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)

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 - Facing an opponent with only a few inches (six or so) between you in Zero Stance, 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 explosively 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 in Zero Stance, 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 explosively 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).
• Zero-Stem Combinations - Throw a Zero-Stem Onside Head, striking the opponent in the temple (throwing the shot "flat"), holding the Ham Sandwich tight, 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 hip rotation 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 repetition -- to get improper technique into muscle memory would be bad.

Short-Stem:

The Short-Stem is the offensive shord 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 - Facing an opponent with a foot or so bwetween you in Fighting Stance denying your back leg from your opponent, rest the sword comfortably on your shoulder.  Rotate explosively counter-clockwise from your hips thursting your rear (right) leg forward and letting your arm partially extend forward naturally as your hips rotate so that your arm is half extended diagonally across the oppnents' face so that your sword strikes in the "sweetspot" (the top 2-3" of the sword below the thrusting tip) or lower in a "follow-through" manner
• Short-Stem Offside Head - Facing an opponent with a foot or so between you in Fighting Stance denying your back leg from your opponent, rest the sword comfortably on your shoulder.  Rotate explosively counter-clockwise from your hips thrusting your rear (right) leg forward and punching your sword elbow up and to the right in a lever-like motion while slightly extending your forearm forward and slightly arcing the the sword downwards to lever flat into the opponents' temple (note the arm motions are slightly larger than the Zero-Stem Offside)
• Short-Stem Combinations - Throw a Short-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 hip rotation 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.