Training for participation in a full contact martial art of any kind cannot be taken lightly. In a full contact sport and martial art such as described here, training is of the utmost importance. With the proper training this is a high speed, fluid martial art.

Training consists of the following first seven steps for beginners:

• Balance

• Stand on a beam. Transition shifting weight from one foot to another. Be aware of where your center of gravity is and use that center to allow you to balance on one foot, then shifting to another foot. Understanding your center of gravity is quite important to allow you to effectively maneuver in a 60 to 90 pound suit of armor

• Climbing barrels. Ideally this exercise would be accomplished with the use of 3 barrels or drums. A 10 gallon, 30 gallon and 50 gallon drums stacked on top of each other are used in our current training environment. The object is to allow your self to climb the drums using only your manipulation of your center of gravity and no hands. The way that this is done is by placing one foot on the first step and repositioning your center of gravity over the extended leg. Next, straighten out the leg bringing your whole body up right over the first step. Repeat this to the top of the smallest barrel. It is recommended to perform this exercise on grass or mats, to allow the occasional fall.

• Grip

• To make your weapon a useable extension of your body, you need to have the proper hold of your chosen tool. We will focus initially on the sword and a single handed grip.

• The proper grip for a European sword is quite unique. To properly grip the sword you must place the hilt of your sword into the palm of your hand, allowing the meat of your hand to wrap around the grip. This places your thumb extended above your other fingers and used to support and enclose the grip. Your other fingers will now be angled slightly downward, towards the pommel of the sword. Alternating this grip and allowing your hand to slightly slide during impact can increase the cut of the weapon, however this also increases the possibility for loss of weapon control and possible disarming.

• An exercise to practice the correct single-handed grip is with pells or wooded logs. Have the logs either secured to the ceiling on ropes or chains or secured to the ground. Next, obtain a standard 3 to 4 foot cement stake. Gripping the stake correctly, strike the pells in a figure 8 pattern. The objective here is to solidly strike the pell while maintaining control of the "Blade" for the continuation of the figure 8 attack/block. If you are not striking the pell correctly, you will have the "Blade" skipping off of the pell and being redirected incorrectly.

• A two handed grip is a slight variation on the single grip. With a two handed grip, you will first place your primary hand (Left or Right) to the upper grip position of the sword (just under the cross guard). The second hand will be used to pull the sword through attacks while the primary hand is mainly used to direct the blade to the correct pattern or maneuver. The correct combination of the two can be a devastating combination. The possible variation on the use of the two handed grip is never ending. Suffice it to say, for a beginner, use the two handed grip to allow more mobility, change of directions and increase in force than you might be able to display with a single handed grip.

• The exercise with the pells can be repeated with a longer stake for simulation of a longer, two-handed sword. A fun variation would be to try your second handed grip at various distances from the first hand to see what locations produce different results. We will cover the motion of the correct swing in an upcoming section.

• Stance and movement

• One of the overall most important things to do in any combat is not stand still. To do this effectively in a full suit of armor is what we aim to accomplish in this next set of exercises. While armor can be slightly encumbering, it should not be overly restrictive to the combatant. A good suit of armor will fit the combatant like a well tailored suit and allow the wearer to do basic gymnastics, run, jump, climb a rope and most importantly, FIGHT WELL! Please see the section above on armor requirement for more information.

• There are three basic stances for beginning a combat:

1. Center Stance – This places your body in a even position where the knees are in line with your shoulders, your head is even and straight forward, arms evenly to the sides of the body (or if using a two handed sword, low and centered in front of the body). Knees slightly bent, and standing on the balls of your feet for quick movement. This is initially the best stance to approach an unknown situation, as you would be able to quickly act and move to any direction.
2. Weapon Forward Stance - This places your body in an angled position to allow your weapon arm to lead your attack. Your feet should be in a L pattern with your weapon foot pointing to 12:O’clock and your non-weapon foot pointing to 3:O’clock. Your shoulders should be set at an angle to your feet, with your weapon arm low and centered in front of your body (for a two handed weapon, shoulders are set at 3: and 9: O’clock). Your non-weapon arm should be low and almost behind your body for balance and support. Knees bent slightly. This stance allows quick front/back movement and will allow you to easily change direction of attack while maintaining center of balance and mobility.
3. Off Side Forward Stance – This stance is best suited to a two handed weapon, shield or used when facing an off handed opponent. This is the reverse of the above, Weapon forward stance. Your feet should be in a L pattern with your non-weapon foot pointing to 12:O’clock and your weapon foot pointing to 3:O’clock. Your shoulders should be set at an angle to your feet, with your weapon arm low and centered in front of your body (for a two handed weapon, shoulders are set at 3: and 9: O’clock). Your non-weapon arm should be low and to the side of your body for balance and support. Knees bent slightly. This stance allows quick front/back movement and will allow you to easily change direction of attack while maintaining center of balance and mobility. With a two handed weapon, this stance is a great transition stance for starting an offensive. With a shield, this stance allows the combatant to position the shield between himself and the opponent. More about shield work ahead.

• Practice a fluid shift from each of the stances to the others. From 1 ,2 then 3 and back to 1. Continue this and shift the stances around to get a good feel for how to achieve each of the stances easily and while paying attention to your footwork.

• Practice holding the blade at the correct low guard position and while changing stances, move around your training area. Pay special attention to your grip of the weapon, maintaining balance and your stance.

• Now, imagine an opponent that you are addressing for combat. Have your imaginary opponent addressing you at all sides of your stance, while you are transitioning stances and while you are moving. Redirect your movements to better meet your opponent for combat. Again, here in these exercises we are mainly focusing on the skills previously taught: Stance, Grip, Balance and Movement.

• Swinging the sword

• The basics of swinging of a European Sword have already been alluded to in the pells exercise. In that exercise, the pells were struck with a figure 8 style strike. That is the basic natural movement for a sword in a effective combat motion. Conan actually had this one right!

• Begin your swing with your Weapon hand and cut across your body towards the ground at about a 45 degree angle while pulling slightly on the hilt. Allow the tip of your blade to swing out and pivot around, while holding your arm fairly still and pivoting your wrist up almost 180 degrees. This action is referred to as breaking your wrist. Now you should be in a position with your arm extended across your body and your sword blade pointing away from your target. Next, bring your arm up about even with your head. Begin a cut at a 45 degree angle down back to the weapon side of your body again. Pull on the hilt of the sword as you make the cut. Break the wrist at the bottom of the cut and bring the arm back up for another cut (Same as the first). This is a basic way to get a good feel for the fluid motion that should be present in the cutting action of the blade. To help with accuracy, imagine the center of where the cuts converge as an X and place that over the center of your target.

• With your newfound direction on the figure 8 motion, go try the pells again.

• This motion can be reversed. The main thing to remember is that now, instead of pulling the sword though the attacks, you are pushing the sword. Start low on your weapon side, make a 45 degree cut up and towards the other side of your body. Now, your arm will be across your body with your hand about the height of your head. Break the wrist and swing the blade down. Now cut up and back toward your weapon side. Repeat the motion. This attack can be used to switch into and possibly momentarily confuse your opponent. This attack does cause your arm to be extended as a target across your body quite a bit.

• Try this reverse figure 8 on the pells. Try switching between figure 8 and reverse figure 8 in mid strike. Alternate your stances that you use on the pells to allow you to practice striking from all 3 basic stances.

• Aim

• Exercise one with for aim can be accomplished with the use of an aiming toy. This can be a small shield, coffee can or some sort of target affixed to a semi-ridged pole or branch. Connect this to a rope or tree for height and angle. The desired height is to have the aiming toy at about neck level.

• The objective it of this practice is be able to hit the aiming toy with the most accuracy and force, while continuing to keep the blade in motion and get a good number of hits it. This also helps to reinforce the principle of motion in the weapon as well as movement in your footwork where you have to readjust your location to get the best attack at moments notice.

• Begin the attacks by hitting the aiming toy in the figure 8 pattern. You can then readjust the form and angle of attack to suit the motion of the toy. The combatant should be able to keep both the sword and the toy in constant motion with minimal practice. The contact with the blade should be edge true and mainly with the last 2/3^rds of the weapon.

• This drill should be repeated at regular intervals to help with the steady improvement of the aim of the combatant.