Part V
Starting out with a stationary target, set up your stance in Neutral, and begin to touch the target with the point of the sword. You want to do this starting in terza, blade at about 45 degree angle with the point in the face area of where your target is. You are dropping the point, with the sword still held in terza on to a target. You can imagine this might be a hand or an arm. This point drill does not have any foot work, meaning it is a hand-eye drill only. You should be within measure to touch the tip of the blade onto the target with no body movement.
Do a set of 10 to 20. After each attack. Step back, break your stance. Move into stance again, acquire your measure and extend the point. Don't be surprised if this ends up harder than it seems.
Reverse Engineer the distance at first. This is useful to understanding the distance you will need to cover. First, place the tip of the sword on the target, just like what you looked like when you finished the drill above. Now, with your tip still on the target, move your rear foot back about 12 inches and then pull your lead foot back, and assume comfortable Neutral stance.
Start the motion, by extending the point, just like you did in the drill above. Once the point is extended, use your lead foot to cover the distance to make the touch. Since Measure is determined by the foot placement, the foot lands the point, not the body. Use the same foot placement from section I, that's what they are there or. Don't extend more than the length of your lead foot. This is not a lunge drill. Just a short paced step drill. You can think of this as using the distance of a normal walking pace to reach the target.
Do this for about 10 to 20 touches on the target. After each touch, break your stance, move out of measure, and then slowly move back into measure. This is very critical to understanding measure and distance. Don't chain the attacks together. Give yourself a visual break between each touch, and let yourself get re-acquainted with the distance by visual judgment each time. This will most likely reflect the combat environment which you will find yourself in. Moving repeatedly, and rapidly, will just teach you bad habits and will not take advantage with learning accurate distance measurement. You will find that you are more accurate than the Close Measure since you have time to visually find the tip and use the motion of the Advance to land the tip on target.
First, set up with your tip extended to the target, just like what you looked like when you finished the middle measure drill above. Now, with your tip still on the target, move your rear foot back about 24 inches. Alternately, you can just move the back foot back, until your leg is straight, and then pull your lead foot back, and assume neutral stance. You can consider this using a *Very* long step to get to the target, where the last drill involved a simple pace to get to the target.
Again; to figure your range out to a target start by working backwards from it. Be sure to try and affix in this distance in your memory. Start the attack, by extending the point, just like you did in the middle measure drill above. Once the point is extended, use your lead foot to cover the distance to make the touch. The foot lands the point, not the body. Use the same steps from section I. This is nearly a lunge, but don't confuse it with a modern Olympic style lunge. It is not so deep, does not cover as much distance, and will not drop the body so far down. I can't stress enough that you should feel that your thighs are doing all the work with this step, and that the body weight is transferred by the heels. I would highly advise that this section be undertaken with the assistance of someone who can watch your movement, and is familiar with these concepts. One you have it down and are comfortable with this, you should be good to do these drills alone.
Do this for about 10 to 20 touches on the target. After each touch, break your stance, move out of measure, and then slowly move back into measure. This is very critical to understanding measure and distance. Don't chain the attacks together. Give yourself a visual break between each touch, and let yourself get re-acquainted with the distance by visual judgment each time. This will most likely reflect the combat environment which you will find yourself in.
Begin with the Patient presenting in neutral. The Agent will start out of measure, by a good margin, and slowly use short advance-paced steps to move within THEIR general attack distance. Go slowly. Once the Agent is within distance of around middle measure, the Patient will call out "Distance". This is going to be the distance at which the Patient feels that the Agent can touch the hilt of their sword using a Short Advance-Paced Step. Once distance is called, the Agent will "Prove" distance by just extending the tip. The point of the sword should be within 3 inches either side of the quillons of the Patient's blade. This action should be just like the tactic drill.
The goal here is to use the short advance-pace step to gain distance, use inches instead of feet, to get an understanding of where your range is and when you should worry about being hit. The Agent must keep their thoughts of how close they are to the target. The Agent is going to sneak up on the Patient. When the Patient calls the distance, it is to prove measure as seen by the Patient. The Agent will keep note mentally of what THEY think their measure is.
Why this works: In a fight, there is a play between Agent and Patient. The game is to seek to get the Patient to miss judge the measure. Since we play a game of inches, inches matter. Knowing your distance down to within 3 inches is the goal. The learning point is for the Agent to know when they are in measure to attack and when the Patient should expect an attack.
Break the tempo of this up, don't get into a predictable and clockwork like mindset for this drill. You have to reacquaint yourself with your
distance after each prove. Do these drills for 15 minutes or so.
-Both start in terza
-Agent slowly steals measure using
advance paced steps and gathering steps
-Agent aims to land the tip on the exposed forearm on the outside line of the Patient
-Patient will watch the measure and call "Distance" when Agent enters
middle measure
-Agent will halt and "Prove" measure (as in
middle measure drill above)
-Patient will not react to touch
-Agent assembles back to neutral in
terza out of distance
Points: This is not a parry drill. DON'T PARRY. This is not a combat drill, go slow. Judge the distance based off of how far the other person is, and then how far away the sword is. Just aim for the hilt of the opponent's sword. There is only one tempo movement when doing the prove on this. DO NOT escalate this drill into combat.
Measure Drill: Long Measure
Begin with the Patient presenting in neutral. The Agent will start out of measure, by a good margin, and slowly use slope paced ptep to move within THEIR general longest attack distance. Use right or left steps, go slowly. Once the Agent is just within long measure, the Patient will call out "Distance". This is going to be the distance at which the Patient feels that the Agent can hit the hilt of their sword using a slope paced step. Once "Distance" is called, the Agent will "Prove" distance by just extending the tip. The point of the sword should be within 3 inches either side of the quillons of the Patient's blade. The length of the step to close distance should be a good long pace, not a lunge, but double that of a walking pace.
Start with an Agent and a Patient, out of measure
-Both start in Terza
-Agent slowly steals measure using advance paced steps and gathering steps
-Agent aims to land the tip on the exposed forearm on the outside line of the Patient
-Patient will watch the measure and call "Distance" when Agent enters middle
measure
-Agent will halt and "Prove" measure (as in middle measure drill above) by using
a left or right slope paced ptep
-Patient will not react to touch
-Agent assembles back to neutral in terza out of distance
-Do 20 reps of this drill and switch
Roles will switch after each attack. No mask or clothing needed, but this drill is done with swords and gloves.
Points: Be very familiar with short advance-pace, slope
paced steps. All of these drills build off of each other. Don't revert to "What you did before" when drilling. You are learning a different method, and the drill will re-enforce this. Be VERY aware of temp. Don't fall into the habit of getting into a "Dance" like rhythm, unless noted that it is OK to do so. It takes discipline to use this style.
Measure Drill: Active/Passive Long Measure
This drill leads up to a full speed version, so don't do it here. Use a crawl, walk, run approach. The drill here is broken down into two parts, an inside line and outside line. The outside line attack will always be secunda, so now is the time to get used to how to turn the hand from terza to secunda in the tempo. For the inside line, stay in terza, or to go quarta if it helps out. Try it with both. The Patient has an important role in helping coach the Agent. The Patient is going to use about 25% resistance. The purpose is to help the Agent lean to react to the real motions of an opponent. The Patient will need to offer a slight counter to the Agent. Just a slight one. Just make the Patient earn it a little.
Outside lineThis drill may be the most difficult and also represents a drill that will translate exactly to an actual engagement. Start this out with the Agent looking to make a single "one shot-one kill" approach to the hit. Don't keep pressing. Just look for the opportunity to hit either the inside or outside line of Patient. In this case, you are going to go full speed. The Agent will seek to make a touch at full speed, and the Patient will make a parry at full speed. STOP with the single attack.
In order to get here, the Patient will need to make sure that a target presents itself. It's OK to do that. We will get into the reasons why later, but as with any drill, there's actually two learning points. The Agent is trying to make a touch to a defined target as fast and as accurately as possible, and the Patient is going to parry the shot. It's an attack and parry drill really. So, the Patient will need to make sure that they leave something open that looks maybe a little too good to be true.
Start with an Agent and a Patient, out of measure
Solo Movement Drill: Walk around and hit
You will want to try this to practice quickly picking a target and hitting it. Realistically, just because something is on the ground does not make it any further away than something standing in front of you, your sword will reach, and you will get used to the body distance it takes to close and the hand/eye coordination of quickly finding a target, understanding how far to step and then attack in a nearly long step lunge. Don't over lunge it. Short to good long steps.
Solo Movement Drill: Double
Tap Hit
Start with an Agent
-Both start in terza
-Agent slowly steals measure using advance paced steps and gathering steps
-Agent aims to land the tip on the exposed forearm on the outside or inside line of the Patient
-Patient will ensure there is a viable target
-Agent, when at Long Measure, will attack
-Patent will make the best parry possible
-Agent assembles back to neutral in terza out of distance
-Do 20 reps of this drill and switch
When This is a fun do at home drill, or in the hard or where you have a flat floor and can move. Real simple... Pick a target on the floor. A rock, a leaf, something that stands out. Make sure it is not right in front, you will want to use either middle or long measure steps to hit. Then... walk slowly along turn; quickly pick out the first thing you see. Then lunge to hit it on the floor.
How fast can you hit? That's a good question.
The hard part is knowing how fast everyone else moves to a touch,
but you need to know how fast can you move. Like a lot of the
movement here, we tend to key our movement to a reaction. In
many cases, you might not need to move so fast, as need to know when
to move. Knowing your speed limits will help you know what you
can accomplish.
-Set up a static wall target, using a 3" square as a target
-Use a middle measure paced distance
-Test the distance, you should step out the length of a foot or so
to touch the square
-Do a few reps to get comfortable with the distance
-Then, from starting stance without moving the feet, drop the point
till it touches the floor, with arm full extended
-Double tap the floor as fast as possible and thrust to the target
square with your step out
-Do 20 reps and
then move to long measure and try another 20