Order in Chaos

[helwen]

This past Sunday fitzw and I made it to the fighter practice in the Sundered Lands. He actually ended up getting into armor and fighting some bouts (yay!), whereas I stuck with the sword drills. I ended up helping out a few folks with trying to understand the movement, a figure-8 of the hips, which drives the figure-8 of the hand with the sword (and really of the whole body, when you get into sword&shield, 2-sword, polearm, etc.). People who aren't used to doing a whole-body movement, or who dance but not this kind of dancing, sometimes have a little trouble getting, literally, into the swing of things. As you move, the sword rises and falls and you form a teardrop shape with the movement of the sword (half of the '8'). You have to let the sword move kind of on its own, letting your movement combine with the momentum of the sword. At the top of its movement, it will feel weightless, and that is when you gently direct it in its descent. I know, 'gentle' seems like an odd word to use in regard to a sword or stick, but when done correctly, it takes very little effort to affect a change in direction.

There was a distinct tendency among the folks newer to this movement to try to control the sword. And that is precisely what they're doing wrong. You need to work in coordination with it, and it has to have freedom to be what it is. Learning how to do this kind of thing, it's better to Not Think, and let your body do what it needs to do, to create the correct movement.

Most people are trained for a good part of their lives to sit still, stand still, walk in straight lines, etc. It's in the 'rules'. And we're punished as children if we fidget in class or doodle on our papers. We make our buildings straight, our roads and walkways as flat as possible -- efficient in some ways, and effective in others, but not very adaptive. The concrete sidewalk can only be stiff and hard -- when a tree root under it becomes large enough, the sidewalk lifts and/or cracks. There is no way to adapt. The tree on the other hand, even though it was planted in a limited space, found a way around those limitations by curving downward and under the walkway. It didn't follow the 'rules'.

Movement in fighting is like that for dancing and other natural movements of the body - curving, able to change tempo, adaptive.

So, how do you learn to move in this natural way, when it's been instilled in you that this simply isn't allowed? Well, you have to let your body do the talking, let it take the lead. What? That's crazy talk! Complete chaos!!

It isn't really chaos, of course, just a different kind of order. Most folks just aren't used to it, that's all. But if we listened to our bodies more often, we would probably be in better shape, healthier, more rested, happier. (disclaimer: will not cure serious diseases, congenital defects, etc. -- but might still improve quality of life). Hopefully my suggestions were helpful to the folks with whom I was working.

Nice thing about getting to know 'chaos', is that sometimes you can find out more about how things work, their nature, their own sense of order. Yesterday I had a headache for most of the day, so I did some laundry, research, reading, and meditating and that was pretty much it. Oh, and traced some things and sent them off to some embroiderer friends, and also some spinning later at night when the headache finally quit. Oddly enough, headaches stop me from doing certain kinds of projects, and most types of reading, but not meditating...

So, today, no headache, just some tension in the neck and back. Sun came out enough that I decided to go to the studiolo and work on the warp again. It's all threaded through the heddles, but then the task of winding it on became a serious challenge, so I've only been doing a few feet at a time. Wool loves itself, you see. We didn't realize just how much it likes to hug and cling to itself until now, with only two chains of warp, 130+ threads each.... oy. fitzw helped out a bit last time, and added a piece from one of his old tapestry loom parts to serve as a raddle in front of the beater. It helped us separate the threads into smaller groups.

What happens is the yarn clings especially as it's about to go through the reed in the beater. If it clings sufficiently well, it can break as the warp is wound onto the back bar. I broke a couple of yarns this way before I figured out what was happening...

So there I was this morning/early afternoon, sitting and straightening out the yarns, getting a better feel for what the yarns are doing so that I can realign them for winding. It took time but wasn't too bad to do, and I got better and de-tangling without creating knots further down in the unwarped yarns. A sort of order came into the work, and actually started to be enjoyable. I'm happy to say that I'm now at the point where I can tie the front ends onto a rod and should be able to start weaving on the floor loom this week. And thank goodness for that, because I'd been feeling a bit like poor little Gwion stirring the cauldron, and while I know some things take time, I was rather hoping the warping wouldn't take a year and a day...

In addition to the floor loom project, I have to poke through my supplies and see if I can match something to the warp that's left on the table loom too, since it seems a waste to take off perfectly good warp... planning on making some coasters, I am.

Then, once that's all squared away, I can rearrange a few things in the studiolo so that we have a space to set up the new loom from beard5!

Comments

[dreda.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a beautiful fighting technique - and one whose lessons would ripple through any other fighting technique. Cool!

[helwen.livejournal.com]

It feels good too ;)

This is the basis for one of the older styles of fighting in the SCA, and another one that is based off of it. It's also the way Tai Chi works. Mind/body/spirit, all together.

gwynt_y_storm is the person who's leading the practices and teaching all the new folks in the Sundered Lands. I'm happy to help out :)

[druidharper.livejournal.com]

It blends several techniques, very smoothly too. Hard to describe here really, but it is quite pretty and graceful, and very effective. :)

[lady-jade-01.livejournal.com]

Hrmmmm....So.

Does one need to be armoured to learn this???

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Nope. Even for the practice I was just using a sword, no armor.

And for just learning movement, you don't need a sword. Although sometimes a stick is useful for pointing your hand the right way :)

[druidharper.livejournal.com]

As helwen said, to learn the base movements you need neither armor nor weapon, although using a short stick or what have you (wooden spoon?) makes it a bit easier to grasp. The base movement, a walking figure-eight routine, is nearly as old as the Society is, though its not common to see these days.

Beyond that, well, I'm not going to comment on much beyond this point. ;)

[lady-jade-01.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's all research I tell's ya! All research!

*looks around* you believe me, doncha??

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Um, no. ;>

[rising-moon.livejournal.com]

I love your colorful narrations of fighting head space; approaching fighting as dance, learning chaos in movement, and relaxing the bodywork. I'm learning a lot vicariously! :)

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Thank you; I'm glad it came out so well. It helps me to remember things as well, writing it down.