Just a quickie

I'm terrible at multitasking. It's really easy to carry conversations across people. Still, thing one that I am not talking about went well. Thing two also went well- it seems I'm being much more mobile in fighting (a long running fault that I have been frustrated with)

Ps. Experimental archeology sounds great fun.

Future Developments:

Something is happening soon. It will be the start of me having a new kind of relationship with HEMA and I don't quite know what that will be or how it will develop. I won't talk about it just yet as we're still working out the details and I'd rather let other people sort out the politics of it all. Besides, in a way, it doesn't involve me. That's not a negative thing, just a simple fact- I'll explain more later.

The one thing I will say about it is that I'm pretty optimistic about what's going on and hopefully it will mean that we forge stronger ties with other groups.

I like seeing HEMA as a community, we are an eclectic lot with a very simple connection (swords are cool), there's so many opportunities for learning and so many people with different focuses and attitudes that it's foolish not to use them. Almost everyone takes a different thing away from it- a sense of history, faith in themselves under pressure, self defence, the dashing swagger of a true swashbuckler, or even just a damn good workout that's infinitely more fun than the gym. And probably hundreds of other things I have forgotten to list.

It is a case of no man is an island. Good, clear, solid communication between groups (not just on instructor level) will benefit us all, even if it just means we get to fight more different people. It can do so much more though, if you know the groups well, you will know their strengths and weaknesses and you will know the way to ask the right questions to the right people.

Fightcamp Summary: The quick one.

One of the 'problems' with Fightcamp is that there is always a lot happening- fighting, learning, chatting with new groups and catching up on the past year with others and there are also things afoot that I will be vague about until things are clear and the new direction is signposted and made all pretty.

With that in mind I am still processing information from the weekend and a more HEMA focused entry will appear later.

Things I have learnt very quickly: Slow motion drills are surprisingly stressful on your body. When something goes wrong there are only a few inches between a scare and a tragedy. Finding a good teacher is more important than finding a weapon you like.

And rain is a great way to kill enthusiasm. It was wet this weekend- not just a bit of rain. I'm English, a bit of rain is as much a part of summer as Pimms. This was biblical stuff, and unpredictable- in fact, if I didn't know better, I'd suspect that we were being used as a front for Immortals and that the storms were a result of the Quickening.

Swetnam, maths and distances.

I have already established that Swetnam counts in base 3. That is- there are 3 ways to do this. way one, way two, way three, way three one, way three two and way three three.

It seems that he has two measurements of distance based on this counting method. Three feet or twelve feet. This leads me to believe that three is a short measure and twelve is a long measure. So, how long is a foot?

Today in the Park

Fightcamp is coming up and I've realised how little sparring I've done since the winter. In fact I've been mostly theory and drilling (poorly) for the past 5-6 months. This means that I will get my arse handed to me in competition.


So, in an attempt to get past that, I spent today in the park with the Saturday Scrappers.  Well, two of them, and tried to get back up to speed. Not entirely successfully though.  I don't think I'm going to be much of a longswordsman, I prefer keeping my hands forward and they tend to creep to places that are only vulnerable because some fool forgot to put a complex hilt on my sword.  I'm certainly not going into competition until I've got that sorted out. Especially with the new synthetic swords- They're  pretty safe, you'll get some good bruises from them, but I really don't want to risk my knuckles in really hard play until  I'm more confident with my guards. Hand injuries are terribly inconvenient.



Since it seems I'm flexing my teaching muscles a bit more, I thought I'd run through a few ideas with the guys. Drills, basic concepts and a little sparring and analysis. Capo-esque for the sparring- It was more a matter of shouting "hold" explaining why they should move their blade in a specific way and then watching them do it a bit more- and Swetnam for the drills and explanations (I only have one dagger). The scrappers are longsword to a man, so I get to worry about the intricacies of rapier rather than distance and all of that.

I am starting to have quite a bit of confidence in my Swetnam interpretations, obviously they need improvement, but I know they're going in the right direction. Today was the first time I saw it from the outside and explaining it to people who were not my esteemed and honourable maestro.What  gives me confidence in my interpretation is how little movement is needed to defend- twist the dagger, straighten the blade and your opponent almost impales himself for you..
 
I set up the drill like this:

A takes the dagger in his left hand and holds in a guard.
B Thrusts at A's face
A parries with the dagger,   After they're used to the idea of blocking with their left, I give the defender a sword and tell them to reply with a thrust at the same time.

Repeat with other guards.

I chose this way for two reasons, as mentioned before I only have the one dagger, the other reason is that it forces you to get used to the concept of an off-hand weapon. I know the scrappers are competent fighters and not exactly a good benchmark for difficulty- however, the cackles and mild swearing as they kept on inconveniencing the attacker or suddenly finding a sword in their face suggests I've found a nice little drill to build up the reflexes and that I have got the guards held properly. They also followed movements through, which I didn't tell them about and pulled them off almost identical to how I think Swetnam describes it.

All in all, a really productive day and a good reminder of why we started these sessions in the first place.

Understanding.

I am a great advocate of teaching as a method of understanding something- So, in a bid to improve my
Capoferro skills and get a local sparring partner, I have started to instruct a lady who doesn't get on too well
with my honourable and esteemed maestro's teaching methods...These things happen, we've all had teachers who were good but not good for us.

Why does teaching help you understand a subject?

Well, I have said this before- revisiting the basics is essential. They are the basics for one reason alone- they are what you will use the most. And it doesn't really matter what system you use for a lot of them, the principles are basically interchangeable. Distance is always going to be knowing where you can stand to hit someone, footwork is always going to be about moving in and out of distance. Guards are related to a specific system, but the reasons for them and why they work are not. Methods of striking are dictated by the blade you're using but are still basically stab 'em or poke 'em while staying behind your blade. You will use these regardless of what weapon and style you finally choose. They'll vary a little here and there, and a lot comes down to personal preferences, but in the end- a solid base in these will hold you in good stead regardless of what you have in your hands.

The basics can get a little tedious after a while.  They are essential, but you will get bored with them until you've realised that your disregard for them is the reason behind that lovely bruise developing on your arm. Which brings me on to the next point.

There's a tendency to reach plateaus and stagnate in this kind of thing. You can get into your patterns and you don't push through to understand something that's been responsible for a different bruise because each time you do it wrong you get hit so your old instincts come into play and you avoid the blow in a different manner- making it harder for you to break through to the next level of understanding.

The best way to slow things down is to try to teach someone else.  Firstly you have to ask questions of the text- why is it like this, what's the best way to demonstrate it, how does this tie in with everything else, and so on. Then, during demonstration and explanation, you will realise you've missed a bit or the person you're teaching will ask a question that you really have to think about. This is good. It's even better when the person you've just explained it to replies with a sentence you wish you wrote.

And all through this process, you're teaching someone that you didn't even notice turning up to lessons. You. As you help that beginner, you're putting yourself through drills you long gave up on because they're boring or you had done enough. You're solidifying the basic rules of a fight.

Then there's the reward of a job well done. Just enjoying the dawn of realisation when an 'impossible' task is made possible and the allegedly complex is proven to be quite simple.

People think that sword fighting is complex, it's not. It has things that everyone agrees on and the rest is a matter of personal preference. What happens in a fight (especially competition) is that things go quickly and you never quite see the stages that make them up- that's the point. So you get a blur of movement, a few exchanges and then someone is hit. Daunting if you don't know how straightforward it is.

Today's session was an hour and a half. I reinforced the guards (which were discussed at an earlier time) then covered stepping into distance, controlling your opponents blade and recognising when your blade is being controlled and stepping out of distance as soon as possible. When she gets these down perfectly, it won't be a thrilling fight but it will be a very, very long one that she might win by accident.

Drink lots of water.

I seem to have let the Saturday sparring slide into the background.  There's a combination of reasons for this, and a few of them are practical.

These are due to the lovely English weather and the antiquated public transport system we have over here. A quick history lesson for those who are not familiar with this amazing city.  The London Underground was the first underground railway line in the world. The first excavations were over a century ago and, as such, there are limitations. The platforms and passageways are fairly small, sometimes going all sorts of bizarre ways. It's not a nice thing to navigate while carrying a big bag of swords.  Adding to this, they've just turned King's Cross into an international station and so you have to deal with a lot of eejits who can't follow basic courtesy like "don't stand in doorways". They've also got bags about the same size as mine. It can be quite a stressful journey at the best of times.

Anyway, back to the heat issue. If you ever come to this fair city and enjoy a pleasant day. WALK. It is for your own good. You do not want to be on the tube, it gets stifling, busy, and very hot- this is England, we don't make provisions for strange things like sunshine and warm days, we're only just getting the first air conditioned tubes. Buses are not much better, and so travel will leave you feeling dehydrated  before you even start fighting.  This is not a good position to be in.

Fighting is hot and sweaty work. The padding and mask only serve to make it worse. I urge you to overestimate your need for water. You don't have to drink it all, but you'll be damn glad the extra litre is there. Be aware of the warning signs.

Heatstroke symptoms are:

• headache
• dizziness
• disorientation, agitation or confusion
• sluggishness or fatigue
• seizure
• hot, dry skin that is flushed but not sweaty
• a high body temperature
• loss of consciousness
• rapid heart beat
• hallucinations

 Dehydration:

• thirst
• less-frequent urination
• dry skin
• fatigue
• light-headedness
• dizziness
• confusion
• dry mouth and mucous membranes
• increased heart rate and breathing

Some of these you might not notice, some you might not have.  However, keep an eye out for them in both yourself and the people you train with and don't try to push through them. Everyone gets more training in if you don't faint.

Remember, hitting each other with swords is fun- treating injuries and life threatening problems is not.

Swetnam and footwork.

If any of you have tried your own interpretations, you will recognise that some bits are bloody useless, some bits terribly vague and some bits are downright contradictory. This, combined with a lack of editing can cause it to be a nightmare. You will get things wrong and you will have to revisit and revise ideas.

For the sake of clarity and honesty, I am only working on a small portion of Swetnam- I may go on to work with other aspects later, but I am picking up the bits that are of interest to me. In fact, for all I know, he may have extensively written on footwork elsewhere in his book.  However, he does not mention it in the bit I'm reading.

OK, he says something about a passing step here and there. However he doesn't say if it's passing offline or passing straight. And so it is a matter of trial and error- does a straight passing step bring you within range of his offhand weapon. He even throws in useful asides about void of the foot.

I've figured out (mostly) what the arms should be doing and it seems to lead the legs.  It seems to be closing at an angle, driving you offline and keeping your opponent at two movements to your one. This thought means that I'm going to have to revisit my concepts of "passage". After all his insistence on thrusting straight, it was hard to imagine passage being diagonal. However, adjusting that thought a little means one or two odd instructions sound a bit easier. I digress- There's just this pattern of movement that feels natural, your feet follow your body, a little twist here and there moves you out of danger and gives you greater reach.

This also adds another layer (although, one Swetnam approves of, he frequently says something along the lines of "if it doesn't feel right, don't bet your life on it")-  am I doing this footwork because it is correct, or does it just 'feel' right. I consider myself an adequate fighter, take that to mean what you will, there is a lot of room for improvement and I am prone to foolish mistakes especially pausing in transitions. Part of the learning process is to admit and be comfortable with your weaknesses- which I would happily list if there wasn't a competition coming up soon- especially when looking at new sources or attempting your own interpretations. We all have preferred actions and it can be tricky telling the difference between preferred and correct, especially when something is counter intuitive (for example stepping into a blow).

There isn't much to work from (I'm covering the rapier and dagger), but that is not a bad thing. In fact, a lot of the confusing bits start to make sense when you realise that instead of a "true" guard that protects from all harm, he uses his "true guard" as a beginner's position, one that allows your flinch reactions to protect you and gain a feel for the subtleties of distance, timing, reading your opponent, having two hands to block with, and so-on. Most of his true guard waffle is loose guidelines for fighting with sword and dagger and things that you will learn by practising from that position. By the time you get to the end of it, you're given guards and that's it- only a few common errors are mentioned.

People tend to confuse simple with lazy. True simplicity comes from reducing all the needless movement and faff from something. You need simplicity in a fight, the more you need to think, the more delay you have between thought and action. You don't want to have to refer to a flowchart if someone is poking you in the face with a sword.

I think, once understood, Swetnam is a very simple system that allows quite complex outcomes.

Teaching techniques and things.

Well, there's no point learning a system if you don't have anyone to help you test it- so the first thing that needs to be done (once you've started to understand what the hell he's going on about) is to explain it to someone else, in clear and straight forward terms. Preferably in some kind of sensible order.

Flicking through the notes I've been taking while trying to understand Swetnam, has made me aware that they are pretty useless for teaching. Not only that, they're not very useful on the field- even in a natty little A5 ring binder that fits in the front pocket of my sword bag. How have I overcome this?

Index cards.

Not only that, they're typed, mainly because my handwriting is blasted shoddy. I am contemplating sharing them here, once they're done. Maybe in several stages, so you can follow the path of understanding that I am travelling. Maybe they'll help you, dear reader, maybe they'll just end up with you being confused.

It's quite likely that you'll end up being confused because I'm not one for 'correct' terminology. I have a hotchpotch education within HEMA and I pick up anything that looks interesting, learn some of those principles and move on. I think I'm more of a fighter than an artist- I don't care if it looks a bit sloppy providing I hit them without being hit myself. I also seem to have developed the English habit of throwing in occasional Italian terms where I'm only vaguely aware of what they actually mean. It's perfectly acceptable, on a historic level, but it's not helpful if you're writing for someone else.

I've also done this with Capoferro's plays- mainly trying to remove the excessive wordiness and translate it to movement rather than explanation, but I'm not sure how accurate they are since I've not had time to run through them or any form of double checking.

Mystery Science Theater 3000

You can be serious about something without taking it seriously. I don't have the linguistic knowledge to translate something from medieval/renaissance Italian to proper English- the kind anyone with half a brain can understand. My understanding goes back 400 years or so and no further than the M25.

How about this for a newsflash: HemaGoth wants to be paid wear leather trousers, sit in a puddle of alleged real beer. and proclaim that in the name of the Queen that this beer is good. My casual wear has meant that I've had to take Americans to one side and explain that I'm not an exhibit and, yes, this is me. (by the way, I believe a co-owner of the Rake in Southwark is one of us. The beer is worth every penny and it is not cheap). Part of this blog was intended to take the piss out of a hobby I love.

Anyway, I digress... Swetnam is an intriguing source of frustration to me. My sloppy notes combine Fiore, Silver and CapoFerro. Due to my sinestre nature, I can't see things in terms of left and right- it's sword and not sword- despite the fact that I tend to fight right handed.

Anyone who has tried to understand an original text has wanted sneak into a bedroom and press a pillow to the author's face. These things aren't easy to understand, you've got to translate them, dictionaries weren't invented and they're not really a "teach yourself" book.

I'd love to see some sarky interpretations/annotations appear online-I've got quite a few things to say about Swetnam and Silver. Some of Silver's bits read like an awful action/horror movie that should be panned for constant xenophobia. Swetnam... Well, there's a reason I'm confident in saying that I'm in the top 10 practitioners in the country (There's about 5 of us... if that)- He's in desperate need of a good editor.

Rapier and Dagger, The English Way.

In keeping with our English focus- my esteemed and honourable Maestro and myself have been looking at Swetnam's rapier and dagger. Swetnam is quite a character, he has more hits in Google for his misogynist ranting than he has for his book on stabbing people. This book follows in what appears to be a tradition in English fighting manuals for waffling on somewhat (I've only looked at two, but it's a 100% hit rate so far... Silver pretty much forgot that he was writing a book about fighting. )

Swetnam is also a blasted idiot. Or innumerate. Or using a different method of measure than normal human beings. Or a blasted idiot.

Anyway, I digress: I'll come to that again, later, once I've finished reading his book.

This one is more difficult for me to read, mostly because I don't have a physical copy and I'm working from a PDF, partially because the scan is less than perfect, and partially because I have to keep changing from thinking in diuerse ways like thif to modern typography. Something I find easy when making notes by hand.

I like books and in a perfect world, I'd read this over a few pints then come back and make notes from the important parts.

Anyway- It can get confusing, let's take this:

When thou dost practise with thy friend or companion; at the first get thy backe to the wall, and let him that playeth with thee stand about twelve foote distance , and set thy left heel close to the wall , and thy right foot heele to the great joynte of the left foote great toe.....

He goes on a bit but doesn't really say what the purpose of this is or what to do after that, except to get proper technique for the lunge. Your sword is about 3 and a half feet long, your pace is about the same. You might make 9 feet if you start with your arm in a half-reasonable guard.

I'm just starting my third year of this stuff and I've been bouncing about, watching some people, joining in other lessons and this sounds roughly like Dave Rawling's introduction to time and distance (or whatever he calls it). Your partner stands well out of distance and walks towards you. You strike when he's in range.

This is a far more sensible way to interpret this than a 12 foot lunge (the length of a snooker table). However, this is merely an educated guess that sounds more likely than an extra 3 feet of stabbyness appearing from thin air. Swetnam does not give you the information needed to make that interpretation.

I'm glad I'm not one of the poor sods translating things from medieval Italian.

Here comes the sun.

Holy shit it feels good to be back.

Unfortunately a combination of Real Life and the winter has kept me away from the blades for far too long. The evenings are getting longer and staying dry so now our informal sessions are starting up again. As I've mentioned, this is a scattered interest. Popular worldwide but it's a bugger finding a local group. Running a formal group means you have to hire a hall and make sure you've got the insurance and all of that. Not that much of a problem if you have enough people to cover the costs of the hall and storage (trust me, carrying 2 sets of swords is enough without the masks and padding). I live in a city, having a place with a garden big enough to hold a lesson is a minor miracle, indoors? out of the question.

If I wanted to spend £40 a week on a hobby that leaves me breathless and feeling a bit sick, I'd smoke cloves. So, until my lottery winnings come in, we're reliant on weather.

This break has lead me to ask one question. King's Cross is now a fully functioning international train station- How can one tourist with a pull suitcase the size of my book pocket take up more space than me with a sodding huge bag of swords? OK two... why can't I stab them?