Fencing Club - The Salle, Monday After Classes

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Apologies for the lack of meeting last week. I was called away." He fell down a well. It was embarrassing. "This week we're starting with actual blades. I know some of you have used them before. Please use that experience to be extra careful with the more inexperienced members of the group. I have a range of swords available for you to choose from. Zayne, your weapon of choice isn't exactly practical for this session so I've prepared something more suitable but a step up from the wood. Azula, I promised you an Arming sword lesson. The sword on the end is yours.

Pair up. Take your time, respect your opponent and if you're hurt, alert either myself or Captain Algren immediately. The point of sparring with live weapons isn't to hurt your opponent, it's to practice movements and control."

Comments

Re: Sparring

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Coooool." Right. Master that one, then move on to the others, no trying to change it up. Made sense. Dinah gave him a careful salute with her sword. "How long have you been doing this?" she asked, curious.

Re: Sparring

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"I was smaller than my sword when I started," he replied. "You have a bit of pre-Fandom training, don't you?" He tried to recall the introduction meeting.

Re: Sparring

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

So, wee. Very wee. Everyone started earlier than Dinah... which wasn't a surprise, by now. "A bit, about a year's self-defense before I got here, and using eskrima sticks. And staff. So I had the stances, in some ways, but I really had to build up my strength before I could manage a decent series of swings with the practice sword. Arthur had me on a weight-lifting regimen as soon as we moved into sword practice."

Re: Sparring

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Upper body strength is important," Edmund agreed. "Not only for the swinging, but for the control and being able to stop swinging when your mind tells your body to. We'll probably be doing some general sparring the next few weeks to get everyone used to using live blades. I think it would help if at least for one week you sparred with one of our beginners," he looked around, "such as Ellie or Liz. They'll be able to learn from you, and you'll be able to see the difference in skill level, which will make you more aware of your actions. Arthur has your physical training well in hand, so it wouldn't hurt to use these sessions to work on your mental training. Awareness, poise, restraint. They're important and often overlooked."

Re: Sparring

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was nodding, and making mental notes of all of this to pass along to Arthur, since he was always interested in how Fencing was going. "Okay, that makes sense, learning new ways of doing this, instead of the way I sparred with Zayne and Emma. And I've barely faced anyone who has less experience than me." This was going to be a different kind of challenge. "I'll do my best."

Re: Sparring

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"You'll find it..." He tried to find the right word. "Different to fight someone who won't be able to make a quick parry or know what to do with all of your moves. It's harder in some ways."

Re: Sparring

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Hunh," Dinah said, thinking about that. "Because they won't be reacting, they'll be thinking about it? So, they might be more unpredictable..."

Re: Sparring

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

Edmund shrugged and nodded. "You won't know how they'll react, but you'll be able to counter it so long as you're paying attention. In this kind of training, so you don't hurt your opponent, you'll have to pay more attention to your own movements as well. When you're more aware of your own movements, the easier it becomes to balance thinking and reacting in real fights."