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“I don’t think you’re ready for those just yet.”
“Ouch, that hurts.”
“I’m just being honest.”
“So where do we start?”
“Well, I saw how you lost your fight. Chad made a great jump. You were trying to practice that move—weren’t you?”
Jay shrugged. “Yeah, I mean I used to be able to jump, you know? But not with a sword.”
“Let’s practice the basics first. Each time you hit the wall or the floor you want to lengthen the time of impact, slow it down so your whole body absorbs the force. And don’t just kick off with your feet. Try putting a hand on the wall. It’ll keep you steady and spread out the force of impact. Same goes for the landing. Move your whole body. You need to bend your back and knees; your arms too. Remember: slow down the impact, spread it out. That’s how to jump.”
“Okay, so slow it down. And use my whole body.”
Jay took one step, two. Li’l Shang stopped him dead in his tracks. “Take a few more steps, open up your stride and give yourself a little more height so you have time to flex your body while it’s still in the air.”
Jay nodded, absorbing the information. He started again. He took three steps, four, five this time—big, long strides. On the last one he leaped, trying not to stay rigid, spreading his arms, spider-like, and letting two hands touch the wall at the same moment that his feet struck it. It was perfect. He was completely enamored with himself. Unfortunately he fell straight down to the floor.
“Good start,” said Li’l Shang. “Better than I would have guessed for a first-timer, but never get cocky. You hit the wall right, but you need to immediately spring backward. Take the force of your own impact and turn it around into another leap. Try again.”
He did. He tried twice more, and then a third time. Each was a tad less embarrassing than the previous one. He wasn’t sure how many jumps it took, but after a while the landings stopped hurting. It all started to feel natural.
Li’l Shang handed Jay back his sword. Jay accepted it gladly. It was time to move on to the good stuff: swordplay.
He leveled the saber, ready for a real fight.
But Li’l Shang just shook his head.
“The first thing is that you’re holding it wrong,” he said, fixing Jay’s grip.
Jay was surprised; he thought he knew how to hold a sword.
“You shouldn’t hold it that tightly,” Li’l Shang continued. “You need to keep your wrist loose, keep your grip light so you can move quickly. If you hold it too tightly, you’re locked into a position and won’t be able to dodge or parry.”
Jay looked down at his fist: he’d gripped his sword so hard his knuckles were strained white. He relaxed just a little bit and found it was easier to hold once he wasn’t choking it.
“The next thing you need to remember about making the R.O.A.R. team is that it’s all about balance—kind of like the jumps we practiced. But now we’re using swords. It’s almost like a choreographed dance: you’ll learn to move on every surface, and use flips and kicks along with sword-fighting,” said Li’l Shang. He sprinted across the gym and launched himself against the wall, running up it diagonally, until he flipped backward and landed on his feet.
“Nice,” said Jay.
Li’l Shang bowed. “It’s all practice.” He tapped Jay’s sword with his. “En garde!” he called. “It means, on your guard. Every duel starts with it. It’s a tradition.”
“En garde!” echoed Jay.
They circled each other around the mat. “You have to be nimble, and lead your opponent. If you’re just reacting to their blows, you’re going to lose. You have to set the tone.” He attacked with a series of lunges, moving left and right, then leaping atop a chair to land at Jay’s side, pressing his sword to Jay’s neck.
“Um…” said Jay.
Li’l Shang gave him a generous smile. “Let’s try that again. R.O.A.R. isn’t fencing. It’s not linear. We aren’t simply advancing and retreating. You can move sideways, off a wall, off anything. Think of it as 3-D fencing. Your opponent can literally jump out at you from any direction, so you have to be ready to defend yourself against an attack that could come from any direction.”
“How?”
“In fencing we protect ourselves from the front, but, like I said, in R.O.A.R. an attacker can approach from any angle. So you need a whole new set of moves. The side-parry, the backward block, the over-the-shoulder cut. These are R.O.A.R. moves. Let me show you.”
Shang went through each one, carefully displaying the move, then helping Jay copy it. Shang had just given him a whole new set of tools, for a whole different kind of fighting. Jay was ready to R.O.A.R.!
This time, Jay was able to not only block his coach’s sword but push forward so that it was his opponent who found himself stepping backward. Jay kept advancing aggressively, the sword singing through the air as if he’d been born wielding one. He even attempted to run up the wall to dodge a blow. As he fought, his confidence grew, and he flipped, cartwheeling in the air when his coach tried to slash forward. He landed just as Shang had instructed, bending his whole body, flexing every muscle, one hand touching the floor just as his feet struck it.
