How does it feel to be like Jack Sparrow, Zorro, Captain Hook and Inigo Montoya? I had been wondering that for years but never got the courage up to take a lesson for one reason or another. Well, my addiction to new experiences finally lead me to the door of Swordplay - a place that has been around since 1992 and has taught many fencing participants in the competition circuit for USFA and taught many famous actors in film/stage choreographed combat. With butterflies in my stomach, I walked up to the front desk all timid-like, not knowing what I was getting myself into and if they'd make fun of me or just make a general fool of myself. I haven't worked out in almost a year (yeah - been in that lazy, stuck in a rut situation for a while) and was worried if I'd be able to hold a sword for a long time, much less wield it around on cue. The class I chose was a drop in/walk in class called "Film & Stage Combat"…which meant it was geared towards actors - which I'm not - so it made me even more nervous. They were very nice though and welcomed me in to a huge wood paneled room with benches on one side and various types of weapons on the other. I barely introduced myself and was already being lead over to the various types of cutlass swords and was told to pick one I liked. I ended up choosing the sword what seemed lighter and smaller to me which they told me was the Jack Sparrow cutlass sword - the other one was the Hook cutlass sword with a bigger hand grip cover. There were two other students there who were regulars, practicing sword/combat for potential upcoming acting roles. The teacher, Adam, had them choose and use two weapons, a rapier and a dagger just to change things up for them. Luckily I paired off with another teacher, Diana, to learn with her in order to get me introduced to this fun yet potentially dangerous endeavor. She taught me fairly quickly on the leg stance - feet shoulder width, knees bent, with same sword hand and leg facing forward - and how to move up and back. Also, she quickly went through the various "parry" and "thrust" movements. There are specific names and numbers for each of these actions (ie Parry 7, Parry 1, etc..) but I can’t remember what they all are right now… below is a screen caption of Wikipedia page describing them if it helps any. No time to really take it all in though, because then it was time to learn some choreographed steps! Taking it slow, she told me to aim at her left shoulder and step forward, aim at her right leg and step forward, block her sword to my shoulder and step back, block her sword to my head and step back, attack her head and step forward, block her sword to my right arm and step back and then we do a 'bind' where our swords guide each other and fling to the side where then I then step forward and do a 'cool cut' to her stomach and I 'win'! In the video below, we were still going pretty slow, so hopefully you can follow along to what I explained above. That’s me on the right in the blue shirt by the way! I love that this company videotapes your fight at the end of the class so you can actually see how you're doing! I came away with a lot of information because of that. In the video, my face is full of abject concentration…you can see in my head thinking “ok sword to left, to right, up, down, step forward, step back, don't flare out my elbow at the last parry, keep feet grounded…oh and don't stab the teacher at the end!"
While doing it, the movements seemed to me to be much more dynamic and faster, and I felt a lot closer to my opponent than how it looked on video. Crazy how different it was in my mind than from reality. I'm so glad to see the video - it was a reflection of my timid but encouraged self, going out and doing something new...and with a big cheer at the end! Pretty good for my first try! The exuberance I felt after this experience propelled me to get new workout clothes, join a gym and start this blog. It has also helped me remember my childhood love of choreographed physical movement - it made my heart sing! I'm going to stick with this class and work towards being a background actor in sword/combat and/or dance scenes...maybe in a couple years you'll see me fighting in the background with Jack Sparrow or on Game of Thrones! What have you been wanting to do, but have been putting off? You never know if your heart will sing when doing something unless you try it!
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