Drills for your lunge
Open a door, look at the door edge-on, put three dots on it, one at knee level, one at stomach level, one at shoulder level. Number them 1, 2, and 3 (doesn’t really matter which). Back up to maximum lunge length. Lunge and hit 1 five times. Then hit 2 five times. 3 five times. Then 1, 2, and 3. Then 3, 2, and 1. Then do fibonacci numbers, or any other non “123” sequence.
Use your absolute best form for each lunge:
Feet perpendicular; heels in line or just slightly out of line; toe and knee pointing at your target; hips at a 45 degree angle to your opponent, parallel to the ground; left shoulder back; left hand tucked in against your body; right elbow and wrist outside of your knee; shoulders level; head upright; extend your arm, then lunge with your foot. Remember to place your tip, like Connor showed you, rather than throw your shot (I need to practice that, too).
Do it until your arm is sore, then switch to your left hand. Do it again until your left arm is sore. Then switch back. Keep going until your legs are burning.
Boring as hell? Yep. But it’s the best way to build into your muscle memory good, SAFE form so you don’t have to think about it while you’re fighting.
Once you get tired of that, do the same thing, but hitting a milk cap on a string instead of a door.
Drills for your feet
Again, make sure your form is perfect. Advance a step. Re-check your form. Advance another step. Re-check your form. Do that for ten steps forward. Then reverse for ten steps. Go sideways for ten, then the other sideways.
10X each:
Extend your arm and advance.
Recover your arm and advance.
Extend your arm and retreat.
Recover your arm and retreat.
Advance, extend, retreat.
Lunge, recover forward.
Advance, lunge, recover back.
Retreat, lunge, recover forward.
Retreat, lunge, recover back.
Go right, lunge, recover back.
Go left, lunge, recover back.
Pass forward, extend, pass back, retract.
Advance, demi-volte, recover.
Retreat, volte, recover.
Visualization
When you’re at work and there’s nobody needing your attention, close your eyes:
Picture an opponent you fought recently and the guard they took. Plot a line of attack against that opponent.
Does it start from your inside or outside? Does it start low, mid, or high? Does it end on their inside or outside? Is it targetting low, mid, or high? (So, my usual “lazy fencer” refused sword starts from my outside, low. If I’m throwing for the left side of your head, it ends on your inside, high, and there’s a line that it follows to get from start to finish)
How can your opponent move their blade to close the line of your attack? How can you move your blade to counter their action?
Picture the opponent again. Now picture them attacking, and the line they can take from their guard to a target on your body (again, inside/outside, low/mid/high). How can you move your sword to close that line? How can you move your body, without moving your sword?
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