An analysis of my failure in sparring combat against my Master, Sith Mitina

[Andnoa]

An analysis of my failure in sparring combat against my Master, Sith Mitina
By Apprentice Tutam


Introduction

Since I wrote the last of these documents, I have engaged in numerous duels but have not been defeated as thoroughly as I was yesterday when I fought against my Master, Sith Mitina. In this document I would go over the spar blow by blow in an attempt to find flaws in my own technique so that I might grow as a fighter as well as expose and rectify as many of the flaws in my technique as possible. In my last document, I wrote the following:

"Obviously it was not expected of me as an acolyte to compare to the martial prowess of a Sith Apprentice of the line of Horuset..."

I have come to believe that this was the wrong attitude to take. To admit failure in the mind is the first step to failure in your actions and it is an irreversible one. To go into a duel with another, you must have the mentality to win. In this duel with my Master I did not show this mentality enough, but from my failures, I will grow.
The Duel
At a previous time, I asked my Master to spar against me. This was an obvious attempt I admit to allowing me time to show off in front of her, to make known my power so that I might advance in her eyes as well as in my power. My Master graciously accepted and scheduled this to occur in the coming days when there was time. Yesterday I received a holocom message to meet her in the camp for this to occur. I admit a slight unnerving sensation came over me. This is a Sith who I have seen rip apart a walker in but a moment and charge fearlessly into battle against foes who outnumber her ten to one.
Promptly I made my way to the center of the camp, making haste so as to not get off to a poor impression indeed for a first lesson. After the proper respects were paid, no time was wasted to begin the spar. I drew my Vibroblade and she her Lightsaber. This first move was to prove perhaps emblematic of my failure in this fight as I assumed a defensive Shii Cho stance, my caution overcoming my desire to show my skill. My Master (for those who do not know) holds the position of Blademaster in the powerbase. This naturally would means she has great skill in forms I have never encountered before. I should have pressed on the offence to begin with, not allowing her time to decide which form I would be crushed with. As it happens, her opening stance looks like this:

Upon later study, I am told that this is the opening stance for the seventh and most aggressive form of Lightsaber combat, Juyo, though at the time I saw the first attack (an explosive diagonal strike to zone three) as potential an Ataru one, given the speed and ferocity. I augmented myself, barely blocking the blade at a suitable angle before attempting aggression with a sharp augmented stab to the left shoulder. The goal of this was to counter aggression with aggression, hoping against my better judgement my Master had pushed too hard to attack and would not be able to provide a suitable defense for the strike. This was an incorrect hope. My Master simply dodged the strike and attempted a palm strike to my chest. This was a mistake, though through no skill or talent of my own. My body's fixes would make unarmed combat a difficult prospect, though even this was not a perfect defense due to the sheer power of the strike forcing me backwards.
In combination to this attack, my Master feigned a strike to my left side, positioning her blade as if to try and decapitate me. This brought a natural instinct of my own to position my blade to defend against the strike which was as once exploited as she instead decided to strike successfully at my legs, causing what would be a shim to both, if there was flesh present. Maybe it is still a shim if there is not, but this is a tangent. This was a very good attack which could have ended the fight there and then if it were not for my Master pulling the blow back significantly. I need to find a way to predict the movements of my foes more accurately, so I do not have to rely on my reactions alone.
However I believed I saw a flaw in the attack, noting her blade was still low and my own was high. Contact was made on my legs but I had hoped to trade wounds like for like, trying to draw my blade across her chest with augmented power. As it turned out, this blow was not blocked with a saber but with the force. Mitina used a telekinetic defense, holding me in place while she made a point of getting out of range of the blow, only releasing me when it posed no threat at all to her.
At this point there was some distance between us and I made another mistake. My Master assumed a Makashi stance and awaited me to come to her. My own experience fighting against her relative Apprentice Horuset made me overly cautious here. I assumed a defensive stance and waited for her instead, asking a question in an attempt to play for time to recover my stamina. This was a poor move in hindsight as it painted my caution as cowardice. Instead I should have maintained the attack, using my strength to try and smash my way through the form. Only when goaded did I and I believe that I overplayed my hand. I first sent a force push at my Master in an attempt to unbalance her and work against her advantage of mobility. Augmenting myself once again, I then charged in with a large vertical strike. This was aimed at the top of the head and relied far to much on the target remaining still and not simply stepping to the side, which is what my Master did in this case, negating all of my effort and energy put into the blow. I did not see what happened to the force push given I was next attacking but she did not move backwards at all, only sideways so I believe it proved moot (potentially dissipated by a barrier or another unknown method to me).
No retaliation came this time however. My Master simply watched as my ungraceful attack landed and I swung violently at her horizontally with my next attack. This was mostly born out of frustration and I confess I am not proud of it. The passions of a Sith must work for them and not the other way around. Fury must be controlled and I think in hindsight that this clumsy attempt at a Sarlacc Sweep ultimately proved the point of no return for this fight.
My master swept it upwards and negated it with finesse again, unbalancing me and forcing me to rethink my strategy. Again however this came across as caution which in the face of my previous comment about offence show a weakness. My Master expertly exploited this weakness, striking forward with her head and then slashing at my stomach. It is only through my augmentation again that I endured this blow, her head coming into contact with the armored plate inside my own minimizing the damage done to me and allowing me to bring a hard block to the blow to my chest before allowing my blade to go limp in an attempt to simply use the cutting edge to slice across my Master. This lack of force however made this very easy indeed for my master to block, forcing a bladelock between the two of us.
I confess I do not have much experience with these and my instinct was to push back against my master with as much force as possible, augmenting myself in an effort to maximize my advantage and pushing against the ground. This did not work and my Master's physical strength would prove above my own for now and I felt myself being pushed further back. In desperation I made the mistake that ended the fight, giving up half of my footing to attempt a kick to the side of the knee of my Master forgetting her armor. Between this having no visible effect and my own halving of my offensive force, I was pushed off my feet, landing on my back in failure.
I attempted to scramble backwards and rise to my feet again but Mitina was far too quick for me, holding her blade to my chest. I attempted to remove it from there with a improvised blow to knock it to one side only for it to be de-activated and a large volume of lightning to be applied to myself. I did not and still do not believe this was the wrong move and to accept death is the sign of a weakling. I do concede that my chosen method to do so was woeful in this case however.
In the aftermath my Master came to the same conclusions that I had about myself after the spar with Valeus. My tricks and cybernetics are of little value the second time around. I must learn to ascend beyond them. To fight each fight as if every foe knows what I can and will do already. That in the face of a more delicate form I was a fool to break off my attack and instead should have continued in my assault. To turn my enemies reliance on finesse against them.
Analysis and Conclusions
There was plenty to learn from in the spar and my Master has accurately picked up on many of the flaws in my form that I have found myself. As such, I have a number of goals to learn from this:

• In my last report I mentioned the following:
  
  
  "I should not rely upon my arm-guards and metal plates on my body. Against other acolytes I have made use of the cybernetic arms and their respective metal plates against training blades. These would easily stop a training blade and because of my lack of pain receptors in them this causes me no discomfort. Against a Lightsaber I have not such advantage and any blow I would consider blocking with them would instead result in Cho Mai or Cho Mok against myself. These should still be used to block a punch, kick or other melee attack, but removing the muscle memory of using them to block bladed attacks should be a priority for me."
  
  
  
  This still applies and I have not succeeded in learning this yet. My body gives me many advantages but to rely upon them is a greatly foolish move. I should not negate them completely but they do not provide the great advantage they did as when I was an acolyte.
• I must learn to combat forms that I have not seen before by studying the basic theories of combat. A light form should be countered by offence, even if I am not quite sure what the form is or how it is being operated this advantage would still hold.
• I must learn not to hesitate. I gave my Master so many gaps to exploit and she did (as any Sith should) exploit them. Enemies must be crushed. To give them time due to my own deliberations would be to give them strength unearned.
• I must learn to hone my rage into a weapon. Wild and uncontrolled strikes are rarely useful against someone in control of the situation
• At the same time, I must learn the economy of motion. I should not put all of my energy into a single strike if it does not have a high chance of killing my foe. I must learn to force mistakes from my foe and only then exploit them. An example of this was my Master headbutting me. I forced her to use the force rather than her blade to block my blow. She still did block it but the very fact that it was by a method that was of the force was a promising sign. I just wish I had to give up far less to land such a hit. In reality she would have cut my legs off an ended the duel and it is pure vanity to think a killing blow would come from this.
• I should look into electrical insulation so that lightning proves less of a threat to me.
• A final positive note. I believe I made the correct choice in a Master. Mitina is clearly skilled and powerful and if I hope to advance as a Sith, I must learn from the skilled and powerful so that one day I can count myself among them. With time I aim to learn all I can from her. I have already earned the right to learn the fifth form from her and I hope to push this further in time to include other forms. The hint of Juyo she showed me has confirmed my decision that this is THE form to learn eventually. A true expression of the power of the Dark Side.

From these goals, I will structure my independent training further and from this I will grow and become more powerful.

Glory to the Empire.
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