The buffer still seems to be in effect.

I wrote that last week and I was feeling a little guilty for the delay and loss of timing.

If I am wrong, stab me in the face. If I am right, I'll teach you how to stab me in the face. The only promise I make is that I will be stabbed in the face.

Could someone explain how a no lose scenario should work?

I really need to get back into the swing.

I'm really starting to resent the winter hibernation. My last really proper session was at Rapier 2011, I had a few casual bits between then and when the nights started to draw in. Then.. nothing beyond the occasional solo drill/cutting practice.

This why venues are one of the main issues- very few people have a home big enough to duel indoors and as far as I know (and the reactions we've had from the police) we're not breaking any bylaws or any actual laws when we play in the park. As long as we're discrete and don't threaten random strangers. Once you have the equipment in place, this is a very cheap hobby. Most people teach for love, fun or beer money- or all three. Few actually make a living from it.

I have a great opportunity, done well/honestly it will be repeatable and once I do the first one, the rest will be stressful but easy. Well, not stressful- since stress is what happens if you cannot fight or run away.

What's that quote from Silver?

Something like you say the English go back too much? I'll be here, on the scaffold.. blahdy blahdy blah.. all weapons. blah blah..

An odd bit about intent.

I've already mentioned that full intent is a arguably impossible. The safety measures we put in place have an effect on how we fight and we simply don't want to hurt/seriously wound our opponent. You can fight with a lot of intent, but to me, full intent involves a certain desire to hurt your opponent. (This is backed up by Swetnam).

But thinking about this in another fashion. There are second and third intentions, made necessary because the first blow is probably going to miss unless you're lucky. The speed of longsword and the ability to use both hands and quickly cancel momentum makes it much easier for that first blow to be with intent.

Rapier has a lot of holding back-Capo does it by staying with the weight over the back leg and only going in once the response is known. If my recollection of Thibault is to be trusted- you make a commitment to an action halfway through a step, so there's (thanks Mr Silver) quite a lot of dancing. Swetnam talks a lot about feints.

And this is where the language goes a bit awry. The specific moves have an intent, but that is to exploit/discover/create a weakness in the guard rather than to attack. They're deliberately non-committed because you are ready to change action and direction at the first sign of things going wrong.

These things have a kind of intent, but it's as part of the whole fight... anyway, I've stopped making sense to myself, there's an outline in my head of a ...something... based on the focus that feints are far more necessary in rapier than they are with longsword.

Costs and HEMA

I think I've mentioned this before, but HEMA is actually pretty cheap- at least when you start off. You'd expect the padding and the other equipment to be expensive (and it can be). However, it should be a fairly long time before you're able to spar on a regular basis and if you're starting up your own study group you can do a sizeable amount of work without spending much at all.

The bulk of the cost comes from safety equipment and things which allow you to run through drills at full speed.

Understanding of control, maintaining an awareness of when accidents are likely to happen and building up your need for protective equipment over time all allow you to decide how much money to invest in the hobby.

A lot can be done with a couple of broomhandles and some leather. Providing you stick to slow, controlled drills and working out concepts from the manuals (which are out of copyright and available online).

The reasons you "need" to do non-cooperative, full speed drills/spar are so you can test yourself, you can see what happens at full speed and (most importantly) because it's a lot of fun.

But sparring should only be a fraction of your understanding. Without the slow drills and the core work and all the foundation blocks, your sparring will be substandard.

You can get a lot of things done with control, patience and a big stick.

The real expense in HEMA comes thanks to the community. It would be very easy to spend most of the year jetting around the world taking part in great events, picking up swords that you just don't want to put down, getting far too drunk with interesting people who have finished beating you up for the day.

Saviolo and his rapier.

I believe that I've also mentioned that I'm looking at Saviolo- the idea is to get a wider view on the styles of London in that era, and also to see if he explains things that Swetnam glosses over/promises to cover in a later book.

One thing I've noticed is that despite saying "you should first learn with just the rapier" what he actually recommends is rapier and gauntlet. I've not read much of it so far so I don't know if this aside makes his guards and advice more understandable- but this is a good example of the benefits of going to the source material. Things like this are easy to miss, especially if you're relying on someone else's interpretation.

Either way- When using a sword in one hand it's a good idea to (at least) put on a very thick glove and use your offhand for defence.

Schema and things.

There are theories of learning which revolve around the ideas of interference and integration. Basically, the more links you can make with existing knowledge, the stronger it stays. It gets more complex than that- each thing is a flavour of information and the idea is to find neat little ways to put the new stuff into the existing blocks.

For an example of why this is difficult. Distance- Most of the time, the best distance is wide measure. However, really close is also a good distance and you have to safely cross the bit between.

Or there's stepping in to parry. It's essential for some longsword stuff and can be useful when going for a single time defence with rapier. Our instincts tell us to dodge the blade- especially if you're used to staying in wide measure. So it's a matter of "framing the question". Switching the processes from "not getting hit" to "moving to a better position".

A lot of what I want to do doesn't involve getting people to unlearn things, I'd like them to adapt their flinch reflexes and build on what they already know.

First sparring of the year.

The winter hibernation is nearly over and it's becoming easier to meet up for a quick session now that the days are getting longer. So, this week was my first sparring session since the parks started to close at 5.

Yes, I still haven't got a hall, mainly because I need to get a handle on the subject matter before doing all of that stuff and there's a point where it needs to come out of the books and the notes and be put into steel. Obviously, I will improve as I teach and as all sorts of questions get asked.

So anyway, this week's sparring was just single rapier. To get back into the swing of it all and because my partner left his dagger at home. I'm still quite static and very defensive (which is acceptable, but limiting). My partner needs to work on his blade domination and aim.

Since we're both inconvenienced by the current financial climate, we can meet up during daylight hours and I can work on drills and things to overcome the current problems as well as figure out some of the confusing bits within the text.

Hopefully I'll also get to go rapier and dagger against longsword- that's going to be quite intimidating, but fun.