Training Update

Monday session: Fiore basic and intermediate. Emphasis: getting unstuck.

Sound familiar?

We did a lot of work on setting up situations in which people often get stuck, or freeze. For example: yielding from mandritto fendente into a pommel strike, the strike is blocked with a first master remedy, and it turns into a wrestling match. The sort of thing that's quite silly but happens a lot in freeplay.

So, set it up artificially, then work from there. Do something to break the deadlock. To begin with, don't worry about getting the hit, it doesn't matter who hits whom - just get out of the stuck situation. Only when you're able to do that consistently does the technique matter.

Lots of that, with increasing degrees of freedom, until we were kitted up and doing freeplay. Four of us in the intermediate class - Kristian, Petteri, Risto and me. Round-robin, three bouts apiece. Guess what - very little sticking or freezing. Result!

They weren't necessarily the prettiest techniques on display, or the most beautiful expressions of the art, but it looked martial. People were moving, flowing from position to position, not stopping. No coffee breaks, just one thing after another. So while it may not have reached great heights, it didn't hit the depths either. What this did was to get rid of the really bad points, the ones where people stand out of distance and wave their swords at each other, or stand pushing at each other until someone gets tired or finally buys a clue.

Guy asked what thoughts we had in our minds to keep us from freezing.

1. Keep going. Just keep hitting the opponent. Hit him again.
2. Don't call your own hits. Keep going till you hear halt called.
3. Keep the feet moving. It's the easiest thing, gross motor movement, nothing tricky, and your legs moving will get everything else moving.

All useful stuff. Things to remember going into bouts.

Did some repetitions of the syllabus form, with these ideas in mind. Definitely a bit more pop in my execution.

Finished with a bit of wrestling. Guy actually said to just do any kind of drill, solo or pair, that would help us to fix the flowing feeling in our heads. Somehow everyone just agreed to wrestle. Which we did, and it was fun. Got a couple of leg-lifts on Kristian, and with Risto it went to the ground, and a mount and rear naked choke. Into position at least, Guy stopped it before it got cranked on, but damn it, it's a great feeling when you can make something work against someone who knows what he's doing.

Guy's comment on the fencing - everyone had fenced noticeably better, but in particular I looked like I had a year's more experience. I take this to mean that my free fencing has been lagging behind my technical ability by at least a year. Good to make a start on bringing it up to speed.

I'm in a good place swordsmanship-wise right now. I've been beating my head against some walls for the past year, but now a few cracks are beginning to show - in the wall, not my head (that's pretty damn hard). I'm just glad I'm getting the kind of training that actually makes a difference, not just technical stuff that never works in practice - which a lot of instructors teach, whether in HES or the martial arts in general. Not saying I'll ever be able to pull this stuff off against a fully resisting opponent in a live situation, but at least I'm a little bit further along the road.

A lot of frustration has drained away, and I'm itching for more training. This is a Very Good Thing indeed.