The Games We Play   3 comments

I’ve come to the conclusion that in my single-sword fights I get by mostly on parries and footwork for defense.  This is actually sub-optimal, since it usually means I take two tempi, and at the very least lacks a certain amount of grace and “prettiness”.  Thinking this way, I decided want to make more use of the contracavazione.  Around that same time we introduced the concept to the practice.  We drilled it a bit, but the drill didn’t usurp the parry in anybody’s tactical thinking, including my own.  What was needed, I decided, was forced removal of the parry from the tactical options, so Letia and I set about to play a game: No parries, only cavazioni and measure control, to deliver the kill.  So it wasn’t exactly a drill, because it lacked the formality of the drill, and we called it the Contracavazione Game.

Then last week I read this, by Bill Grandy, and got to think about the greater utility of “games” to blur the line between drill and fighting:

From Drills to Free Play: Putting Practice into Practice Part II

I set Tassin and Ruairc to play with the target area drill, with lethal thrusts the only valid touch, for a goal of fighting at measure and with control, and the “Juggernaut” game to force them to continue fighting until “dead” is called so they don’t get punked by a rhino-hide.  I didn’t get a chance to follow up with them and get feedback, but think I’ll try it out this week for myself.

It’s too bad that in the winter our practice time gets truncated to an hour and a half (and people still take fifteen minutes of that to show up and armor up), because I’d love to work games into a formal schedule (30 minutes footwork/unarmored drill, 30 minutes sword drill, 30 minutes games, and the remainder fighting).

Anybody else have thoughts on other games to make use of?

Posted October 31, 2012 by Wistric in Musings

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