Lesson 4 – Left handed again
This is a lesson we did today with a left handed student who normally does Italian foil and saber with us. It’s pretty similar to the earlier one I posted earlier, but has some added stuff thrown in as well. This was his second time doing rapier, and possibly only his first real lesson. The goal for the lesson was to introduce a couple of the actions that tend to be more prominent in rapier.
From the Instructor’s invitation in 3rd, straight thrust.
From the Instructor’s engagement in 3rd, disengagement
From the students engagement in 3rd, glide.
Same action, in time.
From the student’s engagement in 3rd, simple parry of 4th, riposte by glide.
From the student’s engagement in 3rd, simple parry of 4th, riposte with a passing step.
From the student’s engagement in 3rd, time thrust in 4th.
From the students engagement in 4th, parry low third, with the tip high, and riposte to the throat with a passing step.
This didn’t seem to work as well with opposite handers, especially if the instructors arm was stiff, so we modified it to the following:
From the student’s engagment in 4th, parry third, riposte by flanconnade (drop the tip and hit in the flank) with a passing step – not in capoferro, but still pretty cool for opposite handed opponents.
Next, we added started doing the actions in time, and with a little bit of mobility.
In time, from the instructor’s invitation in 3rd, blade seizure in 4th and glide.
In time, from the instructor’s invitation in 3rd (but more aggressively, as suggested by Maestro Sahm in class on Saturday) blade seizure in 4th, starting from lunging distance. Instructor retreats and gives counter pressure, student lunges with a disengagment.
Same action, but instead the instructor does not retreat and holds ground. Student hits with a glide, no lunge.
Same action, this time the instructor either retreats, giving counter pressure, or holds ground. Student either lunges with a disengagment, or glides with no lunge.
No back to a regular blade seizure…
Blade seizure in 4th, glide
Blade seizure in 4th, instructor does a disengagment in time, time thrust in countertime in 3rd (hand in 2nd) to the face.
From the invitation in 3rd, three straight thrusts, end of lesson.
