CM-T

CM-T is about flow spins and holds — the two things that happen between attacks.

Spins carry the movement from one exchange to the next, in both directions and sometimes in opposite directions at the same moment. Holds stop it: a lock carried into the next beat, a pause written into a step, and a one-handed hold at the very end. Twenty-two steps of choreography, and a good deal of it is neither an attack nor a parry.

CM-T was notated by Thom Timko and Mario Cubas.

Notation

CM-T runs twenty-two steps, written in three tables read in order.

Wide tables

The tables below are wide. On a phone, turn the device landscape; any of them can also be scrolled sideways.

Part 1

Player	s1	s2	s3	s4	s5	s6	s7	s8	s9	s10
Saberist A		3P	9P	3P	9P		3P (behind)	S CW	9P IgX	x 12 X
Saberist B	6P	3	9	3	9X	S CW	3X	S CCW	9X	x 12P X

Part 2

Player	s11	s12	s13	s14	s15	s16	s17	s18	s19	s20
Saberist A	St-F	St-B (pause)	Fl-Overhead	4B	S CCW	1	8	4	10	D S CCW
Saberist B	St-F	St-B (pause)	Fl-Overhead	4B	S CCW	1P	8P	4P	10P	2©

Part 3

Player	s21	s22
Saberist A	Bl-3	1H (hold at bay)
Saberist B		12©

Read down each column as usual, and watch for the steps where both rows say the same thing.

S CW and S CCW are spins, clockwise and counter clockwise, listed in the Notation Legend. There are five, and they are the movement's connective tissue rather than its decoration. At step 8 both Saberists spin at once, in opposite directions.
X is a lock and x carries a lock into the next move, both from CM-E. Step 10 uses them together in both rows — x 12 X against x 12P X — so a bind is held out of step 9 and closed into a new one on the 12 line.
Ig is the inverted grip from CM-J. 9P IgX at step 9 is a 9 parry taken in the inverted grip and bound into a lock, against Saberist B's 9X.
3P (behind) is a parry taken behind the back, at step 7, against a lock on the same line.
Steps 11 to 15 are written identically in both rows. St-F, St-B (pause), Fl-Overhead, 4B, S CCW — step forward, step back and hold, an overhead flourish, a bash, and a spin, all performed by both Saberists together. St-F and St-B are footwork and Fl-Overhead is the overhead flourish, listed as Fl-H in the Notation Legend.
B is a bash; © is a complete, taught in CM-C; Bl- is a blend, as in CM-F; D is a duck and 1H is one handed, both in the Notation Legend. The movement ends on 1H (hold at bay) against a 12©.
A blank cell means nothing is written for that Saberist on that beat. They hold while the other acts.

Flow spins and holds

Take the attacks out of CM-T and there is still a movement left. That is not true of anything earlier in the library, and it is the reason this one exists.

Start with the spins. There are five, and none of them is an attack, a parry or an evasion. Step 6 is a spin alone for Saberist B, on a beat where Saberist A has nothing written. Step 8 is a spin for both Saberists, and they go opposite ways — S CW against S CCW. Step 15 is a spin performed by both in the same direction. Step 20 combines a spin with a duck.

What a spin does in a phrase is carry momentum from one exchange into the next. A run of attacks ends, and a Saberist who simply stops has to start again from nothing; a Saberist who spins out of it arrives at the next beat already moving. That is what "flow" means here, and it is why the spins are placed exactly where the choreography changes character — after the parry run, before the lock, out of the lock, and into the finish. The opposing spins at step 8 do more: two Saberists turning away from each other at the same instant reset the whole geometry of the fight in one beat, and both come out of it facing a new exchange.

Holds are the other half, and they are the opposite instruction. Steps 9 and 10 chain them: a 9 parry in an inverted grip that binds, held across the step boundary with x, and closed into a second lock on the 12 line. Two locks joined by a carried bind, written in both rows — that is a long time to be bound, and it is what the run of spins has been building toward. Where the spins keep the movement travelling, the holds stop it dead and make the audience wait.

Then comes the passage that makes CM-T unusual. Steps 11 to 15 are the same in both rows, five beats in a row: both Saberists step forward, both step back and pause, both flourish overhead, both bash on the 4 line, both spin counter clockwise. Nobody attacks anybody. For five steps the two Saberists are not fighting — they are performing the same phrase at the same time, as a mirror.

That is a deliberate and slightly startling thing to write into a duel, and it does two jobs. In performance it reads as a reset: two opponents who have just spent ten steps bound together break apart, take stock, and circle. In training it is the hardest kind of synchronisation there is, because there is no attack to cue from. In an exchange, the parry has the attack to answer; in a mirror, both Saberists have only the count and each other. A pair that can hold five unison beats can hold anything else in the library.

The pause inside step 12 is worth its own attention. St-B (pause) writes a stop into the middle of a footwork step, which means the notation is specifying not just where to go but how long to be still on arrival. Between the flourish and the bash, that stillness is what makes the flourish land.

After the mirror, CM-T returns to ordinary business — 1, 8, 4, 10 answered by four parries, the plainest run in the movement — and then finishes on a hold. Saberist B carries a 2© and then a 12©, Saberist A ducks into a spin, blends the 3 line, and ends 1H (hold at bay): one hand on the saber, the other Saberist held off at the point of it. A movement built on flow ends by refusing to move at all.

Purpose

CM-T is designed to teach:

spins as the connection between exchanges rather than as decoration
spinning both directions, and spinning opposite to a partner at the same beat
carrying a lock into the next move with x, and chaining two locks together
parries taken behind the back and in the inverted grip
unison passages where both Saberists perform identical cells
an overhead flourish performed by two people at once
a written pause inside a footwork step
ending a movement on a held position rather than a strike

Training method

Phase 1: The spins alone

Both Saberists practise S CW and S CCW with no partner and no sequence.

Turn in each direction, slowly, and finish each spin facing a chosen point with the saber under control. Then practise the two turning at once in opposite directions, at walking pace, at a distance neither blade can cross. Spinning while a partner spins the other way is the beat most likely to surprise a pair at speed.

Phase 2: The parry run

Walk steps 2 to 5 one at a time, with a full stop after each.

3, 9, 3, 9X against 3P, 9P, 3P, 9P is the simplest material in the movement and the foundation for everything after it. Confirm at every step that both Saberists agree which target the number names, that the parry meets the attack cleanly, and that the step can be repeated the same way.

Phase 3: The awkward parries

Practise 3P (behind) and 9P IgX on their own.

One is taken behind the back and one in the inverted grip, and neither is a position a Saberist can improvise safely. Set each of them statically, without a partner first, then against a slow attack, and only then in sequence.

Phase 4: The chained lock

Practise steps 9 and 10 as a single held block.

The bind enters on the 9 line in an inverted grip, is carried across the step boundary, and closes on the 12 line. Enter it slowly and by agreement, hold each stage for a full count, and treat the two locks as one continuous action rather than two separate ones.

Phase 5: The unison passage

Rehearse steps 11 to 15 as a mirror, counted out loud.

This is the phase to spend the most time on. There is no attack to cue from, so the pair needs a shared count: step forward together, step back and hold the pause together, flourish together, bash together, spin together. Set the bash and the flourish for distance first — both blades are overhead at the same moment at step 13 — and then work purely on arriving at the same instant.

Phase 6: The run and the finish

Walk steps 16 to 22 one at a time.

Four attacks, four parries, then the duck into a spin, the blend and the hold. Decide how long 1H (hold at bay) is held before it is ever performed in sequence — a hold that is not agreed will always be cut short by the Saberist who is less comfortable.

Phase 7: Continuous flow, then pace

Run each part end to end at low speed, join all twenty-two steps, and only then add speed.

Speed belongs to the parry run and the attack run. It does not belong to the spins, the locks, the unison passage or the final hold. CM-T reads as flow only when the still beats are held at full length — a movement that rushes its pauses has no flow at all, only hurry.

Teaching note

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

Three hazards belong to this movement. The first is the pair of opposing spins at step 8, where both Saberists turn at once and each loses sight of the other partway round — the distance for that beat is set at the widest point either blade reaches, not at the point they start from. The second is step 13, where both Saberists perform an overhead flourish simultaneously; two blades above two heads at the same moment is a beat to set slowly, with the distance agreed and checked every session. The third is step 14's 4B, a bash written identically in both rows, which means neither Saberist is defending and the blades meet because both aimed them there.

The chained lock deserves a mention of its own. A bind carried across a step boundary and closed into a second lock keeps two Saberists connected for longer than anywhere else in the library, and long binds invite small adjustments — a shift of grip, a lean, a step. Agree what the bind looks like at each stage and hold it there.

It is also worth naming what this movement adds to the notation. Nothing. Spins, footwork, flourishes, pauses and holds were all in the language already, and CM-T simply writes a movement in which they carry the weight and the attacks fill the gaps. A row of parries and a row of attacks is one kind of choreography. Two Saberists stepping, flourishing and turning in unison for five beats is another, and the same notation records both without a special case.

When CM-T is clean, continue to CM-U, or return to the Extended Library.