Janka's log

The only day I could make the salle this week was Tuesday. Which is the beginner’s day, which I thought would not be a problem, as my longsword is very well terrible enough to benefit from basic footwork and cuts. Only, when I arrived to the salle, Guy and Ilkka told me I likely cannot take the class, because it is full. I admit here and now that in the privacy of my head I called them nazis and muttered about there always being a room for one more, even if they have sixteen or whatever already.

Only as people came in, it turned out they did not have sixteen, they had twenty-bloody-seven.

So I sat the class out reading the Duelist’s Companion (and found out I have been thinking of the extension in a suboptimal way, even while doing it right-ish). Afterwards, we did some rapier with Orava (who also had hoped for a longsword refresher) and Guy gave me a private lesson on the parry-riposte stuff, which I did not consider a bad exchange for the lost beginner longsword class at all.

Having established that I can do a parry starting from a not-extended position, he had me do parries from contexts where I already was extended, which to me, frankly, still feels like a totally silly thing to do instead of just closing the damned line while ramming the point through the other guy. Good work, though.(Note to self: Elbow softens, it does not pull back. Also, terza hides behind the cup.) I learn more in five minutes of a private session than I do in a full hour of regular class… the downside is I always feel guilty of taking the teacher’s time for just poor old me, with so many so much more dedicated people at the salle.

Also, and possibly worse than any technical mistake, turns out I have a problem with hitting people. I soften my wrist to soften the blow when I hit a person, even Guy in full kit after he has told me not to, while I do not do the same when I hit the wall. Guy tried to make me feel better of it by saying “of course it hurts, now do it to me!” which did not help at all, while the “I am the wall” quote helped some, which probably means I have a basically sane attitude about hurting other people, which attitude I’d rather not lose… so I need to figure out some way to deal with it.