I Could Have Stanced All Night*

How long do you hold your stance for in a match? Have you checked lately? It should be the majority of the time but this is very difficult to do unless you really push yourself, or are a high performance athlete. But I would respectfully suggest it should be more of the time than not! The reason I ask is because from a coaching perspective it is noticeable how difficult it is to get youngsters to retain their stance whilst fencing (or even practising!) The feet move closer together, the legs straighten and before we know it we're at home to Captain Falling-Over. You don't see it in other martial arts and I think I know the reason why.....

Fencing is generally perceived by the majority as something you do with a sword. The sword is everything, not your balance, not your footwork etc. It's quite often the main reason people take up fencing in the first place. This may only be a sub-conscious perspective but the majority of fencers I have worked with are much more concerned with their (or their opponent's) sword and more interested in exciting things to learn to do with it, rather than listen to some Coach banging on about feet. It's swordplay, not a dance class!! This on the whole is fair enough but it misses a very important point i.e. that the sword is useless unless you can get in range in a controlled way and this starts with the stance and footwork. As a coach I know just how important it is to keep reminding people of it but it seems equally difficult to embed!

*possibly

The Curse of The Pen

On Saturday morning at the Academy we had the bi-weekly ladder fencing. We decided to deploy the 'pen for priority' move in the event of a draw at the end of three minutes. You know the one, the pen is spun on the floor, the fencer who ends up with the pointy end gets priority so if a minute is fenced without a score that fencer wins. It increases the eventuality of a result in a fair way. One young gentleman was involved in four fights like this and didn't get priority once. On the fourth occasion on he was heard to say "I never get priority and I always lose - it's just my bad luck!". I'd seen a couple of his previous fights so I watched this one to see if there was a pattern and yes indeed, there was.

The problem the young gent had was that on the command "Play" he would come charging down the piste, over-balance and almost hurl himself on his opponent's parry riposte. He had become obsessed by his perceived disadvantage and getting in the first hit quick. He would have been much better off taking his time and composing his attacks; in fencing 60 seconds can be a long time......
Did I tell him this? Well I'd just given him a lesson where I had reconstructed his footwork for him and addressed his momentum issues so thought I'd let it percolate for a while..... too much info can be a bad thing.

My Signature Move

It has become apparent to me lately that I have become known for a signature move, something that my young students have noticed and now comment on regularly. Is it an impregnable defence? An unstoppable compound attack? Well, no.... not really. After I have saluted my opponent (or Coach Andy when I am demonstrating with him)* I discretely flip my foil out of my hand and catch it before I put my mask on. It's not an extravagant move, it just allows me to change my hold from the grip to the blade just under the guard. The foil goes from horizontal to vertical in a controlled way. There has been much debate amongst my younger students as the origins of this action but there is no esoteric reason; it is not flashy braggadocio or psychological enforcement. It is just the fact that I wear glasses and as such need two hands to get my mask on without dislodging them (The Captain Mainwaring look that can result if I don't is definitely not cool)** The quick flip of the foil is simply my ingrained teaching from my Coach of not waving my foil point in the air whilst doing so. Years of repetition have turned it into a habit which my students now look out for and in some cases emulate.

This may seem like a trivial point for a post but it has a couple of important points hidden in it for me:

Something that I spontaneously derived as a solution to a problem has become a habit and engrained in my behaviour without me even noticing it. Is there anything else in my fencing that has become like this? Should I have a look and see?

Now that I am conscious of it (thanks to my students) I analyse it. Through analysing it it becomes less spontaneous and more mechanical. Sometimes over-analysis may not be beneficial.....

It makes me realise that as a Coach I am a constant subject of scrutiny and that people will mimic what I do. A salutary lesson.....

I recall reading a story about a kata from a martial arts school of the Bo-staff where the practitioner strikes the floor with the staff during the sequence. No one knew how this originated as it seemed to have no practical purpose. Some people attributed it to esoteric things like 'grounding the chi' or wiping the blood off the staff to get a better grip etc but after some research was done it's origin became apparent. A couple of generations back, one of the school's masters had been quite short. When he practised and demonstrated the sequence he naturally hit the floor at this point. This became erroneously imitated by his pupils until it became ingrained into the form of the kata. It shows how things can get magnified over time, sometimes for good and sometimes not.
There's always more to things than initially meets the eye......


* I always salute my Coach no matter what I am doing


** If you've never seen 'Dad's Army' Gentle Reader, you will have no idea what I'm talking about......

Progress....?

Today is my birthday so to celebrate I thought I'd post something!
Last night at the club was one of those evenings where fencing gives you a little present. I'd been away on business all day and by the time I'd got home was a bit tired and nearly considered not turning out. However I did make the effort and did a bit of coaching before having more epee bouts than I usually average. I won the first one 15-14 and got at least four hits that I planned and executed well, which was pleasing. I then had three 5 point matches which were 3-5, 5-2, 3-5 I think, so I lost overall but was reasonably happy.

I also had two bouts against Jaime, my regular training partner. Jai and I are getting to be a bit like Professor Xavier and Magneto playing chess in the park (although who's who is up for grabs and neither of us is particularly evil*) so our matches are now quite cagey (and one day I might win one). Prior to commencing this time I thought "I'm going to try and fleche so spontaneously that I even surprise myself....." My intention was to fleche with as little warning as I could give, either in footwork or body language, at any time in the fight. I also wanted to fleche on the F of Jai's Forward step. I began to put this plan (or non-plan into effect) and about seven hits into the match Jaime said "Blimey, these fleches are lightning quick!" I was quietly pleased about this as it was evidence of putting a plan into effect that actually was noticeable to a respected opponent; either I was doing something right or Jai and I have got to the point where we can sense each other's energy..... Either way it was progress of a sort! Now all I need to do is put a preparation onto the fleche, get the distance right and try to hit the arm not the torso......



* Although the benefits of having either telepathy or control over metal objects in fencing would be very handy

Poignancy

The Cherry blossoms have finally appeared in my garden, just in time for my birthday. But in light of events of the last few days and indeed this last month I just find it even more poignant.
I will return to fencing related blogging soon.......

The Salutary Tale of Sasaki Kojiro

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a bit of a student of the life of Miyamoto Musashi. Arguably Musashi's most well known exploit was the duel with Sasaki Kojiro on Ganryujima Island in 1612 in which he killed Sasaki Kojiro with a wooden sword carved from an oar. A lot has been written about Musashi over the years but this post is going to look at his opponent for reasons that will hopefully become clear. (Plus it's only fair - Kojiro was not a villain after all).
Kojiro was an accomplished swordsman known as 'The Demon of the Eastern Provinces' and had formed his own school with many students known as the Ganryu (Large Rock school). This style was founded on the use of the No-dachi an extra long variant of the katana and Kojiro was famed for using a sword known as 'the Drying Pole' due to it's unusual length. His signature move was the 'Turning Swallow Cut' which although not historically documented seemed to rely on a return stroke after an initial downward cut. It was a well known but well feared technique that had earned Kojiro a fearsome reputation and a valuable occupation as a sword-master for the powerful Hosokawa fief. The famous duel was to be a comparison of techniques between two swordsmen of great renown.
So why did Kojiro lose? Was he simply out matched by Musashi in terms of skill? Well, probably not in a technical sense. Here are my thoughts on why Kojiro lost on that fateful day of 13th April 1612.

Mental equilibrium - it is famously documented that Musashi arrived very late for the duel and that Kojiro was enraged at the implied insult, throwing his scabbard into the sea in anger as he approached Musashi. This loss of poise is cited by many as a prime reason for his defeat. One can imagine the slight felt by Kojiro as he waited; he, a respected retainer of a powerful clan kept waiting by an itinerant and unconventional wandering swordsman..... the indignity of it all! But pride goeth before a fall.....

Reliance on a limited range of techniques - Kojiro was famed for both a specific technique and a specific unconventional weapon. Musashi used this against him by crafting an oar into a longer weapon, thus negating Kojiro's advantage. It was only a few inches difference but it did count.

Out-thinking himself - As mentioned before, Kojiro was famed for his swallow cut technique but in his fight with Musashi it is not mentioned that he employed it, or if he did, he could not execute the return stroke in time. Musashi had a reputation for assimilating and countering techniques rapidly. Did Kojiro try to change his style at the last moment in response to this with fatal consequences? Or was it simply because he was angry?

Conventional thinking vs unconventional thinking - Kojiro was very much the product of his society. A samurai who had practised his skills under a Master, worked his way up and gained patronage from a powerful Lord. Musashi admitted to no master or instruction, wandered the country at will, had no sponsor and paid little heed to social or martial convention. Maybe when confronted by such an anomaly Kojiro was put off balance?

Musashi was just better - Musashi himself didn't think so and always regarded Kojiro as an equal after the event. It was after this duel that Musashi said he would no longer fight to kill and that "the previous victories were not due to my having mastered strategy. Perhaps it was natural ability, or the order of heaven, or that other schools' strategy was inferior. After that I studied morning and evening searching for the principle, and came to realise the Way of strategy when I was fifty." It took nearly twenty-five years for Musashi to perfect his skills but it was Kojiro who taught him his most valuable lesson.
 
That's my view but as Musashi himself would say "You must work it out for yourself".......