Rapiers and Storms!

"Just remember what ol’ Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, and the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big ol’ storm right square in the eye and he says, “Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it."

Driving home in a massive thunder and lightning storm WILL have me quoting Jack Burton from "Big Trouble in Little China", but I digress.

It was great getting back to practice tonight! Between Penssic and a broken AC, it's been three weeks since I got to fence anyone.

The 30 Minutes for 30 Days Challenge has definitely led to some improvements. My techniques are less forced and my stamina has increased.  I fenced one fight with rapier and buckler and all the others were single sword.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's practice in Bhakail tomorrow night.

30 Minutes for 30 Days: Day 30, Final Day

Thirty days later, and here I am!

As in the beginning, my drills tonight we're all single rapier, both left and right side.

Stance training, footwork with shadow fencing and disengage training.

A lot of the motions feel cleaner and the ability to hold guard postures has definitely improved.

I used the phrase "Final Day", but I don't think it is.  I've truly enjoyed making this apart of my daily routine.  Granted, the times of day have varied, but it has not left me wanting to blow it off.  Some days, it was a temptation not to, but this is part of the reason for the challenge.

My goal is to keep this as part of my day to day living.  I will expand it into longer work outs, and probably won't do it the same days I have practice, but this is part of who I am and have been.

Thanks to everyone who have followed along, thanks for the nods of encouragement, also.

30 Minutes for 30 Days: Day 29

Today's exercises were a repeat of last night's.

30 Minutes for 30 Days: Day 28

Tonight, after shadow fencing and point control drills, I brought up a video on You Tube from a HEMA group in Bratslavia training Fabris techniques.

It is a short video that breaks down disengages as well as attacking on and off line.

It is mostly single rapier, then moves into dagger and cloak.

I focused on the single rapier section.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KKA-FRuDuLQ

30 Minutes for 30 Days: Day 27

I took a break from the drills that I have been working, and decided to work with buckler and rapier today.

For inspiration, I consulted Giacomo di Grassi's treatise "The True Art of Defense", beginning with The Manner How to Handle the Buckler.

30 Minutes for 30 Days: Day 26

Tonight I repeated last night's foot work drills, then moving into some shadow fencing.

One of my wrists was acting up a bit, so I traded off disengage drills for stance training.

30 Minutes for 30 Days: Day 25

For this work out, I took parts of the Fabris form and incorporated them into my footwork drills, then added lunges, parries and ripostes for the first 20 minutes.

The final 10 minutes was a combination stance training/disengage drills. Stances were held for three minutes each, while performing the disengages.  In order not to over stress my wrists, they were done in groups of 50 with small rests in between for the durations.

Right and left hands were used for both drills.

30 Minutes for 30 Days: Day 24

Tonight was a repeat of last night's sequence plus point control drills.

30 Minute for 30 Days: Day 23

On WMAWiki.org, there's a section on Salvatore Fabris' rapier and dagger progression.

This was my focus of today's drills.

The first sequence is for solo work and is a progression of Fabris' stances that are described in his treatise, "Scienza d'Armeplates" , 49 through 70. This involves guards and movements and lunges from the four guards. (See link below)

When putting the sequence together, it's a form, (kata for all you Karate folks). I've always enjoyed forms training, and have found it to be invaluable in my Martial studies.

http://wmawiki.org/index.php?title=Fabris_rapier_and_dagger_progression

30 Minutes for 30 Days: Day 22

Tendinitis was twinging in my right elbow, so I ran my drills left handed tonight.