Drills are Not Combat

Greetings,

Have you ever been in a class performing a drill and a person states that they could counter the action that you are doing with another? How about, that the drill that they are doing is artificial and does not relate to combat? What has happened here is that the person who has made these statements is probably true on the first, and is definitely true on the second, and it is because drills are not combat.

Drills are related to combat in that they will teach you the skills that you will use in combat. They will teach you the individual skills not how they should be used in combat. If you approach your combats the same way as you approach your drill expecting that your opponent is going to give you the cues and exact attacks given in a drill, you are going to be sadly mistaken.

A thrust and parry drill teaches one partner how to thrust properly, and one partner how to parry properly. It teaches the each partner the bare mechanics of one action and the timing of the action of the parry. Nothing more. Then they swap and they get to drill the other action and learn it. This is not combat.

Even when the drills become more complex, it is still not combat. In the drill: one thrusts; the other parries, binds, steps in and cuts and then moves off to a safe position on guard. There are several actions in this drill. It is not combat because the opponent does not respond to the bind, nor the stepping in, nor the cut. Even when the counter is added to the drill, it is still not combat. It is a drill with a responsive element. It teaches the student how to close and cut, and also how to respond to an opponent who does the same.

Drills are artificial and they often do not relate to combat because they take skills in isolation and focus on them so the students can learn them. Drills are designed to take a skill or a set of skills and work on these particular skills without the involvement of others in particular, or at all in some cases. There are drills which do not use footwork, something which is mostly essential in combat for the fencer to survive. There are drills in which one partner only defends, something that is not likely to happen in combat. Drills are artificial and they are supposed to be, they are skill-focussed.

The next time that you are drilling remember to focus on what's being worked on at that point in time. There is no point in worrying about how it relates to other things, your trainer will get around to showing you how it all fits together. Drills are designed to put a particular skill or skills in a situation where they can be focussed on and used over and over. This is so that the skill can be learnt. This is the purpose of drills, for learning. Combat is a different thing altogether.

Cheers,

Henry.