Playing the prize is an old tradition. My participation in it however, is not. Gaining ranks in the CSG
is typically accompanied by a your peers and betters challenging the right to go forward. This is to ensure that standards are maintained, and as a right passage.
Posted here is a video of my most recent deed of arms, and more particularly my holding of the field.
I am Soliciting feedback. I want your thoughts on how it went, and how I could improve. This is a public event, and as such, I'd like you feed back delivered though this channel. So the floor is open. Hit me with your best shot.
SPOILERS - Please do not read beyond here until you have watched the vid. below is my own take and intentions.
OK? you watched the video? Ok then, carry on.
For my own feed back, excepting my fight with Shannon, I made my best efforts to hold the fight at weapons range. I did not wear a dagger, as further encouragement. This went....ok. It was hard to keep folks from crashing in.
It also showed me that while I was in decent shape for this fight, helmets with more holes for breathing are very helpful. I feel like a gassed out a lot. I was really feeling it by the end.
I also noticed that in full arms and legs, it is rather hard to feel. this was the first time i had worn this much armor, and i loved it, but i noticed I was much less sensitive.
There are two kinds of Abrazare - one done for sport, and one done in anger or defending one's life.
This is kind I will talk about. ~ Fiore
One of the things I truly love about The Flower of Battle is that is repeats itself. Fiore was a simple guy, it would seem. every section starts off with an inside bind, usually with the left leg front, and the descends from there into various plays and remedies.
Now, Many will agree that many of the old man's plays arise from various specific crossings of the sword. Do we agree that he sets up his book in this way? But why then does he only give us one such crossing in the Abrazare section?
I posit - he actually gives us a great many. To paraphrase a bit, use the binds that arise from that arise from abrazare, and strike you foe in the places most dangerous or painful.
Those two lines from the prologue give us permission to come to grips from a place of striking. "Coming to grips" is how I interpret the variety of binds that may exist. We grabbed each other. There are a whole lot of sensible ways to grab some one who is trying to hurt you. You could clinch the head, tackle the body, upend the legs, or put the belt on 'em. Which only names a few "Crossings".
To strike with the hands makes a good deal of sense in a wide variety of situations. Whether we are faced with a common tough, looking to liberate coin from our person, or a fellow warrior on the field of battle, sluggin' the assailant in the kisser or taking their nethers on a boot ride to heaven seem like great ways to distract them or soften them up for further action.
So, it's there for us.
There are a great many ways for us to come to grips, and so many crossings of the arms that may occur that it made my head spin just considering them, till I noticed that most of them don't matter. A lot of them are so fleeting that there is no way to meaningfully use the moment. hand to had strikes rarely elicit "binds" of useful duration.
Silver talks about this when he notes the dagger is too short to make a crossing. Punches don't make for the best crossings either, no lasting binds will occur here.
So which crossings DO matter? Well, I can't say for sure, but I have settled on three of them to work with in training. They cover a pretty good spread of situations in stand up hand to hand combat. The clinch, the Classic underhook, and the peasant throw. Now, Fiore does not draw us a clinch in his pictures. But it comes up in life too much to ignore it. So I will use "Fioreish stuff" to address the problem.
So, some basics.
How do we hit them? - Hard.
We need to be able to hit hard. Bang, I like to call it. One must deliver enough juice for the target to care. So, in video chunk one, we'll look at using the hips to generate that "bang". Get your minds out of the gutter. I am talking about face punching. We need to deliver crisp, sharp blows that elicit a strong response. And by response I mean their body should displace under the impact.
Where do we hit them? - Where it hurts.
We need to know where to put biscuit in order to fill up that basket. The jaw, neck, mouth, floating ribs, kidneys and groin are what Fiore suggests. But in a pinch, any target will do. What I mean to say is, when in doubt, Gob them one good.
Follow up. - It ain't over till they taste dust.
If one is good, two is better. The main point of these strikes is to set up what comes next. to you had best be ready to break or throw your opponent after you hit'em.This is really the most important part of Abrazare. The ability to take advantage of the hits you deliver to finish the fight. As always, I define that as being the human that ends in control of the conflict. Fiore made a point that in his duels he came away with out injury, not that he murdered 5 people. My mission is the same - survive with out harm to me.
That means controlling the target, and being ready to deal with the targets buddies.
So, here is the video -
It will go over a few types of strike,
power generation on the high line,
a simple training drill to come to a bind,
and using Firere to break a grab.
I'd love to see YOUR version of the drill, which bind you might break.
post them in he comments. I'll take text versions as well.
Any way - Were gonna deal with the clinch.
So, the above pictures will appear in my video, the one on the left is what I use to justify Fiore dealing with a clinch type grab. Clearly the dude has been grabbed by the head. In the first frame, the defender is using a strike to the eyes to break the offenders grip. the second is not an immediate follow on in the book, but Fiore recommends you break his chestnuts in two when held in that manner.
Lets link this together, along with a plausible crossing.
1. Offender decides its time to hit the Defender - and he goes for it.
2. Defender clears and hits back - "winning"
3. Offender gets in and grabs the defender to stop the face punches
4. Defender breaks the clinch and regains control.
Teaching children has been rewarding a humbling. These last three years have taught me a great deal about myself, as well as my fellow man.
There is little else I can say about it. These kids, the challenge what I know of the art, and force me to refine and simplify it at the same time, in order to convey what they must learn to take over as the next generation.
The force me to iterate the information, scaling it up as they mature and are able to handle increasingly complex tasks and store more data.
They force me to articulate the Virtues of a martial artist, and what these virtues mean to them in their lives. To teach them to be gentle hunters in a world that could just as easily render them hard and uncaring. To show them how to be firm, while being open to new people and ideas, with out losing the path.
I will never be able to thank them enough for the experience, the lessons they have taught me. It is my express hope that what I give to them measures up to the potential they show, and that I do not let them down as they grow older.
Always, it has been my job to replace myself when the day comes that I can no longer bear up the sword. While I am yet young, and that day is in the distance, these kids give me hope that there WILL be some one there to pick up the torch, and bear it forward. That is their gift to me.
So, in the wide world of sword fighting, there are many modes of training.
Now, I don't me get me wrong here: some schools are lazy and some schools train hard - But that's not at all what we are chatting about today
What I mean is that there are different modes of training to bring out different skills and actions from our students.
These two modes of training fall into two primary branches. Development and Simulation. (Now I want to point out that I get these classifications from Mike VanBeek, my Self defense coach. While not a fencer, the guy is right as rain and credit goes where it is due.)
Any way, Simulation includes things like Sparring, Semi-competitive drills like Set-plays (step-sparring) and other resisted or competitive drills. These drills give us a taste of what we are training to defeat, and help us work on our will, and temper our skills in the fire of resistance.
Developmental drills are things like Flow drills, Kata (for lack of a better word) and other consensual drills that work of skill or attribute development in a non competitive environment, so that a student can work on mechanics and or isolate issues so that one can take not of each rep and sharpen the knife, so to speak.
You need both to develop a complete martial artist. It is important to note here that the two drills types are related, and can flow into one another. The intensity levels can vary wildly as well.Simulation can be dialed down, and development can reach levels that feel as though they are Fight Simulations.
Today I will talk a little bit about developmental drills.
Developing movement, comfort, and confidence are a vital part to building true skill. These types of drills break down the elements of any given technical set, and let people isolate the components. Students new and old can benefit from this, ans we use this to hone our understanding of the underlying principles that let these actions work for us in the fight. Rushing into simulation too soon (or not soon enough, though that's for a later chat) can lead to ingraining of bad habits and weak mechanics. Weak mechanics, as one man said, means that while you may get good fast, but you will never be great.
I am not willing to accept such a limit.
On to our example.
In our school, we teach 2 primary types a throw to novice and intermediate students. A rear leg type take down, and what we call a collar throw, or Ballestrata in Italian. we use a number of tools to teach this.
This video will go over a few days worth of classroom footage, all focusing on developing a students ability to use these throws in sparring and possibly self defense.
This development will go through a few phases.
1. Looking at a little bit of context on what leads to wrestling-distance in a "fight".
2. Getting comfortable in that close range.
3. Learning the mechanics of the throws in question,
4. Learning to find the moment when these throws can be applied.
This 4th phase will have the added benefit of also quietly slipping the basics on countering these throws into the students brains. I Like this "back road" approach, as lessons that people reach on their own often stick with the students and help keep them thinking about the fight on their own. a student with questions is better than a student who follows dogma.
So, In the video, I take the students from the basics of unarmed range closure, add throws, and along the way work to improve their movement skills and comfort and manipulating others, as well as being manhandled.
The Next Phase for this would be simulation, which we will cover in the next blog.
It comes up in Fiore's manuscripts several times - the old man likes to break arms.
Since he says that he has done these things, and that they are reliable, Lets take that grain of salt and take a hard look at them.
Now, in modern terms, knife fights are ugly, nasty things in which the opponent usually comes at us hard, fast, and from concealment and surprise. Stopping the knife is of course rather high priority.
So how do we do this and then set up one of the old man's fancy arm brakes when the other guy is resisting you?
Step one: Stop the knife with Prejudice. My working concept is that all strikes are parries and every parry is a strike. It is vital that you abate the pressure of your foe's attack. do that by hurting said foe.
Step two: Reverse the flow of pressure. You were being attacked. Now YOU are the attacker. The video will show this better, but use what ever tools are needed. Punch, Kick, Go get'em. Scare'em
Step three: Go for it. this kind of action does not brook hesitation. grab that arm, and get under it before your subject see what line you are attacking. It the enemy thinks you are going for some kind of akido attack, this is good, as you want them to try to recover the arm from you. this only helps you move t behind them.
Step four: In training, there is no step four. Fiore says train with compassion. If you are doing so, then we're done here. To pull the arm all the way down and brake it would be to add Malice, which we must reserve for battle.
For some time now, There has been a strong division between swords people: Do George Silver's true times apply to all swordsmanship, or just his? Well, I welcome your opinions, but my answer is: Know your role, jebronie. ;)
Why not always, or never? Well, that's a long conversation. Short version - a swordsperson should be adaptable in their fight. Some times you need the probing quickness that Silver's timing scheme offers, and every now and then you need the pure BANG that the boxing style hip linkage offers us (though *I* believe that power is a "sometimes" food when it comes to sharp objects.)
A simpler fact:
Use your hips to create movement!
Through movement you create mechanics,
Through mechanics you create stopping power,
and through stopping power achieve victory.
So, I'll let y'all debate on the when you need which issue. I'm Gonna talk about he part I'm best at -Creating movement and achieving that power.
So, I know you've heard it before. C'mon, you know it's true. I've heard a lot of variations on the theme:
"The power comes from the legs"
"Drop your weight"
"Turn your body"
"Twist yer hips"
Take your pick, all of these thoughts are aimed at the same thing: moving the sword efficiently.
The strength of the arm is not enough. For the person who's asking why, I'll list you the reasons, just to get it out of the way.
- Force = mass x acceleration. Your arm is light, you body is heavy. Do the math.
- The arm will tire out if you overly rely on such small muscle groups (professional trainer talking here)
- And finally, the biggie, rechambering the weapon. You need to have the sword coiled to go again right away, and relying on the arms alone won't get that done quickly or reliably.
So Let's look at the mechanics. ALL of them. What? You say, there's more than one right way? Yes. Always.
Look gang, all of us Medieval sword people teach our own unique movement doctrines. I am not gonna tell you what's right from wrong. I will tell you this though - whether you mean to or not, your students will emulate you. So be purposeful in teaching said doctrine.
When planning you curriculum, remember that every thing we do comes from motion. and we can optimize that to be task specific. Ask yourself, what is the fight you're prepping for? A tourney? A "street fight"? Target cutting?
In my mind, those three things each have different tweeks that will optimize them.
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So what are the different ways the hips can move, and what do they accomplish?
The sword/body/legs (G. Silver model)
The all at once approach, (mushy model)
The legs/body/weapon approach (boxer model)
Why do I need both? Different advantages.
For the Armizare folks, many of us favor the silver model because we want to stay at range, avoid binds not of our choosing, and force the opponent into a parry/riposte mode, rather than letting them counter-attack.
The down side is we'll hit a little less "hard", but at sword levels of power, *I* don't find it too lacking, but some folks like a lot of bang in their sword-fu. Mileage will vary.
The Boxer model offers a lot more torque, with a very nice muscular "whip" depending on the exact motor chain you are employing. that means the sword itself carries more momentum.
The down side is that Threat phase of the attack can develop late, increasing chances of telegraphy.
I don't like the mushy model. Worst of all, best of none. Nothing more to say. If YOU use that model and get good results, tell me why you like it. Right here in the comments. I promise you have my attention and interest, 'cause you'll be the first one to tell me that.
Now, I don't have a dog in the race when it comes to debating the other two. It's like Phillips or Regular head screw drivers - just use the right one in the moment.
The video will address the bio mechanics, so don't forget to watch that. as always, thanks for reading. Please subscribe and follow me. I LOVE feed back, and I take topic requests.
Playing the prize is an old tradition. My participation in it however, is not. Gaining ranks in the CSG
