OK, getting back on track.
Nov. 26th, 2006 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janewilliams20Didn't make Concrete Cow yesterday, was still knackered enough that an intensive day and late night would have been bad. Did get down to Stevenage and order new specs - the new prescription is actually weaker than the current one!
Nice meal out with Dave lunchtime.
Early night (no, really!).
This morning, back to the revision backswording class,
which I desperately need after having missed so many lessons, and with the White Tag test on Tuesday. Still not really fit, but I skipped the energetic bit of warm-up. Got some one-to-one from Peter to bring me up to date with the bits I'd either missed completely or only covered in theory. Thrusts, mainly, whch turns out to use a lot of the fencing techniques I learnt at 18 and haven't touched since. And then on to sparring for the first time for me, third or fourth for most of the others.
OK. I have not lost my touch. Lost speed, yes, lost fitness, yes, lost arm-strength, yes. But the thing that George Silver describes as the "place" - the bit when, in vocabulary I only learnt today, your opponent is either "spent" or "lying spent", and for a fraction of a second you can hit them and there's nothing they can do about it - yes, I can still spot it and use it.
There is a thing called "long point". It is a guard - a means of holding off your opponent. Almost the only attack you can do from it is a thrust (which I learnt how to do this morning). But the other thing you can do is oh so very simple. White Tag requires you to manage two minutes of defence: only defence. Do not hit back. But changing guard to long point at the same time as your opponent advances is not an attack, merely an invitation to walk on to your sword. And if you get your timing right, even Peter falls for it. OK, so do I, as he proved to me not much later, but I must be getting something right.
Tuesday I need to be fitter than I am now, I need to practice Drill 1, and I need to revise all the theory. Memorise one page of words - if I can't do that I shouldn't be calling myself a Bard even by Far Isles standards. Peter reckons I can pass, no problem. Eleven weeks of training for most people - I missed four. Hmm. We'll see. Mental stuff I'm a fast learner, true, but arms and legs don't always keep up.
I have my own cudgel, now. Broomstick and a heavy leather "pot" to cover the hand. That needs waxing to harden it, and I think I'll be personalising it a bit first. Also the edge of the pot was digging into my wrist badly during practise, I need to trim it back and pad it.
Plan for the afternoon - tidy up all those figures and terrain I bought at Warfare. Sort out a meal for tonight, there's a lot of root veg in the Organic Veg Box and I'll be doing some sort of bake. Work on the new Pot.
I won't be finishing the Flickr Scavenger Hunt this month - out of time, energy and enthusiasm. And the urge to complete it is only my OCD showing up again, I should be able to recognise that by now.
Nice meal out with Dave lunchtime.
Early night (no, really!).
This morning, back to the revision backswording class,
which I desperately need after having missed so many lessons, and with the White Tag test on Tuesday. Still not really fit, but I skipped the energetic bit of warm-up. Got some one-to-one from Peter to bring me up to date with the bits I'd either missed completely or only covered in theory. Thrusts, mainly, whch turns out to use a lot of the fencing techniques I learnt at 18 and haven't touched since. And then on to sparring for the first time for me, third or fourth for most of the others.
OK. I have not lost my touch. Lost speed, yes, lost fitness, yes, lost arm-strength, yes. But the thing that George Silver describes as the "place" - the bit when, in vocabulary I only learnt today, your opponent is either "spent" or "lying spent", and for a fraction of a second you can hit them and there's nothing they can do about it - yes, I can still spot it and use it.
There is a thing called "long point". It is a guard - a means of holding off your opponent. Almost the only attack you can do from it is a thrust (which I learnt how to do this morning). But the other thing you can do is oh so very simple. White Tag requires you to manage two minutes of defence: only defence. Do not hit back. But changing guard to long point at the same time as your opponent advances is not an attack, merely an invitation to walk on to your sword. And if you get your timing right, even Peter falls for it. OK, so do I, as he proved to me not much later, but I must be getting something right.
Tuesday I need to be fitter than I am now, I need to practice Drill 1, and I need to revise all the theory. Memorise one page of words - if I can't do that I shouldn't be calling myself a Bard even by Far Isles standards. Peter reckons I can pass, no problem. Eleven weeks of training for most people - I missed four. Hmm. We'll see. Mental stuff I'm a fast learner, true, but arms and legs don't always keep up.
I have my own cudgel, now. Broomstick and a heavy leather "pot" to cover the hand. That needs waxing to harden it, and I think I'll be personalising it a bit first. Also the edge of the pot was digging into my wrist badly during practise, I need to trim it back and pad it.
Plan for the afternoon - tidy up all those figures and terrain I bought at Warfare. Sort out a meal for tonight, there's a lot of root veg in the Organic Veg Box and I'll be doing some sort of bake. Work on the new Pot.
I won't be finishing the Flickr Scavenger Hunt this month - out of time, energy and enthusiasm. And the urge to complete it is only my OCD showing up again, I should be able to recognise that by now.