Decided to build a parry weapon for a couple of reasons:
- Need an off-hand parry weapon for two-handed SCA-type
- Some students just aren't getting that the forte and guard are adequate for defense.

So I built this from a broken saber.



Trimmed the blade way down. Drilled a rubber stopper, painted it red and glued it on.

Spent an hour at the gym after driving in the rush-hour snow, so wasn’t keen on going to WCU last night. 8pm rolled around and figured what the heck. Dropped off Coach Mike’s 3-in-1 buzzer. He loves it. We did an epee match and he’s hooked on fencing electric again.

Ran two some new students through 4-6. Parry, then parry-riposte, then at distances. Back and forth. Good drills but I miss the days of playing tic-tac drills. That drill seems to have fallen by the wayside. Start slow

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Went to the WCU practice on Wed. Good practice, warmed up with the drills used on the WCY Adult class. Students seemed to enjoy it - some said it was "exercise" they weren't ready for. Good.

Fenced Paul, the club president. Lost 5-3. Realized much after the mistake I was making : I was starting the attacks too close and letting him get into my distance. I need to work on keeping a further distance and starting the attacks longer. We'd actually get to where the tips where

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Weeks 1 -4 were getting everyone used to movement. Last week, four, introduced blades and how to hit the wall. Gave them a concept of 4 and 6, then paired them off. One side extend, the other parry 4. No riposte.

This week, we talked about the “building blocks” (skills) they have: Advance, Retreat, Lunge, Extend, 4 and 6. Then asked what they can do with it. A bunch of expected puzzled looks, which isn’t bad.
Lined them up and we started some footwork. The dance-space is

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An apple slice with a hunk of very fresh wasabi on it.

I could see through time.