I’ve started working with two newer fencers at practice on Italian rapier, following, essentially, the approach of Devon Boorman of Academy Duello. Yesterday was our second session.
During the first session, a few weeks ago, we worked on some leaning exercises (separating upper body lean from lower body weight shift), proper knee alignment through a firm footed lunge, and three of the four basic guards (skipping prima for now), and the steps of a well-ordered lunge (focusing on the firm-footed lunge for now). For those with Duello.TV subscriptions, the relevant videos are all in the Rapier section and include: “Rapier Fundamentals – Shoulder Movement”, “Rapier Fundamentals – Hip and Knee Movement”, “Rapier Fundamentals – Mechanics of the Lunge”, “Approaching 1: Posture”
For the second session I realized I needed an actual lesson plan!
During the second session, we reviewed the leaning exercises, the well-ordered firm-footed lunge, and three of the guards (again, ignoring prima for now), with a special focus on knee and elbow alignment.
New material this week was Resistance Lunging, which did an excellent job of showing just why it’s so important to have the lunge be well ordered, and then an introduction to finding the blade. We did not advance into gaining, focusing just on finding the blade from the inside line. I tend to teach finding as having three components: 1) Your sword above theirs, 2) Your true edge towards their sword, and 3) Closer to your forte than theirs. Part 3 seemed to cause the most difficulties. As a teaching tool, I placed a bit of tape on both students’ blades a hand span from the tip, using it as a target. The finding is performed correctly when your sword crosses the opponent’s at the tape, and your tape is past the opponent’s blade. A lot of emphasis was also placed on starting the find early. We began the drill well out of measure, such that the sword tips did not quite reach each other. For those with Duello.TV subscriptions, the relevant videos are all in the Rapier section and include: “Rapier Fundamentals – Resistance Lunging” and the first half of “Approaching 3: Finding & Gaining”.
The plan for the third session is to introduce gaining on the inside line. For those with Duello.TV subscriptions I recommend viewing the second half of “Approaching 3: Finding & Gaining” in preparation.
