Waking up the next morning involved going through what was fast becoming routine. Ice-cold water for washing was just as unpleasant as it had been the previous day and I decided the the water-heating skill better be something I learnt very soon.
We started out the day’s training schedule the same as the day before with a two hour run. Finger Roberts spent just as much time imparting his knowledge as the previous day. The one big difference was that he showed us how to move tactically while moving through the forest so we found ourselves running in formation and not on the pathways. The formation of choice, we were told, was the ‘Arrow’ which involved two people out to either flank in line with a third who ran on the path. The rest were in single-file about thirty meters back on the path. The reason for this formation was that the arrow-head would hit contact with the enemy first, and the ‘shaft’ would remain free to react without being caught in any ambush. This all made sense to me from the immediate-action drills I knew from before. The big difference though was one that I didn’t consider until it was pointed out to me: there was no provision made to counter projectile weapons. It was Desrae who brought this up.
"Cy," she asked, "what happens if someone has a bow-and-arrow? They could just pick us off one by one."
That caught me. I realised that I had simply assumed that with no rifles, the projectile threat didn’t exist.
"I dunno Des, lemme ask."
"[Finger, we were wondering about projectile weapons. It seems you don’t give them any thought?]"
"[True. We don’t. It’s because a well functioning team, from a finger up in size, generates a shield against projectiles automatically. That’s another of those things that you will find developing automatically as a consequence of growing personal skill, but more importantly, a growing sense of ‘team’ and bonding.]"
"[Thanks Finger.]"
"[Don’t get complacent about that though. The shield is something that you will have to be aware of as part of the functioning of the team. If you find yourselves operating on your own, or seperated from the rest of the finger, then you become vulnerable to any projectile weapon; even a thrown rock."
***
At the end of our run, Finger Roberts sat us down and demonstrated a meditation position and explained the technique to us. He told us that this was the best way to focus on mental disciplines and develop those skills, but also how it would assist with the ability to fight.
Finger Roberts encouraged us to talk about this. During the discussion I mentioned that durng a ‘contact’ in my previous experience, I had felt a sense of time dilation, with everything slowing down around me. Finger Roberts latched onto that and told us that we needed to develop two different skills; one was to speed up our thought processes during battle - to create the time dilation effect - and the other was to guide and enhance the body’s fighting ability.
"I don’t know whether any of you have done any martial arts before, but we make use of some of their techniques. One aspect is the idea that your body must be so well drilled that actually thinking about what you are going to do slows you down. The ideal is to enter a ‘zone’ of peace and tranquility when you fight so that your body’s reactions are faster and more instinctual. Meditation can help you promote and extend that ability."
We spent about an hour practicing.
"OK," said Finger Roberts, "let’s move on. We have covered the basics of fighting formations, and started on patrol formations. We have gone over the basics of grappling with it’s holds and breaks and we have made a start on the mental aspects of what you have to know. Tactics we will cover more as we move forward and we can consider various scenarios as they arise in training situations and terrain. The one gaping hole in this is the actual weapons used to fight.
"You need to know that any of the Medieval weapons are theoretically available. We, in the ‘War Brother Fight’ have made certain choices both of tactics and weapons that suit those tactics. Other Fights have made other choices.
"Our choice is to use the short sword in the right hand together with a dagger in the left. We will start on how to use the sword now."
Finger Roberts then spent over an hour introducing us to the short sword. This started with a classic ‘Naming of Parts’ and moved on to the different ways to hold the sword and how to adjust the grip depending on what stroke we were going to use. Once we had all absorbed that, he moved on to explaining the different strokes themselves. This was reminicient for me of tennis grips and strokes, and I used that metaphor to help myself understand what was required.
We spent what was left of the morning practicing the various strokes of the sword. Finger Roberts insisted that we concentrate on getting the forms perfect at a very slow speed. Once we had them perfect, then we could increase the speed gradually.
We got to practice all all the forms, strikes and counters with the sword for a couple of hours before Finger Roberts put us back into fighting formations to practice the forms with the swords while in formation. It was not easy: a couple of us ended the day with hastily bandaged wounds suffered in the process of getting it right. The slice wound on my back and shoulder was incredibly sore, but this proved for us the fact that we healed fast, basically just having to sit out for twenty minutes or so for the wound to make a good start at healing itself, and then being able to get right back into training.
By the end of the day, we all realised that we had made good progress in learning how far we still had to go before we were even approaching competent.
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