Today was a good class.  Fewer people than usual, 2 of our Permanent Guest Instructor's class (He's off doing international stuff- Teaching/judging at some big meeting in the South of France) so they did their own thing.

And 8 of the thugs.  10 people is a low turnout for us now.  I don't do the headcounts or cash taking.. I'm just the guy who balances the numbers.  If we're odd, I drill. If we're even I coach.  If people have questions or bits of text they want to go through... That's me. We are limited by space and cost, we can go on forever as we are and I need to expand a little.

I need to because playing the Odd means that I'm hitting a plateau. I'm comfortable, happy and able to take any role in the class... providing I get some time actually paying attention to the Permanent Guest Instructor's style and aims. His guys need to be less linear, which requires more room and the thugs... well some want to get to the books and work on their own intepretations.. others just want to roll around on the floor perfecting choke holds and ear biting.

In my club, there should be room for all of these. The mental space is there, but the physical isn't. And that's what made today's particularly interesting due to stuff there was space for me to play with my ideas of class- led, as it should be, by the students.

And so I learnt some things... I don't think Vadi is a 'good' mastet to follow when trying to do HEMA. This is not because he's impenetrable or that the 2 line, couplet stuff is limiting or that the pictures are as clear as any other HEMA manual... but because he uses broken bones like Fiore uses locks. Almost every play we looked at, there was a point where we had to shake our heads and say that it was too dangerous to use against friends.

There's this really neat counter against something akin to Fiore's metzane/halfsword feint which ends with you kind of winding until your hilt is locking their wrist, forearm and elbow and your body mechanics are set to throw them on the floor while breaking their arm in several places. It's a clear moment of how fragile the human body can be when you have the mechanics right. I'm hesitant to drill it because it is so efficient that I don't want it to be a natural reaction.