---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 17:50:11 -0800 (PST) >While people are discussing Dragon swordfighting, perhaps someone could >explain something from _TPG_. When we first meet Uttrik, Tazendra >describes him (as he warms up for his duel with Khaavren) as striking >at the air and missing with every third blow. What does that mean? I always thought it meant that Uttrik was shadowfighting against an imaginary opponent. You know, like a practice dummy that happened to be invisible. You _know_ he's not that good if he's missing every third strike against an invisible practice dummy. He's only, say, three times as good as me, then, as opposed to Tazendra, who is approximately twenty-seven times as good as me. (Or Benedict, who is a bajillion million times better.) ¬ mj ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ http://erythros.livejournal.com/ ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ Or perhaps he is stopping the attack as if he hit his opponent on the first two strikes, and on the third he acts as if he misses and then carries the move through to his next attack. I have done the same thing while shadow boxing. Jeff