The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts by Guy Windsor

Author:Guy Windsor [Guy Windsor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Spada Press
Published: 2018-02-16T16:00:00+00:00

Work the Combinations

Set up the drill ABCD. Then, from the same starting point (whatever that is in your system), the attacker varies his attack: actions F, J, N, and so on. Be that “thrust from the left”, “beat attack and lunge in quarte”, “go for the hip throw”, or whatever. In each case, the defender should make the proper defence.

The next stage is for the attacker to use whichever attack they have chosen to set up their counter: A draws B, so they can do C.

Then of course, the attacker does A–C so the defender can practice D.

In most systems, attack A has more than one defence. So once you have worked through all the main attacks, go back to one of them and work through all the main defences against it. (My longsword students know this as the Four Corners Drill.)

Then do the same for all the attacks.

Then do the same for the attacker’s counter to each of the defences generated by each of their attacks.

Then do the same for the defender’s counter to each of those . . .

This generates a combinatorial explosion. Very quickly, you could end up with a ridiculously complicated set of useless drills. So your goal is to survey the system quickly, establish where you are weakest, and set about chunking the actions together. You should not have to remember more than three or four basic defence ideas (e.g. block, counterattack, avoid) or three or four basic attacking ideas (e.g. strike, go around, feint). As you can see, I only know three of each. But each one can be usefully expanded upon for hours.

Please note, we are still in the basic form of the drill.

This is where many schools get stuck. They can get this far easily enough, and it generates all sorts of cool new sequences for students to remember, but it doesn’t really help them develop workable skills. So let’s move on. I have a set of “multipliers” that add complexity in a systematic and approachable way.

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