Two practices

Went to Hawthorne and BAT practice this week. Had a good time at both.

A couple of things stand out. I have lately been working on using Gemeni's 90 degree arm position. Gemeni uses an interesting combination of techniques. His grip is essentially the same as Gendy's, a thumb and fore-finger grip, and he plays on the sword with his fingers in the same way. He holds his forearm at a 90 degree angle to his upper arm, and he uses lots of body mechanics a la Bellatrix. I need to talk to him about direction changes. I am using the thumb/pinky grip but his arm position. So far it is working. My shoulder and body move the sword around to block or to begin a blow and deliver good power. Here is a good example of Gemeni using it:



Note how, whether his sword is behind his head or in front of it blocking, Gemeni tries to keep his arm at a 90 degree angle until he fires the blow.

My very first fight at Hawthorne was my best. i fought Sir Alberecht and I used a classic Bellatrix technique, one that von Dresden uses too, of throwing a snap, moving the right foot directly out to the right, so I am side stepping on a perpendicular to the line of the fight on the return, then throwing the same snap. Worked like a charm.

I had good fights at BAT too, but I was mostly training. My best fight was probably against Timur. I took his leg with a good double thrust fake, then when he was on his knees I used the Gendy version of the butterfly, where you throw a fake offside, step in deep with the right foot, then spin on that foot 180 degrees and drop the sword in a straight line downward across the face.

This was one of the best attended BAT practices we've had in awhile.