Training Day 2

"Let's get down to business..."-(Cue training music from Mulan.) Well, except in this case the "daughters" from the song were exactly who I was trying to train. Today we focused on the longsword, with the accompanying stances, footwork, and striking. Our discussion of the best targets generated a lot of cringing. Apparently bleeding out isn't popular... who knew? ;-)

Below is a sampling of the fun. Basic stances were relatively boring, but here we're working on the strikes and parries.

High inside-to-low inside parry.

Here we've just brought out the spear. Everyone is in the middle (the German "plow" or the Italian "crown") guard.

A demonstration against the spear.

Practice traversing and counterattacking against the spear.

Tactical Thinking 101: How Would You Counter...? The students walk through how to counter attacks to various targets.

The best parry... don't be there.

Riding the blade.

Trapping and binding.

All in all a solid first day out. They all did well, footwork was a bit of a problem, but that's about 70% of swordplay, so it's always a key concern. Progress was made by leaps and bounds when we moved from theory into tactical application. All of this becomes so much clearer when it's put into practice.

Some may ask why I'm training them for combat when all of this will be choreographed anyway. There are two, maybe three, reasons. First, we don't have the luxury of stunt doubles, so everyone does their own stunts. They need to develop the instincts that will protect them if anything goes wrong. Second, this is a very collaborative film set, everyone has input. This really matters in the fight scenes because it means we won't push our actors beyond their ability since they helped invent the fight in the first place (see point one.) Third, if you're going to carry one of those things, you need to look the part. Training gives you the poise and composure befitting a warrior.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!