I too applaud the effort. You put a lot of thought into the making of these. Kudos.
Thank you!
I will echo Artorious here, there is some things which are spot on, others that need more thought. Hopefully we will get an opportunity to discus this in more detail later.
Can you expand on the ones that are right, and the ones requiring more thought? Hell, at this point I'm just happy that I got something right. Edison failed over 10,000 times before inventing the light bulb. I think I'm ok with my results here. Which isn't to say that I won't continue to pursue it. I'm just going to take it a lot slower now that it's out there.
The one thing I think stands out before I get to specifics, I feel there may be a few guns being jumped. As an avid user of the rev grip, and to echo what has been said most of the time in these threads, rev grip is a more advanced tactic. I think you are limited in what you will be able to find out or explore due to your limited experience and training. You have identified many of the limitations of the grip yet do not have many solutions to them. That is probably because you are unaware of many time tested methods and training that is necessary to effectively use this strategy.
I will agree that my inexperience is certainly a limiting factor. As much as it allows me to think outside the box, so to speak, it also prevents me seeing the walls of the box, if that makes sense.
Your Dulon is nice. It is very basic simple. That is good. However, there is a lack of body involvement and use giving the impression of a "stiff" or restricted movement. I will disagree with Master Uilos a bit on this point, it is not the wrist that is stiff, it is the rest of your body. The movements of swordplay are not natural to you yet and you may be unable to express what you may know or have found out.
I think the last statement here is probably spot on. I have these thoughts in my head, but may not quite now how to properly express them. Some will certainly change with more experience, as has been pointed out.
You say repeatedly that you lack this experience. Two things I would like to mention:
1. Immediately the question pops into my mind, "Then where are you getting these ideas?" You mention research, but don't site anything specific. Did you do this with friends? did you look it up in books? What was this research? That is one thing that I wanted to know that I didn't get. If I missed it, let me know, but I feel it might be good to make that the setting for the whole thing.
2. Once you disclaim that you are not an expert, that should be the end of it. Say it and move on. Don't continue to insult your own ability or form by mentioning it every time you demonstrate. Just don't underscore the things you think are wrong.
1. As for where it came from, most of it came from experimenting, either with friends (when possible), by pushing myself to adapt known techniques to the grip , or, when those failed, trying to create something new to achieve the desired outcome. The Leading Shoulder weakness came from sparring, for example, as did the thought about moving towards a thrust rather than away.
2. Thanks for the tip. I'll keep it in mind for next time.
Here are the things that I would find most useful for an entire reverse grip dulon. (The Lessor Krayt of Shien has the most work with it in our system but it is never stand alone.)
1. Switching hands, grips, positions and strikes far more. The strength in the rev grip is in it's ability to switch from and back to standard.
I had intended to state that I meant this as an addition to Forward Grip styles, rather than it's own standalone style. I tried to address this in a previous post, but I think referring to RG as a Form was probably the wrong direction to take. Hindsight is 20/20 right? Either way, I'll focus on this more as I move forward.
2. More active and less static footwork.
3. More body use with the saber.
I think both of these are products of my inability to practice in a more open area at the moment. My apartment is small, and the parking lot where I shot the Dulon is rarely that empty (that was about 8am).
4. Less conventional patterns of attack and defense.
I'll look into this one more. I thought I'd covered it, but clearly I dropped the ball. One thing I will say is definitely unconventional is the RG's ability to attack straight up, from bottom to top. I accomplished this from both the Strong and Power Guards, though both presented their own sets of pros and cons.
5. More emphasis on opening and closing, coming in to close range and back out to long range.
Another one I thought I'd covered better than I did. I'll keep looking at this one as well.
I think most of this will correct it's self with experience. Even finding out more about conventional footwork. We have only released the first two level of foot work. This is the most novice level. As we get up to more dynamic footwork more possibilities will open up.
Aslo, be careful not to reinvent the wheel. There is lots of training for this that exists already. I will be putting some down for Shien this summer, and I'm sure we will do more shows with it.
DN
I look forward to what you have to say!
you are thinking originally and for me that is so much harder and more special.
I appreciate that a lot! Thank you.
Form or Kata teaches discipline; control, distance, timing and balance
This is more or less what I was going for. Keep it slow and simple, then moving on to more complicated stuff once I'm more comfortable and familiar with sabering overall (both FG and RG).
It may be interesting to note that I actually created Trajectories 2 and 3 first, and Trajectory 1 last. All 4 were changed several times before I landed on something I thought was worth keeping.
although the Form is self contained unto itself and so needs only show the fullness of its ideas not the fullness of all ideas.
This is another thing I was going for. We already have thousands of pages of material on the Forward Grip. I wanted to focus on the RG to find possibilities within it. I never intended it to be its own Form, though I'm sure it appears that way. Mostly due to my poor choice of wording in the title of the thread, I think.
As Always, thank you all for your thoughts! If you feel the need, keep em coming!
