Meta >_<
[ Posted by Janka ]
Sorry for the flood, need another public test post.RSS works, Atom apparently doesn't
[ Posted by Janka ]
Seems that currently what bugs is the atom feed (http://www.orava.org/janka/log/articles.atom), while the RSS feed (http://www.orava.org/janka/log/articles.rss) seems to function as supposed to. While we hope to get the first one to not be a moron sooner or later too, meanwhile you might want to point your readers to the RSS one instead. Thanks to all who gave feedback on this.Häiriö kansainvälisessä kuvayhteydessä
[ Posted by Janka ]
Commenting on the blog seems to be borked. Thanks for those who repoted; I have managed the replicate the bug after some poking around, realized I have no idea whatsoever how to even start fixing it, and reported it to admin dearest. Stay tuned.I also have heard from one source about a broken RSS feed; I cannot replicate that one, so kindly if you see a broken feed (the bug is such you should still be able to see this, yes, give me some details on it).
Update: RSS feed seems to do weird and wonderful random things. Working on it, too.
Paraphrasing Capo Ferro: Art, chapter 10, Of defense, of the guard
[ Posted by Janka ]
Blah blah blah. Can we get to the bit where there is actual swordsfighting, sometime soon?(1) For the unenlightened: I am sure he will explain these things sooner or later. While wishing for that, think of it this way: terza, the third position of the arm/sword, is when you hold the sword in front of you, true edge facing down. Seconda is when you turn your arm and hand so that the blade is horizontal and to your right, true edge facing right; quarta is on the opposite side; prima is when the hand is above your head and true edge facing up. So from the top, first, second, third, fourth follow each other in 90 degrees.95) So that was the first part of the handling of the sword, which was about distances and body positions and such.
96) Next we'll talk about the second part, which is about defense. First we talk about actual defense, namely the guard, and then about offense.
97) The guard is a position of the body, as follows: the arm and sword on a straight line in the middle of the offendable parts of the body, and the body settled to the "ordinary pace". The idea is to hold the enemy at distance, but to be able to attack if he comes close.
98) Terza(1) is then a position that is exclusively a guard and nothing else. Do not hold the terza outside of the knee, but so that it properly is in line with the middle of the body both horizontally and vertically, and ready to attack and defend on all possible lines.
99) Prima, seconda and quarta are not guards(2), because they are not well-suited for seeking measure, as they uncover too much of the body and are not equally close to all places you potentially need to defend. They are a means of striking, not of guard.
100) There are three things that make striking a target difficult. First, being too far away from it. Second, if it is covered. Third, if there is something close that can come to its defense quickly.(3)
101) All these virtues are in our guard. By leaning away from the adversary and keeping weight on the left leg we create distance. By holding the sword in the middle of the body we cover most of the target areas, and what is not covered can be quickly made covered. Thus one walks safely to take well the tempo and measure, which thing is the ultimate perfection of the guard.
102) To me, it does not make sense to talk about changing from guard to guard. You either are on guard, or you are not.
103) Offense is the type of defense where I actually try to hit the opponent.
(2) Err. Right. Whatever...
(3) The target being able to move away quickly apparently does not count.
Paraphrasing Capo Ferro: Art, chapter 9, Of the thighs, calves, of the feet, and of the pace
[ Posted by Janka ]
(1) Wherein by "the line" we mean the straight line forward towards the adversary. He actually says they "directly align", but since two heels are just two points, the line between them is always direct, so you need to take that in context of some other line. There's at least three different ways (the other two left as exercise) to formulate which, all leading to the same practical conclusion.83) In guard and while seeking measure, the right foot should point directly forward and the right calf and thigh form a straight sloping line. The left foot should point directly to your left, and the knee be bent as far as possible. Knees should be on line with feet. Left heel and right heel should both be on the line(1).
84) In striking, the right knee is bent as far as it can go, the calf forming an acute angle with the thigh(2). Now, the left calf and thigh form a straight sloping line.
85) "The pace" is a certain distance between the legs that is suited for what it is used for. The concept applies both to standing still and to movement. The distance can be almost non-existent, half a pace, an ordinary pace, or an extraordinary pace.(3)
86) In fencing, the ordinary pace is the best. Using it, your body rests naturally at guard.(4) You can then seek striking measure with tiny advances of the pace, little by little, without changing the position. If you make your position narrower, your balance will become worse. If you take steps towards the adversary that are of a half-pace or longer, you can lose tempo(5) and strike slower. Other steps can serve out of measure for walking and getting into guard.(6)
87) The pace of fencing, we will, for better understanding, name "military" or "soldierly".(7) The paces we use are ordinary, and extraordinary. The ordinary is the one in which you are on guard; the extraordinary are the one you use to strike.
88) You can step in a lot of ways: forward, back, sideways, diagonally; crossing the legs or not; moving one leg or both; keeping the distance between the legs the same or shortening or lengthening it.
89) But I think that you really only need the two leg positions I already described.
90) I think stepping sideways serves only to deceive or threaten the opponent, or to scout his strength. When your opponent steps off the line, it opens an opportunity for you to use all sorts of narrower paces and so forth, but in my judgment the ordinary pace is still the best.
91) Some say you should step towards the side when the adversary is on an oblique line, in order to stringere on the outside. I think it is better to just go into measure on a straight line, instead of pursue the play off it. Some also say that stepping to the side is a good way to avoid a strike, but seriously, if you had any concept of tempo and measure you should be able to do that in normal quarta or seconda on the straight line.
92) Crossing your left foot toward the right side to do an inquartata(8) is worthless and can be a risk, preventing the body and the right arm from supporting the strike and losing tempo. Stepping right leg towards the left to do an inquartata is just something people do by chance, and has no place in a real fight.
93) Passing steps(9) are not good, because they lose measure and tempo. When you are moving your left leg, your sword arm and the right side of the body are unable to strike fast enough, and without the risk of a riposte.
94) Retreats are mostly used after a strike. When I strike I necessarily open myself, and if I stay still after a strike the adversary can easily strike back.
(2) For the love of gods, don't attempt to reach such a deep lunge before practicing for a long time and being completely confident your knee is tracking over your foot even at full speed. You'll bust a knee.
(3) I started to render this simply as "normal and long step", but then I figured I have to give some credit to established terminology, even when I think it is too prone to making something mystifying from simple ideas.
(4) I think, but am not sure, that he says that the length of the guard position regarding the legs should be that of a normal step. I was about to say noway, it's much longer really, but then I tried it and in fact my optimal guard position does come pretty amazingly close to steps of a brisk walk.
(5) Because when you are taking that step, you cannot do something else. If a step is very short, it takes more steps to get to wherever but each individual step takes much less time, which means that times when you can change your mind and do something else instead of stepping (ie, tempos for you) recur more often.
(6) Or something. The whole paragraph is one ran-into sentence that is extremely difficult to parse. He might as well be saying that a good length for a pace is that which you use for walking. Someone sell this man punctuation...
(7) Though why exactly, and what does it mean, I cannot say. If someone else felt their understanding bettered, do share.
(8) No, I don't remember what it is either.
(9) Passatas, passes; steps that switch legs (ie, bring back leg to be the new front leg). And yes, he does passes all the time in the plates, I think.
Update
[ Posted by Janka ]
Typo, the blog engine, has been updated. So far I have noticed nothing seriously wrong, but if something is broken, let me know.On psychotherapies
[ Posted by Janka ]
I was asked yesterday by a friend whether I think Jungian psychotherapy makes sense.
There’s unfortunately no polite answer that would not immediately get me a derisive “What exactly do you know about Jungian psychotherapy, anyway?” from someone who actually does, and fair enough. I know next to nothing. So I am not going to answer the question.
Instead, an observation. Based on my granted sort of limited experiences in psychiatry, psychotherapies work, in the sense that a lot of people get help and insights from it they estimate they would not have gotten otherwise. There is very little scientific research on it (though there is some), and of course double-blinding between not getting and getting therapy is impossible, but still, what there is and experience seems to suggest there is a point to psychotherapy both as a treatment of many conditions and as a way to help perfectly sane people to gain understanding of themselves and control of their lives.
The weird thing is this: it seems to matter very little what the so called “theoretical background” or “school” of the therapist is—indeed, whether they are Jungian, or something else. The ways these schools describe the mind, and the development of the mind, are wildly different, and often contradictory. Yet whichever way to conceptualize it you give to people, whatever theory of mind, they find a way to use that as a useful metaphor for their own self, and to gain insight.
I think there is probably something fundamental and profound in that ability to insight that we possess.
But it's not my fault!
[ Posted by Janka ]
Is it just me, or have we started to confuse the concepts of “responsibility” and “fault” at some point, so that you only are expected to feel responsible for fixing something if you are actually the culprit in breaking it?
“I take full responsibility” implies “it is totally my fault”. “Well it’s not my fault!” implies “so you cannot expect me to do something about it”.
I have - seriously - seen this go the extent where people argue that a father is not responsible for paying something his sons broke, because he was not personally there throwing the stones at the windows, and a teacher claim she cannot be held responsible for explaining the basics again and again to a child, because it is not “her fault” the kid has not gotten it yet and she needs to move on with the others. (Maybe the teacher does need to move on. But that has nothing to do with it being or not being her fault that one child is behind.)
Most far you see it go with people (not) taking responsibility for their own happiness. Somehow, there seems to be a subtle pervasive thinking that if you are responsible for fixing it, you must be somehow guilty for it, so that in response to things that might need changing people (yes, including me) tend to err to two completely borked reactions.
I’ll skip the first one, which is the “it’s unfair I have to actually work to overcome my faults, I was born this way, you can’t hold me responsible!”, because that is usually only spoken out by people who will not read this far anyway, because I am already being so unfair here and being mean and making, indeed forcing them to feel guilty for stuff that is totally not their fault.
But the second, infinitely more usual is that people actually decide that they need to take responsibility—and then immediately feel guilty for whatever it is they need to change. This results in them feeling so guilty for being such bad persons as to be unhappy that they then avoid doing anything because the guilt is so uncomfortable to face.
Quite often, when people need to change something in their lives, that “something” is not really “their fault” in the sense that they would be somehow morally bad for having it in their lives in the first place. The people who do the first borked reaction are actually partially correct: it is usually in no way your fault if some things are harder for you than others. If concentrating on things is not easy for you, if you get easily irritated by what others consider small stuff, if you have difficulties controlling your urges for food or drugs, if you are shy in new situations, if you find it terribly hard to be organized—more likely than not, that’s not something to feel bad about. It’s just the way you are. You were very likely born, raised, or both that way and should not feel any sort of personal guilt or shame over it.
But that does not mean you are not responsible for it. It is ok to find concentration difficult - but if you are a student, you still need to find ways to help you study. Others can help, but you need to invest in finding out what helps and what hurts, and then implementing that help. It is not shameful to be one of those people who cannot used alcohol without getting addicted - but you are still responsible from abstaining if you cannot control it. It is ok to be shy in social situations - but that does not mean you cannot figure out how to overcome that fear so that you can still take part in what is important for you, in a way that works for you. It is ok to find organization hard - but sometimes naturally disorganized people need to work harder than others on keeping a routine in order to be able to function in certain jobs.
With responsible, I do not mean “you are a bad person if you do not fix it”. That is confusing guilt with responsibility again. You are not guilty of anything if you have things in your life that do not work for you. Even if you could have done something about them a year ago, not having done it yet is usually not “your fault” in the sense that repentance or asking someone’s forgiveness or hiding away in shame would be necessary. It is just how things are, it is how you have lately been. No need for guilt. But if you want stuff changed now or in any point in the future, more often than not, the only person that you can expect to change it is yourself. Even if the stuff is actually the fault of someone else, it is still often your responsibility to initiate the change. Even if they are a circumstance you cannot make away with, it is your job to try and find help living with them.
I know, it is often not fair. But “fair” enters the equation about as much as “guilty” does.
People react in two ways to hearing that a particular child as ADHD. One group of people says: “Oh! That explains why he is like that, guess we just need to tolerate it.” The other group says: “Oh! That explains why he is like that. I guess we need to work really hard to maintain order, so that he is not constantly disturbed.” The second group is actually trying to help the child. The first one is avoiding responsibility.
Any more than a child, you cannot simply decide to be different: to be more organized / restrained / social / industrious / whatever. You are what you are and for most of these things, you will be that way for the rest of your life, at least to some extent. But that’s ok. What is important is what you want to do about it. Any time you spend feeling guilty over stuff that is not in your control is time not spent in figuring out how to live with it.
Note that there is an important “if” there hidden in the above: “if you want to change this or that”, “what is important is what you want to do about it”. Feeling guilty about something in your life that you do not even think you want to change is the most borked option of all. You can perfectly well choose not to do anything at all about something that is suboptimal, and there is no need to feel guilty about it, regardless of what some other people think. Deciding what you will change and what you will let be is also part of the responsibility that is yours.
(How to make changes happen once you have accepted that you need to is much harder. I am with the Zen Habits school of thought there: slowly, and one thing at a time.)
Paraphrasing Capo Ferro: Art, chapter 8, Of the arms
[ Posted by Janka ]
A lot of people have told me lately that they like this series. A lot of these people do not practice swordsmanship; a whole lot of them do not practice any martial arts whatsoever. So far, I have had no person with actual CF experience tell me anything one way or the other.
Make of that what what you will.
These body posture chapters are funny. If you do not have your body proportions just so there’s no way you can achieve all of the instructions together, and he gives no indication directly what is the most important. He does give an idea on what the postures are for, though, so I suppose the answer is “whatever gets you there”.
74) In guard and when seeking measure, the right arm must be a little bent. The upper arm should be extended in an oblique line so that that the elbow is on the level of the middle of your body, and above the right knee. The forearm is withdrawn a bit, so that it forms a straight line with the sword.
75) In guard and when seeking measure, the left arm like everything on the left side serves as a counterweight to the right side of the body. The upper arm should be extended away from the body so that the elbow is above the left knee(1) and about on the level of the middle of the body. Forearm should be tucked towards your body, so that its motion can help to propel yourself forward to strike, which it won’t do if you just let it hang there.
76) In striking, the right arm needs to be extended in a straight line, turning the hand and forearm upward(2), in our out depending on the side.
77) In striking, the left arm must be extended so that it forms a straight line with the right arm. Turn the left arm also in or out depending on the line of the strike. Every iota that you are on an oblique line, or leave your left arm forwards, loses you distance and time.(3)
78) The sword should be thought of as part of the limb. It has to form a straight line with the forearm. The forearm must be aligned with the middle of the trunk, both in height and and in width when looked from the adversary’s point of view, so that the distance to wherever the adversary decides to attack is equally short.(4)
This follows from the distance from the top of the head to the middle point of the trunk being equal to the distance from the middle point to the knee.(5)
We don’t have to worry about the calf. It’s far away from measure that if someone’s stupid enough to attack it directly, they will have to push their body forward and will be in very serious risk to be stabbed.79) The position of the sword in striking should be the same as that of the arm. You turn the false edge around, in or out, the same way as you turn your hand.(6)
80) Be very careful that the point of your sword is always pointed at the “target parts” of your opponent, namely the right flank and right thigh. If someone tries to trick you to hit their left side, don’t take it, because they are more likely than not to quickly pull it back out of measure. They cannot do this to the right side(7).
81) It’s not good to rest in guard with the arm pulled back, because you cannot cover yourself well enough in case of an attack. It’s also not good to do that when seeking measure, because you cannot strike fast enough, and you cannot keep the adversary away from you either.
It is not true that the extension of the arm is what should make the sword travel the distance needed to strike. What does it is stepping and propelling your body forward, and pushing all your weight from the left leg to the right.82) On the other hand, you do not want to have your arm fully extended in guard and when seeking measure, either, because it makes defending yourself more difficult, and you attack with less vigor.
Any other locations and movements of the arm do not belong to the play of striking in the straight line.
(1) This is something I don’t think you practically ever see at the salle; most people seem to hold their left arm very close to the body.
(2) Yes. YES! Brilliant. He does have his moments. (“Turning” being the key here.)
(3) I render the “diminish the measure and quickness of the tempo” here as simply “lose distance and time”, as I do not think being a bit off actually loses you “a tempo” in the third sense of the previous chapter, but instead loses quickness, time, in the second sense. It does not lose you a “beat” in the rhythm, but it makes your rhythm slower, so to speak.
(4) This sort of probabilistic argument assumes that the adversary is equally likely to attack anywhere. While a reasonable assumption in the case of an experienced fighter, similar argument could be used to adjust the guard towards the most likely direction of attack when fighting someone predictable, especially if it can be assumed that they are slower on an unusual line. Sorry about that; my actual profession compels me to point this out.
(5) In any case it does if you are the Vitruvian man. If you are not, adjust so that you are in the middle between knee and the top of the head, regardless of the exact location of your navel.
(6) This seems to be a complicated way to say “do not adjust your grip of the sword when moving your arm”. But it did give me an idea on what he might have meant about the “false edge becoming manifest” in seconda and quarta, earlier; namely, that maybe he is talking about which edge should be visible to the adversary.
(7) Well, not without getting out of measure themselves, anyway.
Paraphrasing Capo Ferro: Art, chapter 7, Of the body
[ Posted by Janka ]
Note: “the body” here means roughly “the trunk”. Sometimes what is translated as “the body”, apparently instead means “the center”, though, in the Vitruvian man sense. So meh. I’ll pick the interpretation that makes the text make sense to me, you can do whatever. No, I still cannot read 17th C Italian and verify if he actually makes a distinction or not.
67) In guard and when seeking measure, you want to lean a bit backwards. The center of your body should be almost on the line with your right thigh, and a line from it to your left hip should form an obtuse angle with the left thigh. Then, the left shoulder is above the left foot, and the right shoulder is above the middle point of the line from one foot to another.
68) In striking the body is propelled forward. The right thigh now forms an obtuse angle with the body, and the right shoulder is over the right foot, and the left shoulder now above the middle point of the line connecting the feet.
69) The body needs to be pushed forward on a straight line. Even though you must make a little room for the fact that you strike from inside or outside, this deviation must be very slight.
70) The idea, and it is an important idea, is that when you are defensive, you should move the juiciest target parts of yourself away from the opponent. The further the target is, the more work they need to do to hit it. On the other hand, you will be able to strike longer, faster, and more vigorously. Attacking from further away is safer.
71) You also need to consider what sort of profile of your body you show to the opponent.
72) Ideally, no more is shown than the middle of the breast, both in seeking measure and when striking. That way, you can step and lunge on a straight line, which gains you measure and tempo.
73) A lot of people have a lot of fancy stuff in their systems that require moving their bodies in all sorts of curious ways. Those are the exceptions made into rules I mentioned before. That’s just crap and I’ll leave it to those other authors to explain them.
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