Using someone else's sword

That's what I'm doing now. That's what I should have done when I asked a guy who is two meters tall and wears about 100 kg of muscle to come at me with a really hard mezano cut, against which I then defended with appropriate force. This resulted in my sword coming apart so that the tang broke and the pommel came off. Of course I should have made sure to prevent such an impact when the swords crossed.



It was a three-year-old spada da zhogo, polished to a nice shine by Jan and engraved with my personal insignia, so I do feel its loss a bit... But then again, now I get to have a new sword as soon as I can afford one! I know just what I want: something a bit heavier in the blade to keep me in line and lend a bit of authority to the proceedings. In the meantime, I get much-needed practice with different kinds of blade.

EDIT: added pics.

Balance tip

Here is an interesting balance tip, fresh from tonight's yoga class: for an extra balance point, focus your eyes on something immobile, and that thing then becomes your third leg. While doing this literally is not very useful when swords are being swung at your head, the concept might be worth exploring during class or at least warm-up.

Wobbly motivation to keep climbing the same hill

Ever since the Fiore Extravaganza, I've had serious trouble motivating myself to attend regular classes. The Extravaganza offered a great step-by-step exploration of a coherent system, giving masses of insights undreamed of and a potential way to integrate those individual insights into a framework. It was also intensive, providing training opportunities almost daily for a week and a half. Thus it approached the way I *want* to pursue my swordsmanship studies: intelligent, intensive training within a logical, mature system. (This is not to exclude the huge load of mindless repetition, which is what my stupid body requires to actually learn new ways of moving and which I also like as a counterweight to all that thinking.)

Since then, I've found practically no internal motivation to practise set drills outside (or let's say on the outskirts of) Fiore. I've been hard pressed to keep wanting to expend brain power on learning and re-learning basically the same set drills I've been doing for years, which I don't see as contributing much anymore to this deeper understanding of swordsmanship that I want. I appreciate that others want, like and need to train that way - hey, it was the right way for me to train for years and years, I'm not likely to bash it! - but the hill I have to climb every single time I miss a few classes is looking like a smaller part of the landscape every time I scale it.

It is true that there are always new things to learn in old material. It is true that I haven't attained anything like the top of the hill, as it were. (I should, I suppose, be getting quite good at climbing it, though...) It is true that the lessons you end up learning and need to learn are not always those you set out to learn. However... I don't feel like I'm going anywhere or learning anything much anymore.

However, I can certainly never learn to be an adequate swordsman if I don't train, so it's better to train something that nothing at all.

Fiore arrived!

My copy of Tom Leoni's new translation of Fior di Battaglia has arrived. It has already produced one new insight: not only Posta Breve of the sword in two hands but also the four guards of abrazare are described as having no stability. (Mr Leoni translates the expressions differently, but I have such a problem with reading translated works in general that I'm reading the original, Malipiero's transcription and Leoni's translation at the same time.)

Cut with the point, part II

Cutting with the point rather than the wrist is also fairly crucial in getting the true-edge cut from the Master of the sword in one hand to work. (That cut in the Syllabus Form, you know?)

Bolognaised

Ilkka's course in Bolognaise swordsmanship ended in a feast of spaghetti Bolognaise (made by Ken, in other words very good). Marozzo.com has footage. (No, not spaghetti footage.) Spot yours truly standing around, wiggling her butt and looking girlish. [Forehead, meet table.]

It was an excellent course, giving solid basics in the system and drilling those basics in deep enough that even I might actually remember some of it in half a year's time. I actually liked the fact that we had "rest weeks" in between (especially as I would have been forced to miss three classes, as opposed to none, otherwise - sometimes life really works out :) because this way, the training was spread out over a longer period of time and the ol' brain cells were activated and reactivated more times. But then I'm just a super-slow learner.

I hope I'll be able to attend the next course that Ilkka is promising to give - in the autumn, was it? Bolognaise, Part Deux.

Health conquers

I'm taking Ilkka's brilliant Bolognaise course, but I've been having some bad luck with injuries and illness. Today I managed to stick out the entire class for the second time during the course. Yay!

(Of course, when I got home my stomach started aching badly enough to bend me double, my throat became sore, and I suspect that elbow will be mad at me tomorrow, but still...)

Cut with the point

I've picked up an annoying tendency to cut not with the point but with the hands, or wrists. Today after an insight into the mechanics of it all I tested the two types of cuts on a tyre. There was no appreciable difference in the power conveyed, but the wristy cut bounced all over the place while the point cut stayed on target. Interesting effect.