My Swordfit Bootcamp Experience - Day 2


Hello Everyone,

So, yesterday was my second day of May bootcamp. (I forgot to mention last time, but it happens three times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.) My apologies for the lateness of this post; I’m still getting the hang of this whole blogging process -this is my first blog ever! And what a good experience it is.

We started with a warm-up of kicks, running and -ahem- burpees. I “ahem” the burpees because these are doled out to everyone as penalty for being late: 2 for each minute after 7am. You don’t see me in the picture because I sneakily made my way to the bathroom at this time... but don’t worry, righteous readers! I didn’t get away with it. No, I was not that fortunate. As soon as I got back, Mane had me doing 20 of them on my own while the others got to do the fun stuff with swords. I hope I learned my lesson. 🙂

In the clip below, you can see our warm up in addition to sword drills. Yesterday’s theme being circles, there were lots of turns added between cuts- the one that Mane is demonstrating near the middle of the video is the “windmill”. Cadence of one, two, one two three. With cutting, it went:

One- step and fendente cut
Two- step and fendente cut other side
One, two, three- turn 360 degrees while making a sottano cut
Then repeat on the other side.

 

Our “circuit” section in the second video was a playful game of "roll the die". Each of us took turns rolling, and each number corresponded with a certain exercise in the theme of circles- from spinning rope above our heads (you can see me in the front on this one), to doing flourishes with a staff, to circular cuts with our longsword, to... drumroll, please... rolling on the ground!

 

 

This has been fun, my friends. I hope you enjoyed.

Arte, Ardore, Onore,

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.