Stela
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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 where I have to make all kinds of complete and half cuts in any order, but in sequences of 1 cut, pause; 2 cuts, pause; 3 cuts, pause; and start again 1, 2, 3, etc, for one minute. I had already tried these in two other opportunities, many attempts, but I always messed up in the middle of the shooting and didn’t approve it for submitting. So I tried it again today and did it a lot of times; didn’t have time to review it yet but hopefully this time one of the videos will be acceptable.
It’s great to do the same things many times in a row. It improves naturally.
Then in the end I did five more reps of the scholars assault, and also recorded them to see if I can correct myself a bit.
Here I share with you one of the runs.
I see that my thrust from cinghiara mezzana is very bad because I don’t extend my arms; the mandritto from finestra with a “C” movement still doesn’t look like it should, and many other problems. Working on it. There is some fluidity, though. Appreciate tips, comments, any advice.
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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, except for the first gathering of heels, where I think I should keep my knees more bent.
When the cuts are released with intention and no hesitation, they seem to say something. I hope these little phrases get learned so that some day they’ll come up spontaneously during sparrings.
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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.
I’m very happy because before the masterclass I felt I sucked at partnered playbuilding. I didn’t like this game, because I felt my repertoire was too small and I got stuck without any ideas to get off of situations.
Yay!!
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</div><div>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 can be made of ready-made phrases, but there is a freedom in between.
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My mezzanni cuts are very bizarre.
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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 repetition, which comes from refining perception and having no hurry. 10 minutes of any practice take ten minutes, no matter how bored or enthusiastic I feel in the lapse. So, better engage consciously in feeling something useful (by observing weight distribution, force vectors, directions, distance, trajectory of the weapon, relationship between body segments, strength in the hands, muscles used – there are so many different aspects to approach!!), and then gaining knowledge through the experience.
Now my motto is never to practice something without leaving it better than when I entered. Mindless repetitions are ruled out.
What was most challenging?
Still very unsure about identifying the tempos.
Did you meet your own objectives?
I was prepared for a slowdown in training this week, because of my working schedule, and I feel I used well the time available… but anyway, couldn’t do all of the things I planned.
what do you think you might do differently next week?
Do more of what I did on Friday – I checked all of my active courses and wrote down a list of things to do in my practice, according to my progress in many of them. Then I numbered them in the most logical order, and followed it. In the allotted time, I accomplished ten of twelve planned activities, and it felt better than in the previous sessions, when there was little planning and less accomplishments.
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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, Federico is more of a receiving attacker, while Nicola is an approaching attacker.
But overall, as we can see, for example, from 2:19 on, Federico acts in the majority of the plays as an approaching attacker, and Nicola as a receiving defender.
As to attitude, both seem hard fighters to me.
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This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Stela Menezes.
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This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by
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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 front, because of the asymmetrical distance of the hands on the hilt.
And I had true fun doing 10 minutes of thrusts from breve to a target with crossing steps. The first minutes seemed boring, but then I began to notice some interesting details in the whole mechanics, and suddenly repeating them became really interesting and enjoyable. And in the end I am sure they were better than the first ones.
I also started composing my gioco largo playbuild.
On the previous days of the week I partly reviewed this week’s Sunday class. The amount of information there is huge and I need to watch and study it many times.
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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 the first thing that is lost when I
do things faster. This is a good thing to think about.So I make better moves in t’ai chi mode, but the quality doesn’t transport automatically to quicker modes yet (and it’s far from being combat time).
Since this masterclass is very accelerated and I am taking in an extraordinary amount of new info at once, I hope things settle down well in the long run, if I keep consistency and awareness of how I move and how I look when moving.
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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 positions to thrust seem too exaggerated.
What is good: most of the postures seem ok.
When I remember and care, the order of movement sword/steps is right.
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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 stay rearranging or testing my weight. I suppose this is a good thing.
the mechanics of hands, torso and hips is a little better. Still not sending the sword first and using the hilt to get the best protection in many occasions.
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Bob:
I think all of them are contra tempo.
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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 fendente with offline advance and pass. It seems I got these ones right.
In gioco stretto, this was my first attempt at the complete form, so I look very reluctant. I made a mistake in the counter attack with thrust in extended left finestra with compass step, because I did the compass step in the deflection, then the counter attack included an advance froward that is not in the prescribed form. But to the right side it seems ok.
I think some of the postures are right, and in the thrusts my arms are generally extended before the advances of the body.
I’ll do both of the shootings again to try and have a better performance before instructor review. I think that while I can spot so many grotesque mistakes it’s up to me to address them before submitting to more experienced eyes.
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I think they are:
video 1 – due tempi
video 2 – contro tempo
video 3 – mezzo tempo
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Hi Ben,
I submitted a new one.
Cheers!