Training Journal- Day 20

June 1, 2012

Right, the training is moving to another stage, so I think the blog should reflect that.  I'm fairly comfortable with the information section so I'm going to preface my posts.  I love having a preamble.  Here we go.

So I rolled into class a little bummed because the assessment is tomorrow, and I wasn't signed off on all of my points yet.  Apparently I was mistaken.  Clint stopped me as I was walking in and told me that I was testing at the end of class.  And that he expected me to pass.   Oh goody.  Class was useful, if uneventful, though the assessment yielded a few surprises.  Read on, and as always thanks for reading.

Warm Up- Standard Mastery Warm up.  10 minutes of dynamic stretching, medicine ball tossing.
Solo Drills- Lunges and guards with the off hand, with a focus on properly aligning my body.
Partner Drills- Control drills; variants on tessitura (still not sure if I'm spelling that right)
Slow Work- N/A
Full Speed- N/A
What Worked- Alignment, and mental state for off hand worked nicely.  The tip Adam gave me about engaging the side of the sword that I can see helped immensely.
What Needs Improvement- In addition to the standard required areas of improvement, my mental state in general when assessing needs work.  I had to stop and re-focus several times.  I need to find a way to maintain my focus in the face of difficult tasks.
Follow-up for Next Time- Sports psychology, and possibly meditation.
Other Notes- Passed the off-hand assessment, and cleared to test on Saturday.  Excellent.

Training Journal- Day 16, 17, 18 and 19

May 15, 16, 17, 18

There wasn't anything noteworthy about the days in question.  Solo work, and training as per usual.  Two nights, and two afternoons.  The blogger app kept erasing my damned posts whenever I'd switch to another app.

The focus in classes last week was on postura and conuter postura exercises, and ways of maintaining control of the sword.  After hours and during afternoon classes, I trained myself up on off hand, with advice and assistance from some of the higher ranks.

What do I Want in a School? Part 1

The question has been present in my thoughts for a while.  I have a few things that have been kicking around at a conceptual level.

I want
-A store
-A training space
-An office
-A lounge
-A workshop
-Storage space
-Sword display/museum
-Library

Yes, Duello has all of this.  These elements all work nicely in the school, but there's a few ways I'd like to expand.

-A BIGGER workshop
The workshop at Duello is small and seems somewhat haphazard.  It's not a focus area for the school, and the actual space duello occupies has it's limits, so that is worth considering.  The dream workshop would have space for supplies for polishing and restoring, leatherworking, armoring, and whatever other crafty projects that staff and students may be interested in.  Should an in-house smith be a possibility?

-A classroom
The lounge at Duello serves this purpose, as well as housing the school's library.  Ideally, I'd like a space reserved for chatter and socializing, and another for learning and other scholastic pusuits.  In fact, a library/classroom may be another possibility.  Books along each wall, floor to ceiling, a small database, accessible via tablet or computer, tables and chairs arranged for individual projects, rearrange them to make a small lecture hall.

That's all or now.  I've been wanting to get this out of my mind.  But what else does a goo school need?  This much I will ponder.

Training Journal- Day 15

May 4, 2012
Warm Up- Fun with a medicine ball! (Special guest appearance from the demo team)
Solo Drills- Stage rolls, musketeer salute
Partner Drills- Partner stage rolls, plays that need to be recorded (contra cavare di tempo)
Slow Work- practiced plays that needed recording, developed approaches
Full Speed- N/A
What Worked- rolling onto my dominant arm
What Needs Improvement- rolls out of a headlock
Follow-up for Next Time- learn pair rolls
Other Notes- hurt my left heel when I tried the fall out of a headlock

Training Journal- Day 14

May 3, 2012
Warm Up- Mastery warm up
Solo Drills-Fast lunges (wasn't counting; lots)
Partner Drills-measure and control drills
Slow Work-N/A
Full Speed- 10 minutes with various partners, 3 minutes combat assessment, successive 1 minute rounds for other assessors.
What Worked- good grasp of how to control measure in the true fight. Advanced when I was supposed to 80% of the time, form was reasonable.
What Needs Improvement- disengages need to be tightened up, I need to stop bulling my way through equal crossings
Follow-up for Next Time- drill my disengages, and yielding to pressure
Other Notes-PASSED THE MEASURE AND CONTROL COMBAT ASSESSMENT!

Training Journal- Day 12

April 30, 2012
Warm Up- medicine ball class warm up
Solo Drills- 10 Lunges in each measure with each hand (80 total)
Partner Drills-N/A
Slow Work- 4 minute sets with the other students in the noon class
Full Speed- N/A
What Worked- body alignment felt good during the lunging drills, footwork for largissima lunges was greatly improved
What Needs Improvement- need to alter my reflex from raising my tip out of threat to shifting into a forward guard in order to control the sword.
Follow-up for Next Time- time in front of a mirror just shifting into forward guards, drill where I shift into forward guard when seeking cintrolof my opponent's sword
Other Notes- first noon class. Clint commended my chosen solo goal (feel where my measure is) and advised that things will change I combat when the measure is somewhat more fluid. Adjust drills with a focus on different striking measures.

Training Journal- Day 13

May 1, 2012
Warm Up- medicine ball class warm up
Solo Drills- 10 Lunges in each measure with each hand (80 total)
Partner Drills-N/A
Slow Work- 5 minutes with Gareth
Full Speed- 20 minutes with Gareth
What Worked- shifting into forward guard to control my opponent's sword; control of my opponent's sword in general
What Needs Improvement- need to cross the line before striking and work on covering myself (defence defence defence)
Follow-up for Next Time- tessatura drills, line crossing drills
Other Notes- just a quickie, a small informal session