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.

Being a Good Training Partner

Greetings,

Well this will seem a little ironic coming after my advice for the solo practitioner previously, but it is a subject which we all need to consider because sooner or later we will all be involved in a partnered drill, or in a partnered situation. This may be at our regular practice or at a convention or at some other sort of gathering. The partner may be someone who you have fenced with for years, or you may have literally just met them. All of the same stuff applies.

1. Don't Hurt Your Partner

Seems pretty obvious that we do not want to hurt the person that we are fencing with, right? Seems not to be the case with some. Some seem that they need to put a little bit more emphasis in on their strikes and other offensive actions. There is no need for it. If you continue to do this, you will simply run out of people who will be your partner and you will run out of people to train and spar with.

2. Follow the Drills

This means that if you are doing a parry and riposte drill and you are attacking, you are going to get hit. The only reason why you should not get hit is if your partner misses, and even then you should assist them so that you do. You need to do your part of the drill as faithfully as possible to ensure that the learning experience is fulfilling for your partner. You should be practicing your actions at the same time to make sure that they are correct. If you don't follow the drill you and your partner will not learn what is supposed to be learnt. If you continually not follow drills people will not want partner with you and you again will run out of people to train with.

3. No Additions

Even if you know what's coming next in the next drill don't make any additions to the drill. Wait until the trainer teaches the additional part of the drill. Your partner may not know about the new part and will be come confused, and will also want to focus on the current part. This also means that you should not really experiment with other options available as you may miss the point of the drill. If added defences so you don't get hit are not part of the drill, so don't add them. If you are supposed to get hit as part of the drill, you get hit. Additions to drills just show you as unwilling to follow instruction or arrogant, and not a good student.

4. Remain in Control

Some drills will be done at slow speed, some drills will be done at faster speeds. This will be determined by your instructor. It is up to you to remain in control of your actions. If you are supposed ...

The rest of this article can be found in Un-Blogged: A Fencer's Ramblings by Henry Walker, which is available in paperback from:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blogged-Ramblings-Henry-Leigh-Walker/dp/098764470X
Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/un-blogged-henry-leigh-walker/book/9780987644701.html
Among other places...

It is also available in electronic format (pdf) from: https://buy.stripe.com/fZecP419c7CB9VKeUV

... or direct from the author.

Solo Training: For the Solo Practitioner

Greetings,

This was going to be a post about finding a local group and what consists of a good group with local contacts in my local area, but I changed my mind. I figured that there is a lot of information out there about how to find a local group for doing Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) in what ever particular flavour you are looking for. Less, on the other hand, is said about the solo practitioner and how a person is to go it alone. Luckily we have the internet and faster communications which makes things easier, but there are still times when it is necessary to do things solo.

Sometimes a group is not convenient to get to. Sometimes the group does not mesh well with you, or is not studying what you are interested in. There are lots of reasons for going it alone. Sometimes it is just necessary for you to start the research into a particular form on your own to get a handle on it before involving other people. Every one of these is a valid reason for going it alone and you should not be ashamed for any of them.

The first thing that the future solo practitioner should note is that it is a hard road, but it is also rewarding as well. Groups have some support mechanisms which are absent when studying or practicing alone. All of the work falls to you, but in the end so do all of the rewards of that work. You can stand there at the end and say that you did it. Each advance is something that you did on your own and each advancement is an achievement in its own right.

In studying alone or practicing alone there are many choices to make, and all of them are open. There is no one to sway you from one path to another or make any other determinations. In the same way there also equally as many chances to be distracted. This is where you need to keep with what you are doing. ...

The rest of this article can be found in Un-Blogged: A Fencer's Ramblings by Henry Walker, which is available in paperback from:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blogged-Ramblings-Henry-Leigh-Walker/dp/098764470X
Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/un-blogged-henry-leigh-walker/book/9780987644701.html
Among other places...

It is also available in electronic format (pdf) from: https://buy.stripe.com/fZecP419c7CB9VKeUV

... or direct from the author.

On Practice

Greetings,

Practice is important. It is something which we hear and something which we are told again and again. This post is going to examine some of the details with regard to practice, how it is performed and why it is performed. Many will just skip over this one, but I suggest that you do not, as practice really is that important.

1. Importance
Everyone needs to practice. It does not matter if you are the newest swordsman or the most aged practitioner. Skills decay if you do not use them and thus practice is important. This also means that you should also practice everything. When you do not use a skill, it will decay and will not be as sharp the next time you try to use it.

2. Regularity
A post has already done a blog on this one, so why are we back here again? Simply because it relates to the subject at hand. More to the point it is important. You should practice every day, an hour is best, 30 minutes if it is all you can squeeze in. It does not have to be anything complex merely using some footwork and making some attacks will do.

3. Muscle Memory
There is a thing called "muscle memory". When you practice something enough, you will get to a stage where you can do the action without thinking about it, naturally this is a great advantage in any form of swordplay. It takes about 500 repetitions of an action to put it into your muscle memory, but you must practice it accurately. Any mistake you make in the action will also be practiced into muscle memory as well and it will take 50,000 repetitions to remove a mistake from muscle memory, so it is best to do it right the first time.

4. What to Practice
In a word everything. This being said some elements need more focus than others. Foundation elements ...

The rest of this article can be found in Un-Blogged: A Fencer's Ramblings by Henry Walker, which is available in paperback from:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blogged-Ramblings-Henry-Leigh-Walker/dp/098764470X
Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/un-blogged-henry-leigh-walker/book/9780987644701.html
Among other places...

It is also available in electronic format (pdf) from: https://buy.stripe.com/fZecP419c7CB9VKeUV

... or direct from the author.

How Many Times This Week? A Question of Practice

Greetings,

Practice is something which has been mentioned time and again to us all in many different activities. I have no doubt that if you were to go back through the posts that I have made on this blog that I will have mentioned it many times. For the most part these articles have been focused more upon how a persons should practice and what they should practice. This post will focus on a different point of view on the same subject, frequency.

Frequency
The first thing that must be said about the frequency of practice is that regular practice is great. It gets your body and mind into a pattern that it can work with and work to. This enables the body and the mind to prepare for the practice and thus be prepared to learn and enhance skills which have already been attained. However regularity is not the only key, there is the question of frequency.

Regularity
Regularity of practice is only the first step, frequency is also important. Some will decide that only one session a week is all that they can do. This will result in a truly slow rate of progression unless they are doing some substantial work at home. In reality three sessions are required to really improve, more sessions after that are only improving on that. For the most part, many schools run two sessions a week which students are expected to attend. One of these will focus on the learning aspects while the other will focus on the more practical aspects. The third session, the students are expected to make up in solo drills on their own at home.

What you will find is that if you attend one session a week and do no work at home, you will often have to do repeats of skills to truly learn them. If you do one session a week and then go home and do some sort of solo practice on the new skill this will establish this new skill in a rudimentary form in your skill-set. To really establish a skill you will need three sessions and one of these being drills with a responsive partner to find action and reaction. If your school does not have the sessions in the week to do this then it is up to you do make the time.

Homework
We all get homework from school and other learning institutions, this is to encourage us to practice what we have learnt so that it will make connections in our brains. Fencing is no different. You need to ...

The rest of this article can be found in Un-Blogged: A Fencer's Ramblings by Henry Walker, which is available in paperback from:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blogged-Ramblings-Henry-Leigh-Walker/dp/098764470X
Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/un-blogged-henry-leigh-walker/book/9780987644701.html
Among other places...

It is also available in electronic format (pdf) from: https://buy.stripe.com/fZecP419c7CB9VKeUV

... or direct from the author.

"Hot" Drills

Greetings,

The article which follows is about drills, more accurately it is about "Hot" drills and getting the most out of your drills. Most people do not like drills as they feel monotonous and unfulfilling, however they do fulfil and important part of the training process in order that skills are learnt properly in a practical manner. The problem is that most drills which are performed, while they are effective, they are not as effective as they could be.

Most drills are performed at slow speeds, and for beginning drills this is important. The slow drill allows the body to understand the movement in a slow and controlled fashion. The slow drill also allows the teacher to correct any issues in the performance of the action before it causes any issues for the fencer. Once a drill is learnt then the drill is sped up, not much but it is. These drills are done at a comfortable speed often without armour and with out intensity. These will teach the individuals participating in the drills the mechanics of the action but it lacks something in the execution.

"Hot" drills are about taking the essential drills and adding an element of intensity to them in order that the drill can be performed under conditions which are closer to the performance of the action in a combative situation. This is designed to discover what the students performing the drill have actually learnt and what actually rests in their muscle memory.

First point, armour is essential for these drills as there is too high a chance that the face or another part of the body may be struck with weapon moving at a high speed. Second point, these drills should only really be performed with those students who are in a condition where they are ready to face an opponent in full-speed bouting. Third point, the focus of these drills is what the student has actually learnt rather than the perfection of form demonstrated. Fourth point, the drills must be kept simple in order that the participants still have suitable control remaining in order to perform the actions associated. Fifth point, the drills must be performed at combat speed to be true "Hot" drills and to be effective.

The best drill to start with involves simple footwork movements and the retention of distance. One fencer advances while the other retreats. The idea here is that the fencer who is retreating must not allow the fencer who is advancing to catch them, but should be doing their best to maintain good ...

The rest of this article can be found in Un-Blogged: A Fencer's Ramblings by Henry Walker, which is available in paperback from:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blogged-Ramblings-Henry-Leigh-Walker/dp/098764470X
Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/un-blogged-henry-leigh-walker/book/9780987644701.html
Among other places...

It is also available in electronic format (pdf) from: https://buy.stripe.com/fZecP419c7CB9VKeUV

... or direct from the author.

Drill Design and Construction

Greetings, Drills are an important part of the learning process for students and it is important that teachers know what they are for, how they are constructed and their inner workings in order to get the greatest potential from them. This blog is about drills, sometimes called conventionals in sport fencing. It will address some of the issues associated with the construction and use of drills in a training situation. Whether you are a teacher or student of fencing, the information provided will hopefully provide you with some thinking points with regard to this most useful tool in fencing. Before we can look at drills in any sort of detailed way it is important to examine the purpose of drills as a training tool. Drills are most useful for the practicing of skills which have been learnt in a lesson. By using this method the theory present and the isolated form of the skill or skills that have been taught can be seen together working both with and against other skills. This is essentially seeing the skill in a practical situation or in another way of thinking, seeing the technique in action against the movements of an opponent. Through the use of drills and their repetitive fashion muscle memory is also built designed to instill the skills in the muscles and subconscious of the student. In this way the student will know how to respond to the stimulus presented by the opponent by use of the skill learnt in the drill. This is important as it then frees the fencer's mind up in order to be thinking about what he will do against his opponent once the action has been completed. Next it is important to look at drills specifically. In order to do this without detailing all examples of skills and their drills, more general terms will be used in the address of their purpose. In all cases a drill should highlight the importance of the skill being drilled, and it should also highlight the importance of the correct performance of that skill against an opponent. There needs to be a reason for the drill being performed, it needs to be more than just a mere repetition of a particular skill for no seen purpose. Purpose must be injected into the drill so that the student will understand what both the skill and the drill are designed to achieve. This purpose must be specific to the skill and also the drill rather than the general terms which have already been discussed in the previous paragraph. The next part of this is the actual design of the drill itself. This must relate directly to the skill being taught and must place the skill in a situation where it is the best option available. This design phase of the drill is important and must be thought about carefully in order for the drill to achieve its purpose. In designing a drill the focus of the drill must be upon the specific drill being trained or learnt by the student. Without this focus the student will become confused about the purpose of both the drill and also the purpose of the skill. While in many cases the drill will involve the use of other skills, the focus must be on a specific skill. For a drill to be effective the other skills being used in the drill must be skills that the student already has in order that the drill is not sidetracked on to the attached skills rather than the particular focus skill of the drill. This is an element which is of great importance in the design and development of a drill. For example, if the drill involves the use of a particular footwork step along with a blade action, which is the focus of the drill, the footwork needs to be already known to the student in order for the drill to work. In many ways the drills will stack upon one another in a similar way that the skills will. With this in mind design the drill so that the focus is upon the new skill being learnt, and in a way that this is possible. The drill should actually end with the skill being learnt so that it is the last thing that the student does in the drill and thus it will become the most significant action in the drill. Use simple steps in the construction of the drill in order that there is little confusion with regard to the drill. Speed is always a factor with regard to fencing and choosing the speed at which a drill should be performed is of great importance. The drill should always start by being performed slowly so that the skill is developed and examined in a very specific way. This will enable the student to focus on the technique of the skill rather than the result of the skill. The student should understand that the goal of the drill is the correct performance of the skill rather than whether or not they are able to hit their opponent. If the student is able to perform the skill and the drill correctly striking the opponent should come about as a result of the correct performance, if that is appropriate to the skill being learnt. Drills, in most cases, should result with a full speed version of the drill being performed. This will enable the student to see the action in practice. This should only be done once they are able to perform the technique properly at slower speeds. Full speed drills are necessary for those drills where the skill will be use in a full combat situation. Without these drills the student will be able to perform the action slowly but will not be able to do the same at full speed, thus it can be seen that drills at full speed are necessary. There are times where the slow drill actually achieves its goal, this is most evidently seen in the physical demonstration of time. It is much easier to see tempos at slow speed than it is to see them at full speed. This form of drill is more aimed at the student understanding the concept behind what is happening more than the skills being used. For drills to work properly and achieve their goals various things are required. First of all the students must have been taught the skills involved in the drill, and most importantly the skill being drilled. Next is that the participants in the drills must participate completely in the drill. This means following the drill according to what has been directed by the teacher. This means that the participants need to stick with the drill as it has been directed and sticking with the purpose of the drill. There should be very little deviation in the action of the drill, save those points where the participant is having trouble and needs help. ....

The rest of this article can be found in Un-Blogged: A Fencer's Ramblings by Henry Walker, which is available in paperback from:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blogged-Ramblings-Henry-Leigh-Walker/dp/098764470X
Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/un-blogged-henry-leigh-walker/book/9780987644701.html
Among other places...

It is also available in electronic format (pdf) from: https://buy.stripe.com/fZecP419c7CB9VKeUV

... or direct from the author.