Last Wednesday--training in Mannheim. AL present. Warm-up, fence, lesson.

(I think I noted earlier that we've reintroduced wall drills into our warm-up, which I find very useful--we do the terce-quinte and quinte-terce/seconde variations, if you are interested).

Lesson with Alex:

1. S: extend, half advance. (Extend before advance).
a. M: no reaction. S: retreat. I.e., break off action.
b. M: retreat. S:finish advance, lunge.
c: M: beat-cut. S: retreat w/back foot first, parry riposte.
d. M: cut in. S: finish attack

I for some reason was having a very hard time getting the back foot to move first on the retreat out of the half-advance.

Pursuing and parry/counter-parry or parry-feint/cut options.

2. M: pursues/attacks with extended arm. S: stop cut, parry-riposte

Pretty decent lesson.

Saturday was our home tournament--I fenced like I was out of shape and didn't want to be there... enough said.

Sunday, lesson with Istvan. I really want to concentrate on:

1. Precise hand-foot coordination.
2. Hand speed and precision.
3. Active defense (I think the basic goal is to be able to consistently execute two defensive actions-stop, attempt to take the blade, false parry, false counter-with every retreat.)

Istvan agreed, sort of. And warned me not to tell people that I get bored fencing single-minded rhinos. Fence-charge! Fence-charge!....

Lesson:

1. M: invites 2, 3, 2. S: cuts head, chest, head. Standing, w/advance, w/double advance, w/ advance-lunge, w/ correct footwork based on distance and opponent's actions.

2. M: invites 2, 4, 2. S: cuts head, flank, head. As above.

3. React to various actions, (prepare/react to various M actions, ending with head, chest, head attack).

4. Puzzle drill. M prepares with a variety of actions. S observes, then selects correct counter-action.

There was more, but I can't remember it. Sort of a half victory--I really would prefer intense, fairly mechanical lessons, concentrating on technical proficiency, but I don't think that' s what I'm going to get...