so sunday i had my first ever meeting with other ARMA members at the virgina beach study group. it was pretty intense, there was so much to learn that it will take quite some time to digest. i was happy to see that my own training had definately put me on the right track to WMA, however i was quickly made aware of some critical shortcomings. there is such an amazing difference between trying to learn this on one's own, and having very knowledgeable instructors. so here's what i learned:
1. my stance and passing steps were too exaggerated, making my stance more sideways than fowards. shane gave me a really good reason as to why this was bad
2. i learned that ochs and pflug should have their points aimed at your adversary's face. also, ochs is held much higher and more forward than i had though. this keeps the guard well forward of the face for protection.
3. i leanred the importance of holding the hilt such that the cross guard forms a 45 degree angle. this keeps your hands from getting destroyed when one tries versetzen.
4. i learned the 4 versetzen. apparently our blocking via pflug wasn't correct, since it doesn't displace and threaten at the same time
5. i got a good look at the false edge master strikes, zwerch, schiel, and krumphau. i was able to correct my understanding of the krumphau.
6. i learned kron, stopping the strike with your left hand, and a halfswording hard stop as counters to a zornhau.
here are some general impressions i had from the day:
first of all my wimpy waster was no match for the real ones. although i was quite proud the blade didn't break. i had no concept of these beefy hardwood wasters and the force they deliver. shane and i were doing what seemed to me like almost full speed hängen und zornhau drills. that was something! wow. and then the versetzen drills, also something to behold. here comes this huge waster at me, and i'm versetzing with only the strong of my waster and the guard between me and total hand and finger oblivion! very scary!
i was of course probably the youngest and smallest guy there. which was amazing to me, because my practice partner back in Atl is pretty close to my size. so the differences in height and reach were crazy. shane is like way tall. makes timed counter cuts difficult.
being able to execute a technique in a drill where you know what strike is coming at you, and then in a sparring or situation when you don't know what's coming is quite another thing. i knew this from dealing with my partner, but this was re-inforced. future drills with me need to emphasize counter against an unknown attack.
impressions from sparring:
so before i left for the day, i agreed to go up against matt anderson (i think, so bad with names). i must say i got the utter snot beat out of me. i was dissapointed that i didn't put up a better fight, especially in light of all the things i had just learned. the padded waster was kind of akward for me. for some reason i had trouble dealing with it. maybe it was too big for me? maybe i was already tired from the drills?
so here i was, knowing that the moment i attack, i was going to be quite thoroughly squashed. timed countercuts to the arms, head, shoulders, etc. because of the akwardness of the waster, i was slow on the attack, and not really able to recover quickly enough to defend. so i was dead like whoa.
finally someone was like: "you need to call the hits if they're good, or else he'll keep coming." i was thinking call the hits? what do they mean call the hits, i'm too busy watching the little birdies fly around in circles over my head. it was enough to just concentrate on what i was doing.
getting such a thorough beating made me even more determined to effectively learn WMA. i think the key here is more drills against an unknown attack. i can't really remember executing any effective counters, much less hitting matt. maybe next time i'll be able to do better. as soon as i fix the guard on my waster, i'll be able to practice the things i learned sunday. you can bet that next time i'll be better!
in conclusion, sunday was most awesome. despite getting a good pounding (a zornhau almost knocked me over!) i learned so much. the first thing to do is address the bad habits i've taught myself. if i had a padded waster that i could handle, i think i could do MUCH better.
so thanks guys for a very awesome day! i'll definately be back for another beat-down i'm sure <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />
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