Krav Maga with Swords

 

Recently while cycling through the delight that is Aqueduct Park in Rome I came across a bunch of people fighting with swords.

Now, the area they were in is used extensively by keep-fitters exercising and even has it’s own outdoor gym of sorts, comprising pull-up bars, static bikes and various other bits and pieces. I’d seen a lot of people working out in that area before but never like this.

Stopping for a rest after a healthy jaunt along the ruins of what used to be the main supply of fresh water for the Roman Empire, I saw that this was longsword practice (i.e. both hands on the hilt) and the swords were big. One of the instructors saw me watching and came over to say Hi.

During a brief chat he told me that they are ASD Custodes Cervi HEMA Roma, which translates roughly to "Hema Rome Deer Keepers ". They practice a couple of times a week and during the nice weather come to the park to have a go. The moves they were demonstrating at the time involved using your sword hilt to trap your opponent's blade and then move it to one side allowing you to strike with your elbow to their face. I got a phone number and Instagram account of the club and said I’d call them for a “prova” (trial lesson) soon.

About three weeks later I had a free Saturday and took a trip to the gym where the club train (the nice weather now declining, they had moved back inside). About five of use were there, with a couple of latecomers boosting the class, and we got into a warm-up.

Now, having done Krav Maga for about 7 years and also having trained as a Kids, and General, instructor* I know the fundamental importance of a good warm-up. Muscles, bones and sinews do not work well when cold and it is very easy to get hurt if you leap into an intense or even moderate workout before your body had been heated up, stretched and oiled. One way to spot a McDojo** is if the warm-up is brief, non-existent or doesn’t focus on the appropriate areas of the body for the training. The routine we went through here was at least twenty minutes long and I was aching in my inner thighs for three days due to the extensive lunges they had us repeating around the gym floor. I do yoga every day but don’t work that particular bit so felt it big time in the following days. After we were nice and sweaty the instructors then got us to do some moves with the practice swords.

There were two types of sword for training: wooden ones and flashier, sexier metal jobs with crafted hilts. The instructors mainly used the latter to demonstrate, and one or two of the other students had them. I got a wooden one but was grateful to only be wielding that as I had never trained with a sword before, apart from a brief “class” at a comic convention with a Jedi*** offering lightsaber tuition.

The first move was Porta di Donna (Woman's Door) and involved stepping and parrying and the footwork was fundamental. Having learned open/close as part of self-defence training I was able to do this reasonably well and the move started with the sword on your right shoulder and ended at the left.

After repeating that and drilling it for about 15 minutes we moved to the parallel side, where the technique was slightly different  and Denti di Cinghiale (Boar's Teeth) and then to my favourite which was the Porta di Ferro (Iron Door). This move entailed creating a barrier across your groin with the hilt and the blade held horizontally to defend against low attacks. While we were learning this, we got taken out one at a time to practice repetitive striking of the previously learned techniques with one of the instructors.

Finally, to finish off, we had a session of breaking free from a strangle hold without the swords, but in a way that I hadn’t learned previously in Krav or self defence training. The session finished with a salute to the instructors with our weapons. Right, left and forward. Kind of like “kida” but more flamboyant.

I really enjoyed the class and it was refreshing to take part in something as unique as this. The warm-up itself proved that the instructors knew what they were doing and the focus on only 3 techniques with swords and 1 unarmed, showed that the focus was on quality and not quantity.

It was easy to see that these guys knew what they were doing and coming from a Krav Maga background, the best way to describe this was that it was Krav with swords.

It’s only 40 Euros a month to join so I’ll be up for regular training once the Covid-19 restrictions ease off (as I write this we are now in a further extension of the lockdown).

A lot of fun so give it a go if you are in the area. The club train at Swim & Fit gym in Largo Preneste, Rome (near to the Teano Metro stop on line C) and can be contacted via phone on +39 06 331 702 4330. Instagram is @hema_guardiani_del_cervo and on Facebook as ASD Custodes Cervi HEMA Roma.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* KIC and GIC. The former is 5 days long. I passed. The latter is 24 days long. I completed it but didn't pass.

**McDojo. Club run by a twat who has no skill or teaching ability and just wants your money

*** Jedi. Initially a plot point of a highly successful 1977 sci-fi film Now a religion in its own right.

 

Jorah's Journey

In the utterly wonderful Game of Thrones a character that has resonated with me more than any other is Jorah Mormont. A man in his 50s, he is a tired warrior who wants nothing more than to serve his queen Daenarys Taegaryan (sp?), a woman who he loves more than anything, including his own life.

Originally sent to spy on her by the horrid Baratheons/ Lanisters of Kings Landing, he decided to switch allegiance after developing feelings for his Khaleesi. Unfortunately for him he also decided not to tell Daenarys which meant she went batshit upon finding out through other means and banished him upon pain of death if he ever returned.

He came back once more and she banished him again rather then slay him, only for him to come back AGAIN and this time both save her life and finally convince her that she had, possibly, maybe overreacted just a tiny bit.

Dying of greyscale poisoning (think, leprosy that slowly turns  you into a zombie hulk thing) he finally confesses his feelings to Daenarys and bids her farewell, resigned to his fate as a wanderer who will die alone without the woman he loves being in his life. Utterly heartbroken, Daenarys formally berates him for walking away without permission and then orders him to honour his promise to obey her commands until death, by finding the cure to his fatal lurgy. Which he eventually does.

Now…the reason all this has such a deep impact on me (and is causing me to tear up even remembering some of it) is because Jorah was a man who had fought all his life. Not just physically (he is noted as one of the finest warriors in the fictional world of Game of Thrones, despite his age) but also with both his conscience and with his unexpressed and unrequited love of a woman he adored.  Despite kicking ass in the gladiatorial pits and fighting off White Walkers with indefatigable stamina, he always struggled with his inner demons and couldn’t find the courage to do one tiny thing. Tell the woman he loved that he loved her. He was a man who wanted peace but lived a life that would never allow him to have it. A man with a terrible secret (his spying) and later without a master (banished with only his sword and the clothes he had on). He wandered the world yearning for purpose and finding none, until his persistence and his dignified yet sorrowful declaration of love finally led to him not only being cured of a normally fatal disease, but also being welcomed back to the side of his queen, who loved him back and realised the terrible mistake she had made by turning him away, just through wounded pride.

While I have my own Khaleesi, this blog isn’t about her**. It’s about me finally finding peace through a very simple thing. Today I chose one job instead of another.

To elaborate…

I’ve had many jobs. Security guard, retail manager, proof reader, journalist, police officer, postman, author, salvage diver, English teacher…and more. I’ve always had an itch to do something more than just settle down and live my life quietly. I never could find what I wanted because I didn’t know what I wanted. I’ve wandered for years and now, a few years shy of Jorah Mormont’s fictional age, I find myself finally wanting to not do difficult things just to prove I can.

The job I currently have is from October until July. This gives me 3 whole months with no work. My contract gives holiday pay but not enough to cover 12 weeks rent. So…I’ve been looking for summer work, specifically working on educational camps in Italy and the UK.

I’ve had three interviews for centre manager. The big boss. I’ve done it before and while I’ve worked for some right fucking toilets in my time (companies that regard students as revenue and teachers/ staff as resources) I’ve also done the job very well and in 2005 ran a centre that was the only one of the 21 the company owned that came in under budget and didn’t get billed for damage. This was in London so I was also a Special Constable with the City of London Police and was on duty on July 7^th, just after the terrorist attacks, at one of the bomb sites (Aldgate). Exciting times and a great sense of pride in what I achieved.

I’ve been applying for centre manager positions again because I have the skill sets and it’s something I can do well if I put my mind to it. However, last Monday one of my 8 year old students told me that she is going to London in July and excitedly showed me the letter from the company she will be travelling with. I wrote it down, dropped them an email and today was interviewed on Skype by the recruitment manager. She offered me a job that pays 400 Euros Net per week plus free board and food…as a teacher.

I thought about this and realised that while it isn’t as exciting or sexy or challenging or wonderful on a CV as Centre Manager it will also be more relaxing and mean I won’t be stressed to hell for the entire time I’m there. It’s also the same salary that some companies offer for the CM’s position (mainly the one that are toilets). The lady I spoke to was very pleasant and spoke at length about the company and seemed very keen to take me on, saying that it was perfectly fine if I couldn’t make the training day in April (something that is a pre-requisite to contract with other summer firms).

Two years ago, at the age of 46 I put myself through two 12 day chunks of the Krav Maga Global General Instructor’s course in Australia. This was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my adult life and I knew when I went back for part 2 that I was probably going to fail the final exam (I did). I did it to prove to myself that I could face something that physically draining; that involved flying to and from Australia from the UK TWICE in the space of 3 months; that exhausted me to the point of tears; that cost me a lot of money…without backing down.

So finally I felt like Jorah once he got cured of his nasty skin rotting lurgy thing and was hugged by his queen once more. I didn’t feel the need to prove to myself or anyone else that I could do the badass job, I was grateful to be offered a decent salary to work for a company in a responsible but low key position.

I’ve always felt the need to prove myself and that has led to some monumental disappointments in my life. Not because there’s anything wrong in going the extra mile but because sometimes one mile less is still enough.

----------------------------------------------------------

** Although Tyrion Lanister was right...Khaleesi.