Jan 30 13:05:00 107 PA - How to stab and slash
From Chronicles
Logfile from Rifts.
The current game time is: Mon Jan 30 13:05:00 107 PA. Kingsdale - Harry's Gym
The Sparring Ring of Harry's Gym is even more spartan than the rest of the facility. It is geared towards non and lightly augmented individuals as Harry's is by and large a family facility. Nonetheless, the walls here are chemically treated and renforced and many cameras keep a watchful eye on the goings on. The actual 'ring' is a boxing ring, complete with ropes and nearby is a large open area with mats to practice martial arts and other hand to hand techniques. Of real note is that there are two armed guards here at all times -- and the place seems to ALWAYS be in use -- and a nurse's office is located nearby in the case of injuries. Apparently, Harry takes the safety of the public quite seriously.
Players- Objects- Exits- Erica <O> Out
Erica is waiting on one of the sparring mats. She is wearing some goggles and is carrying an impact pad. On the floor near her feet are a few wooden knives to serve as practice knives. She is waiting patiently while busying herself with making sure everything is set up
As they had discussed previously, Sage enters the sparring area and looks around. Having spent a little time warming up else where in the gym, she simply looks around the place until she notices Erica. A smile coming to her lips, she wanders over. Her gaze running over the setup that the other woman has arranged. A thoughtful look coming to her features. "Hey..." She says once she's closer.
Erica offers Sage a warm, friendly smile as the other woman approaches. She gives Sage a quick nod of her head and picks up a matching pair of goggles from one of her pockets. She tosses Sage the goggles before bending down to pick up some of the training knives. "How are you doing Sage?"
Sage's smile remains on her lips as she's greeted with a warm one in turn. She isn't quite sure what goggles are for, but she catches them as they are tossed to her. Seeing no harm in them, she slips them on and adjusts them to make sure they sit well enough. "I'm doing well, and you?" She asks, "And, is it too soon to ask what you have in store for me today?" She adds with a little musing.
Erica pats the pad while she grabs a big wooden combat training knife and hands one out for Sage to take. "Sure I have a couple exercises for us to do. The pad is to get you used to striking hard with a knife. And then we are going to work on your cutting and stabbing motions. The goggles are just for protection." She gives Sage an encouraging smile before continuing. "We will see how far we get today."
Taking the knife from the other woman, Sage adopts the grip that she's been told to focus on when going through practice motions from their first lesson. "Alright, sounds like a plan." She comments with a chuckle. "Guess I wont have to worry about getting stabbed in the gut this time around." She adds with a little musing. She considers the bag. "I think this drill will be good... it'll help me figure out if I'm even holding it right." She comments, but waits for the instructions as she begins to move towards the bag that seems likely to be part of the first drill.
Erica moves the impact pad against her shoulder and stands sideways so that she can easily brace herself. "Well lets work on your stabbing motions first. So witch back to the regular hammer grip and give me a few stabs on this pad." She licks her lips quickly and offers Sage another encouraging smile as she sets herself for getting stabed through the pad.
When the other woman suggests a different grip, Sage gives a thoughtful set to her lips before switching the blade to the grip suggested. She considers her hand before nodding faintly to herself. "Alright..." She comments, before she moves in to stab the bag a couple times. The first time she grips a bit too hard expecting a jarring impact and ends up taking a little too much of it. She makes a little grunt, "That hurt a little." But, she quickly changes her grip a little only to hold the blade a little too loose on the second attempt and it slides a little to make any blow it would do less effective. She gives a chagrin look and a little sigh, "Could you..." She ends up extending her hand with her three biggest fingers extented and her thumb trapping her pinky back against the palm. "grip my fingers like a hilt and give me an idea of the grip you use?" She asks, "It might help me a bit."
Erica keeps smiling at you trying to encourage Sage as you stab the pad. She grunts a bit at the first stab and gives Sage a slight nod. "Ok that wasn't bad." She offers the second stab makes Erica wince a little bit and she gnaws on her lower lip. As Sage holds out her hand she lowers the pad and nods. "Ok." She grips your hand with her own hand trying her best to show you the grip. "Ok hold the knife and hold it out like you were stabbing and I'll modify your grip. Good thing these ones have guards."
When the other woman seems to have established her grip, Sage wriggles her fingers to get a feeling for how much play they're allow. "Thank you." She murmurs before she goes to re-grip the hilt. She uses her other hand to get a sense of the wiggle room her grip gives it before looking to Erica for any corrections that may need to be made.
Erica wraps her hand around Sage's own as the other woman grip the handle of the knife. She moves Sage's fingers slightly and uses her fingertips to indicate more or less pressure. Once she is satisfied that Sage has a good grip she grabs the pad and moves it up again to her shoulder. "Ok good now try to stab again. Also work on stabbing with different angles. Not just straight head on."
It almost feels like she's holding hands with the other woman for a moment as Sage watches the other woman adjust her grip. She relaxes her fingers to make them more pliant to the other woman's adjustments. She takes a moment to see how the practice hilt feels in her hand with the new grip. She nods to the instruction, "Okay." She comments before doing an experimental stabbing motion to get a sense of how her hand and blade react to the impact. Once the blade seems to sit where its supposed to, she takes another experimental stab. Then she begins to grow in confidence and might almost look maniacal as she almost playfully tries different stabbing motions.
Erica nods her head and flashes Sage a quick smile at that first stab. As the stabbing motions become faster and from different angles Erica starts concentrating more and more on bracing herself against the hard stabs. She moves the pad around a bit to catch each stab. "Good, good." Keep going until you are sure you have it. We want your muscles to learn what this is like."
"I think you may just want me to look sufficiently scary so no one will disturb our lesson." Sage replies with a faint tease before she continues to stab away at her target. She doesn't add any dramatics to her motion as she doesn't want her teacher to think she's taking the lesson too lightly. Not being too familiar with the method of attack, she likely goes beyond the point where she actually has it. She does stop short of tiring her arm too much. Her breath has gotten quicker and she aborts her stab to let her arm relax. "I think he's dead..." She comments, avoiding the temptation to lean against the bag, she takes a moment to collect herself.
Erica sticks her tongue out at Sage playfully as she lets the woman relax and catch her breath. "Well looking scary can defintly help your chances against an opponent." She giggles softly to herself as she relaxes for a little bit. "Ok next thing we are going to work on is your slashing or cutting move." She drops the pad down onto the mat and picks up on of the practice knives herself. Holding it in a grip she makes a couple slow practice slashes in the air. "Ok see you want to slash with the edge of the knife. try to get the edge against the pad." She then puts her practice knife in her belt and grabs the pad to get it ready.
The other woman sticking out her tongue only brings an amused look to Sage's eyes, before nodding faintly to the comment about looking scary. She takes a breath before straightening some once the new drill is brought up. She listens and watches the other woman's movements. She shifts her grip a little before holding it out for the other woman's inspection. "Okay." She comments, waiting for any adjustment to be made on her grip before she'll shift her attention to the practice pad.
Erica inspects Sage's grip on the practice knife for a moment. She nods her head while only making a slight shift to Sage's thumb on the handle. She then picks up the pad and braces it against her shoulder again. "Now let's try some practice cutting moves. Try to concentrate on getting the cutting edge on the pad."
Offering the other woman a faint smile to the adjustment, Sage considers her hand and tries to keep the same strangth of grip before. She considers the pad and where Erica remains in relation to it. The concept seems simple enough. She's a bit tentative at first as she mainly makes content with the forward part of the blade that would likely result in shallow wounds. It also takes her a moment to adjust to the different kind of impact.
Erica nods her head and gives Sage another encouraging smile before the other woman starts slashing against the pad. "Good keep working at. One smooth motion to make deep cuts. You might also want to try some cutting motions with your thumb on the back of the blade. That will help." She offers as she keeps her pad braced against her side.
As she starts to become more comfortable with the motion, Sage begins to become a little more bold with her motions. Nearly getting part of Erica in one slightly over-eager slice. "Oops." She murmurs, pausing only long enough to make sure that the other woman isn't hurt before she resumes the process. The slashing and cutting is similar and yet different than what she's already done in the past. The difference seems to be a progressive process of getting comfortable with the motion. Her re-adjustment of her grip begins to become less frequent as she gets used to the rebound the slicing motion has.
Erica squeaks a bit at theat over-eager slice of Sage's, but she moves back quick enough to avoid it. She looks up at Sage and gives the other woman a slight smirk before reading herself again with the bad. "The more you practice the easier the motion will be, and you'll be able to remember it without having to adjust yourself again and again." She keeps moving and working with Sage so that the pad is always ready for Sage to slash at.
With the moment of concern passed, Sage effects an innocent look to the other woman's smirk. She decides not to press her luck with any comments about it, though. She nods to the comment. "Probably." She agrees before she continues to slash away at the practice pad. Eventually her arm begins to tire from the repetitive motion and she begins to lose her edge in the drill. After a weak slash, she gives a mild pant before looking up to her teacher with a questioning look.
Erica nods her head slowly as Sage gets tired. "Alright. I think that is enough practice of those moves for today." She sets the pad down on the mat beside her before looking at Sage with an appraising look. "Are you up for more practice or are you wanting to stop for today? I think you've made some good progress so far."
A small relief comes over her features when the other woman decides this arm tiring exercises can be stopped for now. "I'll likely be practicing them for a little bit." She comments, before she considers the question. "Thanks." She says softly, before pursing her lips. "How about you press your fingers into this spot here..." She turns to point as best as she can near a spot below her shoulder blade, "and rub in a circular manner while telling me about what we might do next and I'll let you know?" She asks, glancing over her shoulder at the other woman.
Erica laughs softly in her little voice as Sage turns around and motions to her back. "Alright." She moves over to where Sage is standing and holding Sage by the shoulder with one hand her other hand moves to the point Sage picked out. Using her first two fingers she starts massaging that point just below the shoulder blade slowly. Her fingers firmly but gently rotate around trying to work the tension out of that spot. "Well I was thinking we could work on parrying next. I could attack and you could try to parry. But you've done some great work so far. I leave it up to you depending on how you feel."
A small smile comes to Sage's lips as the other woman agrees to her suggestion, "Thank you." She murmurs, simply holding herself to provide as firm a surface to push against. "Press a little harder." She murmurs as the other woman begins. When the tension begins to be worked out, she takes a deep breath. "My arm's a little tired, but I might be able to try a couple reps... if you have some padding for us this time." She comments with a hint of amusement.
Erica starts pressing her fingers harder against Sages back. Really pushing hard as she works them around to release the knot and tension that might be there. "Well I don't want to overtire you. How about we just try that next time. As is your arm might be a little sore tomorrow form using muscles that you haven't really worked before." She mentions as she keeps massaging Sage's back trying to help Sage relax a bit.
After a bit of letting the other woman press rather hard, Sage murmurs, "Ease up a little bit now." She comments, but otherwise allowing the other woman to massage the tightness as she will. "Alright, my arm would probably be a little slow and clumsy right now as it is." She concedes, not feeling the need to show false bravado. Eventually she gives a soft sigh before her posture relaxes some and her back becomes harder to properly massage. "Better..." She murmurs, before glancing over her shoulder. "We could always do other exercises if you wanted, though."
Erica eases up on her fingers as she keeps working and rubbing the spot Sage indicated earlier. "Ok then we will stop for now and continue another day. Take one of these practice knives with you and work on your grip every once in a while. Ok?" She offers as Sage relaxes her posture. "Well most of the knife exercises are going to be working your arm. So what exercises were you thinking of?"
"I was planning..." Sage replies softly before turning to face Erica once more. She purses her lips as she considers the question. A faint look of amusement comes to her eyes a moment, "I guess the only one that doesn't work the arms that comes to mind right now is running." She comments, "But, I don't imagine we'd be able to talk much once it all becomes gasping for breath." She chuckles, "Thank you for the lesson... I'm not sure if you'll want to learn something from me at some point, but if you think of something I can help you with... let me know."
Erica laughs herself as she returns Sage's look of amusement with an amused look of her own. "Well I go running just about every day. Your more then welcome to join me sometime. Always easier to go running with a partner." She give Sage a quick wink as she starts putting the impact pad away. "Well I would love to learn something new. I guees we will just have to sit around and figure out what you know though first."
Sage considers the other woman for a moment, "Alright, we can try running together sometime... maybe even find out who's faster too." She comments with a playful little challenge. She reaches out and touches the other woman on the shoulder. "But, that sounds more like a thing to do in a more pleasant setting." She glances towards some nearby men, "No offense fellas." She chuckles before she gestures to invite the other woman to walk with her back towards the main part of the gym.
Erica looks around at the gym and nods her head in agreement. "Yah I usually go running around town not here in the gym." She mentions as she finishes packing up all of her practice equipment. She quickly catches up with Sage as she heads out of the sparring area and into the gym. "So what do you want to do now?"
