fandomhighdorms | Gym, noonish

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Gym, noonish

Buffy was beaming even more than usual when she skipped into the gym, still wearing her dress from yesterda's luau. Stupid invisible cabin. She frowned briefly, then dismissed the evil Stickbugs with a shrug. She could kill them later. Now it was time to cheer!

She pulled out mats, found the cd-player, put on 3 Small Words by Josie & the Pussycats, and began doing backflips while waiting for the other cheerleaders to show up.

ooc: I know the practice has been v. handwavily announced, so if your character can't make it for whatever reason -- like detention -- that's cool. Slow play like woah if needed.

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Tyler's face went blank at that idea. "That sounds painful. Hopefully for the other guy," he said.

He fixed his grip, then took an experimental swing off to the side. "That feels better," he noted.

"There was lots of me using my shield to block and scrambling for the sword again. I haven't dropped one since though so I suppose it was a good learning experience." He grinned. "Getting stabbed in the shoulder usually is."

"Good." Peter fell back into guard position and demonstrated three linked movements - a higher parry, a diagonal slice then, a horizontal cut. "Try that fairly slowly. Speed's not too important right now."

Tyler's left hand drifted to his own shoulder. "That must have left a scar," he said.

Then he crouched slightly, shifting his weight so he could match Peter's movements. "Almost," he said, self-critically. "Dunno, man. It feels a little jagged."

He tried again and again, getting the music of it, then looked at Peter. "Better?"

"Bit of one," Peter replied. "My sister's a good healer."

Peter watched Tyler's movements closely, grinning a bit as he made the same corrections Peter was about to. "Much. You're definitely feeling it." Peter moved so he was standing opposite Tyler but within range. "Now try it again." At about the same speed Tyler had been using, Peter attacked in a manner that would be perfectly defended by the form just practiced.

Tyler looked confused for a moment, then figured out what Peter was doing. A little awkwardly, he repeated the series of forms, his blade clashing against Peter's.

He smiled. "I think I get this," he said, sounding slightly surprised.

"Looks like you do," Peter replied with a nod. "And just about everything else builds on that."

He stepped back. "Now you have a choice again. I can keep showing you forms to learn or I can teach you all twelve strikes and six parries. I like forms because they're easier to practice and don't seem so disconnected from actual fighting. But the other way works too if you want to see everything at once."

Tyler thought for a moment. "Strikes and parries," he said. "In a fight, it doesn't matter if you have perfect form in every way. It matters if you can block and hit the other guy."

He shifted back into guard stance. "Teach me, English."

Peter nodded and gave a rather long *handwavy* discourse on each of the strikes and blocks pausing to demonstrate each and have Tyler copy them. There were 3 thrusts, 4 high strikes, 3 low, and 2 spins; for the parries: 2 across the body, a high, low, twisting, and a disarm.

"Obviously, these aren't all the moves you'd use in a fight and most of the time you have to adapt what you're doing to the other fighter - just like hand to hand. But they're the basic moves I was taught. Are you still following or did I lose you back at the parries?"

Tyler ran a hand through his hair. "I'm kind of following. I don't get the difference between the two spins," he said. "They look different when you do them. But I think they're the same when I try."

He demonstrated, and it was clear he hadn't quite understand the diffferences in footwork. "See?"

Peter watched carefully then nodded. "Looks like you're not following quickly enough with your center of gravity on the second. When you place your foot like so," he imitated Tyler's placement, "you force the momentum to pause. Why don't you work on putting your foot here," he demonstrated the proper position, "to keep your center of gravity moving and help increase the speed of the spin." He stepped back for Tyler to try it.

Tyler went for it, and it worked.

He went faster, creating a pattern of parry-spin-block. Unfortunately, his sword got ahead of him, and he tripped over his own feet.

He came up laughing. "I'm guessing that's not proper form."

Peter laughed as well. "Nah, you're just making up a new style as you go. Know what you did wrong?"

"Went too fast," Tyler said instantly. "Momentum kicked my ass."

He tried the same pattern again, going more slowly, and kept his balance. "Much better."

"That and you're moving into the next strike too quickly. Make sure you finish the full movement before starting the next."

He watched the pattern. "Nice." Grinning, he asked, "think you have them down and are ready to practice with them?"

Tyler lowered his sword and wiped off his forehead, then gulped down some water. "Ready when you are," he nodded. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. I'm having fun." He looked at Tyler closely for a second to make sure he wasn't too tired to continue.

Peter moved onto the mats and beckoned Tyler back out. "Very well, the idea is that I call out the number or name of the strike or block you will use. You attack me or block my attack. Eventually we'll be calling out strings of numbers back and forth while fighting full speed." He grinned. "But that can wait a bit."

Tyler rotated his shoulders, feeling the unfamiliar weight of the sword. "I think that should work," he said, following Peter onto the mats. "Go a little slow for now?"

Noticing the movements, Peter said, "you're going to feel that in the morning. But I'll be right there with you only in my legs from kicking earlier."

"No reason to go fast on this one," Peter replied. "The idea is to attain perfect form before speed."

He fell into a guard stance and called "Strike 1, block 4."

Tyler bit his lower lip, but moved through the postures reasonably well, if a bit choppily.

"Do I yell numbers now?" he asked.

As Tyler moved through his strike and block, Peter countered the movements with a firm sword though without anything close to full power.

"Sure, I'll block and strike as you call, but you have to block my attacks like I did to you. Make sense?"

"Makes sense," Tyler assured him.

He stepped back, running through combinations in his head. "Strike six, block three," he shouted, sword flashing, although at a safe distrance from Peter.

Peter excecuted the strikes at the same speed they'd be using but with enough force that if Tyler didn't block, he'd be getting hit.

Tyler barely managed to block the strikes. His movements with the sword were still a little choppy, but were getting more confident. "Your turn."

"Keep paying attention to the full movement of the swing," Peter advised. "That'll help smooth out your strikes."

"Block 4, Spin attack 2, Strike 7," Peter said as he began to attack.

Tyler grimaced in concentration. He almost overbalanced on the spin; as he caught himself, Peter's blade tapped against his upper arm. "Dammit," he breathed, then concentrated on his defense.

"Block eight, strike one," he called, shifting his tactics.

Re: Other people. -- swordy play!

once-a-king.livejournal.com - 2006-06-03 23:53 (UTC) - Expand

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