Filed as Classical Fencing, Fencing, General, Historical Fencing, Italian Rapier with 5 replies
2/6/2009
**Phone rings**
Technician: This is Capoferro Tech Support, can I help you?
Caller: Yes, I am currently in a duel and I would like some help.
Technician: Can I get some information about your opponent?
Caller: Sure. He has a sword.
Technician: Can you tell me anything else?
Caller: He’s got black hair and brown eyes.
Technician: [audible sigh]... Can you tell me if he is skilled, unskilled, or bestial?
Caller: How can you tell?
Technician: A bestial fencer will throw many blows with great impetus and has no understanding of tempo or measure.
Caller: I don’t think that’s him; he’s just standing there.
Technician: Does he have his sword out?
Caller: Yes and it is pointed at me.
Technician: Are you within his measure?
Caller: I don’t know.
Technician: Can he currently strike you with a lunge?
Caller: Yes, he’s already hit me twice… I’m bleeding a bit from the shoulder. That’s why I called you.
Technician: You should have told me that first. I need you to immediately retreat out of distance.
Caller: Ok… I have retreated… He seems to have relaxed a bit.
Technician: That’s good. I need to know if your opponent is clever.
Caller: **Loudly aside** Hey, are you clever or what? **Into the phone** He says he isn’t clever.
Technician: I want you to assume the guard and cover the inside line with your blade. Turn your point towards his forward shoulder aligning your edge so that you cover his blade with your strong against his weak.
Caller: Ok… this seems to be working. I think he might be impressed or something. He might even be afraid. I love fencing!
Technician: Now, he should execute a cavazione and try to strike you on the outside high line. Be ready to counterattack by rolling your hand into secunda, closing the line and counterthrusting. Are you ready?
Caller: Ok.
Technician: I want you to gradually move forward with tiny steps directly towards him.
Caller: Ok… I’m taking tiny steps… He hasn’t done anything yet. I think it may be working. Oh oh… he attacked the outside just like you said!! I’m counterattacking!! Ahhhh Ahh ohhh ohhh!! He feinted!! He feinted!! He parried my counterattack!! I’m bleeding again!! Yes.. I’m definitely bleeding!! I hate fencing!! I hate it!!
Technician: Calm down. Calm down! I need you to listen to me. I need you to retreat out of distance again.
Caller: Ok… Ok… I’m retreating. He relaxed again. What would happen if I rushed him? Would that work?
Technician: It would probably work for him.
Caller: What does that mean?
Technician: Don’t worry about it. Here’s what you need to do.
Caller: Ok, I’m ready.
Technician: Are you out of distance?
Caller: Yes.
Technician: Can you see the adversary?
Caller: Yes.
Technician: When you are ready, I want you to repeat after me. Are you ready?
Caller: Yes.
Technician: “I want to sincerely apologize for having offended you.”
Caller: **Loudly aside** I want to sincerely apologize for having offended you.
Technician: Now put your sword away and see if he lets you leave.
***********************************
For the record, covering the inside line and counterattacking the cavazione in 2nd is Plate 7. I’ll leave it to you guys to figure out what the clever fencer’s response was.
Filed as Classical Fencing, Fencing, General with 6 replies
12/16/2008
The final exam given by the Fencing Master’s Program at San Jose State University on December 13, 2008 and it ended a 30 year tradition of fencing education. I was part of that program and took my Master’s examination that day. I had flown in from Spain 6 weeks earlier and trained almost non-stop to prepare. It was the culmination of over 16 years of fencing and 4 and half years of pedagogy training under Maestro Sullins, Maestro Sahm, and Maestra Sahm.
(All photos shown here are courtesy of Steven Flaugher.)
THE ORALS
The Oral Examination - (left to right) Maestro Ralph Sahm, Maestro John Sullins, Maestro Sean Hayes, Maestro Paul Scherman, Maestra Janine Sahm, Provost Puck Curtis, Candidate Sydney Thomson, Candidate David Coblentz, Candidate David Cogley, Instructor David Borland, Provost Eric Myers.
Any thought that your own maestri might show favortism in the orals is quickly dismissed as the ones who spend the most time with you grill you mercilessly. These are the maestri that are most invested in your success and the ones who will be most unforgiving of your flaws. The orals covered all three weapons (foil, sabre, epee) in detail.
THE GROUP LESSON
The Group Lesson - Instructing are Provost Eric Myers, Instructor Jeremy Tavan, and Instructor David Borland. Taking are Provost Daniel Williams, Provost Gary Murray, and Instructor Tony Barajas. (In the background is Instructor William Byrne.)
The Group Lesson is intended to judge your ability to control a larger lesson. You divide your eyes between 3 students and are expected to provide feedback to both the students and the instructors. In the action above the attack is directed to the crook of the arm which is a legal target in epee.
TEACHING LESSONS
Puck teaching Epee for the Board
Here I am teaching before the board to my good friend Eric Myers. For the record, I’m inviting in third which is why my point is high and to my right. The Italian tradition uses the left hand as a visual queue for the lunge. Eric and I informally call it the “traffic cop hand”. The palm says “wait”. When I turn my hand and beckon forward, I’ll bark out the command “Via!” at the same time to draw the lunge from the student. When I want the hit to land, I’ll bark “Hup!”
The Amazing Lunge of Provost Eric Myers. (In the background is Instructor Jeremy Tavan, Instructor Kevin Murakoshi, Provost Daniel Williams, and Provost Gary Murray.)
Here I have called out Eric’s lunge to the crook of my arm. When I want him to recover, I will rotate my hand and make a pushing motion. For anyone interested, “Via!” means “Go!” In Italian.
The Handshake of Friends after a Great Journey
We’ve been training together for almost 5 years to reach this moment. Not all of those times were fun and easy, but the friendship sustained us through the tough times. The looks on our faces says it all. Eric is a gentleman, a scholar, and, of course, a swordsman.
TAKING LESSONS
Eric calls out Puck's Lunge in the Sabre Lesson
In addition to teaching, I also had to demonstrate my form taking lessons. Here I am taking a lesson from Provost Myers. For those keeping score, there are 6 elements to the exam: The written, the orals, the group lesson, give lessons, take lessons, and the dreaded random actions. Random actions are actions chosen by the maestri at random that the candidate is required to teach the student. A master’s candidate is expected to be able to do all of these with all 3 weapons and our exam was a bit over 9 hours. In the later photos you can see that the sun has set.
RANDOM ACTIONS
The Powerful Expulsion of Provost Murray
Provost Gary Murray passed his Master’s exam many years ago under Maestro William Gaugler but he has withheld his thesis all this time. Instead, he has dutifully served as the program’s senior Provost for years. His form is almost perfect and his ability to teach is matched only by his personal grace and patience with the people under his care. For each exam, he volunteered to act as the student during the difficult random actions and when he found out the program was closing it’s doors at San Jose and moving to another university, he assured us that he would wait to turn in his thesis until the exam was complete.
For the fencing nerds out there, this action was:
In time, from the student’s invitation in third, grazing beat in 4th with a ballestra and direct cut to the flank. The instructor will parry in second and riposte by glide to the flank. The student will execute a ceding parry of fourth with an expulsion in fourth and riposte by direct cut to the outside cheek.
Maestro Sullins asked me to defeat my student’s expulsion with a disengagement in time, which was a trick question. Fortunately, I told him this was impossible but was able to perform a disengagement in time on the student’s earlier beat. As I said earlier, one’s own maestri will test you the hardest.
THE CODA
After my random actions, Eric was the final candidate left to finish.
Final Action of the Day - The Coda
Eric’s action was a dizzying series that started with a blade seizure in 3rd and deceive to the crook of the arm followed by a series of additional hits changing distance and targets, followed by a reassemblement to the crook of the arm, a simple parry of second, double circular parry of second, simple third, double circular parry of third, change of engagement to fourth with a riposte by flanconade in fourth which he parried with a ceding parry of fourth to trigger a second intention indirect (in fourth) to the crook of the arm. You see the final attack landing above.
It looks like any other lunge but it’s not. It’s the final action of the day, but it is also the last action in the last exam of the program. In music, the final phrase is called the “Coda” and this was the coda to Maestro Gaugler’s program at San Jose State University. The Maestri applauded and the candidates sighed and Eric and Gary saluted. That was the end of it and this final fencing action was the bittersweet coda.
As the program looks for a new home, I’ll keep the blog updated.
THE GRADUATES AND THE BOARD
Because of the terrible manner in which the program was canceled by the university, the requirement for a thesis was waived. In addition candidates who passed their exam under maestro Gaugler but never turned in a thesis were awarded their certificates which were held in trust pending the completion of a thesis. Earlier in the blog, I referred to candidates by their current title. In the picture below, I have added the new titles.
Winter 2008 Diploma Recipients - (left to right) Maestro Greg Hicks, Maestro Gary Murray, Maestro Puck Curtis, Instructor Ricardo Vargas, Instructor David Coblentz, Instructor Sydney Thomson, Maestro Eric Myers, Provost Tony Barajas, Provost Kevin Murakoshi, Provost Jeremy Tavan, Maestro Daniel Williams, Provost William Byrne, Provost David Borland, Instructor David Cogley
The Candidates and the Board - (left to right) Maestro Puck Curtis, Maestro Greg Hicks, Maestro Gary Murray, Instructor David Coblentz, Instructor Ricardo Vargas, Maestro Sean Hayes, Instructor Sydney Thomson, Maestro John Sullins, Maestro Eric Myers, Maestro Ralph Sahm, Provost William Byrne, Provost Kevin Murakoshi, Maestra Janine Sahm, Provost Jeremy Tavan, Maestro Paul Scherman, Maestro Daniel Williams, Provost David Borland, Instructor David Cogley, Provost Tony Barajas.
Much thanks to all my fencing masters and of course to maestro Gaugler who founded the program.
~P.
Filed as Classical Fencing, Fencing, General with 2 replies
12/15/2008
Saturday evening, I completed the requirements for the classical Italian fencing masters degree. In consideration of the circumstances of the closing of the program at SJSU, the maestri waived the requirement for the thesis and conferred the certification of Master at Arms that night. (This is a bit ironic since I already have 50+ pages written for the thesis, but I was encouraged to complete the work on my own initiative and I’ll follow through with that.)
It’s been a lot of work and I want to thank all of you for helping me learn to fence and teach. While it might seem that this is an ending, it is in fact the beginning of my real work and I’m very aware that I am the junior maestro in a family of talented and experienced fencing masters.
Thanks again for all your support and assistance,
P.
Filed as Classical Fencing, Fencing, General with 1 reply
On Saturday, December 6, 2008 I took and passed the Fencing Master’s written exam and passed with an ‘A’. That is pretty good, but to keep it in perspective, it only qualifies me to take the practical examination.
I am spending as much of this week training as I can and when I take the practical exam, that will leave me with a thesis. When I complete the thesis and the practical, I can put on the black jacket.
Here are some pictures from my training session on Sunday with Maestro John Sullins.
Engaging in Third
Maestro's Candidate Eric Myers (Yes, he really is that tall.)
From the student's engagement of 1st, change beat of 2nd and straight thrust to the outside low line. Instructor parries in 2nd and ripostes to the outside high line. Student executes a passata sotto from the lunge.
Puck's classical Italian inquartata
Puck Curtis, Maestro John Sullins, Eric Myers
Filed as Fencing, Geek Stuff, General with no replies
11/4/2008
Hola Amigos y Amigas!
My name is Puck Curtis and I am an electrical engineer and fencing teacher.
Behold the Geekness of Me
As far as the geek side goes, I specialize in embedded systems and I work for Rabbit Semiconductor. Embedded systems tend to be very small computers that don’t require much power and specialize in a bang-for-buck rather than processing power. If you stack a Rabbit device up against the latest ATI Radeon 4870×2 you will notice the following things:
ATI Radeon 4870×2
ATI Radeon 4870x2
Review at Guru3D.com
- 2 processors at 750 MHz each
- 2 Gigabytes of GDDR5 memory
- 2 x 256-bit memory bus
- 2.4 terraflops per second
- ~160 Watts of power consumption
- $539
Rabbit RCM5400W
RCM5400W WiFi computer, webserver, and all around cool thingy
It’s easy to see that the little Rabbit loses when it comes to sheer number crunching, but this little guy will work as a WiFi device with encryption, serve web pages, and act as the brain of a robot all at once while only pulling just a bit of power. If you shut down the WiFi the power consumption drops even more. This is why I consider embedded design part of the Green Economy. Lower power means lower carbon footprint and the world is a bit better off for it.
Fencing
When it comes to fencing, I’m trained as an Italian classical fencer and I currently hold the teaching title of Provost at Arms through the San Jose Fencing Master’s Program. This title is specific to classical Italian foil, epee, and sabre. On December 13, 2008 I will take the fencing master’s exam and if I pass and present an acceptable thesis, I will be able to call myself a Maestro of classical Italian fencing.
I also teach historical fencing and sit on the board of the Tattershall School of Defense and I am a historical fencing coach at the Davis Fencing Academy. I have been fencing within the SCA since 1992 and my current interests are Italian rapier, Italian longsword, and Iberian swordplay from Montante (greatsword) to sidesword. I am one of the two people responsible for maintaining the Destreza Translation and Research Project.
I spent the last two months in Spain training with the historical group of Spain, La Asociación Española de Esgrima Antigua (AEEA).
Welcome to the blog,
Puck
