He also had arguably the least fighting experience of the council of elders. Thus, he had occasionally sparred with other elders to hone his fighting instinct with a blade.
And he remembered that the advice Elder Dragon basically gave him was that defense should always be building towards a potential counterattack. He had to focus on outlasting the opponent's offensive flurry and then capitalize with a sudden shift.
That was essentially what Elder Dragon had told him, and he did not really have a chance to apply it as most of the time they would not spar but focus on cultivation, and when he faced an enemy, he used his archery to defeat the enemy, as such this was one of the only times where he would be able to use such advice.
