Teaching a Class!

I'm teaching a class at EK 50 Year, about how swords work in terms of rigid systems!

It takes stuff from a few papers and adapts them to a slightly more utilitarian perspective, rather than the most-expressive-in-least-space form that the papers outline. It is available here:

CLICK ON THIS LINK CLICK ON IT.

Running?!?!?

I decided halfway through writing this that it should be in my blog. I'm not a doctor, but these are all things I've found work well for me over time. I'm not a marathon runner and my speed isn't super fast, but these things seem to work.

My standard running checklist for when something is going less-than-ideally is as follows:

1. Check my torso and head positioning.

Breathing is a difficult subject. You're doing cardio, so the exercise you're doing is optimized to place that system under stress. The thing you're trying to train up is your diaphragm and chest cavity's ability to pull in and expel air.

The most important thing I corrected here was my posture - maintaining a light engagement through your mid to lower back is super important for giving your chest cavity the space to breathe. The "bracing method" would work here, with perhaps a bit less engagement through the abs.

Further related to posture, I find that rolling my back "upwards" helps to "open up" my chest and allow me to engage my chest musculature a bit better, to allow me to get more muscles involved in pulling in oxygen. The position is a bit like the "idealized body position" that Devon described in class and said *not* to do when in a fencing guard. In this case, I thiiiiiink it's okay because you're doing it for a specific purpose. Alternately, it's very possible that my chest cavity is shaped in a way that means I need to do this to optimize, but other people don't need to.

Looking forward or upward makes it easier to breathe. Looking downwards with your face creases your esophagus, which means the air going into your lungs has to change direction more, and thus experiences more friction with your esophagus.

Mouth-shape matters here. I usually find that a shape closer to an "O" or a circle makes it easier to pull air in for some weird reason. The other thing I do here sometimes is open my mouth wide enough to bare my teeth, which engages tissue in the nasal passages enough to open them a bit more, which allows me to combo mouth-nose breathe. Unless I do that, pulling in air through my nose is a complete no-go while running, especially outside.

2. Check my breathing pace.

The most important thing for me these days, after dealing with all of that, is breathing pace. So, how often you breathe in or out.

One thing to keep in mind here is that the cycle of breathing is easier if you only cycle from about ~25% full to about ~75% full, averaging around 50%. The farther from 50% your lung capacity is, the harder you have to push to get there. This means that up to a point, you can breathe shallower and more often.

Eventually you hit diminishing returns here - rapidly changing from inhaling to exhaling requires energy too. As well, the faster you breathe the less efficient the oxygen exchange in your lungs grows. This means that for your breathing, you have to optimize among a whole bunch of different things.

Usually my ideal pace is about half a breath per time my foot strikes the ground. So, right foot hits and then I breathe in, and then left foot hits and I breathe out. This usually feels a little too fast at the start of the run, and gradually feels better as I continue. I tend to have pretty close to three steps per second when going for a run, which should give you an idea of the pace of breathing.

For selecting a pace of breathing, I usually try to synchronize it with my steps. If your lungs feel tired, you need to give them time to recover. This means you need to breathe slower for a while. So after a really hard hill, I might switch from an in-out pace of 1-1 to 2-2. So - start breathing in with the step left, then step right, then step left again and start breathing out, step right, and repeat with a step left and breathing in.

I've found that developing breathing strength is more effective if I go through "reps" of breathing faster and harder, then slower to let my lungs recover. So, I go through the following sequence:

-Start at 1-1

-Go for a while at 2/3-2/3 (counting out that I should have four breaths per three steps)

-Go for a while at 1/2-1/2 (one in-out per time a foot hits the ground)

-Maybe go for a while at 1/3-1/3 (in-out-in or out-in-out each time my foot hits the ground)

-back to 1/2-1/2

-back to 2/3-2/3

-back to 1-1

-Down to 3/2-3/2 (two breaths per three steps)

-Down to 2-2 (one breath per two steps)

-Down to 3-3 (one breath per three steps)

-Maybe down to 4-4

-back up to 3-3

-back up to 2-2

-back up to 3/2-3/2

-back up to 1-1

-Repeat

This is a weird sequence to time out, but it provides steps upwards and downwards in breathing-exertion that feel to me like they are progressive in terms of effort, so long as you don't let your breathing get too shallow. The faster sequence forces you to push your lungs harder, and the slower sequence lets your breathing-muscles dispel some lactic acid and recover.

Generally though, a 1-1 breathing sequence is the most efficient sequence as far as I can tell from my heart rate.

Breathing is also important for dispelling heat - I usually end up breathing faster and shallower when it's hotter out. At that point the thing my body is trying to do isn't get oxygen - it's shed heat.

 

Paying some passive attention to counting out my breathing also helps me to not get bored.

2. If my ankle hurts, or both my knees and shins hurt, I'm probably hitting the ground too hard.

It's likely that you might be bouncing up and down too much. This is usually what causes ankle or knee/shin problems for me. Try to make your gait more efficient in terms of how far your head goes from the ground.

 

It's also possible that you need to stretch after running. I do some ankle stretches after - wall leans with leg both straight and bent, and standing on my tippy-toes several times for strength. That's a whole post on its own.

I need to wear athletic insoles because I have somewhat collapsed arches. These are the ones I wear. I wear them in all of my shoes, including my running shoes.

3. If my knee hurts, I'm probably heel-striking more than I should.

 

One fix for this is to make your foot strike the ground more toward ball of the foot. Usually the ideal place for me feels like the middle of my foot. There's a bit of contact, bend, and bounce with my ankles, but not too much.

It's also possible that my shoes are tied too tightly or too loosely. Usually for me I end up heel-striking more if my shoes are too loose, because when my toes strike my feet shift around in them.

 

It's also possible that your gait is inefficient in a weird way. Generally, if you are going either uphill or downhill, you need to decrease the size of your gait based on the size of the hill. This is because otherwise, you're pulling yourself up with your thighs, rather than letting yourself bounce forward.

 

It's also possible that you're not using your shins as a lever appropriately. Look at this gif of someone jogging. Note how as the runner extends their leg, their knee moves "backwards" relative to their ankle, and their ankle moves "forwards" relative to their knee. It's harder to see, but during their stride, their knee bends so that their ankle moves "backwards" relative to their knee, and their knee moves "forwards" relative to their ankle.

 

This results in a place on the runner's shin that essentially only moves forwards, and acts as a fulcrum between the knee and the foot. The lower this is, the slower you go, but the more leverage you have and the less stressful your stride is on your knee. I like to imagine that my feet are going around a wheel, and the shin-fulcrum is the middle of the wheel. If I'm going uphill or downhill the wheel gets smaller, and if I'm on a flat the wheel gets larger.

Essentially - the more your knees move back and forth relative to your feet, the more shearing stress you are putting on your knees.

4. If my shin hurts, I'm probably toe-striking more than I should.

Easiest fix here is to do the opposite of the above - try to make the place that you're striking the ground farther back on your foot, closer to your heel. Generally you should also be aiming to have your foot impact the ground pretty "flat" relative to the angle of the ground. So angle your toes up some if you're going uphill, and down some if you're going downhill.

Or make your stride less fast and more leverage, like I rambled about above in the knee section.

Or you could wear shin sleeves. I have a pair of these.

(I got interrupted here and lost momentum, so I'm going to slack-ass the last bits of this.)

5. Make sure I'm not running too fast.

 

I frequently have to step my speed back a whole lot, until it feels like I'm barely doing more than walking with some bounce in my step, in order to have successful runs.

6. Make sure I have a semi-positive point of view on run.

Getting out and doing anything, even one minute of exercise, is better than nothing. Beyond that, the point of cardio is to raise your heart rate for a period of time, rather than to cover distance. If you wanted to cover distance we have cars. The health benefits of a run are based on how long you're in cardio heart rate zones.

Re-focusing on my 45 and dagger

Hello!

Today, I write a post in order to help me re-focus on my 45-inch rapier and my dagger. Pennsic is coming, and I have been slacking. So, in order to re-focus, I should take inventory of the largest holes I see in my sword-and-dagger game. Even though this will be less correct before practice than it would be after practice, doing it now means I'll be thinking of it at practice.

• WEAKNESSES
• My sense of distance can be shaken with timing. Frequently I fall into a trap of viewing my opponent's measure as being the same as mine, even if they have a longer measure.
• The first problem can be fixed by a variant on the Peony Visualization Technique (which I have never described here, at least never under that name). Essentially - at all moments, I should be automatically visualizing where my opponent could place their center of mass, one quarter-second from now. I should be acting based on the worst-case scenario that this presents, not based on their current location.
•  The second problem can be solved by being mindful of their measure. I can work on starting each match with an internally verbalized inventory of my opponent - "Slightly taller person with a slightly shorter sword and dagger", "much shorter person with case of much shorter weapons", etc. This will force me to be mindful of their distance.
• In this example, "slightly" means about 3 inches in terms of blade length and 2 inches in terms of height, whereas a lack of descriptor means 4+ inches of difference in terms of height, or 6+ inches of difference in terms of blade length. Donovan is equivalent height to me or slightly taller than me, depending on what shoes I'm wearing. Doroga is taller than me.
• Here, we care about relations more than exact values. If I have a longer weapon and they are not taller than me, I can likely throw shots all day and have a very narrow area to defend against counter-attacks. If this isn't the case, I have to Actually Fence.
• I have grown to be hesitant and less likely to recognize and seize upon moments where I can win.
• This is likely because I have been working the defensive side of things more than the offensive side of things - "how can my opponent confound my parries". In order to solve this without losing what I've gained in terms of defensive skill, I need to start recognizing German-style "master strokes", which allow me a defense and a counter-attack in the same tempo.
• More, I need to recognize when one of the elements of Six Elements Theory isn't applicable, and what portion of the Perfect Defensive Paradigm I can break from because of it.
• Perfect Defensive Paradigm is essentially performing my interpretation of Line in Cross or Narrowing - a parry that carries my hilt slightly out of my presence, and takes my tip off-line in an arc that prevents opposition.
• This is a homework assignment. I need to look back at my original Six Elements Theory post and read when each Element is inapplicable. Then, take that and develop a counterattack for it. From there, drill the counterattacks into my fencing, either by drilling or by mindful and focused fighting.
• My style has grown too diversified. Every time I fence, it's a game of "what bullshit can I make up centered around these base principles". This slows me down.
• I need to re-develop a core set of techniques that are my go-to techniques for Just Winning Bouts.
•  I miiiiight be concentrating too much on defense.
• Keep an eye on this. While "defense is most important" is a very useful philosophy for growth, going too far into that world means not winning.
• I am very used to doing cuts with my shorter sword.
• Cuts are still possible with the longer sword, but I need to figure out exactly the threshold where they become practical, for the longer weapon. This means drilling my hilt-first approaching-defenses some, because that's where the fastest cuts come from.
•  People don't seem to believe my feints any more.
• This might be just that people have gotten better, but my old strategy of "twitch at people to make openings" doesn't seem to be working well. It might be a side-effect of me moving overall slower when I fence these days, but I need to figure out why this is.
• If it's just that people are fencing in a more technically sound manner, I need to make smaller feints and be able to take advantage of smaller reactions.
• If people are just not trained to respond to my feints any more, this doesn't mean I need to re-train them - it means that my feints weren't a well-founded set of techniques in the first place, and I need to understand better how, in the midst of a single bout, to figure out the "volume" of feint that someone needs to see in order to respond, and how large that response will be.
• This one is probably the one to go with, since it will be less possible to do as I get back into the groove of things.

So, that's a decently-sized list of things I get the opportunity to learn to do better. That's awesome! I look forward to fencing people and working on these things.