Where to start
Dec. 15th, 2009 12:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grauwulfThursday, August 13, 2009, 01:04 PM
The Lochmere practice had a few newbies this week and it got me thinking again about the learning progression. If you're just starting out what do you need to learn and in what order? Well there are of course as many different answers to this question as there are people teaching the use of the sword. I take the following approach:
1) Stance: Just knowing how to be balanced and well distributed in you physical positioning is SO important, and so many people just really ignore it.
2) Footwork: Good footwork drives your lunge, it facilitates measure, it sets time and tempo, voids, volta's and even all the crazy stuff like pasatasotos all live and die around your footwork.
3) Basic parries: you don't _need_ to know the difference between pronation and supination, you don't need to know the difference between a parry in opposition and reposte imbrocatta. You NEED to know how to not get stabbed when somebody is trying to stab you. Basic simple precise efficient parries.
4) Basic blade control: If you can stand, walk, and keep yourself from getting stabbed you are already about 60% on your way to winning the fight and you haven't even picked up a sword yet. Seriously, think about it. With: good efficient blade control, thrust, lunge, a simple disengage and the ability to hit what you aim for, you can easily find yourself as a 75% fighter right out of the box. Not too shabby, not to shabby at all.
If you have that all of the tangible pieces are in place, beyond this you start getting into more advanced concepts like mechanics time manipulation range and angulation... All of which really improve your game and you can use them to supplement a weaker area. For example if your footwork is a little weak, but you can out angle a geometry teacher, you'll probably be fine. you need all of the parts but at a certain point you can fill in the gaps with a little bit of crafty.
Build a strong foundation and you can take that with you as far as you choose to go.
The Lochmere practice had a few newbies this week and it got me thinking again about the learning progression. If you're just starting out what do you need to learn and in what order? Well there are of course as many different answers to this question as there are people teaching the use of the sword. I take the following approach:
1) Stance: Just knowing how to be balanced and well distributed in you physical positioning is SO important, and so many people just really ignore it.
2) Footwork: Good footwork drives your lunge, it facilitates measure, it sets time and tempo, voids, volta's and even all the crazy stuff like pasatasotos all live and die around your footwork.
3) Basic parries: you don't _need_ to know the difference between pronation and supination, you don't need to know the difference between a parry in opposition and reposte imbrocatta. You NEED to know how to not get stabbed when somebody is trying to stab you. Basic simple precise efficient parries.
4) Basic blade control: If you can stand, walk, and keep yourself from getting stabbed you are already about 60% on your way to winning the fight and you haven't even picked up a sword yet. Seriously, think about it. With: good efficient blade control, thrust, lunge, a simple disengage and the ability to hit what you aim for, you can easily find yourself as a 75% fighter right out of the box. Not too shabby, not to shabby at all.
If you have that all of the tangible pieces are in place, beyond this you start getting into more advanced concepts like mechanics time manipulation range and angulation... All of which really improve your game and you can use them to supplement a weaker area. For example if your footwork is a little weak, but you can out angle a geometry teacher, you'll probably be fine. you need all of the parts but at a certain point you can fill in the gaps with a little bit of crafty.
Build a strong foundation and you can take that with you as far as you choose to go.
