Sample Lesson - Week 5

 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.
Beats
  • From the instructor's point in line, the student beats in fourth and performs a straight thrust.
    • Make sure that the student does not "prime" the beat by pulling the sword back.
    • The student's blade should make one point of contact with the instructor's blade.
    • The middle of the student's blade should make contact with the weak of the instructor's blade.
    • Make sure that the student does not over-exaggerate the beat and end up far offline.
  • From the instructor's engagement in fourth, the student performs a circular beat and performs a straight thrust.
    • You can have other actions come after the beat (for example a feint) if you want to spend more time on this skill before moving to expulsions.
Expulsions

An expulsion is an action on the blade that displaces the opponent's steel forcefully. Unlike a beat, it does not make a single point of contact with the opposing blade; instead it slides along the blade while displacing it.
  • From the instructor's engagement in fourth, the student performs an expulsion and then a straight thrust.
    • The student's blade will come up slightly before sliding down the instructor's blade forcefully.
    • Make sure that the student does not over-exaggerate this motion and end up far offline.
Note that while I suggest working in third and fourth primarily in this lesson, you can do this lesson in multiple lines, either by reversing your target area or by attacking the lower lines.

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