Over Nine Waves

Armizare book and 1.33 video from Agilitas

2011-12-26T18:20:00.002+02:00

With my rekindled enthusiasm for fencing I decided to treat myself to a swordy book and a how to video. I purchased Robert Charrette's book "Armizare" and the Agilitas video on 1.33 sword and buckler.

First impressions. Both are excellently produced and quite slick. I have not heard of Mr. Charrette previously but he has put together a concise book on Fiore, which runs through the plays of the various sections and includes black and white photos to accompany the descriptions. While some of his interpretations of the plays differ somewhat from what I'm used to, they do make sense. One of the best features of his book for me are the pages which show the various plays in nequence on a single page. I always have trouble remembering the order of the crossing of the swords at giocco largo/stretto with the sword in two hands, let alone the sword in one. With "Armizare" you can have just that page open in front of you and work through the plays in order. Also, each individual play is named and numbered at the edge of each page. Very handy! Particularly fetching are the pictures of fighting in harness! Lastly, with this book, I remembered how to do the sword disarms "tor di spada" using the sword hilt. I had been shown ages ago and could only remember the first and third, but not the second. All in all, a very useful book and one I would recommend getting.
http://www.freelanceacademypress.com/armizare.aspx

The Agilitas DVD was put together by Hammaborg members and sword and buckler afficionados Roland Warzecha and Tobias "Toke" Wenzel. I've had the pleasure to take classes with Roland at previous Swordfish events and have seen both gentlemen spar vigorously with each other and others in this the oldest treatise-based sword system in Europe. The DVD is clear and gives some very good tips as to how to approach the system. I was particularly impressed by the clear repetitions of actions and attentiuon to small details I had previously overlooked when practicing 1.33. In particular, the extension of the cut/thrust using an extra hip rotation rather than an over extion of the arm. I liked this so much I will incorporate it into longsword also. I guess I should be doing it already but the hip extension gives at least 5 cm (if not more) reach on a cut/thrust. Combined with other modifications of cutting this should snap the sword tip out at high speed and land from a farther distance than i could previously get. So, although this is a basic thing, I will need to work on this to maximise the effiiciency of my cuts. Also, the Hammaborg interpretation of the Stichslag is very interesting. I had previously just thought that it was simply a thrust. Instead, they see it more as a push-cut. If the point is on line, thrust, but if slightly off, thrust anyway cutting with a pushing motion of the sword. Nice! Although the DVD includes some plays and tactics, i.e. what to do when in the first ward and you are beset by habschilt, etc. it does not deal ward by ward with the various besetments/obsessio shown in the manual. Instead it gives you a basic intro and some exercises to do in both solo and pairs. As such I believe it gives a superb foundation for further work in this fascinating fighting style.

Training update and random ramblings

2011-12-04T12:53:00.000+02:00

I've been really enjoying training of late. I've been taking a (for me) pretty laid back approach to it. I train fairly hard and really enjoy looking at the details of what we do. I'll probably head to the syllabus day next weekend and although I may not learn anything new, I'm pretty sure I will get new insights into the material. As one of the more senior students, I have no doubt that we'll be pushed a bit mentally and physically, perhaps even do some freeplay. I used to not enjoy this type of stress and always performed pretty badly at freeplay prep and freeplay itself. My poor performance led to me worrying about it, which somehow turned the whole business into something a bit negative. This isn't a reflection on the excellent training we were given, more a view on how my own mental process goes. If things don't go well, in my mind, everything just goes to shit. I guess I am competitive after all.

However, I think I've finally got my head around not trying to be the "best" in this hobby. By this I don't mean trying to be the "best of the best" and other crap that sounds like US Marines-speak. Frankly, while possibly achievable, it's realistically improbable. I think I'll settle instead for being more competent and less competitive. Is this a cop out? Some might think so, particularly in light of the increasing interest in tournaments within the HEMA world, where despite claims that people take part to test their skills and improve their fencing, there is a clear desire, even need for some to win, win, WIN! Nothing wrong with this per se because hell, it's nice to take part and win things occasionally, but is someone who wins a longsword tournament really a representative of the "best" for that weapon? It may be so, but could it also be that they had trained specifically to be very good at tournaments, as well as being an all-round swordsman? There seems to be quite a lot of prestige and kudos for tournament winners. This is nothing new and is true for every type of competition ever held. After watching the tournaments at Swordfish for the past few years, I just sometimes wonder....Is the increase in interest in tournaments (with the attendant arguments about how different rule sets promote realism or reward buffalo-style fighters) less about being an acid test for one's skillset and really about gaining kudos from one's peers? I realise of course, that you do need to have some competitive spirit, or indeed "fighting" spirit to effectively compete against another, be it at the club level in free sparring or at a tournament. Ths is a necessary requirement. But is there a limit? Do we need to win at all costs? If the answer is yes, does this still encompass using proper historic technique, meisterhau, control and respect for the other competitior? If not, then IMO, someone who wins a tournament like this is not the best swordsman and ultimately, a poor representative for HEMA.

Just my two sents.

Swordfish 2011 review

2011-11-15T14:43:00.001+02:00

It took me a while to recover but yet again the effort of getting to and from Gothenburg was well worth it. I enjoyed most of the classes I attended and had chats and beers with some very interesting people.

Friday morning-Parrying with the Longsword by Matt Galas

On the first morning, I attended Matt Galas' class on parrying with the longsword. His premise is that although due tempi actions are found in the German schools, the single time action is considered (quite rightly) to be the pinnacle of the art. However, in his opinion, KDF exponents focus too much on the single time action, when a parry riposte is safer, albeit slower. As a Fiorist, this wasn't really news. Two things bugged me about the clclass though. First off, very few people bothered to put on masks. If I'm drilling with someone I know well, then ok, but in such a situation, I have no idea who I might end up training with. Hence, the mask. Not very cool perhaps, but I like my eyes. Me and another chap from Hammaborg had a look around during the class and we were among the only ones wearing head protection. The second thing I found a tad annoying was that even though I said I was a Fiorista, Mr. Galas, when he came to inspect us in pairs, still maintained that I should do absetzen as a parry, rather than a rebatt. Ok, as the vast majority of the class are KDF heads, this was understandable and actually, it was fun to do stuff other than what I'm used to. It was just that, as far as I'm concerned, there are lots of ways to parry, and one is as good as the other. Still, the class was very interesting with some nice drills to practice. I crossed swords with some nice people and had fun. The 3 hours went by really quickly and that's always a good sign that it was absorbing.

Friday afternoon-Halbe Stange: The quarterstaff of Joachim Meyer by Roger Norrling

This was a super interesting class. Mr. Norrling is a very dedicated teacher and began the class with an intro to the art and supplemented the experience with a short bio of the German master, presented by Mr. Kevin Maurer, another Meyer expert. The staff is a formidable weapon whose striking power alone is pretty scary, let alone a staff weapon with an axe head and spike (halberd). The footwork was interesting, more reminiscent of kung fu than what I'm used to in Fiore. Mr. Norrling showed us some solo drills that can be used to progress through the guards and practice the footwork. We moved onto pair drills and I was struck (figuratively!) by the similarities to jogo do pau. I think I may have to have a closer look at this master, it is very intriguing stuff!

Friday evening saw the usual gathering in the pub and there was a very tasty locally produced dark beer on offer this year. The Dugges beer was more expensive than usual but was well worth the cost. I took my slings and tennis balls down to one of the halls and soon had about 10 or so people coming to learn. I think they had fun although people were a bit more reserved this year, compared to last year.

Saturday morning-Ringen by (Polish chap-Gregor Medvesek)
This class had the potential to be very useful for me. I don't do nearly enough wrestling or even pummelling stuff that i should. The warm up though was (for me) a little on the tough side and although I got through it ok (I sweated buckets), I was already having doubts about lasting the full three hours. The teacher was super fit and was clear and precise in what he showed and what he wanted us to do. He also wanted to keep us moving the whole time, so it was obvious he comes from a well-disciplined group. Then I got a shoulder in the gob, split my upper lip and bled a bit. By the time it stopped I was cold and so didn't feel like jumping back into the class, so I went to watch some of the competitions instead. To be honest, although the ringen stuff was interesting, it was a good excuse to duck the rest of the class. A lot of the people there were well fit, which I'm clearly not, and had more wrestling experience to boot.

Saturday afternoon-Marozzo unarmed by Mr. Roberto Gotti
This class was a blast! As we entered the training space we were greeted by large plates from the manual by Bolognese master marrozzo, depicting blocks, breaks and throws against an opponent armed with a sharp dagger. It was very like the images found in Fiore and a lot of the techniques were very similar. Mr Gotti is very animated in his delivery and clearly loves teaching this material. Again the class went very quickly and i couldn't believe the 3 hours was up. This class was a highlight of Swordfish 2011.

The Tournament finals
In a nutshell, there was good fencing and terrible fencing. The guys were super determined and more than willing to stand toe to toe and bash the shite out of each other. That's fine I suppose, not my cup of tea though. After four years watching tournaments in Swordfish, some of the guys are still hammering, and I mean HAMMERING the snot out of each other. I just cannot understand the desire or even need to hit as hard as you possibly can. This is somehow deemed a good thing yet the claim is that these blows are still controlled. My opinion: Bollocks! Even more irksome is the macho bullshit idea that if you are afraid to get hurt, you shouldn't step into the ring, i.e. you're a pussy. If I'm in a tournament am I trying to kill my opponent? No. So I use as much control as I have so as to score hits and not unduly hurt my opponent. If he wants to hit me as hard as he can and doesn't really give a fuck about my welfare either way as long as he wins, who has the psychological advantage in the match? Look, I expect to get bruises and sprains and light injuries when doing HEMA. It's normal and acceptable and I'm fine with that. Having my fingers broken or worse, is not. I also understand that controlled aggression may be a good thing while fencing. Flicking a switch and going into "kill mode" though is just ridiculous. In the longsword final, which showed some fine and exciting fencing and grappling, unfortunately also IMO devolved at one point into a brawl on the floor and the combatants completely ignored the order to break and kept on trying to mash the other into the mat. The referee had to dive in and use a rear choke hold to pull one of the chaps off the other. Hallo people! Ummm, control? I thought that this was an embarrassing spectacle, particularly as the finals were streamed live online. Of course a lot of the crowd lapped up the argy-bargy, but last time I checked the finals were supposed to highlight HEMA not the sodding UFC.
Thankfully, there were also moments of fencing glory. The longsword match for third place was better imo than the finals. The sabre final was beautiful. The rapier and dagger finals were superb, and the now much talked about sword and buckler finals was nothing short of inspiring. Here we witnessed simple but precise technique beat the buffalo-type fencer. Despite getting two heavy afterblows to the sword arm and ribs, the s&b champion, Christine Konsmo, continued to dominate her larger and heavier opponent, going on to win in a very convincing manner.

Saturday evening saw us slinging again, with fewer number as many people attended the now traditional Midnight Brawlers club. One fun slinging innovation this year was the Mexican standoff where we had two teams of 3 or 4 on each side of the hall slinging tennis balls at each other. My thanks to the Hammaborg folks from Swordfish 2010 for inspiring this. My one regret though is that although I took my video camera along to capture the atmosphere, in the fun I completely forgot. Oh well, perhaps next year.

Sunday morning- Bolognese sword by Ilkka Hartikkainen
This was a very interesting class and Ilkka was very nice not to give us a horrible warm up. We went through footwork, single and paired drills and pedagogic techniques to help our training partners learn proper form. Ilkka kindly used me as his demo partner so although sometimes winded and a bit confused, he generously offered me some very valuable one on one instruction in front of the rest of the class. I think I'll have to visit his group Espoo Historiallisen Miekkailun Seura at some time in the future.

Overall impressions? Superb! The Gothenburg Historical Fencing School excelled as per usual and pushed the envelope even further with technical innovation, such as the live streaming tournament finals. The venue is ideally located and set up for the event and in its way is also a "star". Negatives? Just a little niggle. Swordfish is getting big, lots more people. It used to be that everyone knew and spoke with everyone else. This year people seemed to be just a tad serious about everything. I had the impression that groups didn't seem to mix much outside their own and at least I felt like there was some sort of hierarchy thing happening. Sometimes it felt a little like being in school, where the cool kids and jocks are the centre of the universe and only associate with their own kind, and some people came off as a bit smug. Weird. The Midnight Brawlers affair was much more serious than it has been, with much longer brawls and a real focus on winning the bouts. Used to be you had to have at least a few beers in you before you could compete. Then again maybe its boring to watch and more fun to do.
To finishing on a positive: It was great to see first timers to Swordfish come away inspired to continue their HEMA training. It was also great craic drinking beers and slinging with sword-meet veterans likeNigel Plum and Kit (surname?), both of which took part in everything with obvious great enjoyment. I look forward to perhaps visiting Dijon or maybe even Fightcamp in 2012.

Swordfish 2011

2011-10-26T18:23:00.001+03:00

Well, it's just around the corner. I'm getting all my gear ready for the greatest sword meet in the Nordic countries. This year the good folks at Gothenburg Historical Fencing School (http://www.ghfs.se/) have yet again organised a pretty eclectic event with LOADS of opportunities for sparring, steel sword competitions, as well as interesting workshops and lectures. At first glance, I thought the schedule looked rather German-centric, although a closer inspection also shows some Bolognese fencing, stuff from Marozzo, rapier from Fabris, and loads more! The steel tournaments should be interesting to watch and to see if the quality will differ from previous years using plastic weapons. I expect so, simply because the skill levels have anyway risen since I first attended Swordfish 4 years ago. So, it's less about the weapon and more about the wielders. Again, kudos to the Swordfish crew for being open to this sort of thing, especially as I'm really sick of hearing how dangerous steel is. I wonder if certain members of GHFS have had changes of heart about steel since visiting different groups in Poland and elsewhere? More information non the workshops on offer, as well as the instructors, can be found here.

I think I'll have to make more of an effort this year to engage in some friendly sparring, not least as there will be blocks of coached sparring during the weekend. I have to admit that I have a bit of a mental block about sparring. I don't like to lose, I don't mind it so much, I guess I'm most afraid of looking stupid and making stupid mistakes. I haven't trained sparring for ages and this only adds to my reluctance to take part in what I see as an essential component of fencing training. So, time to bite the bullet and jump in with both feet! I'm also loking forward to a class on staff fighting. It's based on a German MS, but a staff is a staff so it shouldn't be that drastically different.

At last count I've got something like 20 slings and 3 fustibals (staff slings) ready to go for another fringe event of slinging this year. Slingfish 2011, here I come! I bought a load of new tennis balls and washed my older ones so there should be plenty zipping about on Thursday and Friday night, perhaps Saturday night also, if there is interest. I'll take my video camera along and try to get some footage of the slinging and anything else I can. I think I'd also like to use the evenings to do a little extra friendly sparring as well as have dinner and a few beers with old friends and hopefully, some new ones too!

All in all, I think it will be very interesting!

Reviewing technique with video....

2011-10-17T09:45:00.002+03:00

The title says it all.

Staff sling

2011-10-15T22:52:00.002+03:00

Here's a youtube vid. Pretty self explanatory really.

Cutting class video

2011-09-22T17:38:00.000+03:00

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! :-)

He's back!

2011-09-19T10:56:00.000+03:00

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!

Sling gallery

2011-09-19T10:31:00.001+03:00

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:

Update

2011-09-09T21:47:00.000+03:00

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.

Waiting for the snow to melt...

2011-03-14T23:34:00.000+02:00

The poxy weather has started to get on my wick. The thermometer is slowly creeping into the positive yet can still drop below zero some days and at night. The snow is starting to dissipate and brown dead grasses and months-old frozen dogshit begin to emerge.

I cycled to town last week for the first time since November, reminding me that we've had heavy snow since then. Four bloody months! I must also admit that having a car has made me lazy and so giving up the bike didn't feel like too much of a sacrifice. Still, cycling on a fragile half-melted snow crust, through large and deep puddles and dodging deep frozen ruts was not a pleasureable experience. My tyres have zero grip and the entire trip was a struggle to keep either the front or back wheel from sliding out underneath me. Still, I managed to work up a good sweat, got my heart rate up and now I'm looking forward to getting back on the saddle.

To pass the time in the evenings I've been making slings from Paracord, which I managed to order from a quirky Finnish army surplus store called varusteleka (http://www.varusteleka.fi/). It's the genuine US army paracord and cost 12 euros for 30 metres. Best of all, it's available in various colours so it's nice to make dual coloured slings. I've been concentrating on two different designs, the tried and tested closed pouch sling, and the open pouch version.

As can be seen from the pictures, these slings are primarily designed for slinging tennis balls. However, while the split pouch, also named the vagina sling by my Italian friend, is specifically designed for a tennis ball; the closed pouch will also readily cast golf balls and stones. I think I might call the former a kinky sling. I've given a few of these away already and am still in two minds as to whether I might start to ask for some money, if only to pay for the Paracord. Let's see if people are still interested in having one.

I was also interested in making a super cheap and nasty band-sling. I made these from some cloth bands I got in a hardware shop. I cut 2 pieces 15 cm in length and punched holes at each end in each. The holes were reinforced with brass grommets and Paracord used as the tether and anchor strings. The trick to making a pouch is to twist one of the bands before attaching it at the other end. This sling works pretty well but the bands really need to be fixed so they cannot twist open. I found another much better design on http://www.slinging.org/ in which the bands are sewn together by a slinger whose user name is "OwthatsmyEye" http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1172017416/45 and looks like this:

Isn't it gorgeous???

So, I have plenty to be going on with while I'm waiting for this seemingly perpetual winter to end.

Slinging videos

2010-12-03T11:26:00.001+02:00

Syllabus Day revelations

2010-11-30T13:53:00.001+02:00

Last Saturday saw some intrepid Turkunians braving the cold and heading to the Helsinki salle to brush up on our syllabus material. From start to finish the day was full of revelations for me. The whole giocco largo/stretto thing has been around for a bit now and it was really great to have a solid frame of reference for how the swords cross. Guy showed the crossing as positions, two in largo, two in stretto. What makes them differ is whether the points are in line and whether there is pressure on the blade.

Let us assume that my training partner has attacked with a fendente mandritto and I rebattere from tutta porta di ferro to frontale. The swords will make contact somewhere in between.

Position 1: (largo) I successfully beat the incoming sword to my inside. The point is no threat. I lay my sword across the attacker's hands, stepping sideways to my outside, before thrusting to the chest. I could also strike a fendente roverso to the head. The counter is to yield, pommel strike and enter.

Position 2: (stretto) I successfully beat the incoming sword to my inside but not as far as in position 1, i.e. it is closer to the central line. The opponent can put some pressure on my blade, their point holds more threat as it is closer to my head. I control the other's blade by grabbing near their point with my offhand, and cutting/thrusting one-handed to their head, while stepping in. The counter is to yield pommel strike and enter.

Position 3: (stretto) The swords are crossed close to the middle line and the other's point is close to me, with pressure on my blade. I cannot leave the bind as the opponent could simply press their attack or angulate the point to my head or chest. If I try to grab the other's sword I will lose stability and they press their attack, so I bind over, step in and grab the other's pommel, disarming and thrusting. Surprise, surprise, the counter is to pommel strike and enter ! :-)

Position 4: (largo) I fail to rebattere successfully and my sword is bound over to my outside. From here the attacker will step to his outside and strike to my head with a fendente roverso or as described in position 1. The attacker's point is not a threat and in seeking to bind on my sword, the attacker's blade is not directed towards me. I yield to the pressure, pommel strike and enter.

Neat! I now have a zip code of tactical choices depending on where the cross happens. Obviously these 4 positions are points along a continuum, but they are concrete and easy to remember.

There was loads more fun stuff which made me realise I need to get to train in Helsinki more. Perhaps for a lot of people this was basic basic but I loved it! I'm quite envious of the Helsinki folks. They have direct access to this material. It's no wonder we're quite behind in Turku. Unfortunately, there is no training today as the school where we normally have classes is using the space. Bugger! Can't wait 'til Thursday though!

Power walking and bloody royalty

2010-11-23T14:49:00.002+02:00

Took both of my 3kg steel clubs for a 45 minute walk yesterday. I think I may have bitten off more than i could chew though. My left elbow was feeling the strain and I began to cramp in both hands, suggesting that I'm gripping too hard. Got a good sweat going though :-)

I think i may have strained my elbow a little after last saturday's training. We did quite a lot of push-ups and I probably pop up too hard causing my elbows to over extend. Hmm, need to watch that.

In future, I think one club will suffice. I definitely need to alternate the work done my each arm with a rest period.

Overall, a lot of fun though. Got my mp3 player going and it was lovely to walk along the woodland paths with some snow underfoot. Good clean cold air!

I'm a bit pissed off at the SG forum. There has been a thread on Kate Middleton and I wrote about not being a supporter of the monarchy, any monarchy. The thread had anyway devolved into folks just taking cheap shots. Nothing new for the "pub" but whenever any sort of reference to anything irish is made, the snide remarks covered with smiley faces start appearing. Ok, the forum is based in the UK, so I suppose I should not be surprised. It just galls me a bit that certain people on the forum like it to be known that the UK is superior to the rest of the world in every way. Any sort of comment to the contrary will bring out the "Rule Brittania!", Union Jacks, and God save the Queen and sweeping generalisations. It doesn't do any good to try to reply in a reasonable way, smart arses will nitpick every word you write to make themselves appear better and the veiled "how dare you presume otherwise!" attitude prevails....Bollocks! Someone wrote that it was no surprise that "the Irish" do not like the English monarchy and that this dislike is based on emotional rather than historical/logical reasons. But what historical/logical reasons do exist for the Irish to love Queen Liz et al. ffs? Typically, no-one was forthcoming on this point. Ludramans! Think I'll stay out of the pub for a bit.

Slingfish 2010

2010-11-08T17:46:00.000+02:00

Got back from Swordfish 2010 this morning early. I feel strung out and absolutely knackered for some reason. Must be getting old but the event really took it out of me this year and I was taking it wasy.

In a nutshell the event was a blast! Well-organised, interesting and diverse workshops and competition events, excellent people and discussions and well, the time goes by all too fast!

I had the car this year so I took along 10 slings I made and a bucket of tennis balls. I had suggested to a few people I met for the first time that they might like to come along to one of the halls and try it out. Not a class per se, more of a brief intro and then just let them get on with it. We started off doing underarm casts, and I just added a new cast style in front of everyone every 20 minutes or so. I showed underarm, Greek (2 variations), and the figure 8. Some people came up with their own style. In many ways I think it was most fortunate that the first people that came to sling were a group of germans. They showed a natural aptitude and after 30 minutes of fun were asking to buy the slings!

This got the ball rolling. We left the door to the training hall open so passersby could see what was going on and I actively invited them to take part if they looked interested. After a brief instruction on how to hold the sling and a basic tutorial of 2 or 3 minutes, the newcomer was whizzing tennis balls with everyone else. It was really cool to see how the first tentative or totally misdirected shots started to improve after 10 minutes practice. A very few took to it naturally and could generate power and a good degree of accuracy. There still people slinging 3 hours later!

I sold or gave away all of the slings, even my "old faithful", the first woven pouch sling I made earlier this summer. I made sure they were cheap because it wasn't about making money as such (although it was welcome beer money :-) ), it was about spreading the word on slings and slinging. As I write this, my slings are in England, Germany, Sweden and Norway! Result!

Finally, it was most gratifying to get such great feedback from people at the event, even suggestions that I offer a slinging class next year! Well, I don't know about that, because I think that the infomal nature of the slinging this year (along with a beer or two) was an integral part of making the whole experience most fun. Who knows what may happen next year?

I gave out the slinging forum address, (i.e. http://www.slinging.org/) to as many people as I could, so that they could also get more info and start to make their own slings. As I left the event and said my goodbyes, I was told by one of the visiting instructors that he had really the enjoyed slinging and that before he started he was just about to go to bed. He was still slinging an hour and a half later! He also reckoned that the fun slinging could be incorporated into an upcoming international event in Texas. Another German chap reckoned that something similar could easily be organised when next his club visited another HEMA club in Denmark.

So, Swordfish 2010 was a very good event for me in many ways. Kudos, thanks and continued respect to all the organisers and in particular, the fine people of the Gothenburg Historical Fencing School.

Tack för allt! Vi ses nästä år! (hope that's correct :-) )

Unbalanced power walking

2010-10-08T21:35:00.000+03:00

Felt a little bit yuck after I drove home from work so I hemmed and hawed a bit about going for a jog/walk. I decided to do a compromise and do a brisk walk for 45 minutes with one of the 3 kg clubs. Basically my idea is a sort of power walking where I really pump my arms either straight forwards and backwards as I walk, or in a sort of "John Wayne" gait, where the arms are pumped more in front of the body. I chose a route that was hilly to add to the effort and switched the club between hands as I went. I could also increase the resistance depending on where I gripped the club. The fact that there was weight on only one side at a time meant I had to keep my core solid otherwise the imbalance would make me wobble all over the place.

Great work out! Perhaps I should try this again with paired clubs?

Getting fit...or trying to

2010-10-08T14:34:00.000+03:00

I've decided, enough is enough. No more sitting around on my arse in the evenings! Ok, I've had a long summer season with long days and lots of diving and hefting gear around, which means I've got a bit of muscle but I'm far from being aerobically fit. I used to jog a lot before I ripped my knee cartilage and one or two attempts to begin jogging again left me with knee pain. Probably because I tried to do too much too fast with the obvious results. This experience and the fact that at heart I'm a lazy git has made me shy away from reattempting the whole jogging thing.

But, no more! I togged out on Monday this week and decided to do a 2-5-2-5 session, which is a 2 minute brisk walk as a warm up, followed by 5 minutes of a soft slow jog, then 2 minutes to get the breath back, then jog for 5 minutes, and so on. As well as pacing myself on the jog, I had to resist the impulse to do more than the initial five reps of each exercise even though I was bloody knackered by the fifth rep. I'll continue with this for a while until it becomes easy and then lengthen the jogging intervals. I played with a soft rolling gait where I land heel first and roll along the sole like in Fiore footwook, rather than coming down hard on the heel. In between I also tried lightly jogging on the balls of my feet. This is much "springier" and utilises the ankle and toe joints. Nice to feel the difference but perhaps not the most efficient for jogging. I could be wrong but I feel iot's more efficient to move mass as smoothly forward as possible and not waste energy boucing it up and down. Looking forward to donning my running shoes again when I get home tonight!

After I got back from the jog, I did a session with one of my 3kg steel clubs. This was a good way to stretch a bit and warm down slowly. It also helped to work my upper body a bit. I rounded off the session with some chi kung, which is always nice to practice outdoors.

I tried doing some Balearic style slinging yesterday and it was a lot of fun and I was surprised how much power is generated with the final snap and release. This is basically the same as a simple underhand cast but the sling rotates in a plane at about 45 degrees to the line of the shoulders and more behind you. The release is also more sidearm than underhand. I have to work quite a bit with this style because the angle of the plane of rotation seems to be critical to where the projectile goes with a sidearm release.

Check out this chap who uses natural plant fibre to make his own slings. He's pretty handy with it too!

Hmm, think I'll have to get me own video camera out and film some footage of my own!

Spreading the word..

2010-09-27T12:03:00.000+03:00

The first part of training last Saturday was interesting and fun. We went through some of the basic stuff of dagger, footwork and unarmed posta. I never get tired of doing this material because it's ALWAYS relevant and never time wasted. One of the other trainees had done about half of the beginner's course and then had to quit because of shoulder surgery. Although there was loads of stuff to digest, she remembered an awful lot and did really well with good humour throughout. I hope she enjoyed it and will continue to come to training. Our club needs people like this. Quite inspiring!

I took along some tennis balls and a bunch of slings to Saturday's training and after the first part we had a line of four people slinging tennis balls at the wall. Some got it faster than others. Interestingly, although it was only supposed to be for about 10-15 minutes, people were quite happy to continue for much longer. Another thing I noticed was that no-one complained about being cold, so it actually could be quite a good warm down exercise. I made sure to apologise for "hijacking" the latter half of training but I don't think the others minded too much. Perhaps I could lead training with an occasional warm-up using tennis balls, skipping ropes, clubs and sticks etc. to work on things like hand-eye coordination skills, etc. ? Hmm, food for thought...

In future, one thing I should stress though is not to try to use full power when starting off with the sling. As we are so often told in training: go slowly, concentrate on good technique, speed/power comes later. This is just as true for slinging as for swordsmanship. Tennis balls are a fun alternative to golfballs or stones to train with. They are very close to the same size and weight so this constistency is good if you want to work on technique and particularly, accuracy. Well and good. However, tennis balls are light, lack mass, and the fuzzy surface tends to increase air drag, which means they can curve quite a bit in flight and just don't travel as far as golf balls or stones. This means that there is a tendency to use a lot of power to make them fly long distances because they tend to have quite a curved trajectory and drop onto the target. In my experience, this added power without good technique can result in quite painful joints, specifically the elbow joint.

So, if you find your elbows hurt after slinging say for an hour or for 100 casts (whatever your training regime), something is wrong and I'd recommend a review of cast technique, what level of power is employed, and what type of projectile is used. Concentrate on getting the cast as smooth as possible. A smooth fluid cast can also generate a surprising amount of power so try to keep the arm and shoulder relaxed. Remember also that the whole body can be used, not just the hand, arm and shoulder. Unlike weapon-based arts where the weapon leads, in slinging, rotational force (centrifugal or centripetal, I can never remember which is which) is first generated from the hips and flows domino-like through the shoulder, arm, hand and finally the sling itself.

Happy slinging!

Slinging at a wall

2010-09-19T01:23:00.001+03:00

Took my slings to sword training today. I thought it would be fun for the others to have a go and for me to gauge to some extent how people might react when they have the chance to use slings for the first time. Well, apart from me there were only two others at training but they gave it a go and were soon able to pelt the tennis balls against the far wall (30 feet away). Tennis balls are definitely a safe option for indoors provided there is enough space. Result! It's also a good way to take a break between classes on saturdays because the session runs to 3 hours. It could also be a fun warm-down.

I initially got the idea because on the far wall are two squares measuring about 30 x 30 cm, made from duct tape. In Finland they call this Jesus tape (jeesus teippi), because of its multiple uses. I guess these have been used by people training basketball or baseball or something like that. Anyhoo, I figured these squares would also offer perfect targets for slinging as they really stand out clearly and the tennis balls are also clear against the silvery grey square edges. The centres of the squares are about my eye height.

Before sword training began, I managed to get the ball at least three times into the squares but as we were finishing up, I tried several more casts using Greek style and was bang on target three times in a row! A nice way to finish off the day! Following this experience, I think I may apply a couple of the duct tape squares to the tarp I bought as a back stop and start working more on accuracy from shorter distances.

I was so pumped at this mini-success that as soon as I came home I made yet another woven pouch sling!

Here's a chap using different versions of greek or byzantine style slinging. Enjoy!

Back to training

2010-09-17T00:21:00.000+03:00

Was back at training tonight and it was a lot of fun. We went through fairly basic stuff such as the unarmed flow drill, which is always good to practice. I've described this before in my blog but it always surprises me just how versatile this drill actually is. The concept of tempo and how to break the other's timing, using power derived from the hips and volta stabile rather than the hands and arms leaves the latter more relaxed to better feel what the partner is doing. Finally, pushing elbows and arms by driving the power through the back leg as the passing step is made. One thing we noticed tonight though is that the roles of the right and left hand are reversed in the ligadura soprano, which we normally practice against a dagger strike from the right, with the left hand making the initial block to the wrist and the right hand threading the figure-4 lock. It still works! Neat!

Sling training yesterday wasn't so good. I finally got around to bringing a tarp which I set up about 25 metres away. The golfballs made a lovely sound when they hit it too. The operative word in the last sentence though is "when". They went over, under left and right of a nearly 3 m2 surface. Pathetic! Oh well. Just a bad day, I guess. Next time will be better!

Although I've been making slings, mainly ones with a woven pouch, I thought to start collecting others as well. This week, 4 new slings arrived from a very nice chap from the US called Glen Moore. His sling design is wonderful and is particularly suited for round projectiles like golf, tennis or baseballs. Glen's blog is here. And here's a short vid of the man in action, with eggs!

Man, he uses long slings! All of the available literature I've read says to start with a short sling and a short distance and go longer with time. I've also found myself that a short sling is more accurate. I guess it's something like if your hand-eye coordination is good when you throw a stone accurately, the compensation involved when extending your coordination beyond the reach of you fingertips is commensurate to the length of the sling. So it's a trade off initially between accuracy and added power to the projectile.

Ah what the hell, it's just loads of fun!

Sling song

2010-09-15T17:28:00.000+03:00

Training with the sling continues apace with a definite increase in control and accuracy. Ok, the balls or stones i use to shoot with still go all over the place but I can at least usually hit the target 10% of the time. For the last couple of days I've swithced back to using golf balls and minimum force to get them to the target. previously, I've been using tennis balls which are light and have a higher air resistance, meaning than more effort is required to propel them any distance to a target. As a result, I can usually feel it in my elbow after slinging 100 balls, so I should really concentrate more on short range accuracy using little power.

Each training session I try to shoot a minimum of 100 shots and rotate between 4 styles: underhand, figure 8, Greek and a cross-body sidearm cast. This last one is probably best shown by this chap on youtube.

Pretty, isn't it? He makes it look really easy. I find I'm most accurate with this style and the Greek, followed by the underhand cast. Whichever casting method, my projectiles tend to be more lobbed into a target rather than a nice horizontal almost flat trajectory. I'm having some problems with the figure eight cast, notably the projectile is being released too early resulting in a really high trajectory and/or it tends to go to my left. More work is needed.

I may get the chance to take some slings and tennis balls to Swordfish 2010 and offer, well not a class exactly, let's call it an "opportunity" for people to come along and give it a try. I got the ok to do it so I've been thinking a bit about how best to organise things. Think I'll keep it really informal once I've got the basic safety stuff taken care of. Should be a laugh. I've been busy making different kinds of slings as well as ordering them on the net from other slingers. I'll have to get my ass in gear if i want to have enough made for Swordfish.

Right, time to log off, switch off the computer and brave the elements for a little slinging practice in the great outdoors.

Slings and arrows of outrageous fortune...

2010-08-15T00:24:00.000+03:00

Haven't posted for a bit because I've been working at sea since the beginning of July. Long days working in the boat don't leave much energy or desire for swinging a sword. I've noticed also my lack of interest in the whole giocco largo-stretto thing and what happens when swords cross. Well, whoopdy doo! I can go to seminars and follow the instructions but I've somehow been letting this sort of stuff just get in the way of enjoying training and occasionally just having a good old bout of sparring. One of my biggest obstacles to sparring originally has been thinking too much about what was happening and not just reacting according to the trained pattern learned through many repetitions of drills.

Anyway, I've been redirecting my interest towards longbow archery and slinging this summer instead. I used to practice target archery in uni with a 28lb 3-piece recurved bow, which had all the "bells and whistles", poker, counterweights, clicker, sights and an arrow rest. I always liked the fact that unlike shooting a gun, the power to shoot the arrow to the target comes from me alone through the bow. But it's not just about the physical force required, it's a combination of will, concentration and mastery of a plethora of little details, which if combined correctly put the arrow where you want it. I got a lovely 40lb flat section ash bow as a wedding present and it's a joy to use. I'm relatively accurate at 25 m but occasionally an arrow will go astray. I love the fact that it's so basic yet with a lot of practice can still be an effective weapon. The sling is an entirely different kettle of fish. Simpler in appearance than a bow, it is yet subtly more complicated to use. Shooting for distance is easy once you get the release down, but slinging for accuracy is very difficult.

Underarm style: the wind up...

And......release!

I made some slings for myself from string: one is a braided pouch sling made from 4mm polypropylene, the other is a six-braid sling made from jute. Both are big enough for tennis balls but I prefer the former for slinging golf balls. I began by slinging just underhand for distance but have since also began using the Greek and figure-of-eight styles also.

Greek or Byzantine style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZguQCgsvA

Figure 8 style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJjXXnDSB4s

Indian clubs

2010-03-18T22:53:00.006+02:00

Erm,.....no.

I've had some 3 kgs steel indian clubs for a few weeks now and have been practicing with them on a regular basis. I got them online from some sort of Finnish fitness shop, where they are called "voimakeilat" (power clubs/skittles, ugh! ridiculous name!) More recently, I've been watching a DVD by Pete Kautz which shows some fundamentals of club use for martial artists, in Pete's case, particularly those who practice Bowie knife fighting. Interestingly, in the DVD Mr. Kautz doesn't show much in the way of club swinging, but pointing with the clubs instead, in conjunction with footwork in order to develop core structure, joint strength, balance etc.

There are LOADS of vids on youtube showing different methods of using clubs, from wee 1 or 2lb ones to whopping great 50lb meels! Some good, some not so good. One thing I have concluded from the last few weeks practice is that 3kg clubs are too heavy to start with. I think i'll try to get a 1.5 kg pair instead and build up to occasionally using the heavier set. Another is that using the clubs isn't necessarily about developing wrist flexibility, at least NOT with heavy clubs, that way lies injury. I guess the question that needs to be asked is what you want to train for.

If you want wrist flexibility and mobility with some conditioning then light 1 or 2 lb clubs are probably best. Pete Kautz reckons 5lb clubs are his upper limit and even for a longsword wielder, these should be more than sufficient. He also reckons it's less about the actual weight and more about their leverage. If however, you wanted to develop a bit of mass, core strength, balance, etc. for something like wrestling or abrazare, then perhaps heavier paired clubs, or a really heavy single club might be more appropriate. Horses for courses!

So, it all depends on HOW you use them. Swinging from the shoulder or elbow is ok, the wrists stay straight, e.g. in exercises know as "mills". The swings can be powered by driving from the legs and hips. You can get an idea of some exercises from these videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DHXuzCCh7w

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wl9cUbZu9k

I like this dude. I hope to be in as good a shape when I'm sixty! Twist and cast, an dhave a blast! :-)

Singlestick shenanigans

2010-03-15T22:06:00.004+02:00

I lead a class last Saturday and we covered some basics of singlestick. At times frustrating, because I couldn't explain properly what I wanted people to do, or just couldn't understand the "simple" lessons, a la Mr. Taylor, it was still a lot of fun.

I splashed out and got myself the books on broadsword by Paul Wagner, Mark Rector and the one by R.C. Allanson-Winn and C. Phillipps-Wolley. The life of Messer. Donald McBane makes for a rollicking good read and the latter is pretty good too, particularly the descriptions of shillelagh fighting! Whirroo! Anyway, I've trawled through the first two and glimpsed at the third as a base for making a class or two. Overall, broadsword does not seem to be as refined as, say smallsword, but it appeals to me as a brutal weapon. Also, I think once we get going in our group, it'll be a lot of fun to have some light free play.

We strarted the class with the footwork, which is very simple, we just used the large circle in the cenre of the court (for basketball), had everyone adopt an outside guard with the swords pointing in to the centre of the circle and on a signal from me, everyone traversed around the circle, first one direction, then the other. Looked good and it was fun to check where our feet were after taking ten or so steps. They tend to wander off the circle for some reason!

The guards exercises and cutting drills went quite well also. I also got quite good ideas for how to do these from the chaps at the Cateran Society and the videos they've kindly posted on Youtube. The cuts and guards seem at first glance to be very large moves, but the more we went through the cuts and guards exeercise, I realised that the shift from making a cut to a guard is actually and indeed should be quite small. For example, if you cut to the right cheek of your opponent and recover to inside guard, the sword, following the cut, simply retreats back along the same line, keeping the centre closed and the point online. Ok, it sounds very obvious but only became so to be after I transitioned from simply reading about the exercise, to actually doing it.

The pair drills hit a bit of a wall though. The directions in Taylor's 10 simple lessons are almost in a dialogue form, not a new thing to anyone who has read the Fiore treatises. For example in the first lesson, it goes something like this:

Cut at my head - guard your own
Cut at my leg outside- guard your head

Simple right? It doesn't say though from which guard to start. Are both partners in the same guard? I figured we could both start in Hanging Guard (the version which covers the centreline and right side). So far so good. But then we got stuck at the second/third move. It didn't seem a logical move to protect your head, which we did with a St. George's Guard, only to take this cover away to try to strike at the outside leg of the opponent. Another version I've seen by the Cateran Society lads (Using Angelo's 10 lessons for sabre) has the exact same lesson except that a cut to the inside leg is made, which we found somehow easier to do. From Fiore experience, we already know that cutting at the leg is risky as it exposes your head, so I think we all had a bit of a brain fart at the directions given. Even if a powerful blow to the head could be stopped by the St. George's Guard, if the covering sword is removed, what's to stop the attacker simply slipping back an doing a draw cut down the forehead and face? Hmmm! Much discussion ensued.

I went back to the Youtube (God bless it!) to check the pair drill videos from Angelo again. There it was, plain as day. The cover is followed by an immediate cut to the leg (inside cut) which forces the partner to slip/shift back their front leg and make an immediate counter to the head. In turn you also slip back and cover again. Most of the treatises I read stressed that such a move is risky but needs to be practiced and is great for the footwork as it forces changes between advance, lunge and slipping the leg. So, rather than thinking of it solely as a tactical exercise, it perhaps should have been viewed as a cutting/footwork one instead.

We finished up with some cutting exercises where the attacker just attacks and the defender just defends. This was fun as again it showed than a relatively small move of the sword hand can very quickly close the line and cover the head and body. At this stage it was always the same order and so very easy. Later, it will be even more interesting when the cuts come in random order! :-) FUN!

Taylor (or was it Mathiewson?) talks about six main cuts plus one that come straight down on top of the head, (in effect 7 cuts) and gives them Roman numerals, much like the mulinello of Fiore. Using Fiore terminology thus:
Cut I: fendente mandritto
Cut II: fendente roverso
Cut III: sottano mandritto
Cut IV: Sottano roverso
Cut V: mandritto mezano
Cut VI: Roverso mezano
and the seventh cut, which doesn't get a number. However, when describing the above exercise, he also uses such numerals to tell which cut to make. Only problem is that now Cut I (straight down on top of the head) is actually the seventh cut, Cut II (left cheek) is Cut II (ok), Cut III (right cheek) is Cut I and so on. Phew! It's interesting thought that he starts with a left side cut to transition to a right side guard, and so it continues through the exercise, cut left guard right, cut right guard left.

The Cateran Society guys explain way more simply though. Using the dialogue-like directions as described above, they describe the drill like this:
Attack the head-defend my own
Attack high outside-defend high outside
Attack high inside-defend high inside
Attack low outside-defend low outside
Attack low inside-defend low inside
Cut to the leg-slip the leg/cover head
Cut to the wrist-defend the wrist

It's not as complicated as it may read! Also doing the exercise makes it clear really quickly. I'm looking forward to the next class already!

Making a singlestick

2010-02-22T15:29:00.006+02:00

Just a quick post with some ideas for making your own singlestick. The design is copied from Guy Windsor and is cheap and easy to make. Ok, it's not beautiful but function over form is more important if you want to knock out half a dozen serviceable and durable weapons on the cheap.

Plastic buoy made from hard plastic, easily available from a hardware shop, costs 4 euros a pop. Circumference 470 mm, diameter 155 mm.

The first is the basket. Guy has used plastic buoys for fishing nets. Drill two holes with a hole-cutter and cut off approximately the back third using a jig-saw. It's advisable to smooth the edges down either using a file, or perhaps by applying a flame. Be careful of fumes, fire, hot dripping plastic though! Some guys have also just taped the edge with duct-tape (called Jesus-teippi in Finnish because it perfoms miracles!).

Super high-tech drawing (NOT!) showing a cross-section of the construction. The "pip" in front of the stick (top left) is the side view of the rim, through which a buoy rope may be passed. Two cross pins are shown to keep the basket in place.

The stick itself is rattan, but hickory or the more traditional ash could also be used. I'm not sure where to source rattan from here in Finland, but Purpleheart Armory stock them, also hickory sticks. Obviously the holes drilled in the basket will depend on which stick material you use. The stick is held in place by drilling a transverse hole at the bottom of the stick and tapping a dowel into the hole. A similar arrangement can also be used at the top of the basket. The models we have (surprise surprise!) though use duct-tape to keep the basket in place above the hand.

That's it!

Backsword, smallsword and singlestick

2010-02-11T12:23:00.002+02:00

There was a seminar in Helsinki last weekend on backsword, which of course I missed. Anyhow, judging from the feedback from the chaps who went from Turku, they had a blast. So much so that Timo bought 5 or 6 singlestick simulators on the spot. These are made from rattan cane which have cut orange plastic buoys attached as the "basket". We got to play with these at training on Tuesday and I thought it was brilliant. I started to look up books and treatises on the subject and there is a wealth of information available, from treatises by the Hopes, William and Thomas, the gladiator pimp McBane, George Silver and Thomas Page, to books by Paul Wagner and Chris Thompson. There are even some quite good videos on youtube from The Cateran Society which show at least their interpretations of how Highlanders may have fought using the backsword.

The guys who went to the seminar said that they got a sort of generic introduction based on a general mix of treatises, as some guards were simply given numbers, one , two three, or tierce, quatre, etc, while others gave them names, i.e hanging guard, St. George's guard, inside high, outside low etc.

Now my interest has been piqued I have begun to wonder how to proceed. Obviously reading treatises is a good start, but perhaps this should also back up current interpretations by scholars of the weapon. Iirc Angelo is the main source for backsword in the swordschool, but this seems to be strongly based on smallsword, which for my taste looks a bit too fiddly and gentrified compared to the broader bladed basket-hilt swords. This is just my opinion though, which may yet change!

Whichever source, the idea of taking a sabbatical from Fiore just to concentrate on backsword seems very attractive!

En garde!

Vaccinations and preparations

2010-02-06T20:16:00.002+02:00

Prior to our upcoming trip to Peru in six weeks, my wife and I visited the doctors to get some shots for yellow fever, typhoid and swine flu. Well, I thought I'd be ok after these but had an attack of shivering and chills the same night, followed by fever and a serious dose of the sweats. I took the following day off work to recover and am more or less fully recovered apart from a stiff shoulder where I got the swine flu shot. I guess i was lucky. I've heard of others who've been really sick for days after getting the vaccination.

Other preparations have included learning Spanish, or at least trying to. We borrowed and bought textbooks in order to learn the basics and I also bought a CD series which I transferred to my mp3 player so I can listen travelling to and from work. I can pick up vocabulary readily but the grammar is more difficult. Weirdly enough, although spanish is not terribly different from french, a language I learned in school for several years and did quite well at, finnish grammar keeps sneaking in and hijacking my thought processes. So, I keep thinking of what I want to say first in english, before it passes through some sort of weird finnish filter, then comes out as poor spanish. And it takes a long time! I hope that I meet some patient people when we go there! Nevertheless, i like spanish a lot, the rolled r's, it's overall cadence and musicality. Que bonita!

One really fun thing about this trip is buying the gear for being in the rainforest. Waterproof bags, head lamps, anti fungal and insect powders (still to get) and a hundred other things I've not even thought of yet. And it's so easy to get caught up in the details of gear...how many lumens does your headlight have? how quick drying are your trousers? does the anti-insect powder work against chiggers as well?

I'm thinking about bringing some sort of telescopic fishing rod and the associated gear as it's always been my drean to fish in the Amazon also. I probably won't have a clue as to what species I might catch (without having to ask first) but this just adds to the overall appeal.

I guess this explains in part why I have sort of placed the sword stuff on the back burner since the end of last year. This trip and work occupy my mind to the point where there isn't a lot of room for much else.

Easing off...

2010-02-02T17:43:00.003+02:00

Haven't written for a while. I'm not particularly bothered though. I'm still training at least twice a week and enjoying it immensely. I only have to lead classes every second saturday so in the meantime I can just turn up and train. Brilliant!

I'm still not sure why the hell fencing became such an all-consuming obsession for me last year, to the point where I was thinking about it 24-7. Ah well, no worries. My work takes up a lot of my brainpower these days and has relegated swording back to the position of being a hobby, something to enjoy a few times a week and while I'm doing it, I don't think about what Finns called the "arkipäivä", humdrum everyday stuff.

The one thing I notice though is that I don't really check the manuals as much as I used to do. Maybe I'll head to a one-day seminar in Helsinki soon, maybe not. As I said above, I'm not too bothered either way. With the recent changes happening in the sword school, I'm more inclined to sit back and see how things pan out with new interpretations than trying to pick up every nuance and new change that pops up. Truth to tell, I've read the last article on the crossing of the swords several times, and I STILL don't really get how if I'm close enough to smack someone with the pommel it's somehow largo because my point is not making a threat, or something (?). I'll figure it out in time.

Right, off to training!

Middle Ages spread

2009-11-26T16:46:00.002+02:00

Realised the other day that the old MAS has begun. Damn! It seems I've just slid into a lifestyle pattern which is pretty sedentary and comfortable and includes quite a lot of goodies, like biccies (my one weakness, or one of my weaknesses) with every cup of tea or coffee.

It started a few weeks ago when Mr. Windsor visited Turku. During the warmup we do this exercise where we sit on the floor and raise the feet about six inces and either hold that position or move the legs. It just hurts my back and I feel not just a pull in my lower abs but like I have absolutely no power there to keep my feet off the floor. Frustrating!

I often enjoy watching programmes on TV where overweight people struggle with new exercise and dietary regimes in order to lose weight and be happier. I must admit to feeling rather smug as I watch sipping my tea and having another couple of biscuits or some more chocolate, thinking "that will never be me, after all I have self control!". But do I? How much do the ups and downs in everyday life affect our self-control? I could blame change of season, lack of light, worries about work, etc. for the desire to feel "full", which brings a certain feeling of satisfaction. These causes though may be just be a small part of the problem.

Ok. I'm not obese. I have a belly and love handles and I probably could do with beginning jogging again, but I still think I'm moderately fit. I guess the balance of food intake versus physical exercise has shifted so that the former outweighs the latter. Pun intended. What to do?

Well, first off, cut down on the calories. I'm not the sort of person who believes in the cold turkey approach. I think though that rather than having something sweet with every cup of tea or coffee, one small treat per day is ok. But that's it, ONE! In the past I've noticed that when I do this, I can get used to having less but enjoying it more. It's also not to just cut out the sweet stuff. Good diet is about good choices and certainly in my case, it requires conscious effort. I often get to the checkout and wonder how those choccy biccies got into the shopping basket, while the fruit and veg I planned to buy are nowhere to be seen. It's funny but kind of pathetic at the same time.

The other plan is to do more physical stuff. I don't feel like I really need to ramp this up to the point where I'm sweating buckets and ready to puke. I used to train like that in basketball and later in karate. I didn't enjoy it then and I sure as hell wouldn't enjoy it now. However, to do enough to get out of my comfort zone and to raise a sweat would be just the job, and this 3-4 times a week. The sword training is ok for this, it's occasionally demanding, but only occasionally. Anyway, we're not training to get fit per se, even though good conditioning is essential to be a good swordsman.

I'm thinking about going to Peru for 5-6 weeks in 2010 with my wife so I this gives me a good target to aim for, actually more to improve fitness than to lose weight. However, if I can get the balance back, I'm fairly sure one will take care of the other.

Back from Swordfish 2009

2009-11-02T10:56:00.004+02:00

Just got in the door this morning and am trying to drum up some enthusiasm for working from home today on the laptop. Well, what can I say? Swordfish 2009 was a blast and I had a lot of fun despite feeling somewhat fluish on saturday afternoon and evening.

The first class I attended was Harry Winter's class on German dagger fighting. This was pretty interesting and I got some good ideas on warm up and reaction drill that we might use in our own training. Overall, the material itself was not hugely different from Fiore dagger but the presentation itself was kept fast-paced, intelligent, clear and by turns downright funny. Harry is a big man but moves very smoothly and quickly for all that and his technique was very impressive also.

After lunch I went along to Matt Galas class on Montante or Portuguese longsword. This style seemed to consist of, at least at first viewing, of twiddly sword forms, which increased in complexity as the class wore on. However, Matt told us that different forms were described in the manuscript for specific purposes, like fighting multiple attackers, defending a bridge or an alley, or fighting on a ship. The forms themselves were actually beautiful and a superb workout but quite a few people seemed to drop out as there were no pair drills and as the forms became more difficult, concentration was quite hard to maintain. This might simply be a feature of some people attending Swordfish, who seem to like a "good bash" and they weren't getting what they wanted from this class. All in all though it was very enjoyable and I'm glad I stayed til the end. I look forward to seeing Portuguese longsword thrown into the mix of German and Italian longsworders in tournaments in the future.

I was feeling rather fluish on Saturday so I just took it easy in the morning and watched the sword and buckler and singlesword tournaments. The former was a little bit too bash-crash for me, but I really liked the single sword comp. The vibe was completely different and it was a really nice opportunity to see a Silver exponent take on sabre and backsword fighters from other traditions. I have a new found respect for the backsword and think it would be fun to take it up. In the afternoon I took part in only half of Dierk Hagedorn's class on techniques from the Falkner manuscript. Although it was German style, which I'm not so familiar with, the clear instructions were easy to follow and the techniques shown very interesting. My headache had returned so when we had a break I packed it in and went to watch the rest of the nylon longsword tournament. It was interesting and fun to watch but the organisation took quite a lot of time and I think it may have been given too much weight in the overall event, with only one other option for those less interested in competition. Oh well, can't please everyone I guess.

On Sunday morning I was supposed to go to Fabrice Cognot's class but tiredness, flu, a slight hangover and laziness made me just take things easy and move from class to class, checking out what was going on. From what I caught while watching on the sidelines, Fabrice's class on Fiore was interesting as his interpretation is very close yet still different from ours. Ilkka Hartikainen held a very interesting class on Bolognese dagger, which looks very elegant. By comparison, Claus Soerensen from the Laurentiusgildet had a class on half-sword techniques (in armour) from Tallhofer which was brutally elegant. Both were great fun to watch and judging by those taking part, even more fun to do.

Although this was my third year at Swordfish, I caught the phenomenon that is the "Midnight Brawlers Club" for the first time. This is where anyone, regardless of age, sex, whatever, can take on anyone else in some friendly wrestling. It at first seemed incongruous that two guys in their underpants trying to twist each others' heads off, would then jump up and hug the other affectionately at the end of the bout, but I was told that this is precisely the essential element that makes this happening so popular year after year.

A big thanks to all the GHFS people who worked so hard to organise this event and did such a good job yet again. I'm looking forward to the next one already!

Third thoughts

2009-10-17T02:43:00.001+03:00

I've had a rethink about the nylon longsword competition which will be held at Swordfish '09 in Gothenburg this year. Basically, I decided to pull out and maybe attend Dierk Hagedorn's class on half-swording instead.

My reasons:

-I'm not very good at freeplay and my performance at the Medieval Mayhem overall, and particularly against the Mikkonator was crap. So, I'm just not ready for free bouting yet.
-Different rulesets and competition mode is different from the context we normally do freeplay.
-In terms of learning stuff useful for the practice of Fiore, there isn't much (at my current level, such as it is) that I would gain by taking part in the competition.
-I'd learn more from the half-sword class with Mr. Hagedorn.
-I started to stress about the competition and worrying if I was ready and all that crap. Yes, I do stress about things too easily, I freely admit. So, this worry was starting to take away the joy of the whole Swordfish experience, which is just daft. If the joy isn't in it, then there's something wrong. This has become my yardstick for my whole attitude to swordsmanship. It doesn't preclude hard work and regular training as these can be a joy in themselves.

Instead, if I want to have a friendly spar with people at the event, I will have more than ample opportunity to do so. I just have to be open to the experience, have a laugh, get a bit sweaty and maybe a bruise or two, make friends in the process, learn, consider and perhaps discard new stuff, then discuss it all over a pint or dram in the pub afterwards :-)

Flappy swords

2009-10-11T17:01:00.002+03:00

Dave Rawlings of Boar's Tooth and some other chaps are marketing plastic wasters and armour for freeplay. To see their gear in action, click the following link:

www.fightmedieval.co m

I'll say it straight up......I hate the armour, they look like robocops with swords. What's wrong with a nice gambeson or fencing jacket with a leather plastron?

The swords themselves, at least in the clip, looked rather flappy in the flat although we are assured by people from Schola Gladiatoria who've had the good fortune to try them, that it's just the top third that has the most flex. To my limited knowledge though, they still looked shinai-quick. I still think the Pentti wasters from Gothenburg look pretty good and were quite ok to handle.

Nevertheless, they don't look too bad overall and if they can really produce them at 40 quid a pop, then maybe it would be a good idea to invest in a few for our club, as they HAVE to be better than the wooden wasters we currently have. I'm looking forward with interest to see how these fare when more people can use them and write their own reviews.

Mucus!

2009-10-11T16:35:00.002+03:00

It's a horrible word, isn't it? Yet I've been producing rather a lot of it all week as I've been laid up sick at home. I guess a fairly stressful and busy summer finally caught up with me and dealt me a good belt. Felt like it anyhow. While I have enjoyed the time spent at home just to sleep, rest and eat, I don't enjoy feeling weak, having headaches and mountains of tissues all around me. Basically, it sucks being sick! I'm on the road to recovery and I'll probably head back to work tomorrow but it'll only be indoors stuff this week. No diving for me!

I thought that we would be finished well in advance of the end of October so I could easily take some days off and enjoy going to Swordfish 2009. Now it seems we'll have to work right up to the last minute and into November to get all the pieces into place. We've got about 500 videos to watch and the underwater nature trail to break down for winter.
http://www.metsa.fi/sivustot/metsa/en/Projects/NordenProjects/NordicBlueParks/underwatertrailsFinland/Sivut/NordicBlueParksUnderwaterTrails.aspx
It never ends, does it?

Speaking of Swordfish 2009, there is a pretty interesting line up and I'm still looking forward to attending. I initially decided to take part in the longsword tournament but I have since decided to do something else instead, namely take part in the half-swording techniques from the Falkner manuscript, by Mr. Dierk Hagedorn. I had the pleasure to chat with him briefly last year and he was sound. Why did I change my mind? I had started to get a bit stressed about the whole thing, particularly after my rather dismal performance last year. I attended the Medieval Mayhem last weekend at the Helsinki salle (which was great fun btw!) and had a chance for a brief natter on the subject with Ilkka Hartikainen. I asked him if he intended to take part this year and he said probably not. When I asked why, he told me that he wasn't so fond of the competition-like approach and that it was much more fun for him to just have a bit of informal play with people he could choose, and that he felt he had nothing to prove. His attitude gave me a lot of pause for thought.

Perhaps I'm simply not yet ready for such a tournament? Given that the tournament rules (as in any competition) will result in a certain type of modified behaviour to best take advantage of the rule system in place, what would I actually and constructively learn about what I know/don't know of italian swordsmanship? I really don't seem to take competition-pressure too well. Ironically, the only person putting me under pressure is, myself! So, I figured I'd get more out of the half-swording class than the tourney and if I want to have a friendly spar with people while I'm there, then I'll probably get ample opportunity. The fact that I don't yet have a plastic sword for the competition, nor intend to buy lacrosse gloves for it either, because "hard" protection is not allowed, are just little contributing details.

Synthetic swords and banana gloves

2009-09-20T22:30:00.002+03:00

Sound odd? Well, it's one way of describing some of the equipment used at the longsword tournament at the upcoming Swordfish 2009 event. The first term is apparent, the latter refers to how the players hand protection looks like to me, i.e. those who use lacrosse gloves.

Well, I've been reviewing my abysmal performance last year at the biggest sword-related event in the Nordic countries, hosted by those very enthusiastic and frankly tireless chaps and ladies from the Gothenburg Historical Fencing School.

Basically, I sucked. So, after some reviewing I feel I need to concentrate on, inter alia:

-protecting my hands and attacking the opponents'
-attacking in proper distance
-being more and constantly mobile
-changing guards
-using the thrust
-taking better advantage of largo and stretto distances
-learn to use the circlular step and not be so linear

Hmm, this will give me plenty of material to work on between now and the end of October....

I'd like my style to improve, perhaps win a clean point or two and have anybody watching still be able to say.."oh, he's a Fiorista".

We tried some slow freeplay at training last saturday and it went ok I think but I still got hit on the head a lot, and took a "lethal" thrust to the throat where I attacked, missed and ran myself onto the incoming point. I wasn't relaxed doing the freeplay, nor indeed was I slow and deliberate as was the oringinal intention, in itself designed to allow for constant motion and a way to stop the freezing. I think I completely forgot anything to do with the seven sword drills we've trained and sometimes it looked messy and well, shite. On the positive (sort of) I found that I could exploit the stops in others by grabbing their swords, something made easier for me by their attacks were occasionally made out of distance. I would say that this was feature of lack of experience though, not something that I'll get away with in Helsinki, nor in Gothenburg. Still, it was a lot of fun and gave us all good feedback about things, albeit basic, that we really need to train more. Thanks to E and M for making it a good training session.

Next weekend should be a blast as there is a two day "Medieval Mayhem" seminar, which should be loads of fun and a chance to spar against others in a variety of weapons. I'm looking forward to it already.

Poster for new Beginner's Course in Turku!

2009-09-15T14:47:00.002+03:00

This is the new flier for the next Beginner's Course and I think it looks absolutely fab! We had talked about it before about how it should look and that it needed to be "simpler".

As the Yanks would say...."Good job!"

Autumn is coming...

2009-09-15T14:35:00.003+03:00

There's a bit f a chill in the air in the mornings, which tells me that Autumn is just around the corner. I always feel like it's a new beginning at this time of year. Perhaps it just goes back to the old days of starting school after the long summer holidays. Here in Finland, it usually means we start to train indoors again, and in general Finns start to check out their local college to see which night classes or courses they will take to fill up the long winter evenings. Some will learn a new language, cooking, astanga yoga or a martial art.

I was In Ireland recently for the Electric Picnic music festival and although we were only there for a few days, the effect was well, electric! I came back charged up and looking forward to getting back to training and to going to the seminars in Helsinki and to the Swordfish 2009 event in Gothenburg. Take home mesage: a change IS as good as a rest!

So I've been doing the basic conditioning, cutting drills and footwork on my own for the past week and I'm enjoying it. A lot!

I've taken a huge step back from the sword club over the summer and it has actually done me good. I'm not on the list for leading the beginner's course, nor for leading classes. This effectively leaves me free to just train, although I should perhaps also officially hand over my class leader role to someone more active and involved.

My main focus right now is to train for the tournament in Gothenburg. Many lessons were learned from the last experience and my newfound "freedom" means I can do just that.

No interest, no energy, no time

2009-08-01T10:31:00.002+03:00

No blog activity al all for July. Huh!

Life has simply been too hectic. We're working long days at sea and spending days staying out in the outer archipelago so that even if I had time to get a little training in, I'm too bloody knackered to wag after a 12 hour day. Chi kung practice has also gone out the window. Meh!

I've started to get mails from our group about a new beginner's course starting in October and my first reaction is "Oh shit, again already!". I'm less than enthusiastic about it.

Overall my motivation to train has pretty much disappeared. Perhaps this is not so bad: it means I may be able to bounce back after the summer season with renewed vigour and determination.

Maybe.

Let's hold hands and skip!

2009-06-24T17:42:00.004+03:00

Ok, lest I be called a big girly, or worse, forget about the first bit...

I've been thinking recently about my cardio/aerobic levels of fitness and although I cycle a good bit pretty much every day of the week, I feel that my general level of fitness is decreasing. Combine with this, my lack of enthusiasm for training has led to a small increase in waistline and weight. So, thought I, perhaps this would be a good time to do something about it.

Five euros later, I am the proud owner of a skipping rope. I figured that if it's good for boxers' footwork and fitness, it must be a pretty damn effective tool. I tried it out for the first time on Monday last, just for 10 minutes and was sweating buckets and had my heart-rate well up. This was followed by some situps, push-ups and finished off with a stretch. Two days later, my calves are still a bit sore. Not so painful that I cannot walk or cycle, I did attend training yesterday after all, but I could definitely feel that I had done some work and made my legs do something outside their comfort zone. There's even workouts with skipping ropes on Youtube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O31_Av5oY64
You can do a single jump-both feet, double jump-both feet, jump on one foot or the other, all sorts!

I will try very hard to maintain this training regimen over the summer, particularly as I will be away from regular taining in Turku. Let's see how it goes!

Non-stop quarter speed

2009-06-16T11:46:00.003+03:00

We've been trying a little freeplay preparation in the last while at training. This isn't the usual "gear up and let's have a bash!"-type, but something a little different.

The idea is to move at quarter speed or very slowly. You can cut and thrust, but you must stay at largo distance. I stipulated this clause because we all have a tendency to close immediately to giocco stretto and start grappling and we don't train the largo distance enough. Also giocco stretto distance means shorter and shorter tempos so the play can simply devolve into a mess really quickly. More space/distance means more time, and this tempo is stretched further by forcing the players to move at quarter speed. So, the idea (at least) is that this becomes very good practice for people to:
-keep moving, even at slow speed, if you stop moving you'll get nabbed
-cut for the arms and hands if they are available
-protect the arms and hands
-remember that if all else goes pear-shaped, they can tornare backwards to safety
-maintain control and safety
-use Fiore techniques
-train at largo distance

The important thing is to realise that if you are going to get hit, you will get a light touch, but that's all. It's better to realise you made a mistake and take that tap, rather than speeding up in order to do something about it. This also lets people "spar" with just the fencing mask on and perhaps some gloves. As with regular freeplay, it allows people to realise that if they cannot make a technique work at slow speed, there's no way in hell it will work at higher speed.

Ok, so it is an artificial drill in many ways. Nobody moves this slowly normally. Also, certain blade actions like rebattere become less beats and more of a push. Still, it's a fun exercise and people seem to feel somewhat less pressure doing it slowly than by doing the regular speed freeplay. I gues that this approach is actually not freeplay per se, rather a form of freeplay preparation. Later on we can also start doing the same thing in giocco stretto. As well as doing the regular speed freeplay prep and freeplay itself.

"We'll make spears, twice as long as a man...."

2009-06-16T11:19:00.002+03:00

We've had a bit of a revival in Fiore spear work recently in our group. Not sure why exactly. perhaps it's just that the spears are available at our summer training venue. We've got three so I made three more over the weekend, just for fun.

I got the shafts at the local hardware shop. I wish I could get ash but I have to make do with birch (2.4m length, 28mm diameter). These I cut to 1.8 m length. I used what I call pool noodles as the spear "heads". These are 180 cm long dense foam rubber tubes of approx. 15 cm diameter used as fun floats for kids in swimming pools. Using a carpet knife i cut heads of 15-20 cm long and drilled a hole using a hole cutter. To help keep the head in place, I drilled a hole crosswise through the spear shaft and added som wood glue to the hole. Making smaller holes in the foam and aligning them with those in the shaft, I pushed 6mm wooden dowels in each side and hammered them in so that they lay below the surface of the foam. The final touch was to tape the foam head onto the shaft using heavy duty black duct tape. I also made several turns of this tape down the shaft to give some protection to the wood. Finally, I added a cable tie, immediately under the spear head, to further fix it in place. This was probably overkill though as the duct tape is very strong.

I also tried using sisal string binding on the shafts of one of the spears. My binding skills are not great and I tried several attempts beforehand on the offcut wooden pieces to see which held best. The first was just bound on as is. The second was soaked in water first, the excess water removed, bound, and left to dry. The third version was bound on dry and then wood glue added to help bond the strings together.

Overall, the dry binding did not hold well, as it easily rotated and slipped on the shaft. The sisal string I had was quite uneven, which didn't help. The wet version held better, but once completely dry it also showed some signds of slippage. The glued version held best and this was finally used on the third spear. In hindsight, perhaps a wet binding allowed to dry, followed by an application of proper glue or varnish would be best. For the effort put in, as interesting as it was, the duct tape is the fastest, easiest and cheapest option.

And so to training!

The Nylon Crusade....

2009-06-15T14:00:00.002+03:00

I've been following the debate on Schola Gladiatoria recently about the use of various materials for wasters or sword simulators. There seems to be a fairly big push on for the introduction of nylon swords as sparring weapons, which are, depending on viewpoint, to be safer to use at full speed, allowing fast and hard contact strikes and thrusts. This is combined with a prevalent attitude that steel blunts are more dangerous and because of the safety factor, lead to pulled blows, thereby affecting overall technique. According to some forumites this side-effect "appears" to be borne out by performances in tournaments, where "steelies" do less well than those who use nylon, shinai, ubershinai, etc. Some call for many types of waster to be used to increase the experience of the wielder, and claim that if the basic techniques and training methods are up to scratch, then the material used for the actual sword simulator is "immaterial" (sorry). I generally support this last statement. If you are any good, it shouldn't really matter if you have a shinai, a nylon waster or a blunt steel.

Although we use primarily steel in our group, I used a wooden waster for over a year before getting my first steel blunt. For beginners, we use wooden wasters, because they are sword-shaped, cheap, and that's just what we have in our gear bags. I wouldn't be averse to having some nylon swords as training tools, particularly if as claimed, they are stiff enough for sparring but flexible to give in a thrust, and balanced like a steel sword. However, I don't think we'll be using nylons to augment our waster repertoire for the more advanced students in our group any time soon. I'd get one for myself, just to have one though and to be able to take part in the logsword tournaments at Swordfish for example, without having to run around asking to borrowone before each of my bouts.

The only thing I have against the claim of superior safety supposedly afforded by nylon wasters is that despite their positive attributes, some people seem to think that full speed sparring equates with full force sparring. If that is the case, then people are going to fight more like SCA and try to bash the living shit out of each other. "Hit as fast and as hard as you can", something that the nylon swords magically allow you to do, and with a minimum amount of safety gear on, to boot. How is being hit at ful force and full speed going to hurt less in this case if struck with a nylon sword, as opposed to a shinai, wooden waster, or deadly of deadlies, a blunt steel sword? My gut feeling is, it's STILL going to hurt like buggery. Moreover, where is the extra safety afforded when sparring hard and fast BUT with less safety equipment on? This isn't logical. If we spar we use quite a lot of safety equipment, fencing jacket/gambeson, leather plastron.elbow/knee/groin protection, fencing mask, gorget with a rolled lip, etc, when fencing with steel.

I fence with steel, ok. But I try to remember to use the weapon as if it were sharp. I do need to be fast with good technique and control. I don't need to hit as hard as I possibly can though. I'm supposed to be using a sword, NOT a poleaxe. That's the whole point of a sword, you're not after blunt force trauma, unless you want to make a pommel strike. Instead you want to cut or slice with the blade and thrust with the tip. Do I need to decapitate someone to kill them? Or thrust my sword up to the hilt into their chest, just to make sure they are more dead? No, of course not, that would be ridiculous. Even a hit to the arms or hands. We know how little force is required when cutting tatami to get a clean cut. Whipping off a few fingers or near severing a wrist or forearm with a sharp sword (horrible thought though it is) would be pretty easy, would I have to hit the handwith enough force to try to break bone? With a club, mace or such, yes, but with a sword, no, no, NO!

Again, regardless of material used, it comes down to technique and control. If I make a thrust or a cut at an opponent's face with a blunt steel sword, does it have to be so hard and fast as to rock his head (in his fencing mask, naturally) back and knock him off his feet? Or otherwise, I might be accused of pulling my blows and therefore my intent is less than I if I was to thrust full force knowing that my flexible nylon waster will absorb much of the impact? This is nonsense, to my mind.
Control comes from the fact that even if I was to throw a full speed cut (note NOT full force) at my opponent's head, I have the requisite control to be able to stop my sword before it makes contact, if I choose. If I do not have this skill level, then I would consider that I should not
be sparring at full speed, full stop (regardless of simulator type).

It will be interesting to see how nylon swords will do on the HEMA market. I guess the biggest upside is that there IS a market as more people become involved in historical european martial arts.

Abrazare flow drill

2009-05-13T18:55:00.002+03:00

Had a lot of fun at the class last night. We didn't have any gear as Timo and Mira could't come to training. Luckily Timo let me know in advance so I put together a class on footwork and the abrazare flow drill.

This drill has been a bane on my existence for a while now. It is technically complex and very easy to do wrong because of too much speed, anticipating counters, being to stiff and the overriding desire for a lot of people to "win" the engagement, despite the fact that it should flow. It devolves very quickly then, or can do, into a sloppily-executed, well......mess.

What to do? Simple. Step the drill. We went through each step slowly and I used the entire class to try to cover getting through the whole drill once. Actually I had just enough time to show the class the elbow push and step through, which starts the cycle again. So, lots of reps. I STILL had to repeatedly remind people to slow down while going through the steps.

In many ways this drill is "beautiful". It deals with timing, breaking and regaining structure, footwork, attacking along lines of weakness, and changing the line to make a counter more effective.

Attack: Player 1 strikes a hammer blow to the head of Player 2 (fendente) with a passing step.
Remedy: Player 2 extends both hands controlling Player 1's wrist an elbow simultaneously stepping accressere fora di strada, going to the porta di ferro posta and a passing step (alla traversa). From here they can break the arm or take them to the floor.
Counter remedy: As Player 1 feels his initial attack to have failed and his arm is being pushed to the side he can volta stabile in the direction of the push and drop his arm under those of Player 2. As Player 2 does his passing step, Player 1 does does posta lunga with a volta stabile/accressere combo* effectively "clotheslining" Player 2. Although we don't include it it the drill, Player 1 can take a passing step to further break Player 2's structure, hooking under his leading knee and dumping him on his head. (Third play of abrazare).
Counter-counter remedy: As Player 2 feels his attempt fail, he immediately does a chiave soprano and changes the line by taking his front leg behind that of Player 1, executing a volta stabile accressere fora di strada combo. From here he can continue with a passing step, dropping his hands to porta fi ferro, dislocating Player 1's shoulder joint. Naturally, we keep the hands high taking the point of balance only.
Contra-counter-counter remedy: As Player 1's arm is locked up in the ligadura, Player 2's elbow is in plain view. He counter grips Player 2's wrist with his right hand and pushes 2's elbow with his left simultaneously doing a volta stabile/accressere combo step. Player2's forearm is straightened and Player 1 steps through with a passing step to break the arm, bringing us back to the counter-remedy again.

The timing in this drill is subtle but actually obvious. The best time to effect a counter is when the opponent is making his passing step, therefore one foot is off the ground. To make your counter may also require a step, usually it is first an accressere (may or may not be fora di strada). This also takes your foot off the floor but for a much shorter time, allowing you to interrupt the attack. Sometimes however you may be backweighted and this will require a volta stabile with an accressere fora di strada. It is interesting that you can use these simple steps to both break as awell as regain structure! If students attempt to do this drill with too much speed, one side effect is that they anticipate what comes next and begin to apply a counter to a technique which hasn't even begun yet. The drill must be done slowly enough for each player to "feel" when the time is right to make a counter, when their own structure begins to be compromised or regained.

Another common mistake is to try to make an action with the hands while one of the feet is off the floor. A volta stabile by definition means a stable turn. It is inherently stable precisely because both feet stay on the floor. If a small accressere fora di strada is added to take advantage of a weaker line and to guarantee a shift of the body weight onto the front leg, the front foot is off the floor for a very short time. Secondly, the frontale and longa positions do not break the structure in the various counters by the strength of the arms alone. The power to break the other's structure comes from the hips and legs through the turning (volta) action.

It is a relatively difficult drill because there is a lot of technical stuff happening in a quite small timeframe. However, it is an excellent tool to develop skills in judging timing, balance, stances, footwork, strong and weak lines, etc. We shall be practicing it more !

*As a side note: in a previous class I was introducing the first scambiare di punta of the syllabus form to the beginners and they found the footwork as described above technically difficult when they also had to change guard from fenestra to frontale. To combat this I got the class to combine these footwork patterns. The beginners know the steps separately, but had never put these two together before.

Stress works in funny ways or I'm just anal about things

2009-05-13T18:24:00.005+03:00

Well, I got married recently (at the beginning of April) and things were getting pretty stressful coming up to the big day, what with organising the venue, accommodating family over from Ireland and the UK, and every other little piddly detail. Weirdly though I was, or thought I was rather calm through the entire thing. I didn't get half as stressed as my wife. Only when it was all over and everything had gone back to normal did I realise how much pressure we had been under and indeed how it manifested itself......BTW we had an absolutely fantastic time and I loved every minute of the wedding and my family's visit.

For a while I had been getting a bit worked up about how we are supposed to cover the syllabus material and started cooking up ideas for gradings, logbooks and all sorts of shenanigans to "improve" the system. I even wrote several mails on the SES forum to air my ideas and views and started to get a bit ticked off with some of the replies, which in my stressed state I took as negativity. To give Guy his due, he did suggest going to Helsinki to occasionally discuss how the syllabus could be modified or tweaked etc. My gut feeling though was that the other class leaders seemed to be quite happy with things as they are. Basically, if it ain't broke....... so I must be doing something wrong to get that stressed about it. It's a character flaw of mine, I get an idea stuck in my head and it just goes round and round in a feedback loop, driving me nuts because I can't break it. I even dream about it and sleep badly as a result. How's that for hypermania?

Anyhow, I finally let the matter drop and concentrated on the wedding stuff. It was only after the celebrations that I realised that I had somehow transferred my stress into becoming totally anal about the whole syllabus thing. I came to this conclusion because I noticed that I really enjoyed going to classes and training, leading training and the Beginner's Course. For some reason, it has been a blast this spring :-) That most of the beginner's were still coming to training by the end of the course was testament to the fact that we were doing something right, although I could also put it down to other factors, such as their own enthusiasm, and that we have started to correctly apply good pedagogic technique. At the risk of sounding conceited though, I would also say that my enthusiasm for training, as well as that of the other advanced students, combined with mixing advanced students with beginners on two training nights a week, surely boosted morale and kept motivation high. The lesson of the story I guess is that the syllabus material will take care of itself...as long as the people leading/attending the class are dynamic and "up for it", it will stay fun and motivational. This doesn't mean that we cannot train hard, we just enjoy ourselves more while doing whatever the material is that class.

Guy once told me that we train swordsmanship to enhance our lives. I guess the stress made me forget for this for a while. Lesson learned. I'm looking forward to training tomorrow already!

Fiore flourishing in Canada

2009-05-13T18:00:00.003+03:00

I was youtubing recently (is that even a verb?) and came across two separate groups in Canada with some nice vids on their interpretations on Fiore's material. The first group, Les Maitres d'Armes, I added to my favourites list and this can be found on the left of the page. I liked their videos very much and made some comments on their youtube page. The group leader Jason Smith, was good enough to write me an e-mail to introduce himself and to invite me to check his training blog, which also contains videos of daga material as a way to supplement their training notes. I think this is a wonderful idea and will also have to get my hands on a digicamera for the same purpose for our lot.

The second lot I found while looking for videos on lanza or spear. Sure enough another canuck group, or at least two chaps named Mathieu Ravignat and Nick Conway, out of Ottawa, Ontario popped up, working on their interpretation of Fiore's spear plays. Here's the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48j5Vtto90Y
Interesting, although they don't seem to cross the hands in the fenestra positions and so the alway thrust with an accressere rather than a passing step, but hey, vive la difference! They also show some other dagger stuff as well as the rather cool "lazy man's version" aka how to defend while seated.

Check the other videos out as well. Enjoy!

Does this sound familiar?

2009-05-07T12:19:00.003+03:00

This is unabashedly cut and pasted from the Schola Gladiatoria forum (http://www.fioredeiliberi.org/phpBB2/index.php). One poster, a certain Colin F. posted:

"Have any of you ever had a point during your training why suddenly, as if out of no where, you suddenly seem to lose any ability to fight/fence properly, where nothing comes off and everything you try to do just turns to crap? I feel like I'm having one of those times just now and it's really frustrating. Everything I am trying is going wrong and my reading of other people is just gone to hell. Even my distance perception, which used to be pretty good is now absolute shite If any of you have been through something similar, how did you get out of the rut and back on track? I suppose I'd just like to hear some ideas or suggestions, hell even small anecdotes and a thread drift about how you improved your training."

This rang bells with me and probably every fencer I know who hase been training for several years. Continuing to cut and paste from the same thread, one excellent answer and certainly food for thought, was posted by a member called "scholadays". Here it is, read it, memorise it, use it!

"It's a common symptom that I have heard, usually from intermediates, for years. There are a couple of observations and possible solutions I have on this phenomenon, for it somethimes preceeds folk giving up altogether.

Firstly, I've found that it's not their fencing that has become worse, but their perception of their perfomance that has raced ahead of their ability. Now, there's nothing wrong with a bit of self confidence, but sometimes folk get in a rut when they believe that they should have prevailed against someone they regard as beatable, but for som reason just cannot.

Furthermore, do remember that other people are training too. They too are improving. If you're not managing to pull off repertoire that you used to be able to, it may be because they are getting better. Conversely, I once had a student who boldy proclaimed in the pub after training that the entire club was getting worse and that we had to do something about it urgently. I had to explain to him that this observation was simply the result of him getting a little better.

Finally, I've watched intermediates beaten by beginner after beginner, and the more they are beaten the worse they get. Sometimes this is because they are actually trying harder, more complex repertoire. And the more they lose, the more complex technique they try to employ to rectify the situation. Now, simple, basic repertoire can beat clever, technical machination if it is executed quickly and from a relaxed and unexpectant player. Simple, reflexive repertoire executed quickly by a beginner whose mind may be uncluttered by much else can be rather tricky if you're trying out more complex technique.

Thus, intermediates can get into trouble when they start to attempt more sophisticated technique - for this technique may be rather slower than the simple reflexive repertoire of the beginner. Hence the intermediate feels like he's fencing in treacle against a beginner who's not really doing very much - but repeatedly doing it quicky and competently. And the more he's beaten the more clever the intermediate tries to be, and the slower he gets, and the more he's beaten.

My advice is not to change your training, but to change your perception of your performance. Any or all of the above may be taking place and so a step back from how you think you should be performing to how you are are performing. So, start taking some losses. Take your lumps. I often advise those in this situation to start playing to lose. Lose every single match you engage in for the next couple of months. However do fight for the repertoire. First, concentrate upon technique that is well well behind you. Simple stuff. Stuff that works. Now and then throw in the occasional clever technique. But don't ever exepct it to work. Just give it a go, try it out, don't expect anything, take little steps. But in the main simply try to maintain rather than improve and you'll improve. Play to lose. Be the biggest loser in the club. And you'll fight your way out of your rut."

Brilliant! What a well written and concise post!

Broadswords and Buffaloes

2009-04-30T14:39:00.002+03:00

Hi all,
here's a rather good essay by a chap called Chris Thompson, which was posted on the Sword Forum International board. Have a read, it's pretty good! Also keep this in mind when the next Tourney is being organised in Helsinki. The idea is that its a safe and fun way to put into practice what we train week in week out, NOT to win at all costs. If you lose a bout or a match, so what? All you are losing is points. Think of the invaluable experience gained from fencing against strangers or friends who you don't normally spar with. The post match analysis over a cup of tea or a beer is also an integral and positive part of the whole experience.......

Broadswords and Buffaloes: A short essay regarding levels of intensity in League bouts-by Christopher Scott Thompson

Elsewhere I have written about the value of fencing with a high degree of intensity, even beyond that with which one feels completely comfortable. In terms of your ability to master the stress of a violent encounter, intense training is essential. Now I'm going to take a different point of view, and discuss the problems with trying to fence that way in a competitive venue such as the Broadsword League.

It is possible to be a formidable competitor without being a particularly good swordsman. This seems counterintuitive, but it is true. Let's say the highest level of intensity that can be fenced with complete safety for both parties is rated as 6 out of 10. 10 would be the level where you are actually trying to do real harm to your opponent, in other words a real fight and not a bout. Most bouts are fought somewhere between 4 and 5, with 6 being the level at which the action starts to get sharp and even a little bit scary but is still controlled.With a lot of protective gear or with inherently harmless weapons such as toy foam swords, you could safely go as high as 8 or 9, but that would be unrealistic due to the illusion of safety. In other words, both fencers would be far more aggressive than they would ever dare to be in a real fight, because they know they can't be hurt. With the typical gear used in competitive broadsword fencing, however, 6 is about as high as you should go with anyone with the possible exception of a rare and deliberate training experience with a trusted partner.

Broadsword fencing in the era of sharp weapons was exactly the same. You can easily kill a man with a single blow of the broadsword, and battlefield descriptions of the aftermath of a Highland broadsword charge describe severed limbs and broken weapons on all sides. This sort of combat is not what competitive broadsword fencing represents, because it cannot possibly be. Nothing is like the battlefield except the battlefield.Stage gladiators and other broadsword duelists rarely killed each other. Most single combats with the broadsword were resolved by a bleeding cut to the arm, leg or sometimes the head, with fatalities resulting only unintentionally or when one fencer was unreasonably stubborn or bloodthirsty. They were fencing each other with sharp weapons but with such self-control that they inflicted only the minimum level of injury needed to demonstrate superior skill. My guess is that the typical duel or prizefight with sharp broadswords, just like the typical Broadsword League bout, was fought at about level 4 or 5, or else people would have been killed on a regular basis by the sharp weapons they were using.
This is the type of combat represented by the Broadsword League.Nobody fights in the League at level 9 or 10, because that is the mentality of the battlefield and serious injuries would be the inevitable result. The worst injury we've seen so far is a broken finger, and that was the result of a fencer going to level 7 or 8. He injured his opponent- and lost the bout anyway.

This brings me to my point. I can fight at any level I need to, all the way up to 10, and so can many other serious broadsword fencers. Some broadsword fencers are not yet at the stage in their training where they are capable of that; 5 or 6 is the highest level they can handle while 7 or 8 would totally overwhelm them. However, 6 is the highest that I or just about anyone else can fence at with relative safety for both fencers, so anything beyond 6 is starting to leave the realm of a fencing bout and enter the realm of an actual fight.What this means is that if I face an opponent who goes to level 7 or 8, I am forced into the position of being responsible for both of us, since he is not really being responsible for either of us.

This puts me at an inherent disadvantage throughout the fight, because he can concentrate primarily on winning while I am forced to concentrate on making sure no one gets hurt, and then trying to win with that additional handicap. Obviously he could go to the same level in a real fight and I would lose if I couldn't handle it, but in a real fight I wouldn't have to be responsible for his safety at the same time. You can't replicate the mentality of a life or death fight in a competitive arena, because "I want to win" is a totally different mindset from "I want to stay alive" or "I want to kill this man."For this reason, fencing at level 7 or 8 is not really realistic even if it seems like it ought to be more realistic. If both fencers go all out, one or both will be badly hurt. If not, then one of them is making sure it doesn't happen, at the expense of his own ability to fight and win.

The "buffalo" (as rough fencers are called) might think he is showing appropriate control because he isn't fencing at level 9 or 10, but he is simply wrong. What he is actually doing is counting on his opponent's sense of responsibility to give him an unfair advantage.Excessive intensity allows the buffalo to paper over his own lack of skill at the art itself. All he needs is fast reactions, a watchful eye, and the willingness to hit very hard. If his opponent does not or cannot take the fight to the same level of intensity, he will often win, even if his fencing ability as such is sub-par.I have known competitors who did nothing except stand on guard and hit as hard and as fast as possible the moment the opponent came within distance. I have known a competitor whose only tactic was to charge forward with the exact same barrage of strikes every time he fought, without the slightest concern for his own defense. Cutting 1,2,3,4 and 7 as hard and as fast as he could get away with was the one solution to every tactical question in this fencer's mind.

Against an opponent who cannot handle the intensity, these approaches will work, even though they are not examples of skillful swordsmanship. They work for psychological reasons that exist only in the context of the bout and not in real combat, because the opponent has no reason to want to get injured over a friendly fencing match and will therefore respond differently than he otherwise would. He would quite possibly be overwhelmed in the exact same way in a real duel, but the result might be different than the buffalo had anticipated. In one famous real-life incident, the charging buffalo opened his mouth in a terrifying scream as he attacked- only to swallow a few feet of his opponent's blade as the man simply extended his arm in a blind panic, killing the bully on the spot.

Against an opponent who can handle the intensity, the buffalo will usually lose, although he will lose by a much narrower margin than he really ought to because his opponent will be actively protecting him from the consequences of his own recklessness whether he realizes it or not.If you would lose at level 4 or 5, you have no business winning simply because you decide to fight at level 7 or 8. Skillful swordsmanship works under all conditions; it does not depend on intimidation or on the opponent's sense of responsibility.

All broadsword fencers should spend substantial training time working at level 2 or 3- what we describe in my school as "slow play." Slow play cannot be won by speed or athleticism, because none is used; it can only be won by intelligent use of real fencing technique. All broadsword fencers should also spend a lot of time fencing at level 4 or 5, and a certain amount of time at level 6. Level 7 should be used only by advanced fencers as an occasional training experiment with a trusted partner. The purpose of this is to build the fencer's ability to handle psychochemical stress reactions that occur in actual combat. These reactions can sometimes occur spontaneously even in a friendly bout, as in one case where I experienced tunnel vision and loss of fine motor control in an ordinary bout against a new opponent. For this reason, even if you don't believe in "training for the duel," it's still a useful skill to be able to fence effectively under those conditions.

Anything above level 7 is a real fight and not training, and should therefore never be done in training because it can't be. (The Dog Brothers is one group that actually trains a few times a year at what I would call level 8 or 9. This works only as stickfighting and not as swordsmanship, because the Dog Brothers are willing to absorb stick strikes that would be either lethal or crippling with a sharp sword.)Anything above level 6 ("sharp and even a little bit scary but still controlled") has no place in League competition, and even level 6 should be entered into only if both fencers are up to it. It should not be imposed by one fencer on another fencer in order to overwhelm him.The seconds should always stop the bout if these conditions are not met or understood by both fencers. If you're fencing without seconds, it's up to you to do the same. If your opponent is trying to win through raw violence alone, you should simply refuse to continue the fight. Report the incident to the League, and the fight will be voided.Broadsword League bouts represent a controlled and intelligent test of fencing skill between two respectful opponents. They cannot and do not represent a free-for-all, "kill or be killed" battlefield situation. The type of broadsword fencing we want to represent is that which would work consistently under all conditions, and not only against opponents we can personally intimidate.

A concise description of Fiorean ordination or how to read the treatises

2009-04-29T10:59:00.003+03:00

Not my words. This is copied and pasted directly from the Sword Forum International site. The thread discussion was on the clarification of the Dagger Masters (Fiore). This was written by Mark Lancaster of The Exiles group. It was so neatly and clearly put, I had to repost it here. Thanks Mark, it helps A LOT!

"Think of each Master as being an expert in whatever Fiore is describing at the time (i.e. he is representing mastery).
So, we have several different areas of expertise:

1. The stages of a fight (from the introduction).
a. The first expert is Master Battle. He knows how to fight (distance, reaction, etc). In context this would be an expert fighter of the period and Fiore does not go into much more detail (but see below).

b. This expert, however, can be countered (Fiore calls this a Remedy) by the expert Master Remedy. This is really where Fiore's manuscript starts (he expects the reader to know the bulk/jist of Master Battle).

c. The first person (who was the expert Master Battle) could be good enough that he/she knows the technique used by the Master Remedy expert and how to counter it. Fiore calls this Contra, so we have Master Contra.

d. Finally the chap who did the Remedy knows how to counter this Master Contra and is Master Contra-Contrary. This is so rare that is it only shown once in Dagger and Fiore basically says that the fight (if it every reaches this stage) won't go any further.

The above is like a pyramid with four layers (Master Battle at the bottom and Master Contra-Contrary at the very peak). The options (techniques) reduce as the fight continues.

2. The Posta Masters
Here Fiore is basically giving good "expert" positions from which to fight and to recover into (maybe in the middle of a technique). He is saying that mastery of these posta/positions and how they can be used are core to his system. The natural place that this happens is in the first stages of the encounter - Master Battle - and when recovering out of a technique/encounter back to a Master Battle position. Knowing these postas and mastering them gives your brain basic building blocks (like lego) to find within the fight and reduces the thinking time dramatically.

3. The Dagger Requisites.
Fiore gives us four requisites of dagger - each shown as a Master (with the crown). These show the areas of expertise that define mastery of dagger fighting in general - being able to strip the dagger from your opponent; being able to break limbs (in his view); being able to lock your oppenent and finally being able to use all of the unarmed/wresting skills shown in abrazare.The important point here is that the illustration shows someone who is getting older (check the beard) and better dressed with each of the four illustrations and Fiore is saying that these progressively take longer to master - i.e. the easiest thing to learn is to strip the dagger and the hardest (requiring longer to master) is the full abrazare within dagger.

4. The 9 Masters of Dagger
In the entire dagger section Fiore shows 9 different "methods" with several sub/progressive techniques for countering a dagger attack. These cover attacks from above and below and can be stopped one handed (left and right) or two handed, etc. Fiore has grouped all of these possibilities into 9 methods and he starts each one by showing the Master and the basic technique - i.e. the expertise of how to implement the defence/counter (he calls it remedy).

However, he then states that he will let his students/scholars show the other techniques that spring out of these nine methods.This has two illustrative advantages. First he is showing the arrogance of a Master by only showing the basic method and then allowing his students to do the hard work. Second it makes it easier to illustrate when a Master Contrary comes in to counter these Remedy techniques.If you can crack this use of Master then the manuscripts suddenly make a lot of very simple sense at a quick glance. I could look at any technique, without text, and tell you what is happening by who to whom.Don't know if that helps - but it's my contribution."

Grading systems and teaching syllabus. How do we fit it all in?

2009-03-30T12:08:00.003+03:00

I posted this to the SES forum and to save time am posting it here also.

After an interesting conversation recently with some of the more advanced students in our group, I started to wonder about how the syllabus and levels are structured and the benefits of introducing grading, as commonly found in other martial art systems. I am sure this has been on other people's minds too and that Guy has given it extensive thought.

What would be some benefits of grading?
1. A solution to maintain long-term interest in swordsmanship
2. Focus training and goals
3. Reinforce the sense of achievement and progress in their studies and training

One of the main reasons for the drop in advanced student numbers is linked to their having little sense of progress, each training session introducing apparently random material drawn from the syllabus which is then not practiced again for months on end, if ever. This applies equally to the Fiorean material as to other weapon systems like 1.33. I am specifically talking about our own group here and the fact that we have quite a good "core" group speaks more of the willingness and interest of the group members than to the amorphous training programme being offered by me as class leader. I can openly admit to being able to handle the beginner's course with a fairly tight structure as laid down in the syllabus. However, the sheer volume of skills and techniques required for levels 1 and 2 "explode" after finishing the beginner's course and I am simply overwhelmed as to how to get all of this across to students of at least three different skill level cohorts at a level that meets all of their needs and which offers the possibility of regular revision. This also takes away from my own training time (but this is another topic).

I have trained karate for 4 four years and experienced several gradings (kyu) to gain a certain belt colour. I didn't really enjoy the stress that the testing engendered, but I trained hard for the gradings, with a specific set of techniques to show that my general skills were up to par, and passed them all. The feelings of achievement afterwards were worth it all. Before finding Fiore, I tried beginner's courses in Turku in Yushinikai karatejutsu, Choy Li Fut kung fu and Hokutoryu Jujutsu. I passed two gradings in the first style but dropped out in the middle because we had to pay to do the grading (100 FIM), which I disagreed with in principle, and through injury in the latter. I have got the impression that in SES we train and we are "observed" so that ultimately Guy decides if we have earned the free scholar rank and so we progress, more recently we have the coloured logos, all of which I think are good ideas and which I support.

However, if syllabus levels 1 and 2, etc. were broken up into smaller chunks, with a tighter list of techniques to be learned, followed by a grading, which needed to be satisfactorily "passed" before progressing, I am beginning to feel that the swordsmanship material would be easier to learn, teach (lead class), and give a better sense of progress/achievement than we currently have. I'm not saying that we would have to have a belt system, after all a belt just holds up your trousers.

Perhaps we could introduce some sort of training logbook for each member? Other martial styles have these and I have something similar for my scuba diving training, which covers all of the lectures(theory) I've attended, the underwaterwater syllabus in the pool and open sea(numbers of dives to specific depths), and any extra courses I've taken (Rescue Diver, Underwater archaeology, Chamber dive, cold-water dives, drift diving, boat handling etc), as well as the tests I've passed, and my current rank.

Ok, this is perhaps an odd comparison, but I think a parallel system could be applied. I've written in another thread on the SES forum about student training data and how to analyse this. Simply making a list and asking students to rank their skill levels on a scale of 1 to 5 is one way of doing it, but this only gives a vague impression of an individual's or group's "skill profile". A logbook system would be much more accurate and could easily be followed in a central database. Low level gradings could be done within a group (within Level 1), with anything higher requiring examination by Guy/Ilkka, or all gradings could be carried out on Syllabus days in Helsinki or when Guy/Ilkka/Topi visits a branch/group. So, if student X is travelling to Helsinki for a syllabus day, they might be grading or using the opportunity to find out more in depth information about the set of techniques required for his/her next grading. Syllabus days set definite goals as well as reinforcing skill levels if there is a particular "theme" for that particular day, i.e. measure.

On rereading my post, I realise that one could also look at the situation like this: Is it that the syllabus is too extensive and needs modification OR is it that as class leader, I am overwhelmed by trying to teach it?

It will be interesting to see the results of the poll I posted on this topic. That is, if SES members take the time to read my post and actively give feedback. IMO, there are too many lurkers and not enough posters.

Free training musings

2009-03-09T16:34:00.003+02:00

I thought it would be fun to have some free training last saturday. Free training is an unofficial class where students can pick and choose what style or techniques within a style to train without any organised class structure. Saturday saw us split into two groups, one concentrating on the abrazare plays, the other on 1.33 (see previous post).

Despite my reservations on the outcome of the sword and buckler group, I think the idea was generally a good one. Nevertheless, it seems to be the case that in our group at least, quite a few people like to have a class leader to tell them what to do and take them through or suggest material to train. I was kind of hoping that our lot are independent or comfortable enough to pick something that they want to train and then just get on with it by themselves. Some are, some are not. Ok, so perhaps the next free training will be divided into a structured class for half of the training period and the remaining half will be designated "free".

Perhaps I missed something from saturday's training. The free training is a relatively new event for a lot of our group and even training 1.33 (which we have trained sporadically before) was sufficiently "new" to put some people outside their "comfort zones". When things didn't go exactly to plan, I was left with the feeling that I "failed" in leading the 1.33 class. I guess that in hindsight, this being out of the comfort zone applied equally to me as I'm not used to leading a group in sword and buckler and this reflected on my performance. Still, to look at it more positively, we need to train 1.33 more, and while I may not be good at leading a class in it yet, repetition will make me better.

Obsessing over obsessios

2009-03-09T15:58:00.002+02:00

Well, we went over the basics on saturday last and it went....ok. The wards and rolling exercises were generally no problem but as soon as we went to the 1st play of halfshield vs. prima custodia things got a bit bogged down and I have the feeling that people may have gone away from the class feeling that 1.33 is shite and that the next time they have free training, they'll just stick to Fiore longsword instead. Here's some of the problems encountered:

-Students found themselvs either moving too late and/or not moving far enough to the side when "falling under", resulting in they got hit or ended up "stuck", with blades crossing at the fortes, and the besetter then not being able to bind down properly on the defender's blade.
-Other details such as the shiltschlac were somehow "forgotten" or done with the buckler arm bent, as they just wanted to hit the other, often with the false edge.
- To make the durchtritt "work", some students extended their sword hands well beyond their bucklers when "falling under".

Not their fault of course. The "blame", if we want to call it that, lies squarely on my shoulders. I should have gone more slowly and stepped the drill more. The way things turned out, I guess I was trying to make them run before they could really walk. Some of the students coudn't see the link between the movements in the rolling exercise and those in the counter to the overbind, leading to durchtritt, mutacio gladii, or the wrap. Perhaps this is just a question of starting again from scratch and drilling the wards and rolling exercise more.

In fairness, the plays in 1.33 are "difficult", in that they are rather subtle in terms of timing, distance, tactical intent and awareness of what is supposed to be happening at any step in the drill, however this is no different for longsword. In my case, I didn't ensure that each step was trained enough. I think though that if the students can get the hang of the rolling exercise, apply it to the first play and get it right, then everything will start to fall into place.

I love the 1.33 treatise, from the beards and moustaches drawn in later by some child in the last 800 years, to the enigmatic smiles of the priest and student, and the confident and assured "voice" of the priest wisely telling us, "If you would be judged by my counsel.....". Priceless. All I need to do now is practice, practice, practice! It's great that the basic plays are available on youtube from both the School of European Swordsmanship:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiQVsBrnjvw and from the Hammaborg School in Germany:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NN6wXJzXRQ

Seminar fun

2009-02-24T15:20:00.003+02:00

Had a brilliant seminar in Helsinki last weekend. Mr. Windsor, despite being unwell, held a day of freeplay preparation, which taught us several key aspects of this facet of swordsmanship:

- How to protect the hands
- Distance and measure
- How to avoid stopping during sparring
- What to do when we got stuck and/or in a "position of equality"
- How rule sets change behaviour

Well, as you may imagine there is lots of food for thought in these aspects. For me, one of the most enlightening things about this seminar was that we actually already have the necessary tools to train them all, because they are built into the sword drills and the syllabus form.

For example, to illustrate the distance concept, Guy chose me to demonstrate the 4th drill with him. He instructed me to check my distance first then we went through a stepped version of the drill. As the attacker, it took me three attempts to get my punta falsa correctly onto his mask with my own sword inside his and even then I was so concentrated on making this thrust work, I failed to correctly pass alla traversa.

At first I thought it was my timing, but Guy pointed out that the most common problem with the fourth drill is that almost everyone begins at a measure that is simply too small. We do not make enough space, therefore we also limit our time. I understood this concept of course, but hadn't really realised, or more importantly, applied it to this, or any of the other drills.

We reset and this time Guy reminded us that the initial powerful mezano cut to the head only needs to come as close to the defender's head to maybe scratch his nose or cut his face, in other words, to present a real threat to him. If he doesn't react to this threat, simply put the point in his head. This manipulation is also a common concept in tactical fencing, i.e. make an attack which will force the defender to respond in a way that you, as the attacker can deal with.

On the second go around, it worked perfectly! I had plenty of space/time to effect my punta falsa after his blade made a light contact with mine and simply passed across the line to walk my point into his face. Beautiful! So what was the correct measure? Close enough to make a proper cut to his head but not so close as to have two or three cms of sword tip extending beyond his head, cutting air. It doesn't seem like a lot, does it? Yet it allowed me to execute proper technique without having to somehow correct, i.e. "make space", by pulling my hands back, just so I could bring my point online. I am always amazed by the sheer volume and subtlety of information that is packed into each sword drill. To unlock this information though will require much thought and physical practice.

To conclude, we went through repetition after repetition of the syllabus form. On each iteration, Guy would ask us, "As you are doing the form this time, how many of you are thinking about proper measure/timing/protecting your hands/etc.?". I have to admit that before he asked, I had only been really thinking of the correct choreography of the form. Again, I realised that the form, as well as being as sort of zip file containing all of the techniques required on the syllabus, can also be much more, depending on which aspect you decide to focus upon, even if your enemy is only imaginary.

Finally, I picked up a few bruises during the three-man pressure drills and was sweating like a pig (my new gambeson worked fine, but it's like wearing a duvet with sleeves!). At the time that I'm doing them, I don't really enjoy the pressure drills to be honest. Then again, perhaps we are not supposed to! All I ended up doing was trying to react to what was happening. Sometimes it worked, very often it didn't and probably looked awful and I got cut across the arms, body or head. However, I do enjoy the post-freeplay feeling of having learnt something and maybe, just maybe I showed a little progress. That's definitely worth the sweat and multicoloured collection of bruises I have while writing this :-)

An excellent day, tons of fun and a seminar I would recommended highly to anyone interested in taking their swordsmanship to the next level.

PS: Thanks to Joeli and Laura for preparing an excellent lunch!

No mind

2009-02-19T13:27:00.002+02:00

I've been practicing chi kung every day now for the past while, at least once if not twice per day. I am using a combination of the form for health which is a part of our syllabus and various exercises from Shaolin Wahnam Cosmos chi kung (I love the name!). Unfortunately I don't have the provenance for the form taught to us by Guy, I assume it comes from Tai Chi Mun, but that's all I know.

I've been doing ck for about five years now and recently have come to understand (should have sussed it earlier, I know) about the importance of mind in training. This is called shen in kung fu terms but just to keep it in a western format, I'll call it concentration and perhaps, attitude. The atter is important when practicing ck, your mind has to be "right" otherwise you are just doing gentle physical exercises. By "right", I mean focused, concentrated on the job in hand. I think I am just beginning to learn how to relax enough to simply focus on breathing and moving or just breathing. I always used to have awful problems quieting my mind when doing the standing meditation part of ck. I'd be trying to count breaths and random thoughts would just pop up like "what's good on the telly tonight?" etc. I'd get frustrated, my frustration would "stick" and my concentration would just disappear. Somehow, now I find that I can pretty much just count breaths and if a random thought pops into my head, I can be aware of it but simply let it go and continue breathing and counting.

Ok, you might wonder.."So what?" The answer to this is how I now feel after practice. I feel a lot more refreshed, I have more energy, I'm calmer and not least, i look forward to the next training session. In short, I really enjoy my practice. By not overanalysing and just getting on with it, I've in some very small measure achieved a "no mind" state. Of course, I cannot use this state to previsualise beautifully choreographed fencing or fights, like Tom Cruise in the Last Samurai (as cool as that would be). I'm just content with having made some definite progress in my chi kung training.

Oka wari?

E-blogger doing odd things

2009-02-19T13:24:00.002+02:00

I've checked my page a few times now in the last week and on two occasions, for some very odd reason, my posts are not visible at all! I experienced this phenomenon on both my laptop at home as well as my work computer. Just a green sea of blankness......trippy.

Seems to be working ok again but. Anybody else noticed this?

Demos, freeplay prep and skiing holidays

2009-02-10T16:10:00.002+02:00

Our group has a new beginner's course coming up in less than 2 weeks time. I have to admit feeling a bit ambivalent towards these, as on one hand we get the chance to hopefully recruit new people to the group, but the overall return for the energy and time invested in the beginners is usually very small. If we have say 10 people starting the course, we are usually lucky to have 2 or 3 at the end, and of these not all will continue to train further. It's quite disheartening but it seems to be a necessary evil to ensure the survival of our group. I was also thinking today that we'll have to cobble together some sort of introductory demonstration for the first evening of the beginner's course. This has usually led to discussions about what should be included or omitted, how long should the demo last for, and who's the "lucky" one to stand in front of John Q. Public and hold forth on the jewel that is italian swordsmanship a la Fiore.

Well, if we want to have a good demo and make a good first impression at least, I guess we'll have to do something. It's a pain in the arse though because I want to get some freeplay preparation stuff done, not least because we haven't done hardly any, but because there is a seminar covering precisely this aspect of our training coming up before the beginner's course starts. We'll have to divert training time from fpp (free play prep) to demo shenanigans instead. Grr!

To complicate matters just a little bit more (as if I really need this), our training venue will be off limits for a large chunk of the next two weeks because of the Finnish school holiday phenomenon called "hiihtoloma", lit. skiing holiday. Everything just seems to shut down for this period. It's bloody daft, we use the training space in the evenings when the school is anyway empty, but we're not allowed to use it during these holidays! Insane! In effect, we have I think two training sessions to whip up a decent demonstration. It's like trying to fence longsword with your hands tied behind your back......

More counter remedies and talking about stuff

2009-02-06T12:26:00.002+02:00

Training was interesting last night. I decided to do some more dagger counter remedies. At the last training session we covered some of the more "complicated" counters, or at least, the ones that appear farther down the play list. This got me thinking about why Fiore shows them in the order he does. I mean if the attacker attacks a fendente mandritto, the remedy can be a disarm/strike, a break, a lock or a throw, and this response will affect what the counter will be. Perhaps the most common remedy is a disarm so last night we looked at ways to counter it. I also though that if the remedy can be categorised into 5 things, perhaps we could do the same with the counters.....This is what we came up with:

-Avoid: Change the line striking under the defender's arm into the armpit/ribcage. This one is particularly sneaky as it's easy to do and quite difficult to defend against.

-Deflect: This can be done with the dagger or with the offhand. In the former, the defender is allowed to make contact with the attacker's wrist, who hooks the dagger inside the wrist and drops their hand to thrust at the belly/chest. The offhand can be placed on the heel of the dagger to reinforce the stab. The attacker "walks" the dagger point into the defender's chest/belly. Alternatively, as the attacker makes the initial stab, he uses his offhand to grab the defender's incoming wrist and turns him, before stabbing him in the back.

-Offend: As the defender's hand approaches the attacker's wrist, the attacker changes his line and raises his hand bringing the point down on the defender's forearm, between the radius and ulna. In theory the dagger passes through the defender's forearm and the attacker's offhand can grab the emerging point to control the defender's forearm, by twisting clockwise or anti-clockwise. Nasty!

-Collect/Trap: Here the attacker may be slow reacting and the defender gets his hand to the attacker's wrist. Again the attacker hooks the dagger over the defender's wrist and brings the offhand up to grab the dagger, trapping the wrist. The attacker then crosses his wrists causing the defender to turn his back, whereuopn the attacker stabs him. This trap is ok, but not as good as the counter remedy involving a roverso strike: it's relatively easy to slip your hand hand out. Then again, this trap isn't supposed to be a long-term thing, it's primarily a facilitating move allowing temporary control before you do something nastier.

We then did some dagger flow drill and then on a signal one of the drilling pair did one of the above remedy counters after attacking with a fendente mandritto. This worked quite well and further highlighted for me the versatility of the dagger flow drill, i.e. the flexibility to introduce breaks in the flow with remedies (one of five possible tactics), as well as counter remedies (one of the above four categories). Fiore ALSO shows some counter-counter remedies....hmm, food for thought..

After we did some cutting practice, I randomly picked two people from the line, told one to pick a random guard, and got the other to pick a guard they might use to break the first guard. We then did a stepped drill. One attacked with whatever attack they chose (no response). A second identical attack was followed by whatever remedy the defender chose (no counter remedy response). Finally, the same attack and remedy as before, but with whatever counter remedy the initial attacker thought would work. Ok. Then I stared asking both participants questions:
1. What guard did you pick and why?
2. What strike did you attack with? True edge or false edge? What footwork?
3. How did you defend? etc....

The point of the exercise was to encourage them to remeber the details of what happened using Fiorean terms. Naturally this can be done in whatever language the student is most comfortable with. I guess it's a really basic form of free play preparation. By encouraging students to see and react to what is really happening and not what they anticipate or what they think is happening will help them later when they come to doing pressure drills, and later free play itself. Sometimes talking about stuff can be a positive thing, as long as the talking is to the point, and the point being made is clear to the students. Who says pedagogics isn't interesting!

Treatise fun

2009-02-04T13:41:00.002+02:00

Last night we had a bit of fun looking at counter rememdies from the dagger section. I used the images from the Exiles excellent work, which has the Novati pictures. I don't really like the pen drawings from the other Exile works, although the texts in these versions is more complete. Some things we noticed about the counter remedies we used:
-you have to be awake and aware of what is going on for them to work
-they tie into the idea of constant motion, if the initial attack fails, keep going!, in other words, you stop = you die
- The attacker/defender must be ready to use their offhand also- there's a tendency to focus on the dagger hand/arm only
- The time window to successfully do a counter remedy is very small and gets even smaller if the sequence goes to a contra-counter
-The best counter remedies are the simplest ones, usually depicted being done by a King, other techniques, which are doable, but perhaps less efficient/common, are depicted by scholars
-The biggest number of counter remedies seems to be for fendente mandritto attacks

I printed out the images and brought them to class so that the others could see I wasn't just making up the stuff (I'm not that creative). It might also be fun to print out a few more images, maybe also from the abrazare section, get everybody to pair off with no input from me, give everybody 5 minutes to "interpret" the image they get, and have them demo what they come up with in front of the class. Obviously, I am not so au fait with the material that I can definitively say whether another's interpretation is correct, BUT it would be a great opportunity to promote the idea of actively using the treatise material and bringing it to life.

New longsword drill videos from SESH on youtube!

2009-01-28T12:40:00.004+02:00

Have you ever wondered how a left-hander would tackle longsword fourth drill? Well, wonder no more. Guy et al. have posted up ALL of the longsword drills on youtube, including the variations for left handers. This is an invaluable resource so capitalise on it!

Mark them in your favourites and study them assiduously! Then go forth and practice them for yourselves!

Seminars and a training update

2009-01-28T11:47:00.004+02:00

Last weekend saw an enjoyable day clashing bucklers at the Helsinki salle, with a review of some aspects of the 1.33 system. Most of the material covered was already familiar to me but I welcomed the chance to review it, particularly since I haven't done anything with 1.33 since the workshop with Scott Brown at Swordfish 2008. Guy covered the wards and rolling exercise, half shield vs. first and fifth wards, second ward vs. second ward, and first ward vs. first ward. Of course there are other combos but this provided us with a good basis to work with. One of the highlights of the seminar for me was the light freeplay bouts with wooden bucklers and hickory swords. It became immediately obvious to me that I really need to practice this stuff more often as my first reaction was to hop around in what looked more like a boffer fight than anything we had just covered. Then again, iirc, nobody else successfully did a schiltschlac, a durchtritt or a mutacio gladii, most of us concentrating on trying to strike or thrust to the opponent's body but without first controlling their weapons. This reminded me that a good grounding is necessary in martial arts before attempting freeplay, or at least, before we might expect to be any good at freeplay. The lesson learned is that it's back to the training!

As a class leader, I had the extra bonus of learning the next step in the chi kung health form, which is part of our syllabus. It was't too difficult and I also got the chance for Guy to check out the previous steps to correct mistakes and tweak the form into shape. The breathing part is still the hardest task, as it's supposed to be I suppose. If you know the choreography of the form you can transition fairly smoothly from one position to the next. This smoothness helps the breathing to stay relaxed. However, if you fluff the movements and stop, the breathing also tends to stop with the results that you are left gasping for air and not cool, calm and collected as you are supposed to be. I guess one complements the other, calm breathing leads to a calm mind and the movement is smooth. Fun stuff, and I'm only half way through the form! Many thanks to Guy for a very enjoyable seminar!

At training last night I incorporated the crane form into our warm up. If we're supposed to have these things in our syllabus, I need to work them in somewhere on a regular basis so that we can learn them properly and derive benefit from the exercise. Recently, I had been talking with T about using our current footwork to avoid being hit. So, I decided to use the old pair drill of having one partner with a stick strike a committed fendente mandritto/roverso and have the defender use the footwork to avoid being hit and get behind the striker as well as getting to wrist, elbow, shoulder and back distance, both to the outside and inside of the attacker. This seemed to go quite well so the attackers could now also strike mezzani and finally also sottani blows, making the exercise into a low-pressure drill, meaning that if the avoider tried to anticipate the attack, they might get lucky one time in three if they voided to the outside. However, this option is practically impossible against anything other than a fendente mandritto. It feels horrible stepping right into a mezzano strike, even if it's done with a stick! A nice exercise, it works footwork, distance awareness, timing and adds a little pressure, so that it also warms people up nicely. We'll have to do it more!

After a half hour of this we switched to cutting mulinelli (40) and through cuts (30 per side). Again a sword tip hitting the floor means an automatic 10 pushups. It was nice to see that the practice is paying off. The cuts are smoother, the arms are more extended and the swords are passing nicely through posta longa. We still need to train more though! With cutting as with anything else, footwork, abrazare, dagger, anything, I try to look on everything as a mini-form. Get the details right, correct, neat accurate, and they are like gems. Add the gems together and I have a lovely necklace, something beautiful, long lasting and invaluable.

My last thought for our training was that I HAVE to jump in and also train more for myself. I noticed a tendency in myself to just do the class leader stuff and then train in the German style in the following class with the WSK guys. I need to remeber to train harder and prioritise in Fiore first, as well as enjoying other styles.

The German class was a lot of fun though and I particularly enjoyed the sword section. We trained moving from Ochs-Pflug-Pflug-Ochs with steps and I learned how this apparently simple movement can be used both offensively and defensively. Against an incoming thrust, I transition (absetzen) my pflug from right to left side, while stepping forward and to the right. I am more used to doing the accressere fora di strada/passo combo with a frontale, so it felt a bit stragne to step in the "wrong" direction. We then trained the fuhlen (with a winden) exercise and I had to admit it was very difficult because it had to be done slowly enough that you can feel through your blade what the other intends. Also it is a feedback exercise, not one that one or the other must "win". Fuhlen or "sentimenti di ferro" as I would know it, is not something you pick up in five minutes, or maybe even five years. Still, I admire the subtlety, and indeed beauty of the principle, regardless of what name or style in which it is practiced.

Forearm injury and maintenance

2009-01-22T15:00:00.003+02:00

I wrote a little bit before Christmas about some problems I have had with my left elbow. In a nutshell it has been sore and I couldn\t quite decide if it was related to the joint or the soft yissue surrounding it. I mentioned using chi kung exercises and massage tom try to help the problem and said i would report back on my progress.
Well, so much for progress. I did almost nothing over the period I spent on holidays and then overcompensated for this by doing way too much since. I STILL haven\t quite grasped the concept of slowly and gently yet and now I\m paying the price. Ok, my forearms do feel stronger and where there was practically no brachius radialis to speak of, there is a definite increase in size. My elbow still hurts though........feck!
So what HAVE I done? Lets break it down.

Massage:I have done this mainly when my forearms were feeling tired after a session of what are known as sinew metamorphosis exercises. Along with massage I use a medicinal wine , a type of dit da jow. It helps a lot in reducing swelling and soreness and nothing beats it for reducing and clearing bruises. The biggest problem I notice with massage is that my hands and fingers are too tired to push on the massage lines, making it difficult to push hard on painful spots. Then again, every bit helps...

Sinew metamorphosis:This fantastic name (yi jin jing) and techniqe derives from chi kung, which are supposed to make your forearms strong, wrists flexible and give powerful strikes. There are a number of exercises of which I only know two. These exercises do come with a caveat that if practiced incorrectly they may lead to problems as they are described as being powerful, at least in terms of chi development. However, yi jin jing should be practiced as chi kung exercises and then they are supposed to be very good, not just for the forearms but for overall health. Sometimes I just practice them simply as physical exercises in order to reduce or negate any bad effects I might induce by incorrect chi kung practice. Those of you who do not believe in chi can roll your eyes to the ceiling.....NOW!

Weight training, etc:I also dug out my 1kg hand weights and did some wrist exercises as shown to us at the sword school. These weights are light enough to give a workout but not to cause undue stress on the joints. I tried gripping and squeezing tennis balls as an alternative exercise to increase grip strength and to help activate the tendons, muscles and those stringy bits in the forearm associated with the fingers. Basically a good idea, but I think I need to try squeezing something with more give in it. The tennis ball required too much strain and I could feel it the following day. Perhaps one of those grip thingies with a spring or a softer rubber ball?

Conclusions?
-I need to find a good regime and stick to it, hopping from one exercise to the next is not either slowing or limiting my progress.
-Practice gently and dilligently.
-Build the exercises up slowly.
-Use massage with dit da to complement the training.

I will try to stick with this regime and keep youse all updated.

Before ze Germans come!

2009-01-20T11:53:00.004+02:00

I've had two weeks training now with the Warusseppäin Kilta guys and have been having a blast. Training in the German style is interesting, sometimes difficult but ultimately a rewarding experience. The class leader gives us quite an interesting workout when doing our warm-up, with a lot of emphasis on leg stretches and leg exercises. The squats done with our feet in guard stance is a killer on the backs of the thighs!

The footwork is basically similar to what we do in Fiore, although there seems to be less emphasis on a forward weighted stance; more 50-50, with the back foot flat on the ground. One thing that struck me as interesting was the body angulation. I seem to naturally turn my shoulders and hips such that I face square on to the direction I'm going. However, in the German class, we were advised to angle the body: if the right foot is forward, the right shoulder is also forward. Regardless of which foot is forward, the front foot points in the direction of travel.

And so to the bladework. We start off with the meisterhau or master blows. Changing my grip to place my thumb along the handle is difficult for me. Firstly, because it feels odd. Secondly because my new sword, a Violet by Pavel Moc, has a little floret decoration right in the middle of the blade where it enters the hilt. Pressing my thumb on this is uncomfortable after a bit. I was tempted to file the thing off but was advised simply to adopt the "German" grip a little lower on the hilt instead. Simple! Why didn't I think of that? Doh! The meisterhau start with Krumphau,which seem to involve windmilling the sword in front of the body, with the hands extended at chest height. The thumb of the sword hand is towards the body and the movement is generated by the wrists. The hands can be close together or one hand can be on/close to the hilt. These "windmills" are then done to each side as well as above the head, the latter are the zwerchhau (i think). When combined, these windmills form a box around the wielder, which protects him from the front, top and sides. We then do a sort of figure eight motion with the sword, again with the german grip (thumb along the blade/hilt). This exercise is wonderful for wrist and forearm strength and flexibility, particularly if the arms are extended.

I mentioned above the body alignment. This became quite important when practicing sword drill which incorporate the Krumphau and the figure eight movements. I noticed that when my body was square on to my partner, I have to work a lot harder to make these blows and I could really feel it in my wrists. It was pointed out to me that by angling my body, my wrists are less stressed because the sword movements become more natural. Train smarter not harder. It started me wondering about my body position when practicing Fiore. I'll have to keep this in mind when next I'm training. It seems like a trivial thing, but already a little practice in another style has given me some interesting insights into how I usually train. Cool!

New Year's training objectives

2009-01-19T17:00:00.003+02:00

Over the holidays and since, I've been thinking about the group's training objectives for the coming year. With a bit of luck, we'll organise a tatami cutting class together with the Warusseppäin Kilta sometime in February. Some of the WSK guys have said that they will kindly allow us to use their sharp longswords for the class. I'm not sure yet how we'll repay them, perhaps the classic Finnish "reilu meininki" (good turn) of a bottle of some hooch each, or possibly a dinner at the local Indian restaurant after the class. Anyhow, in the interests of safety and as a mark of respect for the owners of the swords we are being allowed to use, our immediate training objective is to train a lot of cutting practice. If, when cutting, one of our lot allows the sword tip to hit the floor, that person will not continue. So we will practice standing cuts, mulinelli, cutting and stepping, pell work using the ropes in the salle where we train, as well as sword manipulation drills. I'm certain that not all of the present members will be ready to take part, but at the end of the day, cutting practice is NEVER wasted time or effort.

Freeplay. Most of our members are pretty familiar with all five sword drills, thereby giving them a good foundation to begin freeplay preparation. I decided that whenever possible, there should be a light freeplay session taking place every thursday and saturday, either as a pair, when one of whom is a senior student/free scholar or a pair supervised/marshalled by a senior scholar. The emphasis is on light freeplay, not full on hard-core high speed duelling. I had noticed that some students, myself included, were reacting reluctantly to the idea of gearing up and giving it a go. Basically, the idea of freeplay was some horrible barrier that had to be endured, involving massive amounts of stress and sweat. As the training leader, I feel a fair twinge of guilt about this as the other students reaction to the idea of freeplay may well have stemmed from me. To counter this, I want to demystify the whole experience and make it fun, something to be looked forward to, while balancing this with the concept that it is a diagnostic exercise, showing us where our fencing weaknesses lie and encouraging us to go away and train to fill those "holes". There are about six of us who are ready to do light-slow to moderate speed freeplay so that each one should get the chance to practice every few weeks or so: the whole thing running on a rotational basis. This freeplay approach may also extend to dagger also. Naturally, we will also have to step up doing the sword drills as well as free play preparation: with variations and degrees of freedom.

Both the cutting class and the freeplay are ends to work towards, to train for. They set goals in our minds and drive us to train. However, it's funny that although these are goals, they are in fact only stepping stones on the path to overall improvement. If we perform poorly in cutting tatami or in light freeplay, we analyse what went wrong and why and learn from the experience. Even if we do really well, we should still be open to learn.

To quote the Roman astrologer and poet, Manilius, Per varios usus artem experientia fecit - Through different exercises practice has brought skill.

New spaulders!

2009-01-14T21:43:00.005+02:00

These babies were waiting for me when got I back from my Christmas holidays. Well worth the wait, they were made by Marko Saari, the guild leader of /the Armoursmiths' Guild (WaruSseppäin Kilta in Finnish). Here's a link to their website:http://www.warussepat.fi/

Nice one, Marko! I think they're gorgeous! As you can see from the photos, they are attached using points. I still have to find out how to sew the laces onto my gambeson and whether to use laces or leather thong for the chords.

Already before the holidays, I decided to join the WarusSeppäin Kilta group, WSK for short, to enhance my historical martial arts repertoire and experience. The WSK train in various German styles based on several historical treatises. In effect, they do what we do, but in German styles AND they also make their own gear and do re-enactment. To-date, I have not really discovered another one-handed sword style that I am really interested in*, so I thought I'd stay with an approximately similar period to Fiore, but with a German twist. I like the finesse in longsword as well as the wrestling and dagger techniques. I also love both the look and feel of the Messer, which although it looks like a fearsome sword, is technically a long knife! Through this cross-training I hope to deepen my appeciation of HEMA overall and to get new insights into italian swordsmanship.

*= with the exception of backsword/basket-hilt claymore.

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-14T15:39:00.007+02:00

Well, I'm back. It was fun having a break from swording, visiting relatives and friends over the Christmas holidays. It's been almost a month since the last entry. Either I've just been too lazy or don't have much to write outside the remit of sword related material. In either case, that's a bit pathetic. So, another new year's resolution for my list, blog more!

L and I spent a few very relaxing days in eastern Finland. We got the chance to go skiing, which was a lot of fun but I'm not so fit and was well out of practice. Not surprisingly, both L and her Dad were much more comfortable with skiis on. I found that I was concentrating so hard on not falling over and keeping my skiis moving properly that I didn't really have much time for admiring the scenery, except when we stopped for a breather. Still, I'm looking forward to spending some time with L's family in Lapland later this spring. Once you get used to the motion of cross-country skiing you can relax a lot more and only have to worry about staying upright going down hills and (my least fave aspect) around bends.

I flew to Ireland on the 28th of December by myself; Lea had some night shifts at work and followed on New Year's Eve. Ryanair lived up to its usual "cheap & cheerful" reputation and did that stupid fanfare on the PA when we landed informing us that we were on time in Dublin. People actually aplauded! Doh! My biggest peeve though was that to fly on the 28th cost me nearly 400 quid, but was 100 euros cheaper the following day. You pay all that extra dosh and the service is still exactly the same. I wanted to get home because my sister and her husband (and his brother) were over from England and were due to leave on the 30th so it was worth every cent. It's only money after all.

Most of the holiday in Ireland was spent at my mum's house drinking tea all the day, sitting around chatting, eating and sleeping. Some evenings we went to the restaurant, the cinema and to my brother's place. We spent New Year's Eve at home singing songs and drinking. It was a lot of fun especially as my brother and his girlfriend played music. Which was nice. One memorable day was spent driving around west Clare, where we visited Lahinch and Doolin. It was one of those really sunny days with blue skies and was quite cold. The air was very clear allowing excellent views of the Aran Islands, particularly Inis Oirr (Craggy Island, for Father Ted fans). My brother kindly drove us around the place and even up to Galway the following day.

It was quite a wrench to leave home this time around. I really should go home more often. Then again the clan is coming over for our wedding party in April, which should be a lot of fun. I've been back now a week and slowly getting back into some sort of routine. This is a bit difficult as I'm out of work so the temptation is to just stay in bed and sleep the day away. Instead I come in to uni and well, faff on the computer all day, doing a bit of this and a bit of that. Thankfully the sword training has begun so I get some exercise, which lifts my mood a lot.

Some good news. I got offered a job, starting in April. I still have to finalise the details but it means that with another job lined up later in the summer I may well have most of 2009 in gainful employment. Yaaay! The first gift of the year.

Bolognese seminar

2008-12-18T19:27:00.003+02:00

And so to the Bolognese seminar led by Messr. Ilkka Hartikainen last sunday. Well, what can I say? It was REALLY interesting, beautiful, efficient and deadly. I did have some reservations about attending the seminar originally as I just figured this material was more rapier stuff, with its (to my mind) unnatural footwork, odd stances and fiddly-piddly wrist actions, for which I have neither the finesse and muscle control, nor indeed the desire to learn. It's weird that I really have this mental block when it comes to the rapier! I always sum it up (re: justify my ignorance) by saying that I prefer a sword with which I can chop a man in half, rather than a glorified knitting needle to spit him with.

Well, mea culpa, but was I ever wrong! We began the day by a light warmup with some of Ilkka's (in)famous animal walks and material from his falling seminar, combined with breathing exercises. These exercises are beautiful in their simplicity but deceptively difficult to do, particularly as I am not very flexible and Ilkka is as rubbery as a boned chicken, he makes them all seem so simple. The breathing stuff was interesting. I can slow down my inhale/exhale speed quite well, but as with the chi kung form from the previous post, the exhale followed by a holding period before we were supposed to inhale again was really difficult for me! I was starting to see colours and spots in front of my eyes at one stage, so I must have been physiologically pushing myself close to some sort of aerobic limit. A useful exercise if one wants to develop aerobic stamina without the "jumppa". Well, leotards were never my thing anyway :-)

We began the actual Bolognese material by going over unarmed material. This was unsurprisingly, rather similar to the Fiore abrazare and dagger we know and love. The main difference is that in the Bolognese style, the daggers are more like mini-swords, double-bladed, pointed and with cross-guards and rings to protect the hands. I wouldn't fancy getting slashed with one! We had the opportunity to try a knife fight with rubber knives (masked) to try the techniques. It's horribly quick, in close stuff which would be very difficult for even the "winner" to walk away from without receiving some sort of cut. Realistically, we would have been spraying blood all over the place. I began to see why rapiers were so long and why you wouldn't necessarily want to close with your opponent, when a neat thrust through the body/face would suffice.

The sidesword, i.e. spada da filo (when sharp) or spada da zogho (blunt version for play) looks like a shortened rapier and compared to the longsword is lighter and whippier, although not as much as some rapiers I've seen. I wondered during the seminar what it's cutting power would be as it seems a bit flimsy for really slashing cuts. Hmm, a cutting class might answer that question (Ilkka??). I had my own sword with me but it wasn't really suitable as it's a simple arming sword (Hanwei), heavier and stiffer than the backsword, but better than nothing. I was amazed by the elegant attacks and retreats done with mullinelli-like turns. It seemed quite simple, make your attack, if it goes through well and good, if anything goes wrong, take a step back and cover with another cut to end in what looked like a one-handed Pflug (iirc on the right side it was a coda lunga and a porta di ferro on the left, but I could be wrong). My arming sword was noticeably shorter than many of the swords there with the result that partners with longer blades had no difficulty in cutting safely from distance at my sword hand/arm as I tried to counter.

Ilkka saved the best for last, i.e. combining the sword and the dagger. This was an absolute joy to train! The coordination required to be adept at this must be phenomenal but we were taught some basic moves that everyone could do and get a sense of how the weapons relate to each other. A dance of steel indeed!

Finally, I hope Ilkka will not mind if I praise him a bit further. Throughout the seminar, he was always clear. I always knew what I was supposed to be doing and didn't suffer my usual three o' clock mental meltdown. If we made mistakes he was always there to fix them and answer our questions with patience and good humour. I suspect that there is a whole lot more depth to the Bolognese tradition, viz a vis footwork, guard positions, etc. Instead Ilkka concentrated on giving us a digest form which was easily picked up, was great fun and left us wanting more. Five pm, and the end of the seminar came around so quick, I don't know where the day went. Well done sir!

After this seminar, I would definitely consider sidesword as another potential weapon system for study. I still have reservations about the rapier and probably always will, but after this experience I was left feeling much more amenable to other italian swordsmanship styles than that of Maestro dei Liberi.

Maintenance

2008-12-16T12:14:00.004+02:00

Last weekend was a really good experience and I'm very glad I made the effort to attend both the maintenance and Bolognese seminars. I'll give the latter seminar its' own post later.

The maintenance seminar covered breathing techniques, chi kung form(s), wrist and arm conditioning exercises and massage of the forearms, neck, back, hips and knees. I liked the massage but noticed that I need to really practice this a lot more if I want to get any good at it at all, even for self-massage. We learned that for example, in the back musculature are basically three layers of muscle, each layer containg muscle groups which run in a different direction to the layer above or below. Super complicated! Also that experts are able to manipulate and feel which layer they want to target. Amazing to have such sensitivity in one's hands. I could barely feel the muscles just under the skin!

I noticed during the wrist/forearm conditioning that the small muscles and tendons and things in my right arm are noticeably more developed than in my left. How had I not noticed this before? I did injure my left elbow sometime during the early summer this year when I foolishly tried to pull an anchor rope without waiting for the boat engine to help me. In effect I tried to pull a 3½ tonne boat into a strong headwind. Stupid! Something "popped" in my elbow and it was sore for a couple of days but since gives off alarming twinges if I put stress on the elbow, i.e. when I try to do the wrap in the second drill. So, for the next month, wheon not otherwise training swordsmanship, I shall be incorporating forearm exercises and massage with medicine to try to build up the small muscles around the elbow and to strengthen those muscles and associated tissues involved in handgrip strength. I'll report after Christmas on my progress.

Other forearm exercises involved hand weights and sticks. The latter exercises were a lot of fun but we got lots of shoulder exercise as well because each time we dropped the damn stick, we had to do ten push-ups! The clangour of wood hitting the floor got so bad at one point that Guy got a bit annoyed and increased the penalty to twenty push-ups. Thankfully I didn't drop the stick again. I'm looking forward to getting my ash staff out for a forearm workout!

The chi kung part was very interesting. This stuff is very close to my heart as I've been practicing Wahnam Cosmos chi kung it for quite a while now, as taught by Sifu Wong Kiew Kit. We started off with the crane form, which is a very interesting exercise for breathing, balance and overall leg conditioning. Unlike Wahnam chi kung, where the breathing may be paused but never held, the breath hold phase in the crane form actually keeps air in the lungs and squeezes them gently, thereby expanding the lungs gently. I deliberately wrote "gently" here twice to stress that it must be done without force. I like this form a lot for the balance aspect, but also the sinking/rising along the central axis of the body, not just bending from the waist. Afterwards we did the chi kung form which is in the sword school syllabus. I had been practicing the first part on and off for a while, incorporating it into my daily chi kung routine. I got to fine tune the movements, which I had not been doing correctly.

The "fun" bit involves continuing to move in a relaxed, graceful manner, after exhaling, so running on "empty". It's a bit difficult as your brain is telling you to breathe in, you just have to ignore it, relax and continue. It feels wonderful to draw the next in breath, the air feels so good. Simple pleasures :-)

The next part of the exercise is even more, erm "fun". The moves themselves are not very difficult. It's just that the running on empty time is even longer! I'll have to practice the physical form for a while before I am able to do this part without passing out! :-) Guy reckoned that this form keeps him in pretty good shape physically and aerobically, when he is otherwise unable to train as normal. If/when my breath control becomes good enough to be able to complete the next part of the form, I'll definitely be in better shape.

So thanks to Mr. Windsor for organising the seminar. I was quite tired from a Christmas party (pikkujoulu) the previous evening and slightly hungover, and having to get up at 7 o'clock for the two hour drive to Helsinki. The material learned, particularly the chi kung and massage was a very welcome remedy for my battered body and soul. This, combined with the excellent chicken soup and lunch made by Ken Quek (from PHEMAS, Singapore) had me feeling relaxed, attentive and happy by the end of the day.

Weekend seminars

2008-12-12T01:22:00.002+02:00

This weekend will see two very interesting seminars take place in the School of European Swordsmanship salle, in Helsinki. On saturday, Guy Windsor will host a course on "maintenance". Sounds a bit odd when I write it like this :-) Anyhow, it will cover breathing techniques, conditioning exercises, as well as various massages (forearms, knee-to-toe, back and shoulders and upper legs). The point of this is to give us the tools to help maintain good internal and external health and to help recover from the strains and occasional injuries that HEMA training often brings. I've been to similar seminars and they are invaluable, not least because of the material learnt, but it gives us the opportunity to practice on each other. The massages are often a bit painful but this is "good" pain. Basically, it hurts during the massage as a certain point is pressed or pressured, yet feels excellent immeditely afterwards. A good back massage leaves you feeling slightly stoned! This seminar will be worth every cent.

On sunday, Ilkka Harikainen will hold a seminar on Bolognese sword. The material will be based on the single handed sword alone according to Giovanni dall'Agocchie, the dagger and unarmed defence against it according to Achille Marozzo and the sword used together with a dagger. Should be a blast! Ilkka works very hard on preparing a good seminar as those attending Swordfish will attest from his seminars on spada da filo, falling on hard surfaces and freeplay preparation.

I'll post a report on the seminar after the weekend.

Blogs and internet forums

2008-12-12T00:50:00.003+02:00

Well, I wrote a wee post the other day about different sword forums on the net and got some reaction.

http://www.fioredeiliberi.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10657

Mainly positive from Schola Gladiatoria, although some issue was taken with me saying that perhaps SFI was a more scholarly site. Not so, what I actually said was that the "level of discussion" was perhaps not as scholarly as on SFI, particularly since one of the most active forums on SG forum is the pub......the thread LOL Catz (which is hilarious), springs to mind. Of course there are also more serious discussions also, with lots of useful info and reviews. I found it a little ironic though that while some members (for whatever reason) are highly critical of SFI, they didn't much appreciate any perceived criticism to their own forum. No criticism was intended, just wrote what I thought.

I have to remember that SG is rather proud of and hence, protective of their forum. Fair enough, I reckon. So, apologies to any SG forumites if I caused offence. I'd like to clear this up as I enjoy being a member of the forum and would like to keep posting there.

Flow drills and paranoia...

2008-12-11T23:39:00.002+02:00

Training was a good laugh tonight. I've recovered from my flu so we had a somewhat heavier warmup than last Tuesday. As on the previous session we started the warm up with the crane-form, followed by some of the usual exercises and some others I threw into the mix just for fun. One of my faves right now is a combination of a squat and a push-up. It's taken from Ilkka's falling seminar. Basically, squat until the palms of the hands rest on the floor. From here push both feet backwards until you reach the push-up position, with the body and legs straight. Push up. Pull the feet towards the hands until back in a squatting position. Finish by standing up. This is one rep. Repeat 10 times. I like it because it works the legs, abs and back and if done as smoothly as possible, it has no impact on the joints. Lovely!

After this we followed up with the abrazare flow drill. This was fun but pretty tough as you have to time it just right or a correctly-applied technique makes it very difficult to recover from. I guess it's also a question of the minimal distance and therefore time. I noticed that the plays feel a bit like san shou (sic.) in kung fu: as soon as first contact is made, it never really breaks, although the hands can do various things like posta longa, ligadura soprana and elbow hyper-extensions. There is also the aspect that although the hands lead, i.e. once the counter has been initiated by the hands, it is completed by the actions of the hips and footwork. It's a technically difficult drill at first but with practice it does begin to flow and it's great fun!

Paranoia. This is one of my favourite games. We play it with daggers. Everybody masks up and forms a ring. In the centre of the ring are a number of daggers, usually one or more less than the number of players. Players can "kill" each other either by getting a clear strike on the mask with a dagger or by slapping another player between the shoulder blades with their hand. Players are told to trust no-one, then I shout "GO!" and the game begins. There is a tendency to get tunnel vision and go straight for the dagger, so that the sneaky bastard will stand back, let everybody else rush for the weapons and as they do so, he/she rushes in and "kills" five or six straightaway by slapping them on the backs. It's evil, but great to watch people's expressions when they realised they've been duped. Once "dead" you're out. Once there is a clear winner, everybody else must do 10 push-ups, while the victor watches. On the second and subsequent rounds, people are MUCH more careful about moving in to the daggers, or moving in any way that might expose their backs and their level of awareness is noticeably better. After the first round people's tactics also begin to evolve. One sneaky one is to simply wait in a corner, so that no-one can get behind them and let the others "kill" each other willy-nilly, then pick off the survivor. Alternatively, two players with daggers gang up on the others before the "partnership" dissolves and they turn on each other. An additional variant is that when attacked with a dagger, players can defend themselves and try to disarm/counter attack the attacker. This is useful because it tests whether players can perform a disarm under a "stress" situation. A nice game!

After this we did some dagger disarm flow drill with masks on and after a bit introduced a break in the flow using a wrap/lock. The more advanced students could perform the technique against an attack in any line, while the beginners only had to do it against a fendente mandritto, as this is the most familiar attack line so far. We finished of with syllabus form and had a look at polishing up specific techniques.

Naturally, there will always be room for improvement when leading a class, but I'm slowly getting the hang of doing it, while incorporating some training for myself as well, making the whole experience satisfying, rewarding and fun. Damn, it's a shame that this was the last class of 2008, just when I was starting to get all fired up!

Inactivity on sword forums and blogs

2008-12-09T23:37:00.003+02:00

A thought struck me recently about the general lack of activity on sword-related blogs and internet forums. Where did everybody go? Most of the people I know who blog have been quite quiet of late. I wondered why? Has their life taken up so much of their time that they simply cannot get to the keyboard?

This phenomenon also seems to be affecting the sword forum, Sword Forum International or SFI. I usually check it every day, my favourite fora are Historical European Swordsmanship and Scottish History and Borders. It has been a veritable ghost-town recently. People are just not posting! There has been a sort of social implosion this summer on SFI, with what amounted to a short but nasty flame war resulting from a clash of personalities. Without going into it further, a lot of people seem to have either left or are lurking but not posting. Many have shown up on the Schola Gladiatoria forum, or indeed have been there already after feeling disaffected by what they perceived to be a sort of intellectual hierarchy, or were banned from SFI because they clashed with the unspoken but present rank system. Perhaps the level of discussion may not be quite as scholarly, but the debates are usually lively and people regularly and actively post. There is a pub which has a no-holds barred attitude to language and behaviour but generally people are quite ok.
Perhaps SFI has had it's day, who knows? Internet fora seem to come and go anyway. Then again, maybe it's just undergoing a lull.

I wondered above if life is keeping people too busy to have time for blogging. In hindsight, perhaps that is a good thing. Rather than sitting at a computer, facelessly communicating through their screens, they are living their lives in a more fulfilling way. Of course, it may be that they are so stressed with work, family, kids and other things that they don't have the time to do anything else. Perhaps my need for another blog "hit" is in fact a sign that I should turn this blasted machine off and go and get a life! :-)

Compulsive Obsessive Disorder and thoughts on freeplay gear

2008-12-09T22:53:00.006+02:00

Well, as previously mentioned, I bought myself a gambeson while at Swordfish 2008. So, I've already made an order for a hand-made leather gorget and a pair of pauldrons. Both of these will be hand-made by local guys. It's easy to get such things online, but it's much more satisfying to actually have some more input as to how the things look. Plus, it's great to support local artesans. Basically, Emil Lindfors will make the gorget and Marko Saari will do the pauldrons. Marko has already made a buckler for me and with which I am very happy. I really like the idea of having nice gear and being able to tell people when I meet them that it's hand-made and thereby "advertise" their skills.

The obsessive side of my personality has manifested itself recently in an extensive but ultimately fruitless hunt on the net for a leather cuirasse to wear over my gambeson. I don't think the leather straps close the gambeson quite enough to give enough of a safety overlap of the material, so I wanted something to wear over it to protect better against thrusts. There is some stuff available, but it is either very expensive, or it is designed for an orc or an elven hunter, in other words, LARP bollocks. No thank you !

I guess I could just move the straps (they are sown on), so that the overlap is off-centre and the risk of getting a point in the gap is lessened. Trouble is, I cannot sow to save my life and so was thinking of using rivets instead. Decisions, decisions! It's really bloody frustrating because I want to DO something about it, but don't have the requisite skills to fix it myself, nor does it seem possible to just buy a blasted breastplate from the net. Arrrghh! Grrrr!

I did have the idea to make a plastic breastplate from those blue/black/grey plastic barrels. I just cannot seem to find out where I can get them from. More frustration. The basic idea would be to cut a one piece plastic "cuirasse" which covers the ribs and goes over the collarbones and shoulders. It would be strapped with either an x or y-strap arrangement with a lower back strap and adjustable fast-locking clips. I'd like also to add shoulder pads to the thing.

Ok, it'll probably look bloody hideous. I was thinking to cover the plastic with black cloth, canvas or something equally durable. In addition, I'd add high density foam padding. This would also be covered in the black cloth, glued to the inside of the plastic shell and then riveted for extra durability and an attempt at some sort of "historical" look. I just have to find a plastic barrel first!

Unfortunately, there's more!

2008-12-05T12:13:00.002+02:00

Come here, there's more!

The Six Insidious Guards:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLmV92RpIb8

So! So! ................So!

This chappie seems to be based in something called nintaijutsu and is a sensei or something. Well, kudos to him for that. But, it is debatable as to whether his experience automatically translates into italian swordsmanship. Actually being Italian isn't enough, although I like his-a haccent. This youtube video reminds me of Sensei Patrick McCarthy's take on sword and buckler. This man is highly respected in what he does, eastern style martial arts. Fair enough, he deserves respect for his hard work. He then decides to branch out into HEMA and posts a youtube video on sword and buckler. Result? He is shocked and insulted by the flaming he gets from all sides. Then again, flaming is the default state for youtube, so he shouldn't have been too surprised. Judge for yourselves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Q1NC2rLys

To give some sort of contrast, I'd like to finish by adding some links from the Hammaborg group led by Roland Warzecha. I've had the pleasure to meet with him at the Swordfishes, including his second, Toke, who is responsible for the youtube site which has a plethora of videos on their interpretations of 1.33, large shield and sword, etc. These guys are dedicated, hard-working and IMO the stuff they produce looks and has a more realistic "feel" to it than the above mentioned sources.
Sword and shield:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8SRaa33otU
1.33: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NN6wXJzXRQ

As ever though, if you read the comments on youtube, even these guys aren't safe from being flamed, usually by SCA-based or re-enactment groups.

Noone is safe on Youtube! Which is why it takes guts to post anything in the first place and why the videos from the swordschool have the comments disabled! :-P

This-a make-sa me want-a to a-scream-aa!

2008-12-03T22:09:00.003+02:00

Historical italian swordsmanship is open to interpretation and some interpretations will vary. Inevitably though, interpretations usually converge with time, becoming more similar.

Ahem, then this pops out of the box....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0NvvjsNarE

All I can say is, and I'm not a particularly good practicing Catholic, Good Sweet Jeeesus! Nooooooo!

Golden rules and metaphors

2008-12-03T20:58:00.004+02:00

How often have we heard them while training in the salle, whether in Turku or Helsinki? Those three word golden rules which encapsulate all that is good about italian swordsmanship a la Fiore.

Bend your knees!
Sink and relax!
See an elbow, hit an elbow! (ok, this is six)
step the drill

There are no doubt more. Simple directives which allow the message to sink in and let us learn it in a positive fashion. They are positive because they tell you what to do without including a "don't!". From experience, I've found that when you hear a command, the brain tends to focus on the verb. So, if the class leader says, "Don't lean forward!", the student's brain really only hears "lean forward!" and does the opposite of what is required. Interestingly, the student is then confused why the class leader is STILL yelling at them to do a particular thing, when as far as they are concerned, they've been following orders exactly since they were first told. As a class leader, I have also had this experience because I used a negative in the order as opposed to reinforcing my request with a positive instead. If I do not make myself clear, how can I expect anyone to follow my directives? Worse again, if I'm not clear and they continue to do the "wrong" thing, I get mad and just start yelling. To be honest, I have done this a couple of times. I'm not proud of it. Perhaps though, in learning how to teach, I have had to make such mistakes so I can improve my teaching technique (such as it is).

If I can be concise and clear (verbal cues), as well as giving the students a visual cue by demonstrating the technique once or twice, I can let them get on with it (physical cues). This has several advantages:

Less bla-bla from me.
More training time.
I can also get a chance to train.
Better value for money

Of course, this is an ideal situation and applies more to advanced students who already have a good base in how to train. Some modification is necessary for beginners.

I was leading the beginners last night in the 5 things to do against the dagger. We've covered most of the techniques at least once by now. They particularly liked the takedown from a sotto thrust, at least the ladies did, for some reason. For those who don't know it, it's the Ninth Master (7th play in the Getty MS). Anyhow, we were also working on the ligadura mezzana from a sotto thrust. The students were having a little difficulty with it because they were all stepping to the outside of the attacker's arm and then turning to face the attacker. In effect, they were shutting off the space through which they could do a chingiale move and hook up the attacker's bent arm, followed by a pivot on the front foot to the ligadura mezzana, as in done on the other side in the 3rd longsword drill.

So, the only metaphor I could think of was "threading a needle". Here, the defender first makes an accressere fora di strada, combined with his right hand going to the attacker's elbow and the left hand to the wrist. This makes the attacking arm bend and forms the "eye" of the needle at the inside of their elbow. Once formed, the defender's left hand threads through this hole with a chingiale, as described above. In effect, the defender could be said to apply two chingiale moves, first with the right hand then with the left. Initially, the students looked at me as if I was describing the technique in swahili, but when I repeated it a few times very slowly, so they could see the "eye" followed by the threading move, they started to understand and best of all could do it by the end of class. Obviously we'll have to practice it a lot more but it was very satisfying to watch them progress from getting themselves tied up and totally confused, to being able to perform the technique, so that at least their basic form was correct. As with anything, once you know how to do something, it's easy.

It's really great to have the correct language to describe what we do, which allows us to communicate more efficiently with each other. Whatever about the beginners, I'm quite sure that I haven't really internalised what it means to perform a chingiale, or any other technique for that matter. I understand intellectually what it is and how it's supposed to look, but I dont really have a similar "feel" for what this posta is. The Finns say that when they really know something, it "goes to the spine". This describes internalisation wonderfully. So, in the above case, I used a simpler metaphor or word-picture to help describe an action. Later and with practice, the beginners may also begin to recognise the abrazare guards in their actions and plays and will be encouraged to use the historically correct terminology. Until then, one more three word "rule" to add to the list:

Thread the needle!

Not as dramatic as the rising attack of a wild boar, but it seemed to work!

Still sick!

2008-12-01T15:17:00.004+02:00

Woke up this morning feeling like shite, again. I've been ill now for nearly a week. First off it was a sore throat which became chills and sweats then developed into a mild dose of laryngitis and a chesty cough. Admittedly going to the Salle Christmas party in Helsinki was probably not the cleverest plan, but I'm very glad I did as I had a lot of fun and although I'm still ill, the sheer enjoyment of the party and getting out of the house was great. As the saying goes: "A change is as good as a rest". This got me to thinking about the effect of mental state and other less concrete factors on health.

As I've written before, this time of year gets to me, the darkness, the GREYNESS, the lack of snow, the lack of sun. I don't mind the cold, doesn't bother me at all actually. So, I guess my immune system gets a good kicking during winter but isn't best reinforced by my mental state, making me more prone to getting sick.

I've practiced chi kung for the past five years. This involves daily practice (pretty much) or at least every five days out of seven. Some of the effects of chi kung include immune system boost, clearer mind, lowered stress etc. In line with being a bit apathetic over the last month or so, I stopped practising chi kung, with the excuse that I couldn't be arsed doing it. Now it seems I'm paying the price for that apathy. I don't mind if readers believe in chi/chi kung or not, that's their business. All I know is that when it comes to health, I usually don't get sick. If I do, I can kick it in about two days. This tells me that either I generally have a good constitution or immune system and/or practicing chi kung augments it.

Nevertheless, I think it might not necessarily be just one thing which contributes to getting sick or the speed of recovery. This also includes physical injury. I subscribe to the idea that sickness is caused by a combination of factors, in my case, mental tiredness, winter blues, lack of daily preventative measures, not enough sleep, poor dietary choices and worry related to work and daily life. As a good example of how our bodies can be super-resistant to sickness, I remember back to when I was finishing off my PhD. In the last 6 months I slept badly, worked 20 hour days and was stressed to the max. Amazingly, the high stress burden, primarily mental stress took over and did not allow me to become physically sick with flu or anything else. I was aware of this and knew that as soon as the stress ended, there would probably be a health price to pay, because my body would have "time" to be sick, once the degree was completed. I'd noticed this with quite a few colleagues who'd been in the same position and who were completely knocked out for up to 3 weeks by simple colds and flus.

As luck would have it, I managed to dodge this health "bill" by moving to Finland as soon as I'd done my degree. The weather in Finland at the time was glorious, very sunny and much warmer than Ireland. It was a total change of scene, new and exciting and I was very aware of being able to slow down and return to a "normal" pace of life. I remember sitting outside in the sunshine and marvelling at having the time to watch clouds and count grasshoppers on the lawn. Time seemed to move much more slowly! Sounds daft, now I describe it :-). I sometimes wonder that the novelty of my first autumn, winter, spring and summer in Finland helped to alleviate or at least delay the stress effects. However, as I stayed here longer, the novelty and "rose-coloured glasses" came off and like everybody else, I had to deal with the usual stresses of finding work, paying bills, relationship stuff etc. As a result, winters started to have their blues effect on me and the longer I'm here, the worse it seems to get. The piper must be paid!

I've hear it said that when mentally tired, some physical activity can have a good and refreshing effect on the mind. If the body is physically tired, sick or injured, adding an extra physical tax doesn't help at all. In this case, the only remedy is rest. The super-resistance described above is a stress-state effect and not something I would want to be in for an extended period of time. It's really burning the candle at both ends. I reckon that people who suffer burnout at work often become very sick after they are forced to take a step back from their working lives and try to recuperate.

In conclusion, although a single factor may be responsible for making one sick, I think becoming ill is a sort of process. Suffering the symptoms of that sickness is the endpoint of a net of circumstances, e.g. immune system, lack of light, amount of sleep, diet, mental health, stress, overwork, physical fitness, etc. These circumstances can be internal or external but they all interact to produce a person who is somewhere on a spectrum or sliding scale of unhealthy/sick to healthy/wellbeing at the physical, mental and even spiritual/energetic levels.

The third play of abrazare

2008-12-01T13:35:00.003+02:00

Ok, as promised I'll finish the last post by mentioning the third play of abrazare. First off I'd just like to mention that I'm not writing out all this stuff in some misguided attempt to prove to everyone how much I know about italian swordsmanship. The more I learn the more I realise I know very little. The primary function of this blog is to make a record of what I've been training, what I've learned about that training and about myself, with the hope that when I look back at my posts, I'll see that I've made some progress in this art. Writing stuff out is also an old habit of learning info and ordering it in my head, a method I used to used when I was studying zoology in uni. Please note as well, that the stuff I write about is my current understanding of interpretations made by far better people than me. I'm always open to discussion and being corrected, if readers think I'm writing crap.

The Third Play

As mentioned in the last post, the second and third plays followe on in a sequence from first play. As the defender tries to apply the second play, he drops his right hand vertically on the attacker's hyper-extended left arm. However, as the defender's forearm reaches horizontal, the attacker simply drops his elbow and pulls his hand out and leans back. This is easy for him as the defender's arm forms a little hole or window for a very short space of time as it moves anti-clockwise.

So the defender realising that something is not right, and feeling the attacker start to move back, immediately does an accressere after him, extending his hand in posta lunga pushing on the attacker's throat. As the attacker's head is pushed backwards, his left leg will naturally lift as a counterweight. The defender takes advantage of this and hooks his left hand under the attacker's knee, flipping him onto his head and shoulders.

Things to note:

In the training salle, we stop in the position shown. Following through to the end would not be advisable, for obvious reasons.
This "following" tactic seems to be a theme running through the wrestling section. I make a play on my partner, he reacts my pulling his hand out and leaning back. My reaction is to simply follow him and take him even further in that direction.
The accressere made by the defender MUST be enough to be able to push on the attacker's throat, without having to overextend their upper body over their front foot, i.e. an inherently unstable position. If the first accressere is not enough, they simply take another.
The defender should push on the attacker's throat, not their chin, as the attacker can give more resistance if pushed on the chin/jaw. It's basically pushing on soft rather than hard. Be careful with this though, a gentle push with the edge of the hand to the side of the throat is enough to give the idea. Forget making karate chops to the Adam's apple!
In practice, if the throat push works with a good accressere, the attacker's leg will naturally rise as a counterbalance, so it's not necessary for the attacker to drop his stance height to reach the attacker's knee, it'll come to him instead.
In the final position shown, it's a good idea for the defender to accressere close enough so that they may keep their back straight and maintain their structure, making them stable. In addition, the defender can keep the attacker's raised left leg in contact with their hip. This provides additional stability allowing the defender to easily hold the attacker in this position, with three points of contact, i.e. the throat, the knee, and the hip. If the latter is missing, holding the attacker safely in this position becomes much more difficult.

These are some details from the first three plays. A lot of material! Guess what? There are thirteen more plays described! Phew! If the student has a good basic understanding of the first six plays, which forms the core of our abrazare syllabus, they should have no trouble with the other plays. Practice makes perfect!

Abrazare, the first three plays, part 1

2008-11-28T00:09:00.017+02:00

I spent pretty much the entire class working on the first three plays of abrazare with the beginners tonight. The beginner's course per se officially finished tonight but those remaining were invited to carry on training for free in the 4 or so sessions we've left before the Christmas break. So I thought, sod it, at least they'll get to see a version of the first three plays done in one setting.

First Play

Based on the experiences and mini-aha! moment, I had them go with the chambered gut punch attack, with the defender in porta di ferra, right foot forward. The attacker attacks and the defender steps with an accressere fora di strada, turning a little anticlockwise to face at about 45 degrees to their original direction, while stopping the punch, striking (carefully) the elbow to get it straight and driving the right hand up to chingiale, making the attacker's elbow roll upwards. Some things we noticed compared with the last time:

Stepping straight backwards does give the attacker time and space to avoid the strike and if the attacker really goes for a shoulder or neck grab prior to punching, it makes the reaching arm pull straight, thereby making for an easier hyperextension of the elbow made by striking it and trapping the hand aganst the defender's neck.
If however, the reaching movement is tentative and the defender steps backwards, the attackers hand may be simply beaten away in front on the defender's neck. This is not necessarily bad in itself, as it may open to another play, like a ligadura mezana, or turning the attacker enough to enter and go for a headlock or a full nelson (eleventh play).
stepping offline diagonally forward ensures that the reaching arm is trapped against the defenders neck, giving a point of leverage against which the elbow may be hyperextended.
if you step straight forwards or back, the initial strike to the elbow usually comes straight up. This can make the initial straightening of the elbow joint difficult. If though, you step with the accressere fora di strada (afds) and pivot, you can strike the elbow in a more horizontal motion, straightening the elbow joint, before continuing the upward movement into the chingiale shown in first play, simultaneously rolling the attacker's elbow upwards.
stepping with afds and a pivot takes the defender's body away and offline from the attacker's strike, while allowing the defender to counterattack to the outside of the attacker's knee joint or thigh with the defender's own knee. This aids in breaking the attacker's structure as well as providing an extra contact point to allow the defender to feel how the attacker may react. The other two points of contact are on the crook of the attacker's striking arm and the hyperextended reaching arm, as shown in first play.

The Second Play
Following on from first play the defender, having straightened and rolled the attackers elbow, drops his hand vertically, gripping the wrist with his other hand, to help maintain the hyperextension. From here he can kick out his front foot and drop his entire body weight on the straight arm, pivoting from the hip. That Fiore doesn't explicitly show this suggests to me that this is a training manual and underlines the concept of friendly training, abrazare di amore. We take the technique to a safe point and stop, aware of our training partner's limits.

Things to note:

the defender is working on the elbow joint of the attacker, not his shoulder. If he tried to work on the latter, the defender could more easily resist.
the defender looks at his opponent all the time. This allows him to trap the hand of the attacker under his jaw, a bit like a violin player "holds" a violin. This is particularly useful in class if the attacker has small hands which just seem to always slip out when practicing this play.
the defender's back is very straight. He doesn't bend from the waist when making the attacker "kiss the ground", he keeps his back straight dropping his weight by bending from the knees (in the training non-violent version).
as the defender, the students often seem to want to pull their hands into their body, often with a volta stabile, trapping the attacker's arm straight along their body. Seems to be doable, as long as they maintain control of the attacker's hand(see bove), keep their backs straight and that they power the volta stabile from the hips not the arms. The hands should move first of course, back to porta di ferra mezzana.
a small detail but important. A "play" seems to be an action done in response to something else, i.e. He does this, I do that, but if he does that, then I counter with this. Fiore shows numbered plays that may flow from one into the next, as plays 1, 2 and 3 seem to do. But they can flow in a seemingly random order also, they don't HAVE to go like this. I think he shows the first three in this order to show precisely this point, that the plays should flow from one to the next and that he uses the optimum play to show what can be done when faced with a certain type of action. For example, I could just have easily done play eight from the initial attack as play one. Alternatively, if I screwed up the first play and didn't manage to get the elbow straight to do a hyperextension, I might get the chance to continue by immediately trying for play eight instead, striking under the ear of the opponent. This is just my opinion and I'm open to correction.

Hell, it's late! I'll continue this tomorrow as I'm too knackered to keep writing.

In sickness and in health....

2008-11-27T23:55:00.006+02:00

Well, despite the flu I went along to training tonight determined not to do much. I had no training gear with me even. Today seems like it was "one of THOSE days", where despite getting a satisfactory amount of work done, proofreading at least, I kept making silly mistakes like missing the bus into town by two seconds and the piece de resistance was locking my house and bike keys into the lab when I left work. DOH! Lea was at work tonight so at least I could borrow her keys and get the bus home.

This damned flu is annoying. I seem fine one minute, the next I'm sweating buckets, then I'm freezing and can't seem to get warm. I think I am ok with my throat, then it's sore, then ok and now I think I'm losing my voice. I've got some sort of stomach gripe as well. I shouldn't have gone to training tonight really, but I thought I was ok, if still recovering. I hardly did anything apart from chase people around in the stick game and even that got me into a fine lather. I'm taking it easy tomorrow and on Saturday. It will be bittersweet to watch people at the salle. Sweet (well, sort of) not to have to work, sweat train; bitter because I'll be stuck on my arse all day watching people have a blast. At least the Christmas party will be good fun, judging by past experience.

I'm never happy it seems, I moan about training when I'm healthy and I moan about not being able to do it when I'm sick.

Mental tiredness

2008-11-24T21:34:00.005+02:00

Changing perceptions with responsibility
I have noticed that since I started to have some responsibility in my sword group, my appreciation of the fencing arts has changed, sometimes I am as enthusiastic as I was on day one, sometimes I never want to hold a sword again! I tend to fall somewhere along this gradient and as time has gone by and my experience in teaching slowly grows, I find the source of my enjoyment has changed and even if I don't get to train as much as I'd like, I get a major kick from leading classes.

But there's a hole in my training, dear Liza, dear Liza!
For a while now though I've felt as if this experience has become a little "top-heavy" mentally. Most of my swording experience seems to be learning the syllabus mentally rather than physically. As a class leader, I'm supposed to be au fait with the syllabus material at a fairly deep level. Fair enough, to be a good class leader this is necessary and important. However, it feels too one-sided because I'm not taking the opportunity to train for myself so that I also form a good physical knowlede of the syllabus, something which is also vital. Understanding something intellectually is fine, but with a physical art like fencing, there must also be physical training.

Sometimes fencing adds stress not relieves it
Maybe it's the time of the year, a time that I have a tendency to get a little depressed and thus a bit obsessive about the details, not just swording, but work, lack of work, etc. Sometimes, just sometimes, I tend to let all these things pile up to the point where the things I usually take pleasure in, become things to be endured, sword classes, seminars, our new flat, work, time spent with friends, and so on, even getting out of bed in the morning is a major obstacle. I wish everyone would just leave me alone and I could just spend my time quietly watching TV, reading or sleeping, because all social interaction just takes away what energy I have. I guess I also suffer a bit from what in Finnish is called "kaamos" or winter blues, or SAD syndrome.

Fencing stress coming to a head
This weekend will see another syllabus day take place in Helsinki, followed by the Christmas Party. I'm becoming less enthusiastic about it as it draws closer and begin to feel stressed, primarily by the thought that the purpose of the day is to see what we know, what progress we've made, and what aspects we need to train more. This stress is double-edged. Firstly, the standard of the Turku students is, in part, a direct result of classes I've led. I want Guy to know I'm doing my best as much as I want the Turku students to know they've made progress and still get a kick out of coming to training. So, rightly or wrongly, I feel responsible.
Secondly, and this links with the second paragraph of this post, I feel like I'm going to an exam totally unprepared. I'll have to stand in front of the class and physically try to demo stuff I know or at least am very familiar with intellectually, but have not actually trained for ages. I'm not looking forward to this, but I think I have enough experience and knowledge to carry it off. Then there is the one-on-one lesson with Guy or perhaps Ilkka, where we may do freeplay. This is the scariest thing for me because I'll be put under stress to see how I'll perform, and I haven't trained ANY free play preparation, let alone free play itself since last I met Guy in a freeplay lesson. So, I know that I have made no progress, at least in this aspect of sword training. My last freeplay lesson wasn't fun, it was very stressful for me, I didn't enjoy it at all, and only realised that I need to do more of this type of training, if I want to do better and realise some progress.

Disclaimer!: Freeplay IS fun!
For anyone reading this who thinks that freeplay is scary, it's very important to make one thing clear though: freeplay preparation and such training is not actually unpleasant per se, it is actually ok and even fun to experience some stress and test yourself because what is freeplay or even tournament bouting after all? The biggest positive lesson one takes away from freeplay is that you need to practice more, sometimes it might even be a specific technique or a sense of distance or often something you thought you "knew" or had simply taken for granted.

The answer can be "yes" and "no"
So, what is the solution? Is there one? I have to answer positively and say "yes". A general yes to the general problem, perhaps a specific yes to a specific problem. Then again, sometimes the answer will also be "no", and this is completely ok too. As in, do I have the solution now, today? In these cases, the answers may well be "no", but with a qualifier, "no today, now, but maybe yes later, tomorrow". There has to be some room for improvement, progress, change. I can feel like shit now, confused, pressured, useless, but I don't have to feel like this all the time.

No Beginner's Course for me next year
Regarding training, the solution is obvious. I need to take a step back from letting leading the beginner's course take over the rest of my training, get assistance from the rest of the more advanced students who, I'm sure are more than able and willing to help out. I will definitely NOT lead the next beginer's course and make way for the others to lead the classes. Even leading the advanced class takes less from me because I can train with them and they are at a level where they pretty much know what they have to do, if not they can make that "jump" most beginners could not. The group is smaller and I would not have to be as vigilant as with the beginners either.

Ok, rant over!
Ok, these were just some ides I had rolling around in my head for a while. Guess what? I'm just as screwed up as the next person! Surprised? Well, if you knew me, probably not. Don't worry though, most of my posts will be about swording. En garde!

Abrazare di Amore!

2008-11-21T16:04:00.006+02:00

Well the training was ok last night. It was my intention to introduce the first plays of abrazare to the beginners, with the help of the more advanced students. I didn't want to go straight to the first play by way of the neck grab and chambered gut punch, as we've been doing now for a while. Oh no! I wanted a build up so that I could also get the idea across that this stuff can be used as part of a flow type drill and not a semi-static response. Therein lay the source of my downfall. I first combined the footwork with the abrazare guards, this worked well enough. I then tried to introduce the "pummelling" exercise, first with no footwork and then by introducing an accressere step as the hand is threaded under the opponent's arm. The whole thing was pretty scrappy for several reasons.

I intended to have them accressere with the front hand only. So it should have been thread-accressere, thread-no step, and so on. I didn't make this clear and so some did it with no footwork, some with a passing step instead (thread-passare, thread-passare, each time time ending in a cross-hand version), while others had no clue what the hell I wanted them to do. I hadn't thought it all out enough in advance and as I couldn't fully explain what I wanted people to do (I wasn't 100% sure myself), there was wholesale confusion. Fuck! I realise that i have a problem trying to visualise plays in my mind as my thought process tends to flip-flop from the attacker's to the defender's perspective, rather than having a 3rd person overview of a particular play or action.

So, we had a laugh about it and went straight to the chambered gut punch start, from which the response is first play. This and the follow on to second play went fairly well, thank God, particularly as I realised I was on more solid ground, material wise. Some details I noticed from these plays:

1. The attacker needs to make a proper attempt to grab behind the neck so that they can maximise their punch. If they just reach for the shoulder, it's almost impossible for the defender to get the reaching arm straight/hyper extended, as the attacker's hand just slides past the front of the defender's neck. So, intent is important!

2. When defending, the defender can either step backwards or fowards. I prefer taking a step back for a few reasons. It moves my body away from the punch and it straightens the attackers reaching arm, making it easier for me to attack his elbow. If I step fowards, it's into the punch, the attacker's reaching arm tends to bend downwards, making the hyper-extension very difficult and the turn of the elbow is instead done with more of a crank action than a vertical drive into the chingiale position. Then again, both the Getty and Pisani-Dossi images show that the defender's front foot is clearly outside the that of the attacker, which suggests that the defender simply steps diagonally forwards (accressere fora di strada), followed by a pivot on the front foot, taking his body offline away from the incoming strike(or groin kick), simultaneously attacking the elbow of the reaching arm. This variation would also allow the smooth transition (rather than a stop-go-stop action), to the second play or other plays. Cool, I think I just had a mini-eureka moment! Yaay! I'm going for a pint!

This image is take from the excellent Fiore project by the group the Exiles. Check here for more information.

Embracing the floor

2008-11-19T13:31:00.002+02:00

Traing was fun last night. As it was Tuesday the beginner's and advanced were mixed, which allowed us to pair off and effectively teach through repetitions across the skill levels. I decided to include the forward and backward rolls as shown by Ilkka in his excellent falling seminar in Swordfish 2008. We've been building this stuff up and I intend to start including forward rolls from a standing position soon, but in stages so that in a while we'll begin by bending forward until our hands are already on the floor, so the "fall" is very small. Last night i also included the changing from lying face down to face up, by drawing the legs up, keeping the hands close on the side of the body and "threading" the lower hand through the hole just above the hip. The same principle was applied to rolling the other way, this time threading the elbow through the gap instead. I very much like that these movements are natural, in the sense that when we change position in bed asleep, we do these things and don't even realise that we are doing them. Interestingly, when people suddenly had to think about them, as in the exercise last night, they found them awkward initially and far from natural. Sometimes the mind seems to be more of a barrier than a tool.

If you're wondering where all this floor work is leading, check this link to Ilkka's youtube video on falling and rolling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUwYt6rLgyE
It's excellent and should be studied assiduously and applied as often as possible. I hope that we may all become as comfortable embracing the floor as he obviously is. Also check Ilkka's blog L'Arte delle Armi for his essays on falling.

Training continued with dagger flow drill, before we revised five things to do against a fendente mandritto strike. This is where mixing the beginners and more advanced really paid off. From there we continued and trained the break and ligadura mezzana responses for fendente roverso attacks.

Longsword training included 10 minutes of stability drill, pell work: cutting at ropes with controlled cuts, each time they hit they rope they had a three push-up penalty, followed by cutting and stepping. We finished the class with about ten minutes of stepped first drill. I believe that most of the beginners are ready to start on the second drill.

All in all a good class. I planned it, kept it moving and got stuff done. I must mention though that I really appreciate the efforts and patience of the advanced students on Tuesdays. All I have to do is say, "Pair off advanced-beginner, first drill, stepped, slow speed, masks if you have them, once through then change roles, get going!", and off they go. They know what they have to do and get on with it. After that all I need to do is call for a change in partners. Sweet!

Finally, I realise that although we've covered the guards of abrazare, we've not touched the plays yet, either for the advanced nor the beginners. This will have to be remedied (pun intended). The beginers should have at least to the third play done before they complete their course. Bugger, there's always something! Can't rest on my laurels for long, if ever.

Onwards and upwards!

Back to basics

2008-11-16T21:37:00.002+02:00

Yesterday's training saw a poor turout, with only five people in attendance. Following up from Thursdays class, I had people go through the second drill, specifically the rememdy. In going through this exercise, I noticed several things. One person had never really noticed that the footwork was different from the first drill and was using an accressere fora di strada instead of a passare alla traversa. Naturally, this had made them wonder why they were so far away from the attacker when they followed up with the disarm. I was feeling sort of creative, in other words, I hadn't prepared anything for the class and so was winging it. I asked them to repeat the drill to the remedy point, but instead of doing the passare alla traversa, just do a passo stright up the line, then a very weak alla traversa, then a clear alla traversa. The point was to show the difference in the relationship between the swords, if the intent was to disarm, as is the point in the drill. In the first case, the cover must be made properly, or the attacker can simply cut through the defense. Even if the attacker's sword is collected, it's point could still be wound around the point of contact, i.e. a thrust with the hands high (posta saggitario??) The correct and clear pass across the line takes the attacker's sword point well out of danger, and allows you to grasp their sword hilt and complete the disarm. Some other details we noticed were that if you grab the fingers of their sword hand, particularly the ring and small fingers, as you do the disarm, the twisting effect on the wrist of the sword arm may become acute, so be careful with that. Secondly, this twisting effect is using a fulcrum action. As the defender covers frontale and the swords make contact at mezza spada, the attacker's sword was often collected against the defender's cross, i.e. the strong part of his sword. When the defender continued the action, grabbing the hilt, he could push his sword down and pull the attacker's hilt up, so that the attacker's sword is rotated anti-clockwise (from the defender's viewpoint) out of his grip, somewhat similar to the tora di spada actions. I'm not 100% sure this is correct but it seems to work. I'll have to add it to the list to ask Guy.

So then we took the drill in steps to the end before switching the second drill into a three person pressure drill. I then noticed that occasionally people were attacking out of measure such that rather than attacking with a fendente mandritto, they were entering more with a thrust coming in to the side of the head, or their stance length was so short, they were always really close during the drills. This is one of the main reasons, according to Guy, that 4th drill is so damned difficult for a lot of people. So we talked about stance and stance length and we did some cutting practice with stepping, paying particular attention to the length of our stances or if we were sliding on the floor, etc. For the finish, I used the ropes in the gym to give us all targets to practice cutting on. The idea was to adopt any guard out of measure of the rope. Slowly and carefully, we moved towards the rope using accressere steps until we got to the point from which we were sure we could strike the rope with a step, i.e. close measure. From there we cut with a step. Then, the idea was to take one step back and see if we could lengthen and/or lower our stances, tweaking them a bit so that our close distance increased, we could make the same cut with a step but from a little farther away. Then, we would start over with the exercise. Most of us found that we could increase our cutting range by a centimetre or two.

Finally, for a bit of fun, and because we don't practice them much, we did 50 thrusts at the hanging rope. A hit had to be clean to count. Of the 50 thrusts, 10 were from the high right, 10 from the high left, 10 low right, and 10 low left. The final 10 were done by adopting rear-weighted posta di Donna, volta stabile to bichorno, before thrusting with a step. I got something like 14 clean hits out of 50. The easiest thrusts overall people found were the low thrusts. The high ones from fenestre were made more difficult by the hand rotating the sword. Pell work (even if it is only a hanging rope) is fun and a very useful tool.

So, an interesting class. We covered basics but stuff which isn't actually all that easy. This material though forms an important building block which helps all the rest come together. From a class I hadn't prepared for, I just kept noticing things which called for us to take a step back and re-examine what we think we "know".

Training update

2008-11-14T11:29:00.005+02:00

I enjoyed training last night. I still haven't quite got the hang of simultaneously leading training of the beginners and advanced students, while getting in some training of my own. I also need to remember to get the other students to help me with the beginners and more advanced and to delegate so that everyone is being supervised and I get to train a bit as well. Mira wasn't feeling 100% last night and sat out the pressure drills but I completely forgot to ask her if she could take over the beginners whicle I was with the advanced lot. Doh! Sorry Mira!

Last night, I managed to keep an eye mainly to the beginners and give the advanced students tasks and exercises to do, which they could do happily by themselves. For example, I got them to pair off and go through the five sword drills as stepped exercises. One would attack, one defend. They would go through the drill, 1, 1-2, 1-2-3, etc. Once through, they switch roles, repeat the exercise, then go on to the second drill. I gave them ten minutes. This was followed by a variant of the diagnostic pressure drill, with the exception that rather than being in pairs, I got them to go in threes, thus the defender has even more pressure to perform the drills. The person in the middle defends. The other two attack. The first attacks in first drill, the second in second drill, and so on. The attacks must come in fast enough so the middle person has no time to think, just react. If they didn't know the drill well enough, all they had to do was as much as they could remember, back up, turn around and immediately go to the next drill. No resets, no second chances. Once all five drills have been gone through, the positions are switched. The exercise keeps going until each one has defended twice.

As expected, there was some "slippage" in each drill, some people had problems with drill two, some drill four. So we had a look at drill two, tried to "fix" any obvious problems and then everyone paired off and went back to stepping drill 2. There was some discussion as to how to do the remedy. I showed one version which I could make work, but on hindsight, it wasn't 100% correct as I was covering in posta frontale and beating the incoming sword down with the result that I was lowering my sword tip too low (to horizontal or a little lower), similar to but not quite as low as in the rompere di punta. We have the instructions from the syllabus so I checked it out after training, including the youtube video of second drill.
Here's a link to the drills in the SES syllabus:
http://www.swordschool.com/school/syllabus.html
and the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSuxiibmT7A

In the video, the defender clearly covers in posta frontale, with the point high and hands low. Looking at the video critically, I reckon the defender might have stepped more alla traversa and met the attacker's sword closer to mezza spada. Be that as it may, it's basic form is invaluable and cleared the issue up for me immediately. It's an interesting thought that even though the class had finished and I was surfing the net at home, the lesson still continues, as i still have to go through this in the next class to close the loop and stay consistent.

How to do it and how NOT to do it...

2008-11-13T17:21:00.003+02:00

Here are some youtube links to the nylon longsword tournament held at Swordfish this year in Gothenburg. The first is the final between Scott Brown (German style) and Tim Gallagher (Fiore). It was great to see an exponent of Fiore in the final.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhXryIo1x40

The next two clips are of one of my fights. Each fight consisted of two 60 second bouts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVNh3tE6I_g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIPQm-qrEx8

I got a new ganbeson as well. Yaay!

Adrenaline rush
I had a total of three fights (six bouts) and lost all three. So, I didn't do so well, at least tournament wise. I did enjoy the experience and when I realised that my bouts were posted on youtube, I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline just like when I stepped onto the mat for my first fight. It's an unusual experience, a kind of heady, exciting, kind of sick feeling. So, I got to experience adrenaline rush. I don't really know if it affected me so much over the course of the fights, but I was already much less nervous about the whole affair by the second bout. So, why did I get hit so much? These are my conclusions:

Distance
I let him walk right into measure, from where it was relatively easy for him to launch sniping attacks to my hands and he was often just too close for me to react in time. In fairness, Axel almost never came straight at me, he almost always approached in a zig-zag or at a diagonal to help confuse me about the distance between us. By comparison, the attacks I launched (perhaps lobbed is a more accurate verb) were from a pretty much static position,and I went straight at him. Result? I got hit on the hands or once, on the head.

Awareness
At one point I looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights as he danced about before catching me once across the lead leg and once on the hands and I didn't even move! It was almost as if the connection between brain and muscles had been cut. As Guy would say, "you're asleep!". Quite embarrassing really.

Motion
As with the distance issue, I let him come to me and in doing so, I sort of "gave" him the fight. I should have moved more and been more active in rushing him, particularly as the theme of the day seemed to be stay in giocco largo and hit the hands and arms. In my first bout I managed to get into giocco largo distance and score a point with the pommel (although it was technically an illegal move, oops! :-)). My opponent did not like it one bit when I came in close and personal. I was going to say "aggressive" above instead of active, but I'm not sure this is the word I'd use. I didn't feel afraid in the fights and when I went in and made my attacks, regardless of the results, I wasn't really thinking anything apart from "go for it!". I could have kept moving all the time rather than waiting in guard, but without the bouncing and hopping around done out of distance by a lot of the other competitors. One of the judges said later that my guards were nice-looking but that I need to be more active.

Diagnoses
So, am I just crap at this stuff? Thinking about it realistically, I don't think I'm crap, just not so good at it yet. Sure, I need to work hard on a lot of things: distance, awareness, footwork, and practice a hell of a lot more in free play and pressure play if I want to improve. And I do! Not solely because of tournaments, but for my overall improvement in this Art. Although I didn't win any of my matches, that wasn't ever really an expectation, I learned heaps.

The Art vs. the Tourney

Although I entitled this post as "How to do it.....", I'm not so sure that the final was necessarily a fine display of overall swordsmanship, or of the Art, be it German or Italian. I think rather it was a good example of tournament fighting, i.e. these guys know their stuff and knew how best to apply it to the tournament rules we were given. I hope this doesn't come across as sour grapes just because I lost all my matches though. I think only Emil went for a takedown in the entire nylon longsword tournament, and there were almost no giocco stretto engagements at all, let alone disarms, nor many thrusts for that matter. I believe a good demonstration of swordsmanship would include engagements at all distances, involve disarms, locks and takedowns, thrusts, cuts and pommel strikes. As Roland W. said, that we are not seeing these in the tournaments means that either we don't really understand yet how to apply them, or our skill level is simply still too low. This should motivate us all to train more and harder so that we can use our repertoire, not just at the training salle, but also in the tourney.

Less Talk More Action!

2008-11-07T01:14:00.003+02:00

Had a good training session tonight. Well, it was good in two senses. First, when I asked if people enjoyed themselves, the response was very positive. I'm pretty sure at this stage that I wasn't just being told what I wanted to hear and that if it had been crap, they would have said nothing. Finns!, I'll never fathom them! :-)
Secondly, it was a good training for me as a class leader because I got a lot done and covered and I didn't say much. We had a nice warm-up with exercises from Ilkka's falling clas in Swordfish. I showed one technique, repeated it, and then got everyone to have a go. After this, I got on and trained the technique myself and only spoke again when I wanted to introduce the next roll, or fall, etc.
After the warm-up, we split the class, with me taking the beginners and Timo leading the more advanced in freeplay prep. I kept to the same basic pattern in doing flow drill. I showed the basic disarm for a fendente mandritto, repeated it and had the beginners pair off and practise the technique three times before switching attacker/defender roles. This was followed with the same thing for the disarm against a roverso and a sotto strike. They could all do the techniques pretty well and I let them get on with things in each case, unless there was some horrible glaring error. Then I got one of the beginners, said "This is flow drill" and we began to demo the flow drill to the rest. The chap I chose picks up the stuff really quick and we did a fairly nice job of showing the strike order and that it is done slowly and smoothly. I got them to pair off to try it. They pretty much got it straightaway. I had them change partners a few times and apart from reminding them that (a) the dagger doesn't always come back cleanly to your hand, (b) footwork goes out the window, and (c) the distances are suddenly much closer, (d) keep moving, I hardly said anything. When I mentioned these things, they understood straightaway because they were experiencing them directly.
For variation I also introduced the ligadura soprana. We moved on to basic cutting in standing mode, before going on to revise the first drill, of which we got to the counter-remedy stage before class ended.

So, what did Iconclude from my class with the beginners? This group seems to learn primarily from visual and physical cues, backed up with a few simple, clear verbal instructions from me. I showed them what I wanted them to do, with a repeat or two, then stepped those instructions such that they knew exactly what was required. Here's the kicker.....It worked! I think I'm finally beginning to learn how to do this! This was why the training was so satisfying.

Etätöitä or working from a distance

2008-11-05T23:00:00.002+02:00

I've been thinking about distance today. How good or bad I am at judging it. I was thinking about doing some distance drills with longsword so that I and the others in class can have a go at practising it. It's a vital skill and not to be overlooked.

Basically we pair off. One person gets to attack. The one being attacked has to stand in tutta porta di ferra and wait until they think the other is within range to be able to hit them, then they shout "stop". The attacker attacks with a fendente mandritta/roverso. If the attacker is too far away, they "lose". If the attacker is close enough to strike the hands, or worse still, close enough to strike the arms and head, the defender "loses". A loss means five pushups.

This drill is repeated with multiple partners, i.e. different stance, arm and sword lengths to build up some sort of variation in the defender's perception. Pairs can be arranged in a tank track to build up repetition as a defender or attacker.

The attacker can aproach using whatever footwork, initially coming straight at the defender, then they can approach in a circular, diagonal or random manner to see if they can fool the defender and make themselves appear closer or farther away.

Of course the roles can be reversed, i.e. where the stationary person shouts stop when the approaching partner gets into what they think is proper distance, and the stationary partner can attack as the mobile partner enters close measure, i.e. this can be wrist/arm or head/body distance.

A proper hit should be made without overextending or compromising a stable stance.

Finally, both defender and attacker can move and try to fool each other as to how close they really are. Once they approach to a certain distance either can shout stop. The one who shouts gets to attack.

Could be fun, we'll see how it goes.

Swordfish nylon longsword bouting videos

2008-11-05T22:52:00.002+02:00

They posted at least two of Emil's bouts from Swordfish 2008 on Youtube. Here are the links:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z0RZKngYBc

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y9ll0KgUCA Emil only lost this one on a "sudden death", which was a pity.

Well done Emil!

Back from Gothenburg!

2008-11-04T13:57:00.002+02:00

Well, I'm back. The event this year was a blast as usual, but I am still knackered after the trip back. The nylon longsword tournament was an interesting experience and apart from the first bout, I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be. I got beaten in all three bouts but I learned some things too. Firstly, I need to control distance better. The other fencers (which were mainly doing german styles) just walked into distance in Vom Tag and dropped their swords onto my hands, and I let them do it. Very silly. I got better with the distance issue in the second and third bouts and tried to take the fight to them instead. Even though most of the attacks were sniping blows to the hands and occasionally the front foot, I started to sense when they were just out of distance. We weren't allowed to use pommel strikes as they were considered too dangerous (?). Ok, their house, their rules. I managed to get one attack in, and when the guy parried, i changed sides and came in with a light pommel and a cut to the face. The distance thing was hard because they other guys always always stayed at mezza or even punta spada distance, and as soon as I did anything "unusual", they backed off like a shot, making it hard to rush them.

Secondly, I need to learn how to protect my hands, I got cracked across the hands a lot, mostly from downward blows. Good job I had gauntlets on.

Overall, it probably wasn't the best display of swordsmanship overall, not least from myself, but it gave me a good experience of how I performed under pressure, and things to go away and train more.

Ilkka's falling seminar was excellent! Well planned, interesting and with lots of "eureka" moments, particularly when he talked about natural movement. I am not a fan of forward rolls from a standing position, so this was a really useful seminar for me. The other seminars were ok, I learned some stuff which I can incorporate into training in Turku.

It was fun to chat with other guys from Denmark about their styles and how they train. The only thing that bugged me a bit about it though was that some of the things from Fiore were "stupid" to them. I really didn't feel like arguing about it because as far as I could see, they were interested in taking medieval techniques from the German styles they were studying and applying only the "useful" ones to modern street fighting techniques for self-defense. Everything else they dropped like a hot brick. Nothing wrong with that at all and a valid approach. From their viewpoint, trying to avoid a stab with a 35 cm spike with the first Master disarm was a stupid thing to do, because it would "never" work against a knife. One of the things I remember from Scott Brown's lecture on mindset in training was that a misunderstanding of contexts is, and has been one of the biggest causes for disagreements, splits and faction forming withing the martial arts world. I disagreed with some of his points but not this one. I didn't have the energy to try to explain to the Danish guys, who were sound and friendly, that we were looking at the same thing from different contexts.

Training in the dark

2008-10-28T11:36:00.003+02:00

Decided to train outside last night but forgot about the time change over the weekend. So, while practicing, it got very dark, very quickly. Luckily I was up high on a hill and could continue by the general lights from the city. It was quite pretty actually. I worked on my cuts, standing and with one step, with emphasis on keeping my shoulders down and relaxed and snapping out the sword. Worked fairly well but I noticed that when I'm in Posta di Donna, I still have the tendency to tense my shoulders, regardless of whether I am back- or front-weighted.

My stability exercise is coming on nicely. I can really feel when I am in the correct position and where my weight is on my feet. As I can't use a watch with a second hand when outside (and certainly not in the dark!), I usually count ten breaths (one inhale-one exhale is one breath) in each stance before changing to the next one. With time, I'll increase the number of breaths. I was thinking about the broad similarity between this exercise and zhan zhuang chi kung. Interestingly, apart from a little muscular discomfort, I feel quite energised after the exercise and the more I "relax and sink", the better I feel. Food for thought.

Training again tonight with the beginners. Yaay! Sometimes I think of it as a chore, but this usually passes as soon as I stand in front of the class. We've got a good bunch this year. They are enthusiastic and work hard. One of the guys last week got a cramp in his right shoulder when doing the stability exercise. He stopped for a second or two and before I could encourage him to continue, he automatically switched his grip to a left-handed one and continued! Class!

We'll go over the sotto disarm of dagger, revise the disarms for fendente mandritto and fendente roverso, and try to begin the link between the three into the dagger flow drill. I also want to begin the first drill. At the last seminar when Guy came to Turku, the beginners that attended waltzed through the first drill and even began the second one. So, they are well capable. I'll have to sit down at lunch and make a class plan. Guy put me on the spot a while back at a seminar in Helsinki to lead a group and demo to the class and I totally blew it. However, as a good teacher, he gave me a second chance and a five minute respite to collect my thoughts. I did much better the second time. The lesson from this is that being prepared is good, but being able to act extempore is also a good skill, so that I'm not just stumbling in the dark.

Going to Swordfish!

2008-10-27T16:20:00.003+02:00

I'm heading to Gothenburg again this year for three days of western martial arts fun, sweat, a few bruises and more than a few beers. Last year was great fun even though one of our party broke his leg. I'm really excited mainly for two reasons. One, I get to buy some gear I've wanted for ages, i.e. a gambeson, gorget and maybe a couple of new swords. here's a link to the retailer dude who'll be tempting us at the gathering: http://www.nidingbane.se/
Albion (Europe) swords will also be there but I'll not be buying anything this time around. The only two possible sword models I was interested in, i.e. the Liechtenauer and the Meyer (with its gorgeous flared ricasso!) are (a) too expensive and (b) have chord-wrapped hilts (ugh!). I'll mosey along anyway to the Albion display just to torture myself and admire the Kriegsmesser.
The second reason I'm exited about swordfish 2008 is the fact that I plan to take part in the tournament on saturday. I thought I was taking part in the nylon longsword tourney, but it seems I'm down for weighted shinai instead (?) Oh well, it doesn't really matter. I don't expect much from the competition, just the chance to get some competition experience and adrenaline rush and to see how that affects my performance. I don't really consider it to be a Fiore versus the rest because if I screw up, it will be me, and NOT the system I train in that fails. I'm basically looking at the whole thing as an adrenaline diagnostic drill and maybe it will be a bit of fun, nothing too serious. Actually, I'm petrified. Partly that I'll make an arse of myself, and partly that I'll be up against guys who fight all the time and aggressively. We'll see how it goes...

Training

2008-10-27T15:44:00.002+02:00

Training is going well-ish. I've been working on the absolute basics by myself recently, i.e. making a proper cover in frontale from tutta porta di ferro and porta di ferro la mezana. Likewise from chingiale cutting upwards with sottano reverso. Might sound daft but last time I had a lesson with Guy, it became horribly obvious I was flapping, making too large movements, and putting my whole body in to getiing my sword to move. NOT a nice thing to find out. I thought I had these skills down pat. Obviously not :-(
Guy said to use my fingers/wrists to effect small snappy movements. After working on this for the past week, it makes good sense and really work. I just have to learn to relax more so that I can keep moving.....hmm another problem to work on..