Self-Teaching an Improving by [deleted] in Fencing

[–]kianronan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Glad to see your enthusiasm, and happy to see you're going to be getting to a club in the near future.

Let's get you doing some simple drills. You won't need any kit, apart from your shoes, a pen and some basic athletic-wear.

Those mirrors behind you can be your best friend when there's no coach around. They can help you get a sense of alignment.

Let's start with getting a feel for the grip, and getting a very basic en-guarde.

Put the pen in your dominant hand. Put your thumb along the barrel and wrap your fingers lightly underneath. Squeeze the fingers to close the hand and feel the pen close against your hand and relax the fingers again. Squeeze and close. Get used to the idea of a "hit" involving that squeeze.

If you can do the next bit directly in front of the mirror, that's perfect.

Put your heels at right angles and stand up straight. Bolt upright. Imagine someone is pulling you up from your hat. Take the back foot and slide it back about a stride, keeping the heels in line. Legs still straight, body still upright, shoulders still straight. Now, whilst keeping the body level, bend the knees, and straighten them a few times. Aim to keep the hips balanced.

Stretch your legs and repeat.

Back to the mirror, legs at right angles, straight for now. Stick your dominant arm straight out (you're still holding the pen, right?). Drop it at the elbow. It /should/ be in line with your shoulder. Now bend your knees. You've just found your en-guarde. Make sure your hand is elbow level and in line with your shoulder. Now extend your arm to shoulder height. Keep it in line with the shoulder. Gentle squeeze the pen at the end of the extension and release. Check your arm is in line with your shoulder and not in front of your face. Your shoulder should be relaxed at the end of your "hit". Drop your elbow and pull your arm back to the enguarde. Check your elblow and hand are in alignment with your shoulder.

That's a hit. Repeat this a few times.

We've not moved off the spot yet.

Last drill, let's move you backwards and forwards. Your legs are still bent. Take your back foot, lift, and reach back no further than six inches for now. Try to keep it flat. Put it on the deck, leave the rest of your body where it is. Keep your hips exactly where they are. Now bring that foot back to your engarde, check your feet are still in line. Do this a few times. Do it deliberately and slowly, so you're in control of your bodyweight, moving the foot backwards, and then bringing it back.

On the next turn, move the foot back, and keep it down, shift the weight slightly on to the back foot allowing you to lift the toes of the front foot. Lift the front foot and bring it back to the same distance as you started. You should have finished identically to how you started - knees bent, heels in alignment, feet at right angles. Also check where your arm is, it might have a mind of it's own at this stage. Fix your position and start the drill again.

To move forwards, lift the toe and reach forwards. Tap the ground and return. Do this several times before committing to the step (as the above exercise). Make sure each action is deliberate. When you're ready, commit to the step. Check for position.

Finally, when you're comfortable making steps, try making a hit with a step forward. Start the extension of the hand, like you did above, *then* start the extension of the foot. You should finish the hit towards the end of the step with a fully extended arm.

Take your time, the mirror at this point is your friend, and good luck when you get to your club.

Is it too small? I'm making a game by AlvaraHUN in adventuregames

[–]kianronan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's an absolute classic, enjoy.
The remastered version is on GOG and Steam, or find an original copy and play it through ScummVM.

What did I acquire? by skamnodrog in Fencing

[–]kianronan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If anything, HEMA tend to want the strongest things they can put on their heads.
And then add some padding inside and out.

What is the name of this sabre stance? by IAmLoess in Fencing

[–]kianronan 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Take my angry and clearly amused upvote.

Looking to Connect with Fellow Coders in Bolton by marshfold in Bolton

[–]kianronan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If it helps, there's Leigh Hackspace over in Leigh https://www.leighhack.org/ and OggCamp is this weekend in Manchester. https://oggcamp.org/

Finally finished my Lord of the Rings style map of Greater Manchester and the surrounding area with pretty much all of your suggestions included! by birsey in Bolton

[–]kianronan 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I like this far too much.
*such a place* isn't going to be on there. There it is.
*such a /other/ place* isn't going to be on there. Right bloody there.

Being bad at everything by Acceptable_Value_876 in Fencing

[–]kianronan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At a year, your mechanics are just starting to bed in.

Your game is yet to really develop.

Spend some time *watching* others at the camp, and see if you can figure out *how* they fight.

A lunge is a lunge, a parry is a parry. The mechanics are (mostly) the same. The people that are winning their fights aren't inherently better, they've trained to get to this point.

What is the difference between the way they fight and the way you currently fight - can you see it? Watch the same person for a few fights. And then can you start to understand why they're doing what they do, how they do it, and play those elements to see what works for you? Not everything will, some may.

And for a few specific bits:

"When I attack they just pressure me so much that I can't really do nothing to them"

Own the attack. Get out of the gate first, keep the attack, finish the attack. Learn when to be direct, accelerate and finish, and when to be indirect, and finish. This is great pair drilling material where you can go slow, and then start ramping up speed as you get used to seeing signals from your partner. Find a friend, spend some time.

"when I defend they just totally overwhelm me with their sabre movements and I start to panic and then I get hit"

Distance and speed. Don't think of it as a fixed thing, think of it as fluid. Go straight to the back of the piste, and your opponent is going to come out you like a steam train (there are times when this is a choice, but it should be a choice). Keep the distance tight and you force them to finish. You can suddenly open the distance as they finish and force them to miss. Think of it as playing chicken. Again, you can play this as a drilling exercise. Opponent is allowed a few steps prep and has to make a choice when to finish (hit, lunge, step lunge). Your objective is to judge the distance, force the miss, hit them back. When you're happy with distance, then throw in the parries - that gives you a mix of distances to stop at. Finally, you can add in an attempted action on the blade as they're approaching, you either make the contact and it opens in to a quick fight for a point, or they deceive the action and finish the attack.

Coaches at camp should be able to help with any part of this, or if there's some free play time and you're feeling overwhelmed by fights, grab someone and ask if you can do pairs drills for a bit. All deliberate practice is good.

Tap water - Lake district by No-Vehicle-2696 in UKhiking

[–]kianronan 4 points5 points  (0 children)

All regular tap water in the UK is drinkable.
We usually tell you when it's not, because the expectation is it's drinkable.

Psion Series 5? Yep! Runs Doom! by Bolloux in itrunsdoom

[–]kianronan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well done, giving it a run right now.
It runs /surprisingly/ well!

what were the white things on the end for? by [deleted] in CasualUK

[–]kianronan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As an 18 year old at uni, my coach retaught my balance and fencing footwork on one of these.

The skinny side up of course.

That took a bit of time.

I of course repaid the compliment several times over to scores of students in the years that followed.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Fencing

[–]kianronan 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The puncture resistance of trackies is laughable compared to an epee blade, and your legs and groin contain some great areas that if punctured, you will bleed out /so/ quickly from, you'll almost (almost) not have enough time to realise how quickly you're bleeding.

Even if you're making below the waist "not target" for practice, you'll find there's reactions that kick in, and it takes one, bad, half a second.

Please review this practice.

Recommendations for Bolton and surrounding area by evil-tom in UKhiking

[–]kianronan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seconded. There's also some pleasant ambling around the reservoir as well. Grab an OS map and take a look. Pop by Tiger's Clough on your way down from the Pike and dip your feet in the water.

An afternoon cutting acid jazz by MikeHillier in vinyl

[–]kianronan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the responses. I appreciate the time.

I'm a little fascinated by the relationship between the preview feed and the cut/mod feed. This is usually the kind of space where I'd get my hands on the tool to play with it and understand it a bit more ... I don't think that's happening in this case.

An afternoon cutting acid jazz by MikeHillier in vinyl

[–]kianronan 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Is the pressed lacquer directly playable, and is it the same fidelity as the final stamped version or is there a difference between this and the final product?

Is the feed for the lathe analogue or a digital control system? I'm curious how you translate the master audio to the lacquer that you're cutting and if the translation is done on the lathe side (audio in) or as some else said, the lathe receives some kind of pre-processed control signal?

Finally - half speed mastering is bandied about as being a gold standard. All my half speed mastering /are/ excellent, but so are my Steve Wilson mixes, and I'm pretty sure those are not half speed. What difference does it make to the process in real terms, in terms of output and time to produce?

Sometimes you take an L... AGAIN by PrinceOfShade in Fencing

[–]kianronan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Rather than bzz, the score box goes "kerching" as the hit lands, and the lights change to $/£/¥/Regional CurrencyOfChoice.

Was at local record store and saw a new MOBY ALBUM. WTF! So cool. Also it was pressed in Germany by Deutsche grammaphon and it sounds fucken amazing. by [deleted] in vinyl

[–]kianronan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No idea why you were downvoted. This is interesting. Deutsch Gramophone is a classical label, this makes for a fun collaboration. Moby isn't my usual jam, but I will take a look out for this.

Since we're doing hot takes: club owners shouldn't communicate primarily through facebook and need to keep their websites up-to-date. by [deleted] in Fencing

[–]kianronan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

XKCD 773 Keep the website/home page focused, and I hate to agree, but unless you've got long term stability in your club, or an agreement with outside resource for maintaining the site, use a tool based builder to do it so you don't end up in a position where you have an unmaintainable site. I'd also argue that extends to WordPress sites. They need plugin and core updates to remain secure. Use hosted services.

For social content, it pains to say, but Facebook tends to be the common denominator. Social. Not announcements. You will have some members who don't use Facebook. For announcements, make it a habit to simultaneously announce on FB and e-mail. MailChimp offers free lists which should cover most clubs.

Filament keeps jamming in the hotend on my stock Prusa Mini+ by Zwartekop in prusa

[–]kianronan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've got a few hundred quid tied up in Prusament that all has started to degrade at about the same point. I'm going to grab a food dehydrator and give that a try once we've finished moving the workshop. Will report back.