ClassEleven-FlatShieldBlocksCornerShieldBlocks


 

101R-Group (Refresh)

 

 

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 Refresh Comments/Quick Walk-Through:

Killing force in SCA blows are primarily generate from putting the weight of the body behind the blow by rotating (or turning) into a blow around the hips.

 

Rotation Block Refresh Comments/Quick Walk-Through:

 As the Zero-Stem shows that hip-rotation turning movement is all that is necessary to kill on opponent, the Rotation Block shows that the same type of hip-rotation turning movement is all that is necessary to block shots.  The rotation block is a shield-block defense that is fully integrated with the turning/rotation component of movement.

 

Zero-Stem Refresh Technique Comments/Quick Walk-Through:

The Zero-Stem is the offensive sword shot thrown from the inside baseline at extreme close range from an opponent with only a hip rotation for force generation and no arm movement at all associated with the blow.  It is the ultimate expression of the fact that force generation comes from body movement, as to kill with a Zero-Stem is to kill solely with body rotation.

 

Short-Stem Refresh Technique Comments/Quick Walk-Through:

The Short-Stem is the offensive sword shot thrown from short ranges at an opponent using both hip rotation and small arm movements.  It differs from the Zero-Stem in that there is some arm extension and from the Long-Stem in that we are not fully extending our arms.

 

Long-Stem Refresh Technique Comments/Quick Walk-Through:

The Long-Stem is the offensive sword shot thrown from range at an opponent using both hip rotation and large arm movement.  It differs from the Zero-Stem and the Short-Stem in that we are fully extending our arms.

 

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

 

 

101R-Buddies (Refresh)

 

 

 

Shield Blocking (Block/Block) Refresh Drill:

Buddies pair-off at the Inner Baseline.  Both buddies practice Block/Block shield rotation drills rotating onside/offside bringing the shield corner-up when the shoulders drop, observing each others' technique to offer direction.  Emphasis is on proper technique, form, and power generation.

 

 

 

Turning/Rotation (Turn-Strive/Turn-Evade) Buddy Drill:

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

 

Zero-Stem Refresh Onside/Offside Head/Leg Buddy Drill:

Buddies pair-off at the Inner Baseline.  One buddy is the offender, one the defender.  The defender practices Block/Block shield rotation drills.  The offender practices zero-stem technique.  Emphasis is on proper technique, form, and power generation.  Switch when complete.

 

Short-Stem Refresh Onside/Offside Head/Leg Buddy Drill:

Buddies pair-off in the Dead-Zone.  One buddy is the offender, one the defender.  The defender practices Block/Block shield rotation drills.  The offender practices short-stem technique.  Emphasis is on proper technique, form, and power generation.  Switch when complete.

 

Long-Stem Refresh Onside/Offside Head/Leg Buddy Drill:

Buddies pair-off at the Outer Baseline.  One buddy is the offender, one the defender.  The defender practices Block/Block shield rotation drills.  The offender practices long-stem technique.  Emphasis is on proper technique, form, and power generation.  Switch when complete.

 

Inside Baseline Angle-Change (Onside) Zero-Pressure Combination Drill Refresh:

Buddies pair-off at the Outer Baseline.  One buddy is the offender, one the defender.  The offender practices the zero-pressure drill, the defender practices rotation block defense and provides direction to the buddy.  Offender makes certain to change the angle of the Inner Baseline on the Zero-Pressure and to end in a position of least weapon risk.  Emphasis is on proper technique, form, and power generation.  Switch when complete.

 

 

 

101N (New Material)

 

 

 

Defensive techniques evolve from and integrate with offensive techniques:

Given our evolutionary, integrated approach towards offense and defense, it should come as no surprise that one can perceive the basic shield block techniques as mirrors of the basic sword shot techniques.  As we have already discussed and learned, the Rotation Block is precisely the same biomechanical technique (arm Lock, hip Rotation) that forms the basis of the Zero-Stem sword blow.  Similarly, we will find that the other shield blocking techniques are likewise mirrors of other techniques -- the Flat Block is a mirror of the Zero-Stem swordblock, the Corner Block is a mirror of the Hanging-Guard swordblock and the offside zero-stem, and the compass-step (backwards) block is a mirror of the compass-step long-stem onside blow.  Once you have developed the underlying biomechanics for the offensive technique, you have also learned the fundamental biomechanics for the defensive (shieldwork) technqiue, and must simply learn how to apply it in the defensive mirrored circumstance.

 

 

Corner Block:

The corner block is a very quick blocking technique that relies on the rotation of the shield around the elbow to catch the opponent's blows on the corner of the shield.   While it is a fast technique, it can be easily countered by opponents' who are capable of throwing shots with deep angularity, and thus cannot be relied on solely.  Instead, it is often most effective when used in conjunction with other techniques such as the rotation block or the compass-step block.  Remember that in all blocking techniques, we try to use the absolute minimum amount of motion necessary to perform the block, as any additional motion will take us further out of stance and require more time for our recovery.

 

 

Flat Block:

The flat block takes longer to block and recover, but will not allow an opponent with deep angularity to avoid the block.

 

Compass-Step Block:

As the compass-step long-stem onside used movement to force the hip rotation of a blow while enabling the angle-change of the jam and zero-pressure, so too does the compass-step block force the hip rotation of the rotation block using movement while simultaneously changing both the angle of defense and the position of defense (similar to the turn-out dodge taught previously).  Thus, the compass-step block uses stepping movement to perform the same biomechanics of the rotation block while altering the angle and position of the fight.