Composure

In battodo, it is important to maintain composure while doing kata or cutting. A lot of HEMA people I know look at that and say, “That has nothing to do with martial arts, so I think it’s useless.” Oh really?

Today in class we did an exercise I borrowed from Sang Kim sensei designed to identify and eliminate people’s telegraphs, or “tells.” People who dip their point before striking, or who tense up, or move their hands before their point or make other mistakes perform poorly. People who have few or no tells do very well. This translates directly to free fencing, where the same people who do poorly in this exercise are very easy to defend against because you can see their attack coming well in advance, while the people who do really well can sometimes hit you before you have a chance to parry.

What does this have to do with composure? Part of the exercise is to tell your partner what his or her tells are after the exercise is over. It’s a very good way to expose bad habits and bad technique and try to correct them. One of the most common tells is, “His eyes go all wide as he is about to attack.” Another is, “He smiles when he is feinting, but frowns when he attacks.” Or, “I can see it in his face when he is about to strike.”

You know…composure.

There are two lessons that can be learned from this. The first, learn how to control yourself. Not just how you move or cut, but your facial expressions and mannerisms. They can make the difference between victory and defeat.

The second, and please excuse my language, is don’t teach your father how to fuck. When you see someone who is practicing a martial art that is not recreated from books doing something you don’t understand, odds are there's something there worth learning.