It is Thursday night May 24th 2012 and I have just come home from Archbishop Curley High School, the Catholic boys' school where I serve as visiting weapons coach under David Lumsden. Eight students from this year's freshman class were present. As David took them through some Doce Pares knife evolutions each student rotated out of the group to spar with me. Instead of our normal coach-sparring session of approximately 10-minutes per student I did three bouts with each.
These were un-timed 'stick-fencing' or 'knife-fencing' 5-point bouts. Each of us starts with 5-points and calls himself out when they have lost all 5. This is effectively a 10-point split system. This type of bout can be brutal between good largo mano stylists, and is intended to do three things:
- Develop weapon sensitivity
- Develop largo mano [long hand] stick effectiveness
- Prepare the stick-trained fighter to adapt to the use of long blades such as machetes
Bout Scores*
Each student retained and recorded his best score. These are presented below in the order that they tested.
*These count as stick-fights [except the knife bout] for the students, though not for James. A 0-4 is a loss; a 5 a draw, and 6+ a win. We only record knife-fight results when they are contested with steel blunts.
- Kye Masemore: knife, 3
- Sherwen Triguero: stick, 6
- Marcus Smith: stick, 3
- Matt Francis: stick, 3
- Jesse Westfall: stick, 4
- Mark Mainolfi: stick, 3
- Hugh Kinsey: stick, 10 [with a live-stick clinch disarm]
- Anthony Barrera: stick 2
Summer Training
Any Curley fighters who wish to train with Charles, Brett, Cory or James this summer at Loch Raven Rec. Center, Eastwood Park, Patapsco High track, or at Jim Frederick's Kenpo, just call James , e-mail Charles, or utilize whatever arcane lore that permits one to access Cory through his Modern Agonistics portal.
