Topless sabre lessons?

[Kenji]

Originally Posted by sabreur

Well, it used to be pretty common to take lessons wearing just a T-shirt--stripped to the waist isn't so different. And I've known some coaches who wouldn't pull a cut, just because you weren't going to parry it...

Where's Mauler, to talk about the days when he whupped up on his teammates, wearing just T-shirts and masks? Before he became the Zen referee...

MR

I take lessons with just at T-shirt and mask. Well, our coaches also make sure they don't hit us, at least not on the mask.

[seven6ty]

.....

[rcmatthews]

Originally Posted by sabreur

Well, it used to be pretty common to take lessons wearing just a T-shirt--stripped to the waist isn't so different. And I've known some coaches who wouldn't pull a cut, just because you weren't going to parry it...

I take lessons in tshirt mask and glove as well. Though my coach has enough control to be able to make the hit light it it looks like I am going to miss, while still retaining full speed. The point in not having on a jacket is not to prove your manliness, but rather to make it easier to see the position of your body, muscle tension, proper utilisation of muscles, et cetera.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Originally Posted by ADMIRAL MIKLÓS HORTHY: MEMOIRS

In 1943, we had created a highly trained elite cavalry corps, equipped with armoured vehicles and motorized heavy artillery. I had considered it vital to keep these reliable troops in Hungary, and I had repeatedly refused German requests to send them to the Eastern front.

Originally Posted by needle

That's what cavalry divisions looked like in 1943 - armoured vehicles and motorized heavy artillery. See any mention of horses?

An admiral in the Hungarian armed forces?

How does that go together with the geography of that country? Hungary was once part of the Austrian Empire, which had a coastline, but I thought it was land-locked once it became a country of its own.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[needle]

Originally Posted by PeterGustafsson

An admiral in the Hungarian armed forces?
How does that go together with the geography of that country? Hungary was once part of the Austrian Empire, which had a coastline, but I thought it was land-locked once it became a country of its own.

Peter, you of all people need a history lesson???
OK - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikl%C3%B3s_Horthy
Here you go

Horthy had commanded the Austro-Hungarian fleet in World War I.

does that answer your question?
Apparently he valued that title above others - practically all mentions of him in literature that I came across, name him as Admiral Horthy.

[KD5MDK]

I certainly wouldn't want to tell a person like that they weren't an Admiral anymore...

[rcmatthews]

i would much rather use

His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary

[rory]

Originally Posted by sabreur

Well, it used to be pretty common to take lessons wearing just a T-shirt--stripped to the waist isn't so different. And I've known some coaches who wouldn't pull a cut, just because you weren't going to parry it...

Where's Mauler, to talk about the days when he whupped up on his teammates, wearing just T-shirts and masks? Before he became the Zen referee...

MR

It still is very common here in the UK.
I always take a lesson in a t-shirt, and frequently in shorts instead of breeches/tracky-bottoms.

D'Art will remember the time a bunch of us were staying in a hotel together and he and another guy started practising flicks on each other.... bare-chested and unmasked.
Beer was involved.

[scrapinpeg]

Originally Posted by Kenji

I take lessons with just at T-shirt and mask. Well, our coaches also make sure they don't hit us, at least not on the mask.

Please put on some pants, next time.

[D'Art]

Originally Posted by rory

D'Art will remember the time a bunch of us were staying in a hotel together and he and another guy started practising flicks on each other.... bare-chested and unmasked.
Beer was involved.

While I don't doubt that I am indeed stupid enough to do that sort of thing (except the bare-chested part - I definitely wouldn't do that. My chest isn't big enough for me to get it out), especially with beer being invovled, I honestly can't remember actually doing it. Care to tell me where and when it was, and also who else was involved?

[MikeHarm]

I've known of karate dojos that made the women take their black belt tests naked claiming it would make them braver. The reaction from the women involved when they'd find out that all the other karate dojos weren't doing the same thing would get pretty funny and you could have a lot of fun teasing them about wether you had to give them dollars if they passed.

[keropie]

Virtually no one down here takes a lesson in a jacket. I won't allow anyone to do so, unless it's going to be a 'competitive' lesson, where I try to hit them and they try to stop me. As mentioned above, it's primarily so that the musculature and tension is more visible, so that such things can be commented upon. I also take lessons without a jacket, and I haven't worn knickers at our club outside of competition EVER. Those things are hot and sweaty, so screw that.

Hell, I've given lessons without a coach's plastron or jacket (though only to people I trust), and my coach and I have done a few demonstrations (for other coaches) with neither of us having more than a mask, glove, and weapon, and both of us getting hit (including flicks to the back). It really just doesn't hurt that much.

Oh, and of course we used to have (before I was around) a tradition of saber fencers fencing in glove, mask, and pants out by the old well. I expect beer and/or liquor was involved. Then again, it usually was with those crazy guys.

[sabreur]

In Germany, it is generally a requirement to wear a jacket when taking a lesson. I do sometimes take lessons without a jacket in the summer, when it is really warm. I don't mind taking a lesson without a jacket from a coach I trust, but I would be very leary of taking a lesson without a jacket from someone whose expertise I wasn't absolutely sure of.

Having said that, IMO, you can't "pull" cuts just because you're giving a lesson to a student who isn't wearing a jacket--you have to be willing to hit them if they miss a parry, and you have to be willing to make the cuts with enough force that they are going to occasionally whip-over--so a student in a T-shirt is going to feel it. I don't object to this--I think it contributes to the student's general mental toughness and ability to focus despite the occasional painful hit (as well as their ability to parry ). However, another reason that I wear a jacket most of the time with my current coaches (both of whom are certified maestros--one Hungarian and one Ukrainian) is that they both get noticeably more tentative about their actions if I'm just wearing a T-shirt.

Even in a highly technical, mechanical lesson, you shouldn't let the student succeed on every repetition of an exercise--I've read somewhere that the coach should parry or otherwise defeat a student's attack in a lesson about one time out of three--and follow the parry with a riposte. If you are doing this, you increase the likelihood that you're going to hit the student at some point in the lesson...

[Peach]

I occasionally take a lesson without my jacket because of heat, but I don't find that getting hit focuses my mind or makes me more careful. It just annoys and distracts me. I'm confused enough already. I know another woman, an excellent fencer, who used to take lessons from a coach who insisted on the T-shirt and who hit hard enough to make welts when you didn't parry--when she needed to go get ice bags after the lesson, she walked out on him and found another coach.

[Hades]

Originally Posted by Peach

I know another woman, an excellent fencer, who used to take lessons from a coach who insisted on the T-shirt and who hit hard enough to make welts when you didn't parry--when she needed to go get ice bags after the lesson, she walked out on him and found another coach.

Pah! And people have the nerve to call them the weaker sex.

I fence in just a pair of boxer shorts and Oakley sunglasses.

[rcmatthews]

Two times I have really been hit full on, on the arm. No protection, not even a half parry. Both times drew blood.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

If I'm giving a lesson, I require the student to wear a jacket (along with mask, glove and plastron).

Its just a liability thing.

[mrbiggs]

My coach has us with just mask, glove, and blade.

But it's not about "learning our lesson." Honestly, that's just stupid. First, it leaves room for injury. Second, i don't buy the concept that you don't care about whether or not you parry if you don't get hurt if you do it wrong.

[Go? Fencing?]

When I was in marching band, we were always told "Practice how you perform." You're going to be wearing all the safety gear in bouting and competition, why not in a lesson?

[rcmatthews]

For the same reason that the band doesn't only practice the routine. I would think there is also practice time at home. It's equivalent to a football team running plays without pads on.