Got there at eight, NT was already stretched and good to go. He just recently came back from JOs with not so good a result. In discussing, it became evident he still has problems when someone aggressively takes him in 4. He also brought me a video of his fencing, which is good, I’m yet to see it though.
Lesson notes:
NutTree: Warm up extensions, ext. w/ dis-engage were decent, but need to emphasise finger compensation, too much wrist throwing going on.
Pure technique:
Moved on to taking parry 4 w/2 control hits, direct and circle-6. Major problem is twisting the torso towards the 4, instead of angling the point off-line and turning the wrist. Needs to get more comfortable using his blade to take the opponent’s. Releases the line and slaps the blade down instead of calibrating the wrist and fingers to guide the tip in a straight line through the target. This was addressed and discussed and he got it about 8 min into the exercise. The disengages in the control hits were a little too lateral as well, also fixed but with fatigue get worse.
Dynamic actions:
Started with distance control via long+short retreats. I then added the main idea of the lesson incorrectly. I immediately created a situation where he needed to steal the time for two counterattacks within a smooth long retreat, and a last counterattack short+deep on the short retreat. Instead, I should have done a purely technical exercise first: two quick counterattacks from a static position, and then added the slow fluid retread onto that double tap. The idea is to remain in, and control the distance, hit the two counterattacks before the slow fluid step is done, then cut the distance open with a quick tempo jump/step and still be close enough to hit the control c/a.
Corrections made: to control the tempo of the first retreat, NT needed to sink more into the step, and instead of reaching with his back leg, to propel himself backwards in a jump/slide. He got the fluidity, and once that slow-fluid retreat was good, he could eventually hit the cut-tempo c/a’s. Tip was too lateral, with mention of that it stopped flying into outer space and he could hit the controls without a problem. The technique noise came because he seemed to end up about 5-10% closer than necessary and I was not always going full speed. I can imagine what happened at JOs when the athletes there can charge a lot quicker. Next lesson need to make him able to tear apart the distance more.
Don Juan: Warm up extensions way too tense and rigid, as always, keep reminding to loosen up and “dance” with feet closer together, but knees bent still. Seems to work until he starts holding the imaginary boob with his left hand. Need to consistently break that habit, but in general it is better.
Pure Technique: Parry 4 is very strong on the blade, but was into wrong position, with no pronation towards 9-o’clock. Corrected with my hands, emphasised forward motion, seems to get it. Control 6 was always good.
Dynamic actions: Here I corrected the bass-ackwards way I used with NT and actually started with a quick tempo double-tap to the wrist. Then added the slow-fluid retreat, then the the slow fluid retreat followed by a sharp distance tearing step and the final shallow-deep control c/a. Other than some basic technique noise, this worked a lot better and he was able to do this and understand why/when in 10 minutes. In fact I was able to throw in a disengage within the slow-fluid retreat and he could hit after a couple of attempts.
General notes: I need to stop putting the horse ahead of the carriage and make sure I begin a phrase after having built on it if it is something new. There will be lessons where they will need to figure out as to what to do, but going by my general philosophy of “no more than two real tempos within an engagement”, I need to make sure I adhere to a clear construction method, instead of jumping ahead of myself and then reverse-engineering the phrase. Though sometimes that is also necessary. I just need to make a decision as to what that current lesson will be before I begin it.
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