Combat Training

Sunday afternoon my nephew, Kelby, came to visit. My older three boys and Kelby were playing outside with the dog, plastic swords and water guns while I was working but it was just too tempting not to get involved.

Arming them with plastic guns, I taught them how to lay down suppressive fire. Once they understood, we moved on to maneuvering, specifically bounding overwatch. "Cover me Brennan!" "I'll cover you, Kelby!" The boys would cover each other as they moved from cover to cover. Tanner struggled with the concept though, as he kept throwing down his gun each time it was his turn to run. "Tanner get your weapon!" He'd skid to a stop and run back to retrieve it. After this we practiced offensive maneuvers. I explained enfilade fire and flank attacks and how to avoid friendly fire. But the boys were tiring of all the running and ready to switch to swords at this point.

So I showed them how to stand with a sword and how to hold their swords at middle guard, hanging guard, low guard and high guard. We even practiced parrying a thrust, then spinning to the side and attacking from behind (a very Star Wars-looking move). The boys were giggling with glee.

I doubt the boys retained much of the terminology but I made them repeat some basic rules: We never attack someone unarmed. We never attack women and children. We only fight to protect people from the bad guys. Only bad guys cheat.