1. As M invites, S cuts chest, cuts flank, cuts chest. Standing, advancing.
2. M invites 3, S feint 4, M parries 4, S feint 3, M parries 3, S cuts chest. Standing, with advance, with double advance, with advance lunge. Timing is short feint 4, long feint (during advance) 3.
3. M cuts 4, S parries 4, feints 4-3, cuts 4. One retreat.
4. M shows 4, S stop cut, M cuts 4, s parries 4, feints 4-3, cuts 4. One retreat.
Mannheim. NH present. Drills, bouting, lesson with Alex.
I felt pretty crappy for most of the session--legs heavy, upper body sore from weight training the day before, and something I ate for lunch was not agreeing with me....
3-way round robin for about two hours. Same areas of emphasis as always: fence with tempo, not power, keep cool, think. As usual, fencing with tempo, not power required considerably more strength than bulling around on the strip, and I was quite tired toward the end.
TheTarantino-Limbach video has many interesting things about it, but one very worthwhile thing is Tarantino's ability to seize control when he does have
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a. M invites 3 or 4; S cuts head,
b1 M cuts 3 (from 4 invitation), S parries 3, feints flank, cuts head.
b2 M cuts 4 (from 3 invitation). S parries 4, feints head, cuts flank.
Executed standing, w/ double-advance, w/ advance-lunge, and retreating (in this case, M's first gambit is to show a cut to 3 or 4, S counter-attacks to head, and then the game continues), and after distance game.
Much like last week's lesson. There is a core exercise, with a couple
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NH said that we should start doing the Nellya warm-up again next week.... I agreed that it would be good for us (even though my lazy side cringed....)
Fenced 4 x (3x5 touches), with breaks in between. Much, much improved--no huffing and puffing after two touches, stronger, better footwork, etc. Amazing what a little regular training can do for you...
Mannheim, last night. NH brought his almost-six-year-old daughter. who had a grand time whacking Dad on the head, poking one of the older coaches with a foil, and generally being a really cute little girl.
We did the standard warm-up drills, plus wall drills, then fenced fairly casually. In general, fenced MUCH better than last week and MUCH MUCH better than the week before. Still need to do some solo footwork a couple times a week, to get body control/feel back where it needs to be and
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We drilled, and were slightly less rusty than last week.
The sun was streaming in the windows, which essentially makes one end of the sabre strips unfenceable (this happens every summer), but no one was there other than the three of us, so we fenced dry the length of the hall (perpendicular to the sun). And to make it amusing, we fenced pre-electric rules (fleches, cross-overs and old rules about tempo).
Woefully out of shape for fencing, despite being good shape overall. Explosive leg strength, reactions, etc. are in the toilet. Maybe, if I can manage to train regularly for a month or so, I'll be approaching normalcy.
Lessons w/Istvan last weekend and the weekend before.
Training in Mannheim with AH and a lesson with Alex.
Damned if I can remember any of it.
Part of the reason is that the lessons with Istvan are becoming more and more combative--less mechanical repetition and lots of variations. Makes it hard to remember. However, it isn't so important to remember exactly what occurred as it is to keep the basic pattern in mind: act, look, respond. For instance:
09-26-2009 10:43 AM 
