02-07-2020, 06:18 AM
Bladeworks – Countering and Disengaging
This is going to be a difficult subject to address due to the nature of the form. The entire form is focused on minimizing your need to counter since you’re speed and skill would enable you to never be forced to counter. That being said, in reality, you come across opponents that will match you in skill, sometimes even be more skilled.
This is the point were having your defensive tools at point blank will come into key. Counters in this form is designed to do one out of two things. The first will be to counter for reestablishing control over the tempo of the match, the most common opportunity to counter is a slow strike at CLOSE range, moving forward to hit our previously spoken vital point, or a joint in general will allow you to RESET the initial Waltz state. Almost setting it back to the initial start of the battle. What this means is that you will need to create space between you and your target, even if that means getting in an advantageous range to your opponent. If the space is large enough you will have a bit of room to reorganize yourself and quickly reenter their personal bubble.
This goes back to weaving in and out between their comfortable range and the suboptimal range. At this point you will be able to reuse the energy surrounding you with your state of Flow to gain the upper hand and quickly change the tempo to a step that is too fast for you opponent to react.
This is key, because at this point you will be at your most vulnerable, unless you are against another melee combatant, then it will be a true reset of the initial Waltz.
This is going to be a difficult subject to address due to the nature of the form. The entire form is focused on minimizing your need to counter since you’re speed and skill would enable you to never be forced to counter. That being said, in reality, you come across opponents that will match you in skill, sometimes even be more skilled.
This is the point were having your defensive tools at point blank will come into key. Counters in this form is designed to do one out of two things. The first will be to counter for reestablishing control over the tempo of the match, the most common opportunity to counter is a slow strike at CLOSE range, moving forward to hit our previously spoken vital point, or a joint in general will allow you to RESET the initial Waltz state. Almost setting it back to the initial start of the battle. What this means is that you will need to create space between you and your target, even if that means getting in an advantageous range to your opponent. If the space is large enough you will have a bit of room to reorganize yourself and quickly reenter their personal bubble.
This goes back to weaving in and out between their comfortable range and the suboptimal range. At this point you will be able to reuse the energy surrounding you with your state of Flow to gain the upper hand and quickly change the tempo to a step that is too fast for you opponent to react.
This is key, because at this point you will be at your most vulnerable, unless you are against another melee combatant, then it will be a true reset of the initial Waltz.