Thursday, May 31, 2007

New training exercises

Yesterday I was reading a very interesting book about medieval swordmanship. This book contained some nice exercises, I would like to share with you.

The 10 fingers exercise

This exercise is about strenghtening the grip. Make a strong close fist of your hand, and then open it, with 10 fingers apart. Then close it again. You can feel the tension in the fingers.

Isometric strengthening the neck

This exercise is about strenghtening the neck with isometric exercises. According to wikipedia, "Isometric exercise is a form of exercise involving the static contraction of a muscle without any visible movement in the angle of the joint."

  • Put your hand on the front of your head. Try to push it with your head, as the hand resist against the head.
  • Put your hand to the back of your hand. Try to push your hand with your head, while you resist with your hand.
  • The same for the sides.
Medicine ball exercises

I feel it is important to build a strong core (strong torso). This can be done with medicine ball exercises. Next week I will post some exercises, I use every day.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Poor man's stick

In some countries there is very hard to get an 'original' french made stick for CDC. The problem is, that it can ordered only in high volumes (50 pieces) or for a very huge price. However, in every country there exists some kind of wood, that is straight and light enough to be a temporary replacement of CDC stick. This is the reed. This is a light, straight kind of grass, with a hole inside. However you have to hardener this, because it can easily break.

You need the following things:

  • The reed (can be bought in every store)
  • Electronic tape (the white one)
  • Transparent tape
  • Super glue
  • Grip (can be bought in sport shops)
  • Emery paper
  • Measure tool
  • Saw
  • A pencil (for measure marking)
A picture about the tools (pencil is left out, sorry...)















Steps:

1, Use the measure tool and take a mark with the pencil around 95-97 cm from the bottom of stick. Cut the stick with the saw to this length.



2, Use the emery paper to smooth the end of the stick, where you did the cut.




3, Use the transparent tape to strengthen the upper 1/4 part of the stick (the attacking part).



4, This is the result



5, Add the grip to the end of the stick. You should grip around 20 cm. Some people prefer a not so long gripping, only about 15 cm.



6, First try it out, what a long you will use from the grip. Note: when I write TRY, it means, you DO NOT USE a glue! If the grip is too wide (means it's not rare enough), then it will be hard to take a good hold on the grip. The trick is to grip like on the picture. When it's okay, and comfortable, you can do it for real (using the glue).



7, Use the super glue to glue the end of the grip to the end of the stick.



8, Make the gripping, and use the super glue again, but at the opposite end, at the top.
9, You can strengthen the end of the grip with electronic tape, too.
10, Enjoy the final result.



Have a good play!

Friday, May 25, 2007

This guy is doing some cdc movements with the stick. He handles it well... at least it looks nice :)

Girls in CDC

Those girl are having some CDC fight...

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Added videos

Hello guys,

I added a video bar on the right side of my blog. If you'd like to see some fancy canne de combat movies, click them!

Training

Yesterday we had a nice training. I trained the basic techniques, and the voltes. I made same improvement in croisé téte, and it's a good thing. It is very interesting, that when i take off my weighted training trousers, and use only a light running short, my leg attacks are getting worse. I will not go down so easy and so.. It seems that there is some kind of psychically thing around it...

Some information about CDC attacks:

There are 6 basic attack:
  • brisé
  • croisé téte
  • lateral extérieur
  • lateral croisé
  • enlevé
  • croisé bas
What I was working on was to speed up my attacks, and let my torso twist, as I arm. (Every attack must be armed, that means you must first pull your hand behind your spinal column)
The trick is that you should not first twist your body, then add your hand work, because it's very heavy, and requires a lots of energy. The trick is you pull your stick in a good direction, so that movement naturally twists your body.

I will post some videos about the techniques to my blog, and will talk about every attack on the level of my knowledge.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

What is Canne de Combat?

Canne de combat is a French stickfighting art. It uses a canne (a kind of walking-stick) designed for fighting. Canne de combat is standardized in 1970s for sporting competition by Maurice Sarry. The canne is very light, made of chestnut wood and slightly tapered. A padded suit and a fencing mask are worn for protection. [From wikipedia]

For me, CDC means creativity. There are only 6 basic techniques and 4 different positions to learn, and then, you can play with the others, use your creativity, jump, run, parry, escape, attack: play in a random environment. Random means for me incalculabity. The other guy is moving around you, tries to attack, and parries your strikes. You try to cheat your opponet, to bring him in such a state, that is bad for him, but good for you. And he tries to do the same! You wont win with brute force, but with intelligence and creativity.

CDC is not a way of streetfighting, but a honest way of self expression and a kind of conversation with your opponet.

That is what CDC means for me.

Introduction

Hello guys!

This is my first post on my blog on cannecombat.blogspot.com. A short description about me. I am a 25 years old telecommunication engineer and software developer, who is addicted to Canne de Combat (CDC), the french way of Stickfighting.

I started canne 2 years before, and did a very good progress. I will post to this blog about my personal development (hey, it's about me:)) , about events in Canne de Combat, training programs, weight and functional training, about the state of CDC around the world, etc.