Russian stick exercises

We started out the session working on some interesting old Russian stick exercises and then applying them to the mountain axe. Last week I bought a number of table runners to use as sashes or faja...so we worked quite a bit on our technique using the navaja and faja together. We used two methods, first the faja n the off hand and then the faja stretched between the hands with the navaja in the right hand. We did some bouting both with and without the sash.

Next up we worked on the recortes as a counter to both a straight thrust and a jiro. Once the recortes was finished we were throwing a rear leg fouette at the opponents midsection. Fun mixing savate and navaja play:)

We finished the session with some drills developed around the madeja (skein of yarn, figure-8 ) A thrust comes in and the counter is made in the madeja pattern and a series of cuts follow all along the same pattern as the defender moves either to the outside or the inside of the attackers blade. So a short session, about an hour and a half, but we got some good navaja work in.

if you have andre's book on french defense dans la rue--there is a chapter on navaja with some savate kicks---they changed the navaja to the french knife and took the info from the spanish book and did a bit of a mix--adding some cape and kicking--

Sounds like lots of fun!

-- 

"In these modern times, many men are wounded for not having weapons or knowledge of their use."

-Achille Marozzo, 1536

-- 

"...it's the nature of the media and the participants. A herd of martial artists gets together and a fight breaks out; quelle surprise."

-Chas Speaking of rec.martial-arts