Doesn't need much description. Cutting tatami omote with a sharp hand and a half Lutel longsword. Thanks to Emil Lindfors for sharpening it. Several things to work on:
1.Relax, relax, relax-my shoulders are too tight. This led to me missing the tatami completely on a combo strike
2.Less power. I'm trying to bash as opposed to letting the sword cut through
3.Perhaps overthinking things?
Oh well, it was a alot of fun anyway! :-)
Thursday 22 September 2011
Monday 19 September 2011
He's back!
A while back I posted some indian club swinging links from an aging hippie-looking character called zenkahuna, who had posted several videos on Youtube. For some reason his videos disappeared and I feared for the worst. Thankfully, the gentleman is in tip-top condition and has revamped his own channel on Youtube with high-def videos of what he calls Primal Play. This involves things like club and kettlebell swinging and also using other assorted heavy objects. I really like this chap's attitude and energy, which is super-positive and not as heavy as some of the other more gym-oriented vids available. Zenkahuna is clearly having a lot of fun and this is his driving force for doing what he does. There is no talk of "feeling the burn" or how ripped you'll get or how big your biceps are or "no pain no gain". Instead it's "Make it fun!".
A refreshing approach to getting fit, strong and healthy and for me rather inspiring. Here is one of his vids, which I liked a lot and have tried some of the club bell exercises shown. I'm now thinking of getting a bigger club so I can try some other moves.
Here's a link to one of his vids. http://youtu.be/rmH3CBHeKaY
Make it Fun!
A refreshing approach to getting fit, strong and healthy and for me rather inspiring. Here is one of his vids, which I liked a lot and have tried some of the club bell exercises shown. I'm now thinking of getting a bigger club so I can try some other moves.
Here's a link to one of his vids. http://youtu.be/rmH3CBHeKaY
Make it Fun!
Sling gallery
I've finally gotten around to taking photos of my current slings made from coloured leather/nylon and Paracord. For want of a better name, I call them the Generation 2 slings. Most are pouch slings but there are also split slings as well. Because of their dubious resemblance to female body parts, one friend of mine refers to it as a "vagina" sling. Nice! I prefer kinky sling, it has a better ring to it. The last sling is made in five minutes using cables ties instead of the usual nylon binding. I called it the QAD or "quick and dirty" sling. It works fine but the cable ties do slip somewhat. This can be fixed in a trice!
The full collection can be viewed here:
Friday 9 September 2011
Update
Hi all,
well it's been a while. I've had a long spring and summer season working and haven't seemed to have had a lot of time for fencing stuff. By comparison, the slinging training and progress has proceeded apace, something at least that I'm very happy about.
Some reasons for this? Well, lack of visible progress in swording for a pretty long time. Too long just doing the same old stuff, very little sparring or freeplay and the constant changing of drills and interpretations from Helsinki have taken their toll on my enthusiasm for this hobby. I pretty much stopped going to seminars in Helsinki also because I feel like I'm so far behind, I'll just be mentally and physically swamped. It seemed just easier not to go.
Ok, this is silly. After another summer of practically no sword training, I went to the first session last week and had a blast. It was really fun! Now I'm signed up for a day of Fiore in October and Swordfish 2011is just around the corner. I also took the plunge and got a couple of nylon swords from the Rawlings Range. These are the basic models. Luckily a local company Rauttaportti http://www.rautaportti.fi/ has them in stock. I could have got the pro-line swords but I figured the cheaper ones were ok as a starting point. We tried them out at the club and most reckoned they were too light and a bit floppy. Still for the beginners they will feel more like a sword than the wooden wasters the club has currently. Let's see what kind of feedback we get with continued use.
I've become a sling factory since my last post. I don't have photos of the newer slings but I managed to get some nice leather offcuts at the viking festival and I've been making quite nice looking models since. It's a lot of fun and quite therapeutic to sit in the evening and make them. My accuracy has also improved a lot since the last post. I'm shooting a lot with the Balearic style and a sidearm release. However, I'm still using Greek, Byzantine and occasionally underhand also. I like doing the figure 8, but only for distance and for fun, accuracy and consistency are much harder with this cast.
well it's been a while. I've had a long spring and summer season working and haven't seemed to have had a lot of time for fencing stuff. By comparison, the slinging training and progress has proceeded apace, something at least that I'm very happy about.
Some reasons for this? Well, lack of visible progress in swording for a pretty long time. Too long just doing the same old stuff, very little sparring or freeplay and the constant changing of drills and interpretations from Helsinki have taken their toll on my enthusiasm for this hobby. I pretty much stopped going to seminars in Helsinki also because I feel like I'm so far behind, I'll just be mentally and physically swamped. It seemed just easier not to go.
Ok, this is silly. After another summer of practically no sword training, I went to the first session last week and had a blast. It was really fun! Now I'm signed up for a day of Fiore in October and Swordfish 2011is just around the corner. I also took the plunge and got a couple of nylon swords from the Rawlings Range. These are the basic models. Luckily a local company Rauttaportti http://www.rautaportti.fi/ has them in stock. I could have got the pro-line swords but I figured the cheaper ones were ok as a starting point. We tried them out at the club and most reckoned they were too light and a bit floppy. Still for the beginners they will feel more like a sword than the wooden wasters the club has currently. Let's see what kind of feedback we get with continued use.
I've become a sling factory since my last post. I don't have photos of the newer slings but I managed to get some nice leather offcuts at the viking festival and I've been making quite nice looking models since. It's a lot of fun and quite therapeutic to sit in the evening and make them. My accuracy has also improved a lot since the last post. I'm shooting a lot with the Balearic style and a sidearm release. However, I'm still using Greek, Byzantine and occasionally underhand also. I like doing the figure 8, but only for distance and for fun, accuracy and consistency are much harder with this cast.
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