Melody Saurus
zaxosaur.bsky.social
Melody Saurus
@zaxosaur.bsky.social
she/they femby

modern and historical fencing

this is an account for me to dump fencing thoughts into the void instead of cluttering discords with my garbage

and is a more easily accessible record
I must learn the art of safely fucking with people in fencing until they crack under the pressure and make a mistake and THEN I launch the attack on that tiny initial opening
December 19, 2024 at 10:56 PM
not gonna worry about teaching sabre or starting open hall soon

gonna focus on the rapier group

definitely better to start slow and not burn out lol
December 10, 2024 at 5:00 PM
yesterday, got asked to teach sabre classes in addition to my planned rapier classes

a year ago, sabre was my goal

but now I'm focused on rapier

I still enjoy sabre, I know how i'd teach it, I'd like to teach it, but idk how this works logistically with my schedule and the club's schedule

ouhg
December 9, 2024 at 3:11 PM
I've concluded indoor airsoft is glorified interval sprinting

I'm exhausted lol

time to dig my old gun out of storage
December 7, 2024 at 1:12 AM
it's not destreza that's insane, it's the diestres
...for choosing to work on a system that's hard to interpret and struggles to pull useful data or practice from other systems or from modern fencing

destreza sucks! (I still want to learn to fence it some day, good destreza is so cool, @ tonpuey)
December 5, 2024 at 3:42 PM
yoga is crazy bc you find asymmetries you didn't even know you had and oh GOD they become SO apparent
December 2, 2024 at 9:45 PM
IT'S A TARGETING ISSUE

i extend to his upper torso, he extends to my neck and takes my weak with his strong and now has control of my blade and hits me

I NEED TO TARGET THE TOP OF THE FACE

mosh showed this a few times and i didn't realize THIS IS THE SCENARIO IM IN TOO

fencing ;-;
December 2, 2024 at 5:49 PM
it has occurred to me, when i have long thoughts like this, maybe i should make one post, and then reply to it?

can you tell i never used twitter before and don't really read other bsky accounts? i just go here and scream into the void

it's essentially a blog tbh

maybe i should make a blog LOL
December 2, 2024 at 4:16 PM
i suppose that's probably sufficient, folks who want it bad enough will get decent through just a high volume of sparring alone tbh, and hopefully the drills accelerate their progress, and help those who care but don't have an all consuming obsessive drive to grind fencing (WHICH IS HEALTHY TBHHHhh)
December 2, 2024 at 4:14 PM
I'm basically just collecting drills and games I've learned from other people who've walked this path before and who are now helping me, and will run my group through them

and give pointers and suggestions based on what I've learned through myself and others

and providing lots of sparring time
December 2, 2024 at 4:12 PM
i spent a while being like "nuh uh not an instructor i won't be an instructor nope not an instructor" but I've come to terms with the fact that some already see me as basically an instructor (ohgodohfuck)

i gotta just accept it and step up to the challenge lol

fortunately others are helping me
December 2, 2024 at 4:10 PM
blows my mind that I'll be basically teaching a rapier class in january

and there might be demand for a sabre practice too, I'm better at sabre anyway, but I'm too busy crosstraining in mof and judo and sca rapier ;-;

still, maybe i can find a way to make it work?

i need more days in the week
December 2, 2024 at 4:09 PM
i should've brought a book with me to kill time in the library before class

i cannot will myself to study flashcards for 15 minutes let alone 45

ouhg
December 2, 2024 at 4:01 PM
my actions in rapier work better when i slow them down a little

i guess this is what fabris meant when he said not to fling the sword

still fast, but not to the point that i experience "lag" in my blade actions

and then of course, when appropriate, the attack can be thrust out fast af
December 2, 2024 at 3:59 PM
also, "good technique" may be a term that i don't like. may prefer technical skills. good god I'm turning into marb this is the worst timeline
November 28, 2024 at 9:46 PM
mulling over the idea that good technique is the combination of: strength, mobility, endurance, coordination, perception of environmental stimulus, ideas

this is sensible to me right now

and more importantly, informs what i need to work on to improve my movement
November 28, 2024 at 9:46 PM
love that there's techniques where you just need to be fucking faster

like, it's not that simple, there's timing details

but also, it kind of is that simple? you need a certain amount of speed to seize the timing

so ok it's not simple but also just

the ability to be fast, is good!!

be fast
November 28, 2024 at 9:16 PM
thought of other movements but don't feel like writing them

anyway, of course every movement is a coordination skill, like parries for example, and that's absolutely how i think of them, but i can still generally categorize different things, and like... yeah idk point is stuff is clicking now :D
November 28, 2024 at 8:56 PM
like... half extension, parries/beats, thrust by extend and turn wrist, inquartata/fianconade/sottobatta(?), i think gains too, and then the close quarters combat stuff. not a huge list of movements tbh. oh and the steps and guards etc but like... not as much as i feared? it's very approachable tbh
November 28, 2024 at 8:54 PM
most of the way through loda's book rn

starting to think this is largely a set of common movements applied in different tactical contexts

kind of neat, should make it faster to learn for me
November 28, 2024 at 8:49 PM
likewise, being able to MOVE THE SWORD in the way you need to, to perform a technique, is so important

i struggle with this

it's a physical action capacity thing, and a technique thing

if you're tired, you will handle the sword bad, and fence worse, maybe significantly worse

amazing
November 25, 2024 at 9:24 PM
being able to move in fencing is fucking IMPORTANT hey?
November 24, 2024 at 11:49 PM
at the part of loda's book where reading a single chapter makes me mentally tired from focusing and trying to visualize the new action. fun but exhausting. won't finish this anytime soon lol
November 22, 2024 at 5:42 PM
1, 2-3 has a long 1. in musical notation, and in 4-4, the 1 is three sixteenths, the 2 is the last sixteenth, the 3 is the downbeat of the next note. 1, 2-3. 1, 2-3. the 3 can be held longer to visually sink the point for judging probably, or have an eighth note to cover. theorizing idk
November 22, 2024 at 3:45 PM
1, 2-3 makes so much more sense now
November 22, 2024 at 3:43 PM