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
Movement Refresh:
Movement - proper movement is the cornerstone of power generation, proper shot setup, the basis for proper defensive maneuvers, and the premise for all unit actions. Understanding and implementing proper movements can make the critical difference between poor, good, and great fighting.
- Five Movements
- Half-Pass/Half
- Full-Pass/Pass
- Traverse
- Gather
- Compass
- Six Directions
- Forward/Advance
- Reverse/Backwards
- Left
- Right
- Cross (Left)
- Cross (Right)
- Lead-Leg
- Left (Fighting Stance)
- Right (Funny Leg)
Turning/Rotation Refresh:
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.
- Zero Stance Explosive Hip Rotation/Recover
- Fighting Stance Explosive Hip Rotation/Recover
Rotation Block Refresh:
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.
- Fighting Stance Onside Rotation Block/Recover
Zero-Stem Refresh:
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.
- Zero-Stem Onside Head/Recover
- Zero-Stem Offside Head/Recover
- Zero-Stem Combinations/Recover
Short-Stem Refresh:
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.
- Short-Stem Onside Head/Recover
- Short-Stem Offside Head/Recover
- Short-Stem Combinations/Recover
New Material
Buddy System:
The Buddy System is the foundation of our melee team. No Soldier fights alone. Ever. We each have a Buddy and we stick with them at all times. We train with our Buddy. We fight next with our Buddy. We learn how our Buddy fights and we get better fighting next to our Buddy. We try to get our Buddy to practices. Our Buddy makes us stronger. Together the two of us are a Squad. We help each other stay alive and we help each other kill people. Both are good!
- Form Right
- Stay Tight
Basic Melee Maneuver:
- Open Formation
- Close Formation
- Advance
- Fall-Back
Long-Stem:
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.
- Compass-Step Long-Stem Onside Head - Gauge the distance to your opponent by measuring the distance from your sword's "sweetspot" (the top 2-3" of your sword before the thrusting tip) to their temple when you take a compass-step into them. Rest your sword on your shoulder. Swing your right leg out counter-clockwise in a forward compass-step. After you begin the compass-step, let your right arm naturally swing forward with the leg, pushing forward from the elbow so that your sword arm follows your leg arc extension diagonally across the opponents' face so that your sword strikes in the "sweetspot" and that you strike in a "follow-through" manner. Recover
- Compass-Step Long-Stem Offside Head - Gauage the distance to your opponent by measuring the distance from your sword's "sweetspot" to their temple when you take a compass-step into them. Rest your sword on your shoulder. Swing your left leg out clockwise in a forward compass-step. After you begin the compass-step, punch your sword elbow up and to the right in a lever-like motion while fully extending your forearm forward (and to the left) and slightly arcing the the sword downwards to lever flat into the opponents' left temple (note the arm motions are larger than the Short-Stem Offside). Recover
- Compass-Step Long-Stem Combinations - Throw a Long-Stem Onside Head, striking the opponent in the temple (throwing the shot "flat"), making sure to strike with the blade of the sword. Once the blow has landed, but making sure not to rebound off the blow, begin the clockwise compass-step and then the elbow pop of the Offside. Repeat as often and as quickly as possible, but focus first, foremost, and always on proper technique and biomechanics rather than speed and repitition -- to get improper technique into muscle memory would be bad. 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
- Compass-forward-right onside Zero-stem
- Compass-forward-left offside Zero-stem
- Compass-backward-right onside Long-stem
- Compass-backward-left ooffside Long-stem
- Recover
