Janka's log, stardate 2008

Swordsmen, real and imaginary

Posted by Jaana Wessman Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:06:00 GMT

Ilkka asked us to write of his Bolognese sidesword seminar / teaching exam on Sunday. My singing your praises as I am about to do will most likely embarrass you, Ilkka, but just remember you asked. I think the “If he doesn’t pass you will be a widow soon”, said (in joking, but with feeling) to the examiner’s wife after the seminar while the board was talking to the candidate, very accurately sums up the feelings of the students present.

I had never done sidesword before (that I remember). I think I have held one once or twice. When practiced by others, it mostly looks silly to me. No offense, but it does. Or, rather, I should have said that it used to look silly to me. I think after the seminar, having grasped the basic concepts, it actually might look somewhat sensible.

Ilkka put a lot of emphasis on natural movement and position, which was good, though I have to point out I yet have to meet a physical art instructor who means anything natural by “natural”. Ilkka comes closest so far, though. He presented the basics clearly and understandably and moved us very quickly through the basic stance to doing the first solo form of strikes and steps, and after that to pair exercises of several defenses against an attack, and ways to attack safely and keep yourself safe after. Without knowing a thing about it, I was at least fooled into thinking I got a comprehensive picture of what this style is about. (In personal summary: definitely more my thing than the damned Fiore longsword that is the bane of my existence, but as to whether I’d rather have a rapier class or a sidesword one, sorry, there’s still no competition whatsoever.)

Ilkka did an absolutely brilliant job making it clear what technique came from which source, where the sources differ, and what was actually documented and what was his interpretation. He answered questions confidently, but also did not get flustered at all by being asked questions he did not know answers for, but simply answered “I do not know - yet” or so, and kept on teaching. There was no arrogance whatsoever, no airs of expertise, no detectable defensiveness about having to “prove” himself. Very obviously, he loves his art and he loves sharing it. In my experience, that kind of ease and comfort with and in himself, confident knowledge of his stuff, and open readiness to share what he knows, are an extremely rare combination in all fields, and something to really be admired. True masters are made out of good persons, and this man is on the way.

I was worried about the pace of the class at first, but it seems there too he knew what he was doing. I am not sure of the real total beginners, but as what can be best described as an aspiring re-beginner I had no difficulties following what he wanted us to do and executing the exercises (and only the expected amount of difficulties in doing them well). For the whole seminar, I only once found myself in a situation where I was completely unable to figure out how to do the technique so that it has even a remote chance of working, and that got sorted fast by Ilkka coming over and showing it again to me and my equally clueless partner. This was totally awesome, especially in a class I felt was moving fast: for reference, such cluelessness usually happens to me two to four times in a normal 2-hour class. Of course the material was basic and most people had experience in other styles, but still.

By no failing of the teacher, I ran a bit into my usual failing of obsession with details. It is not a problem for me to do a movement if I do not get every detail right (if it was, I could never have learned dance, or swordsmanship, or anything, as I also have less than stellar general body co-ordination). It is, however, a problem for me if I do not know the details. In this case, we went through the basic cuts so fast that I was left puzzled about how exactly I should have held my hand in certain positions (palm facing up or down? wrist totally straight or bent?). This should not have stopped me from just practicing the overall movements, since it was unlikely I’d get the detail right anyway regardless of whether I knew it or not, but it still almost did. I am shy of asking technical questions I know are way beyond what I can physically execute yet, so I mostly worked it out by watching people in class I knew had done it before.

On Monday, there was time for more swordsmen, though this time imaginary such, as our brave party of adventurers, assuredly good guys despite that little incident of a midnight slaughter-them-all surprise attack with a demon horde on a totally unsuspecting and probably innocent exploration party, continued the exploration of a mysterious manse in Orava’s Exalted campaign. I of course mention this mostly because I love the title of the entry, but I have meant to blog about that shortly anyway, for some time.

I have to say I did not have high hopes for Exalted when the campaign started. I am not into complicated rules systems, I am not into flashy superpowers, I am not into high fantasy in RPGs, I am not into meters high stacks of supplements… So no, Exalted did not sound like my thing. I promised to play because the group sounded brilliantly good, and because living with the GM ensures I get my RP fix without having to drag myself to places much.

The game is much better than I expected. The rules are understandable even when complicated, and they have been smoothed out pretty well (and where they aren’t, the GM brings in house rules to fix it). They actually make combat resolution fun, instead of the previous best performance of some systems that make having randomized combat results fun. Awesome feat. The world is vast and fun and alive and being at the power-level of minor gods actually works out pretty well and, thankfully, contrary to what was advertised does not get totally overboard cheesy all the time.

The group really is good. Of course that probably affects it a lot, but I’d still give the game some points too.