Last week we noticed that William wanted to get his point low very quickly to defend, and slice off from below his opponent's weapon; Ludwig and Katherina wanted to keep their hilts low, and slice off above. This week we'd all swapped technique! After much talking, we worked out why (thanks to Emrys for this expression of it):
Matt teaching beginners; David teaching this portion; Katherine's notes.
We revised the 8-part sequence we've been working on for the last few weeks.
Matt teaching beginners; David teaching this portion; Katherine's notes.
Back and forth across the room, making cuts instead of our usual thrusts / plain steps; first advancing directly, then moving off-line for each cut.
Katherine's notes; Matt and David teaching (mostly).
That's all so far: we worked through the first play in the second part of Meyer's rapier section. It's really long (about 8 moves each), and falls into two main parts. All the usual confusions apply: he tells you what "you" are doing, but not so much about what "they" are doing; we'd like more detail on the footwork; he often leaves out the instruction "while rocking back".
More detail later.
Revision of basics of Meyer's Rapier:
Matt teaching (Katherine's notes)
Meyer's Rapier - Book 1, Chapter 8
[2.70v-2.72.v; pp192-3 of Forgeng's translation]
Changing (Wechseln, Durchwechseln), Chasing (Nachreisen), Remaining (Bleiben), Feeling (Fuhlen), Pulling (Zucken), and Winding (Winden).
Changing (Wechseln or Durchwechseln)
Changing = avoiding your opponent's blade and attacking on the other side
Changing through = cutting under
Changing around = cutting over
(Katherine's notes)
Note to self: We have been reinventing the wheel again. We should keep
notes, put them here, and then check them (see Patrick's notes on this
material from May).
We revised several of the parries - absetzen, verhengen, and Ausschagen
mit hangender Kling - where I had some concerns that we'd drifted a
little from the source in the process of getting something that worked.
(Or I'd misremebered when I wrote it up - always a possibility).
(Katherine's Notes - Matt was teaching)
On the 1st we figured out how we think they go, slowly, unmasked, and with rapiers; on the 8th we tested them at higher speed with masks and shinai (using the instructions from the rapier section, but a longsword style, to test interchangeability of techniques - it worked pretty well; the next step would be to compare what we deduced with what Meyer actually says in the longsword section).
Meyer lists 8 parries:
(Sometime in August...)
Cross-hilts for our shinai finally arrived, so we now have cheap(ish),
light-weight training weapons that we can use to practice longsword
techniques at moderate speed with only moderate "armour". They're way
too much fun!
[Bit of a gap in our notes here - we were all busy with Coronation,
winter sniffles, etc - but we spent this period working on German
Longsword, using both Meyer and earlier sources.]
