The focus of these sessions is freeplay/sparring. I admit I don't do enough drilling- it's a means to an end and I'm likely to be developing bad habits because of this. Then again, I don't fight many different people either.
Fortunately, I haven't developed a suntan (mesh patterned or otherwise)
yet. However, I have noticed a few things about outside training that are worth mentioning.
Water-The most important one. Lots of water. Those masks get rather hot and you're being very active. After 2 hours fighting, a litre and a half of water is barely enough. It's much better to have too much than not enough- dehydration headaches (the main reason your head pounds during a hangover) are awful.
Know your surroundings- this is a common thread amongst schools of thought. If you can force your opponent onto ground where he will mis-step on his attack (a sudden dip, sandy ground where he was expecting firm earth) then do it. The same with the sun, he will find it difficult to parry a blow when you have the sun behind you. Fighting in a public area
also brings some safety considerations, curious onlookers, stupid dogs and children mean that you have to be aware of many things during a fight.
Focus- London in the summer is a beautiful place. People from all over the world flock to this city and enjoy its charms. This includes the many green spaces. As such, there are quite a few attractive young ladies of various nationalities wandering about in very little clothing.
Understandably, this kind of thing is distracting. Get distracted in a swordfight and you die. As last words go- "look at the legs on her" doesn't really cut it.
Filming- this is a useful tool. My honourable sensai and maestro can shout 'your legs are too stiff' until his throat is sore, but 2 minutes of video helped me analyse my stance and some problems. I am tempted to post and critically analyse my technique at some point in the future. It will give you an idea about where I'm coming from and would help frame my
words. But not today.
I have also started to fight mixed weapon bouts. I am still forming my ideas and opinions about it, all I can say right now is that it's fun and you stand a much better chance if you know the weapon you're against. So the knowledge exchange starts- I pick up a little longsword and they pick up a little backsword and rapier.
The Rapier Virus is contagious. Maybe because a rapier just doesn't hit as hard as a longsword, maybe because we all secretly want to be gunless Musketeers, maybe because rapier and dagger just looks so damn cool. These things make it a fun weapon to use, easy to start, difficult to master and provides pain in new and interesting muscles. I gave the longsworders some brief instruction on how to use it and some are now making noises about
getting their own.
It may be my bias towards one-handed weapons, but I find the longsword terribly confusing. Not only do I wonder why it took several centuries to produce something as blatently sensible as a basket hilt (my knuckles do not like the simple hilt found on most swords) apart from that, there's something like 12 guard positions. So far, the only thing that makes sense
to me is cutting through to another guard. And the grappling. This may seem counter-intuitive to people unfamiliar with swordfighting, but there are two distances that are 'safe'. One is so far away that he cannot stab you, one is so close in that he cannot stab you. Unfortunately there's this zone of painful death between the two. Still once you're in close you've got to wrestle, disarm and kill your opponent before he has a chance to react. I'm used to fighting at distance, a rapier blade is long and your opponent is likely to have a
dagger. This means there is only one safe distance- closing means you're likely to get a blade between the ribs. Fighting against people who grapple is a different experience, part of your brain is geared up to get rushed, disarmed and pinned and so you are even more aware of keeping the right distance.
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