CM-N

CM-N is the library's introduction to dual wielding. Saberist A carries two sabers, Saberist B carries one, and the movement is written for that mismatch rather than around it.

It is deliberately short — six steps, the length of CM-A. The difficulty in dual wielding is not the sequence; it is the hands. Keeping the choreography brief leaves a Saberist free to spend their attention on which saber is working and when, which is the whole subject of the movement.

CM-N was notated by Cole Hemp.

Notation

CM-N is written in a single table.

Wide tables

The table below is wide. On a phone, turn the device landscape; it can also be scrolled sideways.

Player	s1	s2	s3	s4	s5	s6	s7
Saberist A	11	3	7	S CW	11	9
Saberist B	11P	3P	7P		11P	9P	1©

Read down each column as usual. Saberist A's row is the one that reads differently from every other movement in the library.

Saberist A holds two sabers. L stands for the left hand and R for the right, the same letters CM-K uses for the two ends of the staff. Which hand is working is part of the notation, not a detail left to the performer.
S CW is the transfer, and it is the centre of the movement: a clockwise spin, per the Notation Legend, that moves the attack from the left hand to the right. It sits at step 4, dividing the sequence into three attacks before it and two after.
Saberist B holds one saber and answers everything. 11P, 3P, 7P, then 11P and 9P — five parries against five attacks, with nothing written on the beat where Saberist A transfers.
© is a complete, taught in CM-C. Saberist B's 1© at step 7 is the only attack in that row, it carries through rather than stopping, and nothing is written for Saberist A against it.
The target numbers are unchanged. An 11 is an 11 whichever hand throws it, and an 11P is the same parry it has always been. Two sabers add a question the notation has to answer — which hand — and change nothing else.
A blank cell means nothing is written for that Saberist on that beat. They hold while the other acts.

Two sabers, one language

Everything before CM-N is written for Saberists holding one weapon each. Even CM-K, which brings in a staff, gives each Saberist a single thing to think about. CM-N is the first movement in which one Saberist has two, and the interesting part is how little the notation has to do about it.

It adds one piece of information: which hand. L and R are the same letters CM-K uses to say which end of the staff is coming, borrowed here to say which saber is coming, and that is the entire extra vocabulary. The lines are the lines. The parries are the parries. A movement written for four hands' worth of blade work reads exactly like a movement written for two.

What changes is what the Saberists have to do.

For Saberist A the difficulty is the off hand. Most people can strike an 11 cleanly with their dominant hand on the first afternoon and cannot do it at all with the other one. That is why CM-N is six steps long. A short sequence run many times gives the weaker hand the repetitions it needs, where a long sequence would simply let the Saberist hide the off hand behind the strong one and never fix it. If the off-hand strikes in this movement look worse than the strong-hand strikes, the movement is working — that gap is what it exists to close.

The transfer at step 4 is where those two halves meet. S CW is a clockwise spin that hands the attack from the left saber to the right, and it is not decoration between beats. It is a beat in its own right, with nothing written for Saberist B against it, because a transfer takes time and the notation says so honestly rather than pretending the second saber arrives for free. Learn where both blades are throughout that spin before running it against a partner — one of them is travelling behind the Saberist's own line of sight.

For Saberist B the difficulty is that the attack can come from either side. Against a single saber, a defender learns the shape of an opponent's approach — where the blade lives, which shoulder the attacks fall from — and reads the next attack partly from habit. A dual wielder removes that. The 11 at step 1 and the 11 at step 5 are the same line and the same number, and they arrive from different hands. Saberist B has to parry the blade rather than the pattern, which is a harder thing and the reason the single-saber role in this movement is not the easy one.

The finish belongs to Saberist B, and it is deliberate. After five parries, a 1© carries through on the one beat the dual wielder has nothing written. The Saberist with fewer blades gets the last word, which is the movement's way of saying that two sabers are an advantage to be handled rather than an advantage in themselves.

Purpose

CM-N is designed to teach:

carrying and striking with two sabers
L and R as the hand that strikes
building the off hand through a short sequence run many times
transferring the attack between hands with a spin, as a beat of its own
defending with a single saber against attacks that can arrive from either hand
reading the blade rather than the pattern
closing an exchange with a completing counter

Training method

Phase 1: The second saber alone

Saberist A works both sabers with no partner and no sequence.

Hold one in each hand and strike the four lines the movement uses — 11, 3, 7 and 9 — first with the strong hand, then with the off hand, slowly and separately. Learn where the idle blade sits while the other one works. Everything else in CM-N depends on this, and it deserves a whole session before any of the sequence is attempted.

Phase 2: The transfer

Practise S CW on its own, without a partner.

The spin passes the attack from the left saber to the right, and both blades are moving while it happens. Take it at walking speed until the Saberist knows where each blade is at every point in the turn, and can arrive from it ready to strike rather than ready to recover.

Phase 3: The opening attacks statically

Walk steps 1 to 3 one at a time, with a full stop after each.

Confirm at every step:

both Saberists agree which target the number names
Saberist A strikes with the hand the sequence calls for
the parry meets the attack cleanly, at a distance safe for both of Saberist A's blades
the step can be repeated the same way

Phase 4: After the transfer

Add step 4, then walk steps 5 and 6 the same way.

Saberist B does nothing on the transfer beat. That is a real pause and it should be held rather than hurried through — Saberist B waits for the attack to come out of the spin instead of anticipating it.

Phase 5: The counter

It is a complete, so it carries through rather than stopping, and it lands on a beat where Saberist A has nothing written. Set its length and the distance it needs by agreement, and rehearse it as the end of the movement rather than as a seventh attack.

Phase 6: Slow continuous flow, then pace

Run all seven beats without stopping at low speed, then add speed.

Speed goes to the parries and to the strong-hand attacks. It does not go to the transfer, and it does not go to the off-hand attacks until they are as clean slowly as the strong-hand ones. Repeat the whole movement often — it is short on purpose.

Teaching note

CM-N should be taught as a language drill, not as a fight.

Two hazards belong to this movement. The first is the blade nobody is watching. Saberist A has two, and while one is doing something the pair is looking at, the other is somewhere — beside a leg, behind a shoulder, coming round in a spin. The lesson CM-K teaches about the far end of a staff applies here with a second saber in place of it, and the distance is set for both blades rather than for the one being used.

The second is the off hand itself. A hand that cannot yet control a strike will throw one that lands short, long or on the wrong line, and CM-N puts exactly such strikes in front of a partner by design. That is safe only at low speed and at a distance chosen for a swing that misses its mark. Off-hand work stays slow for far longer than it feels it needs to.

It is also worth naming what dual wielding did to the notation, because the answer is almost nothing. A single letter in front of an attack was enough to carry a second saber through a whole movement — the same letter, doing the same job, that carried a staff through CM-K. The notation describes what happens between two Saberists rather than how many blades either of them is holding, and CM-N is the shortest proof of that in the library.

When CM-N is clean, continue to CM-O, or return to the Extended Library.