Summary: Jared Kirby seminar

I realize I'm posting this well after the fact, but better late than never! On the 26th and 27th of September - just over two weeks ago - our rapier group at FAC had the privilege of hosting Jared Kirby for a two day seminar on Capoferro. Having met Jared earlier this year at ISMAC, I was eager to have him come up to spend some time with our group, but mostly for my benefit: during the course of ISMAC, I realized there were a few pieces "missing" in my repertoire - due in no small part to my lack of constant supervision - which I felt he would be able to help me fix. I was not mistaken.

Nine people including myself showed up bright and early on Saturday morning to study in detail Capoferro's system of Italian rapier, starting by a very, very (!!) thorough examination of his one and only guard, terza. Immediately I was thrown off by the small - though very important! - details I had neglected to incorporate, notably the exact positioning of the body parts in both the ordinary and extraordinary paces. I've been often asked why ____ sore, and now I have my answer: if we follow exactly what Capoferro wrote, nothing should be sore, save the burning you should feel in the legs. I caught myself several times putting stress on the knee, which I was able to immediately fix because of the feeling of the guard.

The entire first day was spent refining terza, and I couldn't have been happier. It feels much more... efficient than what I had been falling into, particularly concerning the vita; already bending at the waist makes is a small adjustment that makes a big difference during the fight. I was also struck by how much forward energy can come out of a lunge, even more than I had been training for the past three years.

On the second day, to my great surprise, everyone showed up (on time, even). That made matters much simpler for the purpose of drilling. In any case, we started with a review of the previous day's session, and then went right into discussing guadagnare and stringere, two very important notions which I had reversed; turns out it's not a huge deal because I had been doing the right thing all along, only my language had been in error. We managed to get through quite a few drills throughout the course of the day, and the wheels in my head have been turning steadily ever since. We have a lot of material to work on for the next couple of months. Excellent.

Overall, it was an excellent seminar, and I look forward to inviting Jared out again for a follow-up. We all got a great deal out of the weekend, and the fencing spark has been re-ignited in more than a few people's eyes. Next week will bring some good things.