REVIEW

Breathing/Focusing/Centering:

Positioning your feet in what we will refer to as a Zero Stance, feet shoulder width apart, toes pointed forward and knees slightly bent with your weight on the balls of your feet and your pelvis thrust slightly upwards and forward, the objective is to concentrate on your breathing, focus your attention and center yourself:

1. Breathe in, raising your arms slowly up over head, bringing your air into your diaphragm and raising your ribcage

2. Breathe out, lowering your arms slowly to torso level, feeling a slight tightening in your stomach as your breathe out your air

3. Breathe in, bringing your arms in to the center of you torso (almost like giving someone a loose hug), bringing your air into your diaphragm and raising your ribcage.

4. Breathe out, bring your arms out to torso level as described in step 2

5. Repeat steps 1-4 until you are focused, centered and in control of your breathing

Turning/Rotation:

The same hip rotation that forms the basis of our killing force and the rotation block can also be used as the basis for movement to increase or decrease the range to opponents and to strike or evade blows

• Turn-Strike/Turn-Evade Drill/Recover

Shield Blocking:

• Flat Blocking Onside Head/Recover
• Flat Blocking Offside Head/Recover

Outside Baseline, Inside Baseline, and the Dead-Zone:

• Outside Baseline

•  Inside Baseline
• The Dead-Zone

Leg Blows

• Zero Stem Onside Leg/Recover
• Zero Stem Offside Leg/Recover
• Short Stem Onside Leg/Recover
• Short Stem Offside Leg/Recover
• Long-Stem Onside Leg/Recover
• Long-Stem Offside Leg/Recover

Combination Long-Stem/Zero-Stem 6-Shot Combination Maneuver Drill:

• Form Right beside your Buddy
• Open Formation
• Sword-length between ranks
• Compass-forward-right onside Long-stem
• Compass-forward-left offside long-stem
• Onside Zero-stem
• Offside Zero-stem
• Compass-backward-right onside Long-stem
• Compass-backward-left offside Long-stem
• Recover

New Material

Combination 6-Shot Combination w/Legs Drill:

Continuation of 6-Shot combination Maneuver Drill adding in some of the leg shots learned in prior class (with defenders blcoking using the rotation block and the Flat Blocking Onside/Offside Head):

• Form Right beside your Buddy
• Open Formation
• Sword-length between ranks
• Compass-forward-right onside Long-stem head
• Compass-forward-left offside long-stem leg
• Onside zero-stem head
• Offside zero-stem leg
• Compass-backward-right onside long-stem head
• Compass-backward-left offside long-stem leg
• Recover

Inside Baseline Angle-Change Combination Drill:

It is possible to get outside the opponent's cone of defense at the Inside Baseline through a compass-step around the opponent (facing the opponent at the inside baseline, if you do a compass-step-forward-right, you will rotate around the opponent's shield and be outside the defense cone/shield of the opponent with your sword positioned behind their shield).  Building this Inside-Baseline Angle-Change Rotation/Maneuver into a shot/combination (with defenders blocking using the rotation block and the Flat Blocking Onside/Offside Head):

• Form Right beside your Buddy
• Open Formation
• Sword-length between ranks
• Compass-forward-right onside Long-stem head (starting from the Outside Baseline into the Dead-Zone)
• Compass-forward-left offside long-stem leg (crossing out-of the Dead-Zone to the Inside Baseline)
• Compass-forward-right angle-change short-stem onside head (rotating around the opponent and striking onside behind the defensive cone of the shield)
• Offside zero-stem head
• Compass-backward-right onside long-stem head
• Compass-backward-left offside long-stem leg
• Recover

Moving Along the Inside Baseline - Jam and Zero Pressure:

The Jam and Zero Pressure are timed evasion movements into the Inner Baseline meant avoid the opponent's weapon while gaining better positioning through mevement and timing.  While the timing of the technique and the broader concepts of timing themselves are for later classes, the jam and zero pressure are important Inner Baseline  positions and options (thus, we will introduce the basic conepts and techniques but not drill them until later).  Imagine that there's an "X" marking the space from your right shoulder to your opponent's right shoulder and from your left shoulder to your opponent's left shoulder from the Outer Baseline through the Dead-Zone to the Inner Baseline:

• Jam - A Jam is a move along or into the Inside Baseline meant to cut opponent blow development short and interrupt shots so that they are forced into no/zero stems.
• Zero-Pressure - A Zero-Pressure is a move along or into the Inside Baseline away from blow development to avoid a shot or place oneself late in blow development in the zone of least shot power.
• Follow - movement along the Inside Baseline
• Fade - movement from a position along the Inside Baseline to a position outside of range of the opponent (does not mean one is out-of-danger)
• Recover

Unit Maneuver:

The shield wall is the fundamental foundation of a melee unit.  The job a shieldman is to stay in formation, listen to commands, and stay alive.  A shieldman must stay alive and must maintain the cohesiveness of the line (unless intentionally directed to do otherwise as part of a tactic), as a broken shield wall means a broken unit, and cohesiveness can be broken by shieldmen breaking formation or dying in the middle of a formation.  Practiced maneuver of commonly understood commands is a cornerstone of successful unit cohesion.

• Open Formation - Form RIght
• Close Formation - Form Right
• Advance
• 6-Shot Combination Attack Drill
• Shift Right
• Shift Left
• Retreat/Fall-Back