the problem with rapier

[anotheranon]

It seems I am developing the strength, but not the endurance, for this weapon. After 2 hours of drills my arm is just too tired to hold my guard position during actual bouting. This results in the weight of the weapon getting the upper hand and destroys my point control completely! Of course that means I'm not hitting anyone and not even defending myself well :(

This is not helped by the fact that the "balance" on most of the rapiers I borrow resides a few inches up the blade, rather than right next to the guard. I suspect this works really well for a taller person :/ One day I'll have something created to my specs, but until that day, I need to focus less on strength and more on just being able to hold the damn thing for longer than 5 minutes at a stretch!

Surprisingly my saber game is still decent - I won a single bout 10 to 9, but it was only one bout and I think I'm getting a bit sloppy through lack of practice.

I'm on track with my studies; indeed, I've gone through most of the final study guide so I have plenty of time to cover the first half of the course (final is cumulative).

Found neat links over the weekend: How to choose a well made suit, by englishcut, a London bespoke tailor who recognizes not everyone is wealthy enough to afford his wares :P I've already asked him what a woman should look for in a good suit.

Recently rediscovered 1969 interview with Frank and Beverly Herbert re: what inspired him to write "Dune". Thought it might be of interest to sci-fi/literary types (Paging Doc semmie!)

I'm on a mailing list which provides interesting media gossip; the best I've heard so far is that Johnny Depp will be playing Gypsy Rose Lee in a Tim Burton film and that this guy is set to play James Bond in a remake of Casino Royale. I'm glad they're choosing an unknown - fewer expectations - but I think he's a bit young for the role.

And if you need Jedi robes, Padawan's Guide looks an like what you get when you look up "comprehensive" in the dictionary...

Coffee almost finished, time to hit the road! Happy Monday, y'all...

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

You can get heavier counterweights for your rapier that will bring the center of ballance back toward your hand. Are you using something that was made commercially? Or a custom creation? Either way I'm sure it can be better ballanced.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

What I'm currently borrowing is one of the coach's "loaner swords", which has a rather "whippy" (in comparsion to Darkwood - I'm kind of spoiled) rapier blade and I think brass guard. Commercially made, almost certainly. Others I've borrowed have been Darkwood Armory custom - most of the serious rapier fencers prefer this vendor over all others.

How/where might I go about finding a counterweight?

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Triplette sells them.

[skill-grl.livejournal.com]

If I recognize him correctly the "This Guy" for James Bond isn't exactly an unknown. He was a huge figure in the NBC show E.R. for years.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

He's a Croatian actor called Goran Visnjic - if he has been on ER all these years I wouldn't know; I've not seen it in years!

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah -- he was the bad guy in "Practical Magic" and he's a hunka-hunka. I think he also played Dracula down the line somewhere... Woof!

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I remember him from Practical Magic! He's definitely got the dark and dangerous spy thing going on, but I still think he looks a bit young to play Bond.

[nminusone.livejournal.com]

> It seems I am developing the strength, but not the endurance, for this
> weapon. After 2 hours of drills my arm is just too tired to hold my
> guard position during actual bouting.

You just need some old-school martial arts training. "Here are 2 buckets of water. Hold them with your arms outstretched. And stand in horse stance while you do that. Once you work up to 3 hours w/o a waver or whimper, we might bother teaching you something else."

But seriously... if you're doing strength training, keep at it. If you want speed you need to train for speed, and if you want endurance you need to train for endurance, however *muscle mass* is the foundation of both of those. Muscle needs to be tuned, via training, to be fast or to have high endurance, but you can't train what isn't there. Also both other qualities are relative to strength. The stronger you are the easier it can be to gain speed or endurance.

The delts are generally considered a tough muscle group to work with, but you may get lucky. Some people find them very easy to improve.

There are also things you can do with diet and supplements. Some of them can be done every day, others are only suitable for infrequent use, maybe for contests.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I spent time today just standing in the on-guard position with rapier extended - both sides. One minute at a stretch, then one and a half.. Got up to two and change before my right started to shake, ~ 2 min for my left.

I guess lather, rinse, repeat is in order!