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:
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)
Zero-Stem:
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 - Facing an opponent with only a few inches (six or so) between you, lock your elbow into the side of your body (as if you were holding a Ham Sandwich tightly under your armpit) with your arm straight-up and your fist by your face holding your sword facing rightwards away from your face. With your upper body held rigidly tight holding onto that Ham Sandwich, rotate around your hips counter-clockwise thrusting your rear (right) leg forward and punching your sword upward slightly and rotating your sword around your wrist to strike the opponent while keeping your elbow locked into the side of your body (locking your elbow into your side forces the power to come from your hips and not your arm).
- Zero-Stem Offside Head - Facing an opponent with only a few inches (six or so) beween you, hold your elbow into the side of your body (as if you were holding a Ham Sandwich tightly under your armpit) with your arm straight-up and your fist by your face holding your sword facing rightwards away from your face. Rotate around your hips clockwise thrusting your forward (left) leg forward and punching your sword elbow up and to the right in a lever-like motion while slightly arcing the sword downwards to lever flat into the opponents' temple (note the arm motions are extremely small, and the power generation is from the hips).
Rotation Block:
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.
- Fighting Stance - As an opponent throws a slow onside blow towards your head, rotate around your hips counter-clockwise as if throwing a Zero-Stem onside shot while turning away from the opponent and raising the left shoulder holding the shield. The combination of the rotation, turning out, and slightly raising the shoulder should both take your head sufficiently out of range will bringing your shield into deffensive posture to block the shot.
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