Dall'Agocchie study group review: fourth session

Last night's session went very well, and I learned quite a few things from it myself, particularly in regards to where I want this whole thing to go. Concerning my role as a teacher, I realized two very important things:

1) The 90/120 minutes we have twice a week is extremely valuable, and as such, must not be wasted. As much as I love chit-chatting about fencing during class, we all have better things to be doing, namely the drills that we're developing. If you can't focus on what you're doing for longer than 30 seconds, you should be doing something else.

2) Since this is my research project for my free scholar exam later this year, I am taking this time very seriously, and ask of everyone else to do the same: show up ready, train hard, ask questions later. I make myself available during all the breaks and after class, so please, ask away.

Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand, we covered a few new things last night that I know people will need notes for, particularly the full solo form. In the following paragraphs, I will describe all the actions of the solo form, as well as the more advanced version of the Testa drill that some of us got to test out in the last half hour.

The solo form

1. Left ribbon (falso manco/falso riverso tondo + riverso sgualimbro) with a triangle step (tutta volta) with the right foot, facing 45 degrees to your left. Coda Lunga e Stretta.
2. Right ribbon (falso dritto + mandritto sgualimbro) with a triangle step with the left foot, facing 45 degrees to your right. Cinghiale Porta di Ferro.
3. Dritto tramazzone with a pass forward, going through Guardia di Testa, ending in Porta di Ferro Stretta.
4. Left ribbon with a pass forward, ending in Coda Lunga e Alta.
5. Riverso ridoppio (rising true edge cut from the left side) to Alicorno + imbroccata (descending thrust in First) with a pass forward, ending in Porta di Ferro Stretta.
6. Left ribbon with a pass back, ending in Coda Lunga e Alta.
7. Dritto tramazzone with a pass back, ending in Porta di Ferro Stretta.
8. Dritto tramazzone with a pass back, ending in Cinghiale Porta di Ferro.
9. Left ribbon with a pass back, ending in Coda Lunga e Stretta.

New variations on the Testa drill

1. A throws a mandritto sgualimbro, B parries in Guardia di Testa and counters with a mandritto, A parries in Guardia di Testa and counters with a mandritto, etc.
2. Instead of parrying in Guardia di Testa, B parries the cut in Guardia di Faccia, and then thrusts to the face with an increase of the right foot.
3. After parrying in Guardia di Testa, B changes to Alicorno and threatens a thrust to the face. Now, A either: does nothing and gets an imbroccata to the face, or pushes the point aside and is struck with a mandritto to the leg, body or head.
4. As above, except B will press down (true edge on flat) on A's sword and thrust a stoccata to the face or chest.
5. In the case of either thrust, A will throw a mandritto tramazzone to the hand while passing back. (Didn't cover this in class, but we'll get to it on Saturday)

In other news, rapier fencing after was fun, though we could use more people next time.