6/28/05 - Some notes from Tuesday Practice
This evening I was able to attend my first Tuesday Evening Metro Detroit area Fight Practice (at Duke Brannos' Keep).
What a great experience! The people were very friendly, there were lots of highly skilled fighters who were more than willing to pass on their knowledge, and even though it rained, nobody got hit by lightning!
Some things I learned (in bullet form - hope to fill them in more detail at some point)
- From Duke Ragnvaldr - "Throw Darts, don't swing a club."
- Stay relaxed - as in martial arts, the "ki-ai" comes at the end - the snap just at the end of the blow to focus all the power.
- Don't fight linear - circles, circles, circles. Lateral movement is a good thing.
- Keep the sword shoulder and sword hand in line with your opponent.
- Lead with your hips, and the blow will float out - like lightning. (Really - it was amazing what a difference this bit of technique made!)
- Don't forget to recover the sword after you strike. Get reloaded for the next blow, or for defense.
- This bit of advice from William, which I thought was great - "Lefties stalk their prey, Righties try to beat you like a dead fish." This in reference to range and always maneuvering to a right-handers sword side to keep the threat level high.
- Also from William - play with the opponent; as a leftie, it is a strength to move in and out of range with your opponent, and can drive some to make mistakes.
- Speaking of threat levels - keeping the sword hand in line with the shoulders allows for faster feints, and neither overcommits nor restricts your range of motion. It makes the sword a credible threat that your opponent must consider.
- This bit from Duke Brannos - "It's like Chess. You move, I move, always looking for position" (paraphrased). This is a whole new way of thinkingn about it for me - using your position to move your opponent. In fairness to His Grace Dag, he has also (patiently) explained this to me before in different terms.
- Some more advanced tips that I'm mulling over from this evening:
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- Footwork - don't cross your feet.
- Footwork - watch your opponent, when they're flat-footed, when their footing will restrict them. This was something William mentioned - getting me to lead my leg out so that it prevented me from backing up.
- Footwork - don't plod, stay light on your feet (not losing-weight-light, but being able to glide/slide). HG Ragnvaldr referred to it as "purposeful" when I was doing it - because it was a heavy, slow movement. This in particular is something I plan to work on; when playing Racquetball, it almost seems a dance for me - have to get to that same level of looseness and flexibility with my armor on.
There were probably 50 more things I learned tonight that (at 11:30 at night) I'm having difficulty recalling. My thanks to all those who spent time with a young squire, and hopefully I was a positive reflection on Duke Dag's teaching.
-Bodvarr
Last Modified: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 11:30.
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