Parading about….

I figured I ought to post the parat (or “flourish”) that we’ve been working on in class.  This is something we’ve been working on to fill the function of a “form” or “kata” in Japanese martial arts, and such things existed historically in europe.  They could be practiced alone as solo drills to work on footwork and guard transitions, or used in order to display your skill in order to intimidate your oppononent and/or impress the crowd before a public match, either in a duel or the fechtschule (fencing school).  This is not specifically a historical parat, but one I created for use in our own training.

(Part 1)(Reverse all use of “right” and “left” if left handed). Start standing with the sword held in the left below the hilt, at hip level (as if in scabbard). “Draw” the sword with a pass back with the right foot, ending in right ochs (this part works best with a thumbed grip, horizontal ochs on both sides). Make a short thrust with a sliding step (my term for a “fencer’s advance/retreat”, what Christian Tobler refers to as a “gathered step,” although I used Jeff Tsay’s definition for that term), and recover in right pflug. Thrust to langenort with a pass forward and recover in left ochs. Make a short thrust with a sliding step back, recovering in left pflug (long-edge up). Pass back with a thrust to langort, and recover in right ochs.

(Part 2) From right ochs, drop the sword’s point to left hangenort, bring the sword around, and with a pass forward, make a right-to-left diagonal oberhau, ending in left weschel/nebenhut (short-edge forward). Make a short-edge unterhau along the same line (no footwork) (begin a pass back here), bringing the sword to high vom tag, and make a left-to-right diagonal oberhau, ending in weschel/nebenhut on the right side (short-edge forward). Make a short-edge unterhau, with a pass forward, bring the sword back to the right to a long-edge forward right nebenhut and make a right-to-left unterschnitt, ending in left einhorn. Begin to continue the motion, bringing the sword to left-side, long-edge forward nebenhut, and passing back, make a left-to-right unterschnitt, ending in right einhorn. Turn the blade (and, if necessary, adjust the body) to “the day”, and you should end in a left-foot forward high vom tag.

(Part 3) From high vom tag, make a vertical oberhau with a pass forward of the right foot, ending in alber. Pass back, making a short-edge unterhau, and bring the blade to right shoulder vom-tag. With a traversing step to the right, cut a zornhau to the left lower hanger, and bring the sword back to left pflug, long-edge down. Bring the sword to a left-shoulder vom tag, and with a traversing step to the left, make a left zornhau to the right lower hanger, and recover to right pflug. Bring the sword to right shoulder vom tag, and with a pass forward, cut explosively to longpoint (this may be angled, like a zorn, or more verticle, like a low schietellhau). Lower the sword to alber, then cross the right arm over the left to stand in left schrankhut. Cut a left-to-right short-edge krumphau (I use a slightly more forward-angled version of the “windshield whiper” interpretation) with a traverse to the left, ending in right schrankhut. With a traverse to the right, make a right-to-left long-edge krumphau, ending again in left schrankhut. Slice up with a pass back of the right foot, ending in right ochs.

And here, for those who may be interested, is an actual historical parat from HS3227a, aka, the “Doebringer Hausbuch” (Interpretation is by Jake Norwood of Maryland Kunst Des Fechtens, available on the HEMA Alliance forums, www.hemaalliance.com

“(1) Shake your sword manfully. (2) Assume Schrankhut on the right. (3) Step (all steps are passing steps) with the right and transition to schrankhut on the left. (4) Step with the left and wind over into pflug on the right (long edge up). (5) Step with the right and transition into pflug on the left (short edge up). (6) Step with the left and bring the weapon up into Ochs on the right (with crossed forearms). (7) Step with the right and transition into ochs on the left (this can be a simple wind or an explosion through longpoint as in Drill 0004). (8) Step with the left and cut a zwerch from the left, ending in a right ochs-like position (with the blade ending horizontal, hands crossed). (9) Step with the right and cut “helicopter style” with a zwerch from the right, ending in a left ochs-like position (blade horizontal, arms uncrossed). (10) Step with the left and lower the point down into Schrankhut on the right. You are now in a position to repeat the sequence from (2) – (10).”

As a sidenote, I believe Jake made a typo there and reversed which edge should be up in his description of the pflug on each side, especially on the right side, as to hold the long edge up would be an increadibly uncomfortable and unstable position.  So it should (in my opinion) read long edge down on the right side pflug, long edge up on the left pflug.

 - Chris

Swordfest 2010

So, this saturday, Swordfest 2010 will be hosted in Alexandria.  Here is the quote from swordforum:

“The Virginia Kenshinkai and the Capital Area Budokai is once again hosting Swordfest on April 24, 2010. This is a free event, open to the public. Friends and family invited. This will be the 7th year of swordfest, which was held in Pennsylvania back when it started. A search in the forums should find some background and comments.

It is an open forum celebration and appreciation of swords and sword arts, ancient or modern, east or west. The format will be 20-30 minute demos, plus some displays and possibly a vendor or two. Specific details to follow, but so far we have commitments groups doing German Longsword, Italian Rapier, various koryu and gendai sword arts, plus some related weapon arts.

It will be hosted at 25 S. Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA . It is an old school building, our dojo is the former gym.

If you have questions or want to demonstrate or have a vendor or display table, please PM me and I will help arrange things.”

As it currently stands, I am scheduled to work that day.  However, if there are any who are interested, let me know, as I am trying to see if I can switch shifts with one of my co-workers in order to attend, this would be a good opportunity to meet other people studying different styles of swordsmanship, as well as see other interpretations of the German longsword system.

 - Chris

Edit – Times are from 10AM to 5PM  The format is various demonstrations in 1/2-hour increments, starting with Bill Grandy of Virgina Academy of Fencing doing a German Longsword demo at 10!  Sorry, when I first posted this, I didn’t have all the info myself, thanks for reminding me to update!

Badge of Honor

Good striking training day on Wednesday with Chris and I.

We started off with lots of fist-pushing, where you press your fist into the other person. That gives you feedback on whether your strike would have any strength and/or penetration into the other person, due to body positioning. It lets you know if you are in a power position or not, and if you are in a position where might actually hurt yourself.

If you’re aligned you will move the other person, and if not, you won’t. Simple, but effective training.

After that, we ramped up the velocity to actually strike each other. This is very important for both the hitter and… “hit-tee.” Again, as the striker, you are given feedback on how well you’re doing, but perhaps even more importantly, you’re learning to be struck, and not phased. As I explained to Chris, there are a couple of points here that bear thinking about.

1) There is actual physiological toughening occurring when you’re being struck repeatedly. But that’s not nearly as important as preparing the nervous system to take physical shocks. As a wrestler, and more importantly, a football player (American-style), you learn to take impact to the body as just part of the game. Impact occurs in every play, and it doesn’t stop you. Watch a football game sometime and you’ll see this.

2) You have to de-personalize the hits, as in a football game. Once you stop taking impacts personally, you will fare much better, though I would almost say that it’s harder than with say, football. Your ego wants to take this personally, because it is a personal, one-on-one hit from someone. But the moment you see it as just a physical act of nature (“this thing just happens,” without emotional context) then you don’t have to have any emotional response such as anger or embarrassment or “why is this happening to me” type feeling sorry for yourself, then you don’t actually feel attacked and can easily shrug it off.

The problem comes when you mirror aggression or whatever, instead of projecting a strong confident frame. If you take it personally, you will project aggression or fear or some other destructive emotion, which will feed into the other person and create a feedback loop that ends in destruction for the both of you.

Instead, smile, laugh and literally shrug it off and not only will you do better handling the strike, you may de-escalate the whole confrontation.

Here’s a pic of a pressure-point that Chris was pressing on at one point in the practice. I call it a “badge of honor.”

Badge of Honor

Making A Throwing Stick

Some handy info for making an ancient hunting and survival weapon–the throwing stick:

Note how he takes a very familiar ready position with the stick…