[Jen]

So glad you enjoyed the session yesterday, Daniel. In the spur tournaments we use a really small square (15m), which helps level out the playing field so better riders/horses are limited in the amount of speed they can use. It makes for interesting dynamics. 🙂

[Jen]

If the problem isn’t the words themselves, but remembering the paths they take, think of the term Karen mentioned, ‘full circle’. When we say something comes full circle, it returns to its starting point. Therefore the tutta volte comes back on the same line it started on. ie, if you cut a mandritto fendente with a tutta volta your sword will start and end on your upper right side.

Also another mnemonic for mezza volta is that ‘mezza’ is only two letters away from ‘pizza’, and a mezza volta looks like a slice of pizza. 🍕

[Jen]

Hi Jeffrey, nice job, this is a pass.

A few things you can work on to make it even better:

– widen your stance and bend your knees a bit more. I know you’re in a small space, but you can still hold a wider stance (and just take smaller steps). I also find a wider stance helps with fluidity, possibly because it’s less like regular walking.

– watch that you don’t drag your back foot when advancing (or your front foot when retreating)

– you seem to be holding some tension in your shoulders at the end of your thrusts, especially near the end. Try to consciously relax the shoulders and draw your shoulder blades together and down your back while keeping the neck tall. You lose a tiny bit of measure this way, but you gain an awful lot in terms of better structure and less fatigue.

Overall, I like how steady your point is, especially in the thrusts from the finestras, which are hard to hold steady. Good economy of movement and direct lines.

cheers

Jen

[Jen]

Sorry Jade, I thought I’d signed this off last week, but I guess I hadn’t. In general I don’t think your movements are too exaggerated. This is a form, and without a partner to demonstrate against, its better to err on the side of over-doing rather than under-doing. In sparring you would naturally bring the movements a bit tighter.

However, you can work on keeping your hands a bit lower in your finestra guards and your transitions from sottani to descending blows. There are moments when your hands and upper body are quite exposed in those transitions. This is partly because you have a sword that is quite long for your height (and unfortunately your excellent wide base makes you even shorter). That means you are working to miss the ground by bringing your hands higher. To avoid this, take your sottani on a slightly more horizontal plane and think about hugging your forearms close to your chest in the finestras.

I like your energy and flow!

[Jen]

I don’t see the re-do in this thread, but I’ve signed you off on it. All the poste are there in the correct order. With the short blade it’s a bit harder to judge your guard positions, but it looks like you have corrected (perhaps overcorrected? hard to tell) the tip height of PdF and the guard height in frontale. I’d still like to see a bit more obvious shift between forward- and back-weighted guards, especially in a progression. You should really feel like 90% of your weight is on the back leg in the back-weighted poste, whereas the front-weighted ones are much more even (60/40). And I know the floor is slippery, but try not to let your feet slide between guards 🙂 Well done overall.

[Jen]

I do see an eastern flavour, which is fine. We all have our own ‘accents’ based on differing backgrounds, and in fact driving from the waist is quite helpful in cuts. For the opening move into posta longa, however, the strike to have in mind is a thrust. Think about driving from the back foot through the extended arm with a heel-of-the-hand strike (if you do rapier, this is quite like a rapier thrust).

Your transitiion to cinghiare is also very eastern, like a sweep into a throw. If you want a visualization to get a more Fiore flavour, imagine you are bringing that arm up to protect your head from a roundhouse blow OR think of striking your opponent under the chin with your elbow.

Watch that your back foot doesn’t drift in your transitions. This form is done without compass steps, so there shouldn’t be any drift of the back foot after the step or turn. You can enforce this by lifting the back heel and really thinking about pivoting on the balls of your feet.

This is pretty picky feedback — overall the form is smooth and martially valid even if, as you say, you had different martial moves in mind. 🙂

[Jen]

I use Pinnacle, which has its irritants, but is fairly easy and flexible.

[Jen]

I think it wouldn’t hurt to redo this one. As you note yourself, your
measure is off in places (eg: the 3rd cut should strike the target) and measure is the purpose of this form 🙂

To help with memorization and ease of movement try breaking the form into 3 parts: footwork, measure, and cuts, and then practise as follows:
1. Do the form just focussing on getting the footwork smooth
2. Once that’s in place do the form with your sword in longa, checking that it extends about 10-20cm past the target on movements where the cut is supposed to hit — this will make sure your measure is good.
3. Now add the cuts in.

Hope that helps!

[Jen]

Overall this looks good. Your last thrust going forward is off camera. If this were an apprentice assessment I’d want to see that fully. Since it’s a form assessment I’m giving this a pass since it appears to be the correct thrust in the correct order.

The only small adjustment I’d make for the purpose of this form is that the thrusts going forward in finestra should be distinct from the following thrusts in longa. You string them together into one long passing thrust, which is a perfectly valid (and prettier) movement, but not precisely what the form is asking.

Nice work!

[Jen]

Hi Karen, all the guards are here in the correct order, so I’m signing off in this one as a form assessment. (I can’t quite tell because of the angle whether poste 7 is breve or longa, but I’m giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming breve). For an apprentice assessment you’ll want to have more flow and confidence in the sequence. In general, bend your knees and take a bit wider stance. Don’t forget to look up, even if your sword is pointing down 🙂

Some notes on the guards:

– In the back-weighted guards (PdD Soprano/Altara, cinghiare mezzano etc) really shift your weight so that only the toes of your front foot are on the ground.

– In frontale the hands can be a bit further from the face. This will tip the sword forward slightly so it isn’t perpendicular to the ground (making it more useful for collections and protecting your head).

– make sure that there is a clear difference between breve and longa

Continue to practise this form, working on deepening and refining the stances for each guard.

[Jen]

Nice relaxed flow. Just a couple of errors:

– You stepped forward rather than back in the transition from donna sinestra to longa

– Skipped porta di ferro mezzana and went straight to breve

– Went to longa with the next step (which should be breve)

Some other notes
– tip is a bit high in tutta porta di ferro
– make sure your frontale/crown guard protects your head
– emphasize the rear weighting a bit more in those guards that require it, eg cinghiare mezzana

As you noted yourself, your stance could go wider or deeper in places.
However, the Pisani Dossi version of Fiore is much more upright than the
Getty, so there is room for interpretation.

[Jen]

Very nice. I don’t have much to say about this. The backlighting makes it a bit hard to see the target in relation to the sword, but I feel like you are moving in and out of measure appropriately. Nice smooth cuts.

[Jen]

Hi Paul, can you put the links in separate comments with the name of the form so we can reply to each one separately? Thanks 🙂

[Jen]

Good job with this Karen. You mentioned you were having to think hard about each step and I can see that in your face and the slight hesitation between moves. Don’t worry, this will improve with practice. A couple of notes:
– your target seems to be quite high. I would aim at the chest of your imaginary opponent when practising. You can always deviate lower or higher when needed, but the chest is a good central target. The thrusts from finestra start high but should still descend somewhat.
– watch that you don’t overextend your wrists. There should be a bit of an angle between the hand and blade for strength and good wrist health. Think 170 degrees instead of 180 degrees. I think if you move your target lower as mentioned above this will help.
– As you work on improving your flow between thrusts put a bit of attention into the connection between the finestra and longa thrust and see if you can smooth that out a bit while still keeping them distinct.

[Jen]

Nice job. Good order and intention. A couple of tiny things to watch.

– With your full-cut fendente, don’t let your wrists straighten all the way at the end of the cut. You want to maintain a slight angle between the swordblade and your forearm. This will protect your wrists long-term and provides a stronger cut.

– At times your feet are *almost* late. While this is far better than being early, you do still want your feet to be landing as you reach the end of the cut — otherwise you border into a two-tempi cut + step. I hesitate to even mention this, since it’s so slight, and I don’t want to push you into stepping early, but I think you’re at a level where you can work on these micro-adjustments.