Three Principles of Blade Control – Practice

Immediate Practice

2 minutes – Explore the advantage of the true edge.

• Experiment with turning your flat, false edge, and true edge toward your partner’s sword.
• See how your sword flexes or does not flex based on its orientation.
• Explore how the edge orientation allows you to apply pressure from alignment, or lack of alignment, with your body.

2 minutes – Explore the advantage of leverage.

• Experiment with putting your strong into your partner’s weak and vice versa.
• Try using your sword in one hand and two, see how much the leverage advantage gives you a mechanical advantage.

2 minutes – Explore the advantage of crossing.

• Put your sword over your partner’s sword and have them attempt to resist you.
• Explore how much the advantage of crossing assists you by changing the amount of leverage that you have over your partner’s sword. You should find that crossing allows you to have less leverage but still a greater mechanical position.

Ongoing Practice

• The three advantages can work as a kind of diagnostic tool for analyzing winning and losing positions in exercise. If you’re not succeeding in an attack or parry look to each of the advantages to see if you are missing one at any point through the action.
• Learning to master the alignment of these three advantages is essential to excellent swordsmanship. Make understanding them a central part of your practice.