Historical fencing (HEMA) exercise for fast counters

This is an exercise drill that I used today for warm-ups along with the usual freeplay with tasks. These two plays have been in the works now in our Anonimo solo spada classes for a few weeks. As the plays are fairly simple - with their counter plays #391 and #393, respectively - they make good warm-ups. Firstly because they are simple but fundamental in their contents, that is beats and their follow-ups and their counters, and because they are short enough to used as tasks in the freeplay.

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As the plays have been worked for some weeks already people are somewhat familiar with them, and the as the plays themselves are somewhat simple, combining them into one more challenging play is a good way to keep practicing them but with added difficulty. Furthermore, combining the plays in this manner puts them in a more dynamic and realistic context in terms of freeplay. So this aspect of the drill is working the students' brain: remember the stuff and make them consciously process them by putting them in a new harder setting.

As the plays combined like this is somewhat fast paced drill with its changes of tempo, it also makes a good warm-up drill in terms of preparing the body for the training: making the blood flow, firing up the nervous system and working some basic actions in higher intensity. This kind of things should be done especially in the beginning of the session when the wits are still sharp and there aren't too much information to process yet. That is, for a session that's point is not plays like this but the tactical aspects of the Bolognese fencing tradition.

Lastly, this play is nothing special in itself. It is not an attempt to create a new play. The point of the exercise is simply to remind what we have done, make the students do it again and prepare their bodies to the training session ahead. Not everything needs to be, or indeed should be, amazing super experiences of training vibes. Just some good old honest grind with a flavor.