A new type of drill.

[Stuart McDermid]

Hi Guys,

Here is an idea for a new drill. Agent has a padded dagger. Patient agent wears a fencing mask. Agent attacks patient until he gets a hit.
The difference between this and what we all do all the time you ask? The difference is that you don't allow the defender to use his hands. He can step, pass, leap, drop, roll and kick (gently) but must not use his hands or arms in any way whatsoever.

What this drill accomplishes:
Firstly, it is a wonderful aerobic workout.
Secondly it teaches the patient to defend himself via distance.
Thirdly it teaches the patient better timing as he must make the patient miss by a small margin or be easily struck by feints.

When we get good at this I intend to add a second attacker......
Stu.

[Erich Wagner]

I've done things similar to this in the context of EMA classes I've taught. It's a good drill for getting people to learn how to move their feet plus the other benefits you've mentioned. I find that a great many people simply forget that their lower body can move them out of the way of an attack.

[TimSheetz]

I've done this with Long Sword too... it helps people who have trouble moving learn how to move very quickly.

[Kyro_Lantsberger]

Hi, Im new here....

I like that idea. Ive done alot of Asian Martial Arts, and Western "sport" combative arts. Footwork, and anything that develops it is probably the key element in any type of free engagement. Im new to weapons combat, and the limited sparring that Ive done is with that strategy --Im not very good at weapon engagements, but I can gain a superior angle and sometimes catch people out of position by good movement.

[Stuart McDermid]

Hi Kyro,

I like this drill for the same reasons you do. Most martial artists move too much, to early and too far. This drill and those like it teach you to move just far enough. The skill to make someone miss by inches is a VERY important one to develop in training.

To stimulate further discussion, I would like to know if folks here use drill progression as part of their training. This is something I definitely like to do. Drill progression is where you start with a basic drill and add complexity as you go in the form of variables and additional movements. You keep doing this building a little at a time until you are basically undertaking limited sparring.
Cheers,
Stu.

[Ray Brunk]

Stu,
The concept of progression drills is exactly the way my partners and I training. We began with 1 step drills. After learning these drills (about 15) through repitition,we have begun to add additional techniques based on the 1 steps. We hope to progress this idea to help our flow, feel, instinct and decision making ability during combat. Seems to work well as several times in sparring, a technique was used then a practiced sequence seemed to almost happen without thought. Some day maybe this phenomenom will happen almost as often as going completely brain dead , making a horrific mistake and dying....lol
Ray

[Stuart McDermid]

Hi Ray,

We live in hope *g*

Here's something really strange that I picked up from my Kali teacher.
If a student is doing a complex flow drill (ie unscripted) and is able to carry on a conversation then they have a reasonable command of technique. Maybe it forces you to use a different part of the brain to internalise a technique *shrugs* but I find chatting to my students whilst drilling to actually help rather than hinder the process of learning.
Cheers,
Stu.