Sword Class
Before I left Massachusetts, I contacted a bunch of swords people here in Madison, and a couple of them got back to me.
I got to train with one of the Madison Friefechters this morning at a park near the capitol. We didn't have much safety gear, but we had feders, so we exchanged drills. I showed him a drill, he showed me a drill, I showed him a drill, it was pretty awesome, because some of it was stuff that my students *are* struggling with, and I didn't have a good drill for it.
He was really excited about the dynamic stuff I was doing with distance and timing, and he can't wait to bring it to his class tomorrow. I was really excited about his zucken drill, which I think my students will really benefit from.
We also talked about class practices, in addition to drill, which we use to help our students get better. I talked about the quests that I assign, and about the slow addition of complexity which I add to my drills. He talked about an activity which his class does sometimes which is ten minutes long, and involves really targetted drills and sparring looking for really specific things. I talked about assigning students to do coaching during each others' sparring matches, and he talked about places you can hide stretching and water breaks into class and still get as much benefit out of the time.
When I left, I grabbed some lunch, and headed over to Carlie's. This doesn't sound like it belongs in the same post, because I was just planning to spend the afternoon helping in whatever ways I could to set up for tomorrow. Then it turned out that the officiant of the wedding is ALSO a swordfighter, and knows the guy I trained with this morning.
So we grabbed HER swords, and wandered out into the back yard to hit each other. She's relatively new, but she's got some gumption, so she started her own class recently. We sparred a little bit, and I was able to give her some specific pointers on the use of the sword, as well as things that she could bring back to class with her to help the drills she was doing. I didn't give her new drills, because she is new and is just working from a manual, but she seemed to take the advice I gave very well, and I think her class will be stronger for it.
I got to train with one of the Madison Friefechters this morning at a park near the capitol. We didn't have much safety gear, but we had feders, so we exchanged drills. I showed him a drill, he showed me a drill, I showed him a drill, it was pretty awesome, because some of it was stuff that my students *are* struggling with, and I didn't have a good drill for it.
He was really excited about the dynamic stuff I was doing with distance and timing, and he can't wait to bring it to his class tomorrow. I was really excited about his zucken drill, which I think my students will really benefit from.
We also talked about class practices, in addition to drill, which we use to help our students get better. I talked about the quests that I assign, and about the slow addition of complexity which I add to my drills. He talked about an activity which his class does sometimes which is ten minutes long, and involves really targetted drills and sparring looking for really specific things. I talked about assigning students to do coaching during each others' sparring matches, and he talked about places you can hide stretching and water breaks into class and still get as much benefit out of the time.
When I left, I grabbed some lunch, and headed over to Carlie's. This doesn't sound like it belongs in the same post, because I was just planning to spend the afternoon helping in whatever ways I could to set up for tomorrow. Then it turned out that the officiant of the wedding is ALSO a swordfighter, and knows the guy I trained with this morning.
So we grabbed HER swords, and wandered out into the back yard to hit each other. She's relatively new, but she's got some gumption, so she started her own class recently. We sparred a little bit, and I was able to give her some specific pointers on the use of the sword, as well as things that she could bring back to class with her to help the drills she was doing. I didn't give her new drills, because she is new and is just working from a manual, but she seemed to take the advice I gave very well, and I think her class will be stronger for it.