Snow and Swords

[Randall Pleasant]

We were iced in today in Dallas. I wend out for a little while with my waster for some light practiced. Trying to stay balanced at the end of a cut with speed and intent was a little hard. I kept going forward while bent over with my head leading the way. I kept having visions of an adversary just standing flat footed and taking my head off. While I did get the blood pumping I don't think I helped my technique any. <img src="/forum/images/icons/tongue.gif" alt="" />

[Jared L. Cass]

Yep, snow is great to train in! I've found that I need to keep my stances wider and lower. By doing so, the body's center of gravity is easier to control and balance is easier to maintain. And yes, by concentrating on displacements and beats, footwork becomes less important...which is real hard for me to do, since I relie on speed and body poitioning so much <img src="/forum/images/icons/crazy.gif" alt="" /> The other thing that really doesn't help as much in the snow is back peddling to void. With snow pressing into the back of the calfs, I found myself falling over backwards alot! The snow itself works to trip a guy up!

That said, I firmly believe that testing your skills in adverse conditions, like knee deep snow, is a must for developing true skill. It forces a guy to step outside of his comfort zone. What works on smooth level ground gets changed dramatically once a person trains in snow, on ice, up a hill, down a hill, in water, ect. It's a great learning experience!

Jared L. Cass, Wisconsin

[Scott Anderson]

Snow, what's that? while we did get some snow in south eastern utah, the half inch had turned into nice slick clay mud not more than 15 minutes after the sun came up. but i have done that in the past (been a few years since we had that much snow down here though).
SPA

[Jeffrey Hull]

Having done some modest sparring with long-sword wasters in snow, I should like to try some sword &amp; shield sparring in snow. It might give one a better understanding of the apparent footwork-free slug-fest of a certain kind of Norse duel, involving each belligerent standing his ground whilst trying to power through a series of three shields apiece to get at his foe with his sword. JH