The following morning they started on intensive melee combat training. This was done outside the simulators, in one of the exercise rooms designated for the purpose. Previously, FN-2187 and the others had trained in hand-to-hand combat, working in close quarters with fists and feet. This time they found the room prepared with racks of weapons and shields lining the walls.
The instructors demonstrated the use of each weapon, the vibro-axes and shock staffs and force pikes and resonator maces, elaborating at length on the respective strengths and weaknesses of each and when and how to employ them to best effect. They explained the composite alloys used to make the weapons, how some of the equipment was strong enough to block even a lightsaber. FN-2187 wondered about that—not whether it was true but whether or not they would ever be expected to fight someone who used a lightsaber. According to the First Order, the Jedi were extinct.
Soon enough, the instructors passed out the weapons. FN-2187 found himself with a mace and shield. Zeroes and Slip each ended up with force pikes. Nines used a one-handed vibro-axe and a shield. They were told that all the powered weapons carried only a nominal charge, making them incapable of penetrating stormtrooper armor.
They began drills, basic moves—stance, attack, parry—and then repeated, over and over again, until FN-2187 could feel perspiration
running down his back inside the bodysuit he wore beneath his armor. When they’d finished, his arms ached from the effort of maintaining the mace and shield, but there was a sense of pleasure, too, the delight of learning something new and learning it quickly and well.

Before the Awakening - Finn