Doing the Syllabus Form last night at sword class was…. disorienting.
Having missed most of the lessons when we were taught the Form here in Singapore (%$#@! work schedule!), I finally got it down while in Finland, where it was done with emphasis on flow and with a mental picture of application while in execution. But here, it’s more of a cadenced drill, going from posta to posta to the count of numbers from one to 38. Needless to say, it confused the heck out of me, so much so that I actually forgot the steps while being distracted the first time we went through the From with the class.
I’ve tried to visualise the Form as a series of responses to imagined enemies, starting with “Two guys with daggers! Parry the first with the scabbard, cut him and then cut the guy behind him as the first falls! Third guy ~ exchange of thrust with him and plant the sword point in his face! Another two guys! Break thrust with the guy on the right and cut his throat, then break the thrust of the guy on the left before giving him two cuts!” and so on, rather than mentally counting “One! Step back and ready. Two! Draw sword and cut. Three! Cut. Four! Posta di Fenestra. Five! Posta Frontale.” etc etc.
It got better when I tuned out the counting and concentrated on just the form though, but it was still distracting, especially when I need to match speeds with everyone. Highlight was probably when Greg demonstrated the practical applications of the drill with Ken and later myself playing the enemies to show the flow aspect of this Form and I could both see and feel the light bulbs going off in the rest of the class when we did that.
Good times 
