As I start to dive into more technical stuff about how a body moves and how and why you choose to line up different pieces in any particular configuration I have to spend some time laying groundwork so that I can talk about this stuff without having to constantly re-iterate big picture ideas. So this is the first of those. I'll figure out some way to better organize that eventually. For now you'll just have to keep reading these forewords :-P.
Box
A box is the hit zone that determines death. Any target area that can kill you in one shot is considered part of that box. The box is also probably an idea from other things, but as a person with no formal training I don't have anything else to point at, sorry. The box, generally speaking is the quadrant's provided by drawing lines from shoulder to shoulder, from shoulders to hips and from hip to hip. This target zone represents a persons "box" and when I start talking about a person defending their box what I mean is that they are keeping their guard set up in such a way that it passively absorbs swings to anything bounded by this region. A good guard will hover over your box so that without moving you aren't likely to be killed in one hit. When you block a shot that's out wide (like a wrap shot) then you're blocking outside of your box. Even if that shot is for your back, moving your weapon/shield far away from your body to prevent a shot from hitting you uncovers the area I think of as your "box". Additionally the box only refers to your FRONT side as there isn't a passive guard that I know of that's going to protect the box bounded shoulders and hips on your back that also guards your front side well. (Though you could totally do that with a back shield if you don't use a shield for anything else).
Line
The "line" as I think of it your center line, it's the line that you'd draw from your solar plexus to your opponents solar plexus. So long as you're fighting a person you'll be looking at each other, and in doing so you generate that line. Assuming that you've guarded your box well and your opponent has done the same neither you nor your opponent will have any good or obvious shots so long as the line remains unbroken. As a result a lot of discussions going forward will talk about breaking your opponents line; IE being the person who clears your opponents center line to the left or right proactively in order to open up a series of shots that weren't previously available to you. It's important to note that when you break your opponents center line you also create a similar set of openings on yourself. But by being the one to initiate the movement you have the advantage of knowing in advance what openings exist, whereas your opponent has to spend time reacting to your movement rather then proactively taking shots at the openings that you've exposed. Since, at least theoretically, no good shots exist when both people are center line even (facing one another) much of fighting comes down to finding creative ways to work your shots around a person's center line. I suspect that's why the high cross is so popular despite it being a bad shot. (Bad because 1, it's predictable, 2, it has a low rate of success, 3, it leaves your arm way open when thrown).
Lane
A lane is established by a weapon. To the outside of the weapon is the outside lane, to the inside of the weapon is the inside lane. If you're holding a sword in your right hand then your outside lane is anything to the right of your weapon and your inside lane is going to be anything that's your arm on in. If you're fighting florentine then you'll generate two sets of lanes. If you're fighting with a polearm then this theory still applies except that now your inside and outside lanes are determine by where you place your hands. If your front hand is your right hand then your outside lane will be everything to your left and your inside lane is everything to your right. Generally speaking whenever you can catch a BLOCK to your OUTSIDE lane you gain advantage by being able to RETURN shots to their INSIDE lane.
keeping it short and sweet for theorycrafting. that's all for this post.
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