Booklet - now in english

A first, draft version of the canne de combat booklet is available at:

http://canne.tritonis.hu/booklet_en.pdf

Enjoy!

A booklet for the beginners

Two days before I decided to create a small booklet for kids and newcomers about Canne de Combat.

It is almost complete, you can check it at the following link:

http://canne.tritonis.hu/booklet.pdf

I will do a translation of this booklet to english soon... If you have any idea about it, please post a comment ...

Body positioning

In some month ago I started to work with my body positions. That means, I was working on how to do movements faster, with more ease and balance.

I found out, that there is two versions of fente arriére.

• The first version is: when you just go down, and your legs are in 90 degree.
• The second version is: when the angle between your legs are more, than 90 degree.
  

The trick in the second version is, that you don't face your opponet like in boxing, but you show only your side. So, your hip does not point to your opponet, but to the side. When you try to do fente arriére so, you will be able to do that version.

Okay, there comes a question, what version should I use in a fight? Good question, that is improvement all about! Having good questions, and trying to find answers :)

Well, if your are far away from the opponet, use the first version. But, if your are close to the opponet, as you close the distance, automatically show him/her only your side. From this position, you can do the version 2, which is in this distance far much faster, than the version 1.
But be aware, from the side position you can throw brisé or croisé téte very hard, so it's better to recover to the normal stance, as you gain distance.

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.

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!

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...