cutting to the hands against an opponent who follows-through on their strike. Against someone who doesn't stop their blow in posta longa, but cuts through to dente di zenghiaro, the cut to the hands often misses. There are all sorts of little things that cause this action to foul up, but the two basic categories are footwork and blade actions. For footwork, the tendency is to take pass in the wrong direction, leading to being out of measure. For blade actions, my own mistake was in not clearing the opponent's blade sufficiently. In this case I was dealing with a fendente that was coming in at a flatter angle than canonical, so I had to adjust my cover to get a good edge-flat contact so the beat worked properly.
These are the small things that make all the difference to the execution of a technique, and it's hard to get them right at full speed. It's not just about one's own form, but also seeing what the opponent is doing and reacting to that. Ultimately, we should be able to see what's coming and deal with it on the fly, as a trained reaction rather than a considered process. "See what's there, and deal with it." Sound familiar? I received this piece of advice two years ago, and I'm still struggling to apply it - but that's why I train.
Spent a little time on the syllabus form as well. I had a couple of problems starting out, since it's been ages since I've done it, and there have been a couple of changes. But it all came back after a couple of false starts. Of course, as part of being a class leader, I now have to learn to do it left-handed. Can't discriminate against our southpaw students of course. It never ends.
The group broke up to work on different weapon systems, and I chose rapier, ending up training with Jan, Risto and Mikko... yeah, pretty much a murderer's row. To top it off, Guy had us doing the compound counter-riposte drill (AKA the brain-melting drill), setting it up as a flow drill and then eventually breaking the flow. Reading about the drill makes it sound super complex:
Step 10 [yes, this is step 10 of 10 steps]
1) Agent steps into measure, stringering the Patient on the inside in quarta.
2) Patient disengages, and feints, extending in seconda.
3) Agent parries in seconda,
4) Patient disengages to quarta and lunges
5) Agent parries in quarta and feints.
6) Patient recovers and parries in quarta,
7) Agent disengages and strikes in seconda
8) Patient parries in seconda and feints
9) Agent recovers, parries in seconda,
10) Patient disengages and strikes in quarta (the compound counter riposte).
It's not that complicated though. Essentially both Patient and Agent are performing the same set of actions, once on either side. Once you have the basic set of motions down (and in my case, remember that the first action after the disengage is a feint, not an attack with lunge dammit!) there's a logic to the actions that takes over. Of course, once you're actually comfortable with it, it's time to start breaking that flow....
After that, just a bit of fun with one-touch bouts between mismatched weapons. Just a bit of silliness really to loosen up after all that technical work, and I even managed to perform an auto-disarm on myself with the backsword. Lost my grip, went scrambling after the weapon and got stabbed in the back... would have been better served continuing the bout empty-handed, but there you go - you just have to have a laugh really.
After the training, a bit of a break and a nip to the supermarket for some provisions, and then it was time for the school birthday party. Nine years of swordsmanship in Helsinki! And here's to many more!
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