Target Management – Practice

Immediate Practice

5 minutes – With a partner explore how the defensive and offensive postures protect you as shown in the video.

• Defensive posture: Withdraws your head, chest, and leg and protects your flank and forearm with the hilt of your sword.
• Offensive posture: Withdraws the flank and leg and protects the head and upper chest with the hilt of your sword.
• Find areas where your partner might be presenting a target unintentionally:
  • Having the sword hand too low = exposes the forearm.
  • Having the lead leg bent = brings it closer to the opponent’s point.
  • Having the sword hilt out of alignment from the flank (defensive) or head (offensive) = exposes the target.

Ongoing Practice

• When working with a partner have them check your posture to ensure that targets are not unintentionally exposed before beginning a drill.
• Have your partner strike your forearm if they can do so directly. In this way you will learn to keep it hidden behind the hilt of your sword.