In which I block things with my fists

Last night’s class was a fantastic mash-up of largo mano and siniwallis concepts.  While my brain got a few new wrinkles while working on this, my knuckles got some major clonks in the process.  Mostly my own damn fault, as one would expect.

Maxwell worked with the lower level students on largo and siniwallis basics, and Nick and I fed lock&block using siniwallis vs largo.  This is where the brain wrinkling came in.  Obviously, the game is different when the person feeding has two sticks of equal length, and the receiver has one big honking stick.

The key appears to be awareness of range.  The feeder has basically one range that’s comfortable – medio.  Too close, and the sticks get tangled up.  Too far, and you can’t hit without getting hit yourself.  For the receiver, both corto and largo ranges work pretty well.  You do need to use range by staying out in largo until you’re ready to counter properly and then rush in, preferably tying up the feeder in corto or moving laterally to hit with the tip of the weapon.

My knuckles are unhappy with my technique, which will need some refining.  I’m not sure of the exact nature of the problem, but I’d guess it was something to do with the angles with which I was trying to block.  My muscle memory needs some retraining, which sucks.  But at least I know that now.