Chapter ‍2 Cerrada

• Introduction
• The 100 Steps Form
• Drills
  • The drill concept
  • Nomenclature
  • Learning sequence
  • List of drills
• The 64 Strikes Cerrada Form
• Cerrada free flow

2.1 Introduction

Cerrada addresses close distance, i. e., the distance when the opponents are well within the reach of each others sword without any step. In slightly different writing, “Serrada Escrima” addresses the Escrima style of Angel Cabales, who focuses on close distances. However, while the preferred weapon of Serrada Escrima is the short stick — which can be also a proxy for a single hand short sword — we practise the Cerrada distance with two handed swords, mainly with the Japanese katana, either the classical wooden training swords of the Samurai (called bokken) or robust stage fighting katanas made of steel.

2.2 The 100 Steps Form

For quite some time, we have been teaching newcomers the first strikes and steps simultaneously. For people without experience in sports that require the concerted movement of arms and legs (like martial arts or dancing), this can be very difficult. Therefore, we start now by practising steps only, without any strikes, and then move on to exercises with simultaneous steps and strikes. An exercise for practising steps only is the 100 Steps Form. It is described below.

The end position of each step is a boxer-like stance with the feet shoulder width apart laterally and one foot about the same distance in front of the other. Thus, the line connecting the two feet makes an angle of 45^∘ with the forward direction. The weight is 70 % on the front foot and 30 % on the rear foot. The knees are slightly bent. The heel of the rear foot is lifted off the ground. The arms can be held in a boxing position (or you can hold a printout of the 100 Steps Form sequence).

1. The starting position is an upright parallel stance with the feet lateral shoulder width apart.
2. Step ten times forward, alternating feet, starting with the right foot. This pattern is like normal walking. At the end of each step, the (new) rear foot may slide a little bit forward to catch up with the front foot for the correct distance between the feet. If everything went well, the left foot should be in front at the end of the series.
3. Step ten times to the side, alternating sides, starting with a step to the right. If you step to the right, the right foot moves first and becomes the front foot, the left foot moves second and becomes the rear foot, vice versa for a step to the left. With each step, front and rear foot exchange their role. The movement of the body is only sideways. If everything went well, the left foot should be in front at the end of the series.
4. Turn the body 90^∘ to the right. The feet stay on their position. The right foot, which was the rear foot, becomes the front foot.
5. Step ten times sideways to the right. The right foot always moves first and is in the front after each step. The left foot always moves second and is in the rear after each step. If everything went well, the right foot should be in front at the end of the series.
6. Step ten times sideways to the left. The left foot always moves first and is in the front after each step. The right foot always moves second and is in the rear after each step. If everything went well, the left foot should be in front at the end of the series.
7. Turn the body 90^∘ to the right. The feet stay on their position. The right foot, which was the rear foot, becomes the front foot.
8. Step ten times to the side. Count the ten steps. If the number is a prime number or it is 10, step to the left. Otherwise, step to the right. Recall that the smallest prime number is 2. If everything went well, the left foot should be in front at the end of the series.
9. Repeat items 2–8. Note that you are now facing the opposite direction from that in the beginning, so the whole pattern is rotated by 180^∘. If everything went well, the left foot should be in front at the end of the repetition.
10. Take the front foot back to an upright parallel stance with the feet lateral shoulder width apart. If everything went well, you should now face the same direction as in the beginning, and you should be at about the same place.

2.3 Drills

2.3.1 The drill concept

A drill is a closed loop sequence of strikes and blocks which are executed repeatedly. One advantage of this type of training is the fact that many repetitions are executed in a short amount of time.

2.3.2 Nomenclature

There are 16 drills. They are referred to by Arabic numbers, e. g., drill 7. The part of the one who starts with the first strike is denoted by an appended letter “a”, the other part with begins with a block is denoted by an appended letter “b”, e. g., 7a and 7b.

In section ‍2.3.4 below, tables are provided which list all movements of a drill. The syntax is as follows:

• Strikes are denoted by their number preceded by a number sign, e. g., strike number one is listed as “#1”. We discriminate four strikes: #1 is diagonally from top right to bottom left, #3 is diagonally from top left to bottom right, #3 is horizontally from right to left, and #4 is horizontally from left to right. In the Cerrada execution a strike always starts from a block position and the force is mostly directed forward; this is quite different from the Larga Mano execution, cf. ‍3.2. A subscript to the number denotes a step to the side, either to the left (“l”) or to the right (“r”), e. g., “#1_r”. After a step to the left, the left foot should be in front, and vice versa.
• Blocks are listed as follows:
  • R1: Roof block against #1, to the left.
  • R2: Roof block against #2, to the right.
  • C: Cross block against #3, to the left.
  • S: Side block against #4, to the right.
  • W1: Wing block against #1, to the left.
  • W2: Wing block against #2, to the right.
  • W3: Low wing block against #3, to the left.
  • W4: Low wing block against #4, to the right.
• An arrow — “→” or “←” — points from the strike to be executed to the respective block.

2.3.3 Learning sequence

Drills are listed below in section ‍2.3.4 in their numbering sequence, however, the numbering reflects the sequence in which they have been developed, which is not necessarily the sequence in which they should be learnt. The recommended sequence for learning the drills is the following:

8b, 9b, 15b, 1, 16b, 2, 3, 9a, 5, 6, 8a, 12, 11, 10, 4, 15a, 16a, 7, 13, 14.

2.3.4 List of drills

Drill 1 and 2

The sequence of drill ‍1 is (for two partners a and b):

1. a delivers a number ‍1 strike.
2. b blocks this strike with a number ‍1 roof block.
3. b delivers a number ‍4 counter strike.
4. a blocks this strike with a number ‍4 side block.
5. a delivers a number ‍1 counter strike.
6. b blocks this strike with a number ‍1 wing block.
7. This is repeated from the beginning with roles reversed.

Drill 3

Drill 4

Drill 5 and 6

Drill 7

Drill 8

Drill 9

Drill 10

Drill 11 and 12

Drill 13 and 14

Drill 15 and 16

2.4 The 64 Strikes Cerrada Form

In some earlier version of this document, I boldly wrote We do not practise “forms”, however, later I found some value in practising a prescribed sequences of movements without training partner. I still think that only training with a partner can be a preparation for real fight, but practising alone can be a preparation for the training. The Cerrada form comprises all drills, so if someone knows the form by heart, he has also the sequence of all drills at hand when they are practises in partner training. Moreover, the sequence of the drills in the form represents the sequence in which the drills should be learnt. In this sense, the form contains the complete Cerrada curriculum.

A good way to learn the form is in parallel with the drills, assuming that the drills are learnt in the sequence in which they appear in the form (which is the recommended sequence). Whenever a new drill is learnt, the respective part is appended to the form, thus the student then practises the form from the start to the end of that part.

The table below is made of five columns. The first column is just a counting of the strikes. The counting also helps to memorise the sequence. The second column is the block position from which the strike starts. In drill partner training, this actually blocks a real attack. When practising alone the form, the attack should be imagined and the block executed correctly. The third column is the direction of the step (to the left or to the right). The steps are the same as in the drills. The step is always executed with the strike, not with the block. The step is always to the side, away from the sword of the opponent, where it was stopped by the block preceding each strike. The fourth column is the strike, denoted by #1–#4. The fifth column lists the drill which is represented by a sequence between two horizontal lines (which suddenly have disappeared in Firefox). For a brief description of blocks, strikes, and steps, see 2.3.2.

2.5 Cerrada free flow

Cerrada free flow has the same mutual attack and defence pattern as the Cerrada drills, i. e., partner a attacks and partner b blocks the attack, then partner b attacks and partner a blocks the attack, and so an. However, in free flow, the attacks are not prescribed but can be any strike to head or upper body. Strikes to the legs are exempted.

Students should start to practise free flow after they have gained some proficiency with Cerrada drills. This is usually the case after they have practised each of the 16 drills at least once. Assuming that a student learns one or two new drills each lecture, this would take 8–16 lectures. Assuming one lecture per week, the student is ready for free flow after 2–4 month.

The transition from prescribed pattern drills to the free flow exercise is usually quite seamless. The difference is just the processing time the brain needs to decide which block to apply. This time depends on the number of options between which a decision is to be made. Let n be that number, the processing time needed is

The Cerrada techniques are structured in a way that there are at most four different options at any time. With n=4, we get a decision time of 360 ms. A decent sword attack strike takes about 500 ms (half a second), so there are 140 ms left for the blocking movement. This can work if the movement is small (and fast) enough. Therefore, we are never doing a step with a block in Cerrada. A step with relocation of the body’s centre of mass would take about half a second, thus the attack would hit before the step is completed.

Note that in weaponless fighting, the time an attack takes can be significantly less than the 500 ms for a sword strike. Moreover, many systems discriminate much more than four different attacks. Under these circumstances, the needed decision time may already be larger than the attack time. No matter how much one practises to make the blocking movements lightning fast, it can never work, as the attack already hits before the decision which defence to apply is completed. It is interesting to note that the decision time cannot be reduced by training.

Practising Cerrada free flow is quite an experience. It is really fascinating to feel this working. If one starts thinking about what to do next, he instantly gets stuck. If one manages not to think, he gets into the state of mind which is called flow in psychology. Free flow is also nice to watch and can be used as stage fighting. Because the flow of attacks is free, it is much more lively than a prearranged sequence.