I also want to finish this course with some reflection.

It was pretty intense. I think all the basic tools of swordplay were touched in this course, and some not so basic things too. The activities were very challenging. I was sure I wouldn’t ever be able to deliver the tasks on week five. At first they seemed too advanced to me. For months…

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There’s a slight difference in the beginning. Maybe I didn’t describe it too clearly. Nice work!

Her’s my version:

Nice flow and creative footwork. It seems you are well defended behind your sword all the time.

Hey @thomas.belloma , here’s my interpretation of your play.

Hope I got some parts right. I struggle a little with the volta stabile of the sword with pivot step. I ended up choosing a footwork that I thought fitted best what came afterwards.

Thanks for the feedback and questions. I really had to get up and experiment here to try to explain some choices that had not been rationalized, although I clearly made them physically.

The horizontal keeping of the sword during the rotation from the bind to the pommel strike is due to the fact that, in this way, I use the true edge to keep…

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I was able to do just as much as you in this course, and with the same difficulties about partnered exemplars.

Devon explains about this course at the end of the second part of the Sunday Masterclass of week 5 (“Fiore by the book” lecture, starts aprox. at 3:34:45).

There he says it will be available in perpetuity.

🌞

Hey Jeremy, interesting interpretation. I worked on the same play, with a different result.

I am curious as to why you chose to start from donna on the left.

How I got to this interpretation:

This is the 3rd student of the remedy master of gioco stretto.

This action follows a crossing in the middle sword.

My starting point was what Devon said in the masterclass, that the bind of the gioco largo masters probably derive from an attack from the player, which the master started to defend, because the…

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The whole dive into Fiore’s history and works, as well as the methodology for approaching historical manuals, stood out very strongly. This module is absolutely essential to prove that studying swordplay goes beyond learning a collection of tricks (to recall something that came up during the live sessions). Through this module, the…

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This is a gret topic to think about.

Maybe balance could come by also valuing the swinging the sword around for fun, and not considering it just low quality practice time.

Mindful sessions with attention in granular level are really important. But I think fluidity, ease and finesse are also qualities of a skilled swordsperson, and these…

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The order here is not about preference, it’s a chronological order of reading that I did.

I use these books to understand martial ethic.

1. Ramon Lull. Livro da Ordem de Cavalaria. The author was a former knight himself, later totally dedicated to the carholic church. It’s a book that talks of an idealized “order of chivalry”, by…

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Some more records of the holydays!

I like to shoot new videos in different places. Watch at least to see if you like the landscapes. They’re on a small beach town in the south of Brazil, called Arroio Teixeira.

I put here a 12-poste where I did a second run with quick flow. Kinda like it.

The fundamental cuts is a classic. I need to take…

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Holydays at the beach.

Trying some improvisation, shadow swording.

I think from the finestra at 0:24 until 0:58 some interesting moves came up.

Since there is no training log for April yet, and I didn’t say anything in March, there goes something.

Littlle by littlle does the trick. I still look like a child with a sword in hands but it’ s definitely better than It was before. So this is the way. My standards are high.

I can see some improvement in my grounding and It is super important.…

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I am not talking about Duello’s concept of true fight.

I am thinking that it’s impossible to truly fight today. Nobody fights for their lives. We don’t have to really defend ourselves. maybe this aspect of the martial arts will always escape us.

Ghost dummy 👻

I think they are:

video 1 – due tempi

video 2 – contro tempo

video 3 – mezzo tempo

I recently found out that the instructors reviews for my apprentice skills assessments was going to the spam box. So I recovered only the ones sent from Feb. 17 on. The previous ones, and there were probably many of them, were already definitively excluded by the email provider. I got so bummed out. Is there a way i can get those e-mails again?

Did ten repetitions of the fundamental cuts and ten repetitions of the scholars assault today. I did like this: five times fundamental cuts; five times scholars assault, five more times fundamental cuts.

Then I started videoing the mixed cuts for the apprentice skill assessments – I like this challenge very much, it’s a kind of improvisation…

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Here is my gioco largo playbuild.

I think the concept of “weapon first” is still a challenge.

I really just worked in the composition here; didn”t work strategically, so maybe this sequence doesn”t make real sense. But I lked the combination of defenses I could practice in this arrangement.

I like the footwork. It seems very clear and clean,…

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Today I could practice the thrusts and cuts through larga with a partner.

And we also did some playbuild, where I could experiment with some things I learned here… such as thrusting from cinghiara mezzana (!) and creating a feint in riposte, that happens before the action my partner had proposed, without taking away his initial intention.

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This is my gioco stretto play. it’s just a rearrangement of some phrases contained in the gioco stretto defense form.

but

this lesson taught me that I have to have a personality when I play. I am saying things, and I don’t care about the content of the sentences, but I notice that every one has a mood and a statement.

and they…

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My mezzanni cuts are very bizarre.

What stood out to you?

The hard and soft fighters approach was totally new to me.

Also, I am intrigued about the possibility of trusting physics to do most of the job, after the body mechanics and movement are trained enough.

Did you have any big “aha moments” in your training?

The “ahaest” thing was that I found a way to find pleasure in…

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Amicable sparring: Federico Malagutti vs Nicola Curini

I analyzed and registered their temperaments in most of the plays, and noted the following:

the first plays are not so clear. I believe they were getting acquainted in the combat.

Then, their combative temperament changes a little along the time. For example, starting from about 1:00min,…

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Much less time available for practice this week!

So today i continued the fundamentals II (I am late with that, but almost completing now). Interesting how repeating some isolated and very fundamental things can bring so many aha moments. I was amazed at how simple steps in posta longa feel so different, depending on the foot that is in…

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The main reflection I would like to share about this week’s work is this: I kept 4 shootings of the gioco stretto form on a particular date. The first one took 1:52,
the fourth took 1:29. In the longer one the
order of movements was better in general, exactly because I was biding my time and being very careful with it. So the good order is…

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In gioco stretto: in the thrust from finestra forward I should extend my arms more completely before stepping.

It seems I always assume the same edge position in the end of thrusts to both sides, which may be wrong because the advantages are gained differently to the left. Not sure about this observation.

After the collects, my change of…

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Shot them again.

In gioco largo: the line of cut in my roverso fendentes is not consistent, some times it seems ok but other times I see it not traveling the correct path.

I think my body shows too much of what is coming even before I start the moves. Talk about telegraphing. Easy reading.

What’s good: firm steps. I land in place and don’t…

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Bob:

I think all of them are contra tempo.

Hi Ben,

I submitted a new one.

Cheers!

This is what I got so far. I think it is very very bad, especially the gioco largo form! Anyway, this was the best I could do in that moment, and I was really tired when I shot it.

In gioco largo, my arms are very tense in the movements in due tempi. I’m not sure I got all the footwork correctly.

I just like the last bit, breaking the thrust by…

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Here is my 5-measure form.

I think it has many problems. My roverso cuts freuently don’t happen in the right order, my shoulder shows effort and my hands don’t move in the right way. The sequence of cuts through altara to the left is not in good alignment.

I’m struggling to get the crossline cuts, not dealing correctly with my weight in…

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On Monday I re-trained the foundational cuts form to try and make it better, and I also practiced a lot of cuts to a target. Then I worked on the five measure form, which I still couldn’t do well. In the videos I made, I looked like a really clumsy child trying to hit something.

After that, I spent a long time putting together the gioco…

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What stood out to you?

That there ate many ways to perform the same actions successfully. I have been watching the videos people are sharing and there are many interpretations that are very different from mine, but I couldn’t say that some are right and some are wrong. Certainly there are fails here or there, but | am learning to accept…

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It’s the third week of the masterclass. The most physically challenging things for me so far are related to cutting through a target and the double movements, such as deflect and cut, parry and cut, like the ones in the gioco largo defense form.

I had never practiced with a target to cut through, I had just experimented with cutting or thrusting…

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Here is my 12-Poste progression.

It seems the transitions are smooth ant the weight is well placed in the postures.

When forming the Longa, I think my hands are late.

Thanks Jade!

I think you’re right. I need to pay more attention to the distribution of weight between my feet.

The more I video myself and assess what i’m doing, the more details of problems and inaccuracies I find.

Today I was trying to make a video of the first lesson of the apprentice skill assessment (forward and reverse posture) and I discovered that when I put my weight slowly onto my right knee it swings and changes position, rearranging…

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Here are two videos of my 5-thrust progression, front view and side view. I approached them slowly, to study the trajectories with care.

In the side view I noticed the thrusts from the low positions are finishing too high, and maybe my arms are too extended.

In the front view I noticed that the thrusts from above, when going backwards, should…

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For normal weeks (when not on vacation) I don’t plan on training in the mornings, because it’s better to start working first and try to finish my tasks earlier, so I can have more free time in the late afternoon and evening to practice.

But I sure need to be able to sleep a bit earlier to get better rested.

I already added more water during the…

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Today I did:

turns of the sword (volta stabile, mezza volta, tutta volta, 20 each, with each foot in front.)

downward and upward Xs, in place with no change of feet, with change, and with forward and backward steps.

foundational cuts progression and double cuts progression.

12-poste progression starting from four directions and with change…

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<div>In a nutshell, I have a tradeoff issue: if I dedicate so much time and effort as I’d wish, and as it is necessary, to become an expert swordfighter, I would have to relinquish (as I have been actually doing lately) the time for sudying to advance in a professional career in Law ( I was invested in preparing to try becoming… Read more

Endurance to keep repeating drill with the sword was challenging; my arms were not prepared to keep doing, say, 5 minutes of uninterrupted cutting.

Precision is a big challenge to be solved in the long run.

I intend to spend longer doing slower movements before i try to put any martial intent, so the coordinaton gets better before putting…

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What stood out to you?

The depth of detail and analysys that can derive from even the (apparently) simplest things.

Did you have any big “aha moments” in your training?

Sure. The biggest one was about the hourglass shape in steps. I was really intrigued why some people seem to be doing everything correct and still look like a cowboy walking.…

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I trained every day. Didn’t do all the quantities of repetitions suggested in the practice section,though, because is seemed too much for me.

The main sword sequences I explored were the foundational cuts progression, the double cuts progression from the pre course and the downward X drill.

When I started to record videos and assess them, I…

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What helps you stay motivated in your training?

Watching videos of people training and classes, reading about HEMA in any form (treatises, blogs, comments), making my own videos and assessing my improvements/needs of improvement.

What do you most enjoy in practice?

I enjoy every moment after my body surpasses the warm up phase. When the blood…

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I like the attitude in the beginning and end of the video.

Really good postes! There is good flow between the cuts and good maneuvering of the sword.

Some ideas for improvement:

In the half mandritto sottano advancing, your foot landed before the blow, so the order of movement requires attention.

In the transition to start he left side…

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It’s great that your leg positions are very low. The body is well aligned and the directions of movement are straight and certain.

As areas for improvement, I think the posta longa is beginning from the legs, and the arms are getting into action a bit late. And in the cinghiara with the left hand, your fingers seem spread in an undefined…

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