Check out the crossover with another project of mine, Mindful Day by Day, this week!

We wrapped up the fall 2011 Stav weekend, as we do each Stav weekend, with a day of advanced training. Four of us remained, and we were a tired and sore, yet undeterred, bunch. We started, as we always do, with staff exercises. We followed this with the first set of Jarl Galdre - my favorite, as I am Jarl - and the five principles drills with the staff. After lunch, we did the foundation exercises for a third time. That was followed by a bunch of drills - axe drills, flow drills, dagger drills. By late afternoon, we were done, and Miki took Graham back to the airport. Huge props to both Graham and Miki for making this training happen!

Wondering what I mean by Galdre, five principles or other Stav-specific terms? Click on the Stav page and follow the links to learn more about the history, principles and practices of Stav. You can also explore YouTube videos of various Stav practices.

Another long and good day of Stav today. We all got up rather slowly, but once we got moving, we kept busy. We warmed up with basic and advanced staff exercises, followed by right-hand Karl Galdre and the Trel and Karl principle two-person drills. We then spent a couple of hours on axe work, which I found really helpful. After lunch, another Ice & Fire member joined us, and Graham talked about the basics of the runes for a bit. We spent the rest of the afternoon and the early evening on more unarmed stuff, repeating the foundation exercises and doing unarmed defense against dagger attack. We concluded the day’s training with the left-hand Karl Galdre, but Graham wasn’t done yet! We settled in and talked more about the runes, this time looking at reading runes as a way to access the unconscious.

Best line of the day came when Graham was talking about an attacker going off-balance when coming in with a weapon and dangerous intent: “People are quite slow and awkward when they’re trying to kill you.”

It’s the fall Stav training with Graham Butcher here in Annapolis! The weather held off most of the day, and we learned a ton today. Aside from Miki (administrator of Ice & Fire USA) and me, we have two participants from Pennsylvania and one from the DC metro. In the morning and early afternoon, we reviewed the basic staff exercises, did the right-hand stances, reviewed the advanced staff exercises, and did two-person drills. After lunch, we moved on to unarmed combat. We started with the foundation exercises, which Graham has continued to develop. We spent the late afternoon and all evening doing new stuff! Graham showed us some flow drills. These were two-person unarmed drills in which the two participants moved back and forth between punching and defending. I started out feeling awkward and slow, then started to get the hang of each one. A couple of times I actually got into the flow of it, and it felt great, like a dance. The final set of drills were with the dagger, defending strikes coming in along six different lines. Plenty of echoes of the familiar, yet a lot that was new - and by this time, we were pretty tired! We finished with the left-hand stances and ate dinner. Now we are sprawled about the family room doing the 21st century thing: Everyone is on either a laptop or a smartphone! We are actually talking and showing each other stuff, but it won’t last much longer. This tired crew is soon for bed.

Our three days of training have come to an end. We fit a lot into the last few hours of the advanced training. We practiced the Herse, Jarl and Konge defenses against knife attack. The Jarl principle is that of the sage, the scholar, the religious leader; the Konge is the king, the elder, the wise man. We also filmed a number of exercises and reviewed the various Galdre stances. We completed our time together with the fulgyia exercise; more about that in a future post. Finally, Graham, Miki (the coordinator of Ice & Fire USA) and I did our presentation at the UU Church of Annapolis. All in all, it was a very satisfying training. We look forward to having Graham back again in the fall! In the meantime, follow the Stavbear blog for more information on Stav, more events, and the upcoming Stavcast!

Our North Carolina members have just headed for home - we wish them a safe journey! The rest of us are finishing lunch. In our late morning session, we started with the Foundation exercises; Graham then demonstrated all of the Five Principles two-person drills with the staff. We spent the balance of the time working our way through the Five Principles in self-defense, defending against both unarmed and knife attacks. We did these for Trel and Karl; we’ll continue on after lunch. Looking forward to tonight’s demonstration at the local Unitarian Universalist Church!

Axe training! After doing warm-up stretches, we practiced the basic axe cuts solo and in partner drills. It’s all about body position and footwork, people! Your Runereader is pretty sore this morning, and suspects she’s not the only one . . .

Getting started on the advanced training today. Conversation obviously focused on big international news story, but we will shortly move from conversation to practice. Ahead: more hand-to-hand training, axe training, fulgyia exercise. More to follow!

One of us is in the midst of preparing stir-fry shrimp and broccoli, while the rest of us chat and eagerly await the dinner! After lunch we started with hand-to-hand skills based on the Foundation exercises. The rain chased us indoors, so we came in and discussed the Healing Bindrune. Bindrune bring several runes together to encapsulate information and wisdom in a particular realm; to see the Healing Bindrune and learn more about it, go here. We braved a few minutes of drizzle to go outdoors and finish our training day with the left-hand Karl stances. More tomorrow!

We’re all finishing up lunch. During the last session, we reviewed the first two Five Principles drills and moved on to Herse, the third. The Herse principle is that of protecting the community - the police officer, the soldier, the master at arms. While the Trel drill emphasizes mimicking the speed, direction and distance of the attacker, the Karl drill is designed to stop, evade and neutralize the attacker, and the Herse relies on presentation, freezing the attack and taking control of the situation.

We started the training day with the basic and advanced staff exercises and the right-hand Karl stances. The Karl stances involve chanting the name of the rune while going into and out of the stance; they are good for improving the breath. Most of us are feeling pretty sore after yesterday’s work, but the staff exercises helped loosen us up!

Good morning, and welcome to day two of our training weekend! Let’s start the day with an elementary understanding of the Web - not the one you’re reading this post on, but the Web of existence. Stav suggests that the Web underlies all things. At its most basic level, understanding the Web allows us to grasp the essentials of a thing. Graham says, “The essentials of a table, for example, are four legs, a flat surface, and something to make its structure rigid. Once you’ve got that, you can elaborate however you like.” (I find this reminiscent of the ancient Greek term eidos.)

Each of us operates within our own Web. In martial terms, being able to see the weblines allows one to move confidently within one’s own Web and to grasp what one’s opponent is doing within theirs. As you can imagine, this put one at a considerable advantage in a self-defense or combat situation. Go here to see a two-dimensional representation of the Web.

More as the day unfolds!

The day is winding down at Stavbear Studio. During our final training session of the day, we practiced the Foundation exercises and some of their applications. The Foundation exercises have been developed recently, and are intended to establish skills that will be further developed in the Animal Exercises and their hand-to-hand combat applications. After training all day, we are a weary bunch! More tomorrow!

Tea time. Over the past two hours we moved slowly through the first two of the Five Principles drills, Trel and Karl. The Trel principle is that of the person of lowest status, the individual who owns no land and is dependent on working for others to maintain basic survival. The Trel drill reflects that the Trel individual has nothing of his/her own to defend, and when attacked prefers to back away and avoid conflict. The Karl principle is that of the small freeholder who works his/her land and must defend it if necessary. It is Karl’s job to keep the attacker at bay, protecting those for whom s/he is responsible.

Finally took a break for lunch at 2:30 p.m. Graham is keeping us moving! We have been doing two-person drills and advanced staff exercises. Like the basic staff exercises, the advanced improve strength and flexibility. Beyond that, they allow students to become accustomed to movements that will be employed in weapons work. The staff itself is not so much a weapon as a training tool. Most importantly, the exercises allow one to begin to work with the Web. More on the Web in another post!

Graham Butcher is in Annapolis! He is leading a group of us in a Stav training weekend, April 30th through May 2nd. Six of us are participating. This morning we have completed the basic stances and the basic staff exercises. To see a video of Graham doing the basic stances, check out this YouTube video. The basic staff exercises assist one in learning the stances and build strength and flexibility.