is it allowed?
May. 27th, 2009 09:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zebeeBeing a 2nd generation geek, and a seriously verbal person....
Is it allowed to realise that you have to actually *do* it to understand something, and not just think about it?
(or does it just mean you aren't an Arisian adopted at birth?)
So I'm still ploughing through Marozzo. He's a very bright lad, as what he's doing - describing physical movements in writing - was a new idea at the time he was doing it, and he doesn't do too bad a job. I do suspect that he got sloppy towards the end though! And when he gets more into theory, such as timing, then he's floundering a bit.
(I'm still amazed at how much theory and understanding as shown in the 16thC Italian fencing schools was taught to me by my fencing master in damn near the same words. There really is nothing new under the sun.)
Anyway, I'm getting past the "assaults" which are really just teasers for "this is what you need to learn to do" and into some theory.
The first thing you have to accept in the 2nd half of the Spadone section is that as it's not a longsword but a great sword, if you get to what he calls "medig spada" which seems to mean what the Germans call "the cross" where you have struck blades edge to edge and are close enough to reach out and touch someone....
Once you get that close, forget about using the blade. You start the wrestling and the pommel strikes and the fisticuffs. Ugly stuff.
I'm skipping that though, won't be usable in the SCA and it's dangerous.
But then I get to something like " that is if he casts a manditto tondo or
his mandritto fendente or his mandritto redoppio, you can raise in guardia alta in the time of his unleashing; but in his casting of the said mandritto, and be the one he wants, so you throw yourself in that way that you know and cast and unleash him a mandritto for his left temple or in his said mandritto, casting and immediately
entering and giving him a roverso to his right side or in his unleashing, lifting in guardia alta, in the casting of his mandritto, you will put yourself below them & consent and cast him a roverso redoppio;"
Oh-kayyyyyy
No way can I work that out just reading it.
So I tried standing in the living room with my sword, messing about with it, but I think I'll have to grab a fencing dummy and say "stand there while I attempt to kill you please"....
But it would be nice if he'd mentioned Guardia Alta a bit earlier. In sword and buckler Alta is where you stand with your sword vertical above your head like a well dressed lighting rod, I really can't see how it translates to you being false edge to false edge and you are going to try and eggshell him at the temple, break his elbow, or smash his teeth out with your pommel...
Lovely hobby for a lady eh?
Is it allowed to realise that you have to actually *do* it to understand something, and not just think about it?
(or does it just mean you aren't an Arisian adopted at birth?)
So I'm still ploughing through Marozzo. He's a very bright lad, as what he's doing - describing physical movements in writing - was a new idea at the time he was doing it, and he doesn't do too bad a job. I do suspect that he got sloppy towards the end though! And when he gets more into theory, such as timing, then he's floundering a bit.
(I'm still amazed at how much theory and understanding as shown in the 16thC Italian fencing schools was taught to me by my fencing master in damn near the same words. There really is nothing new under the sun.)
Anyway, I'm getting past the "assaults" which are really just teasers for "this is what you need to learn to do" and into some theory.
The first thing you have to accept in the 2nd half of the Spadone section is that as it's not a longsword but a great sword, if you get to what he calls "medig spada" which seems to mean what the Germans call "the cross" where you have struck blades edge to edge and are close enough to reach out and touch someone....
Once you get that close, forget about using the blade. You start the wrestling and the pommel strikes and the fisticuffs. Ugly stuff.
I'm skipping that though, won't be usable in the SCA and it's dangerous.
But then I get to something like " that is if he casts a manditto tondo or
his mandritto fendente or his mandritto redoppio, you can raise in guardia alta in the time of his unleashing; but in his casting of the said mandritto, and be the one he wants, so you throw yourself in that way that you know and cast and unleash him a mandritto for his left temple or in his said mandritto, casting and immediately
entering and giving him a roverso to his right side or in his unleashing, lifting in guardia alta, in the casting of his mandritto, you will put yourself below them & consent and cast him a roverso redoppio;"
Oh-kayyyyyy
No way can I work that out just reading it.
So I tried standing in the living room with my sword, messing about with it, but I think I'll have to grab a fencing dummy and say "stand there while I attempt to kill you please"....
But it would be nice if he'd mentioned Guardia Alta a bit earlier. In sword and buckler Alta is where you stand with your sword vertical above your head like a well dressed lighting rod, I really can't see how it translates to you being false edge to false edge and you are going to try and eggshell him at the temple, break his elbow, or smash his teeth out with your pommel...
Lovely hobby for a lady eh?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-27 06:14 pm (UTC)Is it allowed to realise that you have to actually *do* it to understand something, and not just think about it?"
IMO, absolutely - yes!
I'm a strong believer in the Zen nature of just about everything, & IMO, you can;t really understand anything unless you've done it.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-27 10:01 pm (UTC)He is doing his best with a difficult subject, describing physical movements, especially when you are doing a sequence with two people involved who are rather deliberately not in harmony but instead doing their best to ruin the other's work, that's hard.
But still it's almost affronting to read something and realise "I have no clue what is going on here". I'm not used to incomprehension dammit!
At least not when reading things written by a master of an art who is usually very good at explaining what's going on.
These bits are almost shorthand. The assault descriptions are more or elss student exercises I think, "go away and practice these sequences" whereas the theory bits are more the powerpoint slides for a lecture.
He's up the front demonstrating, and the slides are just a set of disjointed memory notes making little sense without the lecture.
So without the lecture I will just have to grab my fencing partner and tease out just what is going on.