Sabre Intensive Lesson 1

Only person from RJC till JX came but anyway he's assistant coach -_-. Did the usual warm up and lunge drills but in a deviation from the normal, we didn't do footwork exercises but bladework instead. We did drills to help us judge our hitting distance and it was through such drills I found my lunging was haywire in many ways: speed, order of movement and timing. David then explained to us the key to winning simultanni, which was taking 2 slow and small steps to access the opponent's reaction, before reacting to it. Practiced that drill with Harold, a brand new sabreur, and then decided I needed a LOT more drills before I get the hang of it. While I managed to garner the points sometimes, it was probably because he was slow in his extending his arm, rather than me employing the strategy. Fenced Sivi and clinched a win with a score of 15-12. Must have been rather lucky considering I am worse in her in all aspects. Fenced David and predictably lost even though he was fencing like a novice. Was thankful he was trying to show me the different possible scenarios that could ensue in a bout. My reaction was probably less than up to par..:(. Think I better religiously do lunge drills, footwork and bladework before the next lesson on Sunday.