Devon
Forum Replies Created
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Hey folks, when I was putting together the week 2 homework I made a little training montage. Check it out here:
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@thomas.belloma and @Ivy all of those ideas are viable.
I often use it in the first of the ways that Ivan suggests to strike the blade and then to a deeper target.
It can also be used where the first is an attack to miss (intentionally thrown off target action to draw a deflection typically — so you’d use the mandritto double cut against someone who is in dente di cinghiara. Then when they move up to deflect your weapon won’t be there instead it will be coming through on the second cut to close the line and strike (similar look to your video Thomas).
Devon
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It will certainly be easier for me to see in a video. You’ll note as you see me that I move between wide and narrow stances. It is very contextual. It is also *your* body. The main thing that I will guide you toward is being able to accomplish the tactical and mechanical objectives of the form. Some people need a wider stance to do this, some can do it with a narrow stance. And again it comes back to context.
Don’t sweat it too much right now. There’s nothing anyone is doing consistently enough at this point to set some kind of unbreakable bad habit. Better for us to challenge your body in different ways and with different contexts and get it to work out as much for itself as possible.
Work toward that first video and don’t worry about perfection.
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This might be easier to go over in the Q&A on video. It’s a great question.
You’re right about the lead elbow being down to minimize it as a target. The back elbow is up to facilitate a greater engagement of the lats and back as you drive the sword forward. If the elbow is down you don’t get as much power generation from the right side–the acceleration is almost exclusively the levering of the sword at that point. You can see something similar to this in a modern baseball stance where both elbows are elevated to create a similar generation path with the bat swing. However we have to make the tradeoff of lowering the lead elbow so it doesn’t get chopped off. Something batters don’t have to worry about.
It’s worth experimenting with both positions. They are also both used in historical swordsmanship (elbow up and both elbows down).
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Glad to have you here Jeremy. One thing I too very much enjoy about Western arts in comparison to many eastern arts is the scientific and explicit nature of them. I also enjoy the less dogmatic hierarchy.
Looking forward to working with you more.
Devon
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Following up on Vitor’s comments. These are spot on. Extend the hands, then enter the posta vs stepping and then thrusting the arms.
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Hey David really enjoying the videos. Quick comments on the poste form:
Good stuff:
– each of the poste positions with the arms is good. Nice intent good alignment.
Things to work on:
– Posta longa, watch the front knee and toe, head them toward the opponent (you can see that they’re turned in on that first step)– You’re missing the tutta volta between frontale and porta di ferro. Cross your back foot behind the front foot before doing the stabile part of the turn. This will help you turn 180-degrees.
– Focus on extending the hands ahead of the steps. Generally good but sometimes off.
Nice work on this.
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A couple additional comments for you Stela:
– Your dente di cinghiara should be forward weighted. You’re tending to form it like a cat stance. Perhaps observing my demo in the Q&A is helpful for seeing how this posture differs in intent.– When you transition between frontale and tutta porta di ferro you should be making a tutta volta by first crossing your back foot behind, then turn on the balls of the feet. Also be sure to fully face your lead leg in this guard, not in between the feet. (I believe I talked about this in the Q&A as well).
I love your focus on crispness and clear direct movements. Beautiful.
Devon
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Baby steps Jeff. Sounds like you’re making good progress. Video can be challenging. You’ll find a rhythm to that too. It took me a while when I was first getting to videoing myself as well. Logistically and psychologically. Looking forward to checking out the vids.
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Hey Daniel, good work getting through those constraints. That can be frustrating. I’m glad you shared, stuck with it, and made some meaningful changes. Liking the video.
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Great first video!!
Nice job on the mezzani and the roverso sottano in particular
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Kudos on posting your whole training session Daniel. Super neat to see and I totally understand the vulnerability of that. <3
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Hey Paul, it seems that the images were saved as PDFs so when you posted them we can’t see them. Can you post them as jpegs?
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So jealous of this space Thomas. Some real benefits to not having any furniture! 🙂
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Yes! Tripod Sword!