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.