All right!
Today being the last day of this round of bootcamp, Academie Duello director Devon Boorman instructed our class. As always, it was super fun and inspiring learning from the Maestro d'Armi.
For one, Devon let us indulge without restraint in our Medieval breakfast of wine and bread - the results of which you can easily see in our teetering walk in the first part of the clip below.
Just kidding!!!!!
It was actually a hip rotation warm up that when paired with walking produced a truly awkward result.
The real reason learning from Devon was super fun is because he pushed us in a super-cardio, real-warrior, paired-work workout. As you'll see in the last bit of the clip, we've now upgraded from cutting masks held in hand to cutting masks worn on our heads; we spent the majority of the time cutting at eachother in close enough range to actually graze the chest and hit the head of our partner.
Over the past week, I've become more and more aware how important footwork is. When I played the evading role illustrated in the excercise below, this fact hit home even stronger. I found myself focusing almost exculsively on my feet, keeping them light and agile at all times. In an evasion, it is your feet which keep you safe; bending out of the way only throws you off balance, and shirking or cowering smaller gets you absolutely nowhere except wounded or dead. (Something that's hard not to do as a beginner. Ahem.. the cowering, not the dead part.)
Well folks, that's all for now. It's been a pleasure sharing my Swordfit Bootcamp experience with you all- a notch on my swordbelt truly work having!
If you wish to try this experience out yourself, next bootcamp starts on Monday at 7am, and the first class is a free trial. Let us know!
Otherwise,
Sophia
Devon Boorman is the Co-Founder and Director of Academie Duello Centre for Swordplay, which has been active in Vancouver, Canada since 2004. Devon’s expertise centres on the Italian swordplay tradition including the arts of the Renaissance Italian rapier, sidesword, and longsword, as well as knife and unarmed techniques. Read more from Devon Boorman.