Sample Lesson - Week 3

 Footwork

  • Advance
  • Retreat
  • Lunge
    • Recover back
    • Recover forward
  • Passing step forward
  • Passing step backward
  • Jump back
  • Lateral movement
Simple Attacks
  • From the instructor's invitation in third, straight thrust
  • From the instructor's engagement in fourth, disengagement
  • From the student's engagement in third, glide

Simple Parries

  • From the student's engagement in fourth, attack by disengagement to the chest
  • Make sure the student parries third by making a straight line with their sword
    • Encourage the student to sink with the parry (bend the knees deeper).
  • Repost with a glide or with a detachment
    • The student's feet should not move during the riposte.
Single Feints

  • From the instructor's invitation in third, student should feint an attack and disengage the incoming parry.
    • The student's feet should not move during the feint.
    • The feint should present a plausible threat.
  • After introducing feints, you may add double and triple feints, or you may want to work on the arrest, the counter attack which foils the feint.
Arrest
  • From the student's invitation in third, the instructor will feint an attack and prepare to disengage the incoming parry.
  • Instead of parrying the student will perform an arrest.
    • The student should lunge during the counter attack because the instructor's feet have not moved yet.
Attacking from out of Distance

Up until this point, you have been doing actions primarily in distance. This is a good time to introduce the student to attacking from out of distance by using feints to the arm (instead of to the body) and coordinated steps to reach the target.


Note that while I suggest working in third and fourth primarily in this lesson, you can do this lesson in multiple lines, either reversing your target area or by working with the lower lines.

While many formal schools delay free sparring, we are a volunteer organization, and it isn't a bad idea to get swords in hands quickly. Balancing free sparring and structured practices is a good compromise. Do not let your students free spar if they aren't ready, but also, allow them to practice the techniques they have learned with trusted sparring partners.

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