Thursday, January 17, 2008

Nutley 1/16/2008

Ah! What a great night! The fun! The bruises!

Once again i took it easy. I only fought five guys: Gavlin, Ben, Bill, Larry, and Christian Knox. I didn't get a shot at Gregor, which is too bad.

Alain had brought me his center grip to use. It's the same size as mine but it's metal. I like it but I don't like the handle much. I figured I wanted something other than the buckler (though I'm good with he buckler and having fun with it). It's 26" which means it's a little small on me to be a Viking style center grip and it doesn't work well with the An Tir style.

I already knew a few things but I learned some others. The center grip gets in the way of some of my best offense. It's lousy (or I'm lousy with it) against polearm fighters. It's mor flexible than even the bunny round. Those things I knew. Here's what I didn't know:

I can still throw the hook thrust with the center grip (I can't throw the hook/slot shot).

The first combo I ever developed on my own without being taught it was onside head/offside head/shield press/pass on right/leg wrap. When I throw it I usually loose my leg. It works much better with the center-grip than with any other shield, and my leg is better protected too.

I learned that instead of a wrap/drawback/thrust it's better to half-heartedly fake the wrap, lay the sword onto he shield, and roll he tip into the face.

I can't defend my leg with the center grip in goofy foot as well as I can with the buckler: r rather, I can't do it with a rotation block like I do with he buckler. This seems counter intuitive and I don't know why. I use the Hauoc technique with the buckler when I'm goofy footed and it works great, but with the center round, which is the same shape as the buckler just three times as big, it doesn't work. I think it's that I have to stand differently. I think I fixed that in my fight with Christian by adopting a lower sword forward stance, but it was weird.

I fought everyone I fought well except Larry (big polearm fighter), whom I killed once out of four fights. I even did well Christian once I'd warmed up against him. At various times my hook thrust, stutter wrap, body thrust, low-line jade like face thrust, molinee leg shot, rising snap, dropping leg wrap, Martin the Temperate leg shot, and passing shot worked against somebody I fought.

But the real reason I was there was because Ben was visiting from the West. He's fighting a high-form heater style and he's doing great with it. He has finaled in the last two coronets with it. And our fights were a lot of fun!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

wierd, because centergrips are generally good against "funny weapons" because the defense is... well... central.

The 26" is a little small, so it might be tricky to block high and low simultaneously. I would guess (not being a great centergrip round fighter) that it would be best to go into a hanging guard, or at least use your sword to activly block high while using the round to to defend your legs.

I had a good time, too. I literally could not stop Gregor's offside flick, but I beat the crap out of Christian.

I had a very intersting time down in Philly. It was snowing, so only 5 of Ice's guys showed up, and Ice was sick and didn't suit up. Ice and I talked before the fight, and after 1 set, he instructed all his guys to work the offside. So I got to practice defending it which I did finally pick up (Gregor's shot is different, though).

The one guy who adjusted his appoach and gave me some trouble was gunther, the huge 6'5' guy. I was picking him apart at range, so he just tucked up in a hanging guard and pressed me to range 0. He could get to a position where he didn't have _much_ but I had nothing, and had to disengage or get killed with a wrap.

I didn't quite adjust, but I think one issue to work on is that there is a point when someone is closing the range that I want to "ungoofyfoot" myself, to control the range better.

As for the big shield - it's interesting in that it does restrict me from throwing a few wacky shots. But those shots all sucked for me anyway. On thing it does impact is visibility