A Fencer's Thanks

A Fencer's Thanks

 (Original photograph by Thomas V. Berger. CC Photoshop and Illustrator)

30 Minutes for 30 Days, the Return: Day 1

 30 Minutes for 30 Days, the Return

Since COVID-19 hit, I've been teaching from home. Like pretty much every teacher, hell, every person working from home, the stress can get to be over the top and I pretty much got swallowed up.
My sword has not been out or in my hand for months, it's not a good feeling.

Time to do something about it.

Back in 2017, I took up the 30 Minutes for 30 Days Challenge. It was a good experience and I got to really put a lot of my techniques under a microscope and made some real improvements.

So, today I begin again.

I've chosen to study the Bolognese School and tonight was all about the guards (guardie). Depending on which Master you look to will dictate the number of guards for their own system.  Dall'Agocchie taught eight guards (four high, four low), Manciolino taught ten and referenced a number of others. Marozzo, himself, taught about a seventeen.

Tonight I used a drill taught by Ilkka Hartikainen (https://marozzo.com/). It's a beautiful flow drill from one guard to the next.  Going from one guard to another, it is easy to see where cut and thrusts would fill in those spaces; how an offense becomes a defense that becomes a counter attack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aijGSXbA2nw

The stances are more forward, similar to the bow stance in my Gung Fu system, as opposed to the more leaned back posture of other Italian systems

It was good to have my sword drawn and moving again. The day was able to quiet down, and the 30 minutes went pretty quick.

I will be closing 2020 out with the thirtieth and final day of this challenge. Somehow, that is very fitting.

One down, twenty nine to go!