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TracysPersonalProgressPage

Page history last edited by Steve Hick 15 years, 6 months ago

Tracy's Personal Progress Page

 

 

Brief introductory remarks about yourself, your goals in the class, your persona, etc...

 

 

 

Novicius Concepts: The Seven Deadly Virtues, Integrated Fighting Framework

 

Proper footwear. One of the things that make it hard for me todo the hip rotation correctly is my left knee.  Two years ago I had surgery on it to correct a torn ACL, lateral and medial meniscus.  When I  turn on the balls of my feet  in socks on bare floor, I'm fine.  But if I put  on sneakers or even flat-soled boots, I feel like my feet are glued to the floor.  I can't even imagine fighting in cleats like I see some fighters do.  Is this again a matter of building up muscles so that I can compensate for the weak knee or am I doing something wrong?

 

 

Class One: Breathing, Stance, Movement

The main problem I have with movement in general is that I have what feels like no center of balance.  It is easy for even the smallest people to knock me completely off balance.  I try to make sure that I'm staying in proper stance at all times, but I must be mixing my feet up somewhere.

 

There are some movement drills in stance that we can practice where we work on maintaining stance through movement that should help with stance overall and with the sense of balance. We need to practice "lean virtuous turns" in stance (the premise behind the turn-in/dodge-out drill) in which you are performing virtuous turns on the balls of your feet with leaning shifts (shifting your weight balance between forward and back over your knee).  We can also work on the melee drill on breakthroughs and denying charges that will help with stance and balance.  Between practicing stance-in-movement, turns with weight-shifting leans, and how to lower your center of mass and shift your weight to breakthrough or deny a charge, you should have a vastly improved sense of balance and control over stance. - Max

 

we need to work with you on breathing, centering and balance. And when you move, you keep these verities.  You tend to lean your shoulder and arm into things, so we need to practice with you keeping the rectangle of your shoulders and hips aligned.  Special work on the movement drills and keeping balance -- moving smoothly and keeping your center of balance down is a special focus for you. --Steve

 

 

Would working with a balance ball to strengthen my core muscles help with my balance,or should I be working on strengthening my legs?

 

0518 Yes. both.  Also, You also need to work on listening to your balance, your proprioception. One thing to practice is doing things slowly with you eyes closed.  Also trying to be and move in stance and then lifting one foot off of the ground and holding that position for 30 seconds.  Steve

 

Tried this and I can't even do it for five seconds straight without wobbling.  I'll keep working at it until I can get up to 30 seconds, but even that five seconds is pretty tough.

 

0516 1709 Is the problem your knee cannot take the strain, or that your balance is compromised? Try doing it with you eyes open. If that doesn't work try standing next to something you can use as a prop, should you need it, and try as long as you can.  You need to do the centering exercise as well, lower your weight, breathing, etc., before you do it, and something like this while you are. Steve

 

It's more a I get wobbly.  I worked with Max on this and he assured me after a couple of days I should notice an imrovement.  So I'm going to give it some time:)  Me patient.  Should be interesting.

 

I am getting much better in the balance department.  I can move my leg around and now instead of falling over after about three seconds I've made it up to fifteen sometimes twenty. 

 

8/19/08 - Going to fighter practice today. I will be focusing on 1) not getting sloppy or lazy as I fight.  This tends to happen when I focus more on winning the fight than practicing what I have learned.  2) Maintain virtuous stance before, during and after engaging, 3)inner vs outer gate

 

8/20/08- The Day After.  1) Got sloppy and lazy and I'm sorry what was I practicing?  2) Virtuous?  I am unfamiliar with that word  3)Inner gate/Outer gate.  How about Bill Gates?  Good news.  I realized I was making mistakes mid fight and tried to correct them.  I breathed, instead of biting my lip and my balance was good.  (This comes from walking in steel toed boots on rocks)  It is a matter if being rusty, out of shape.  I wIll be spending the next month work working through the 101 lessons again, but wearing my full kit.  Unless Max or Sir Strykar tell me differently :)

 

0821 1121 Go for it. Steve

 

9/9  Back from practice. Much better than the last two. And was complimented on my stance and delivery of single blows.  It was also noted that during combinations I tend not to recover correctly.  I plant my back foot and lean forward.  Finally managed to get my hand on a Wii Fit. The balance part has helped immensely.  The little Wii dude tells me I actually am standing with my weight evenly distributed and I have noticed during fights it is harder for people to push into me and knock me off balance.  Also heard a new phrase tonight I wanted to share.  OODA Loop.  OODA is an acronym for Orientation-Observation-Decision-Action.  I am going to try to start incorporating this concept in my slow work.  FYI Scholum fame has made it out here to the Middle.  One of the senior squires  posted on the local barony yahoo group that he'd found this really cool fighting site and put up a link.  It was to the Scholum!!   There is also a Fiore class that is being held for the first hour of practice every week, so I'll be making that too.

 

0910 1345 Yes, and you can use the Wii Fit to also work on moving your balance, in a deliberate fashion, from one foot to the other when you do your turns, rotations, shifts, etc..  OODA will be part of the 201 class, use it, it is a good idea.  The Scholum is nothing but good sense, its make small bites, and then teach them and build on them.  During the progress, almost all concepts that everyone else has about fighting will be subsumed into the framework somewhere, either as a virtue, a sin, or a result of either of those.  The Fiore class will be good, notice that some of the basics we do, is therein. It was done on purpose.  Steve

 

Class Two: Zero Stem, Rotation Blocks

Personal notes about class two....


Class Three: Short-Stem

Personal notes about class three...

 

Class Four: Long-Stem

Personal notes about class four...

 

Class Five: Striking Blows

Personal notes about class five...

 

Class Six: Baselines, Evade, Legs

Personal notes about class six...

 

Class Seven: Leg Combo, Inside Angle Change, Unit Maneuvers

Personal notes about class seven...

 

Class Eight: Onside Wraparound, Offside Jam, Uppercut Thrust

Wraps continue to be my bread and butter, but I find when I do free form pell work (ie treat the pell as an opponent) I keep coming back to that and it's making me predictable.  On side head, off side head, leg.  If I try on-side head, on-side head, off side head, it just feels sloppy and slow.  I think it might be an issue with my return between the two on-side shotse.

 

Class Nine: Offside Jam, Zero-Stem Swordblock, Thumb-Turn Wraparound

 

Class Ten: Melee Concepts, Melee Drills, and Unit Scenarios

Personal notes about class ten...

 

Class Eleven: Shield Blocks -- Flat Blocks and Corner Blocks

Personal notes about class eleven...

 

Class Twelve: Hanging-Guard Drop-Shot, Hanging-Guard Moulinet

Personal notes about class twelve...

 

Novicius 101,102,103: Beginner Basics (101), Continuing Refresh (102), Advanced Practicum (103)

5/22/2008  Thursday Practice:

The items I would like to focus on today are balance and making sure I don't lead with my shoulder and arm.  I feel this tied to my balance issue.  When I stand as a rectangle I feel very much like I'm going to fall over backwards.  I have been practicing standing on one foot while in line at the supermarket.  I'm even thinking of incorporating it into my teaching as a way to get people out of their chairs and give them a break. :)  I'd also like to try fighting with a sword foot lead as I've found it bothers my left foot and knee less when I do.

 

0522 1137 - Remind me, I believe you had a serious knee injury?  Playing sword foot lead is an advanced techique, but everything in the class can be done in that stance, just the particular orientations are different.  -  Steve

 

0523 0845 -- How to know where the outer baseline is. As you noted, its not fair, his is different than yours.  You should know yours, get sensitive with this, doing variations of the turn in, fade out drill, getting familiar with the fade technique, other drills.  You can judge theirs based on their size, stance, and shoulder position. For instance, if they are more square than refused, it is closer, if their right leg is before, it is closer; the opposite also applies.  Brian of Sacred Stone's range is much different as he is all three.  Then you can fine tune it, using careful observation of your opponent's tell, they tend to tighten up or their eye's change when you are within their range. You also need to be aware they can change using their range using all the techniques you are learning, so, you need to be able to use all of your, based on your judgement.  Steve

 

 

TO help with my ability to judge distances, which is only slightly better than my balance skills, I've been taking a stick about sword length, standing in the outer gate, lowering my sword and then stepping in at various lengths and angles to where I think I am within in striking range.  I then lift my sword and try out various blows to see if I actually am in striking range.

 

I am also practicing standing up straight.  Yeah you would have though I figured that one out years ago, but apparently not.  It has helped with both my balance and my ability to judge distances.  Straight back helping with the balance thing does make sense, but I'm not quite sure why it helps with being able to judge distance.

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