Rather than wait for my fencing aunt to make an appearance in town, today I went ahead and gave myself my first lesson out of a book. Fifteen minutes of lunging an imaginary sword at an imaginary opponent and my fat, weak legs are all wobbly and sore. I reckon this means I'm doing something right.
It's actually fun, this fencing thing. It doesn't seem very practical, of course. In modern fencing, one moves back and forth in a straight line like opponents in a 2d video game. In real life, anyone trying to fight like that would get a chair to the back of the head. But modern fencing isn't designed for real life, it's designed for, I don't know, people who don't like to move side to side.
I figure I'll learn the basics of fencing--I never bother to learn more than the basics of anything except writing, to tell you the truth--and then I can find resources that will help me adapt the moves to swashbuckling-type fencing, which is what I really want to learn. Arrrr.
12 comments:
It's quite practical if one's opponent has no lateral movement...perhaps you need to fight a locomotive stuck to rails.
But a sword (foil) probably wouldn't be the best weapon vs. a train, huh?
Always fun to learn new skills, though. ;)
Maybe if it was a cardboard locomotive. Or a charging boar in a narrow hallway!
Isn't the only difference between swashbuckling and fencing is a feather in your cap and a pair of black, shiny pointy boots?
And a jaunty, wisecracking attitude!
I believe you might gain more from a sword-fighting for theater majors class than strictly fencing. Or go hang with the creative anachronism nerds in your area--they're the ones wearing medieval costumes and thwacking each other with nerf swords in the park.
The sword-fighting class for theater majors is a really good idea. The SCA-types I've seen around here all seem to be 18 years old and really full of themselves. So are the theater majors, though. Hmm, which group would I prefer to embarrass myself in front of?
En garde!
I know that one! It's the starting position!
Perhaps the question is which group you would prefer to hack with a nerf sword?
Ha! Definitely the actors!
OMG, I totally need a nerf sword!
Fencing always looks like so much fun. I'd love to learn one day.
I would too. :)
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