Hello there, Sabre Crew!! After a brief hiatus, I'm back, and want to recap what we worked on this week. So here goes:

Jason started out by running you all through some footwork warmups, including a new version of the Glove Game. I missed most of that part of the session, but perhaps Jason can follow up with some comments on that.

The drills focused on the Riposte. We discussed Parries and Ripostes, and how it should pretty much be automatic to throw out a Riposte immediately after a Parry.

We did simple paired drills in which you took turns being the "Coach" and the "Student." The Coaches would cut to 5 and the Students would Parry-Riposte. We moved on to cuts to 4 and 3, with the corresponding Parry-Ripostes. And finally alternated amongst the three lines.

Next, Jason and I took turns with each of you, marching you up and down the strip. We would cut to a line, you would Parry-Riposte. You all got to do the Parry-Riposte while advancing and retreating the entire length of the strip.

I talked to a couple of you about keeping proper distance, and keeping your blade movement to a minimum in order to throw out the Riposte as quickly as possible.

Jason demonstrated, with Nathan's help, how a Parry-Riposte off the line can be very effective when your opponent keeps cutting to the same line over and over again.

We finished up the evening with a Team Sabre Event. It was a close match-up, but the Insured Sabre Fencers narrowly beat out the Uninsured Sabre Fencers. Thanks for another great night of Sabre fencing!!!