tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18690737758903696752024-03-06T00:42:01.348-05:00SCAFighterThis blog is a discussion of SCA fighting. I've been fighting in the SCA since 1979, I've won a crown and a coronet. The biggest knock on my fighting, according to one duke, is that I try to learn everything. This may be bad for my quest for strawberry leaves but it is good for the people who read my blog.
(this blog uses cookies and ad links) M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.comBlogger395125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-73329572070291471122022-05-10T15:51:00.003-04:002022-05-10T16:00:13.120-04:00<p>I'm returning to this blog for this post. I don't know that I will post here often. I changed what I was doing and this blog no longer fit it's main purpose, as a journal of my fighting. I've gone back to a paper journal (though I'm not good at keeping that one either), so this was no longer necessary. But I can record a few things here. </p><p>I haven't written in this blog since the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020. A lot has happened. Ed, Horic, Liam, Olan, Stephan, Jimmy Lee, Targon, David Anderson, and a number of family members, have died. We endured a long pandemic of no fighting, or of surreptitious fighting in people's back yards, under vague threat of sanction if we were found out -- as if the SCA, or the Kingdom, can control what we do on our own time. I even snuck off to fight in a multi kingdom practice at the height of the pandemic. We were masked, and followed the recommended protocols of the time, but we didn't tell a lot of people about it. There were only about 15 fighters there, tops, and ten were in armor when I was (five of them were from Tribe Rot Mahne, from three different kingdoms). </p>During the Pandemic, I've been working with Duke Ronald to train me up for winning another crown. We don't have a target. We are just trying to improve my fighting so I can get better over time. Since we were doing so much by Zoom anyway, I've also been working with Sagan. Sagan is one of the most successful coaches in the SCA. We have zoom meetings about once a month, the three of us, to watch video of my fighting and discuss both what I'm doing and where my head's at. It's been helping a lot. I don't think I'm quite as good at triggering off my opponent now as I was in November, but I'm pretty good. I'm fighting almost as well as when I got knighted. <p>During the pandemic, we also fought in two crowns. For me they were (if my count is accurate) #101 and #102. The first one was delayed until July 2021. To keep numbers down, we had feeder tournaments: Two of them, each had two pools of fighters, the top four fighters from each pool would advance to the actual crown tournament a few weeks later. I advanced, and lost in a blistering heat to Cullyn and Mathias in the double elimination portion. </p><p>The next crown I made it to the semi finals. The only person to defeat me all day was Ryo, who won. He beat me in the second round, after a double kill, and then again in semis in our first and only bout of that round (I had to win twice, he only once). Along the way I killed Beatrix, Cullyn, and Vlad, which was a good day. I was really only two blows away from finals. </p><p>But I was frustrated. I'm not in crown to "do well" at this point. I want to win -- not so much that I will obsess about it, but I'm not going to pretend, as som many do, that the ultimate goal is not to be king. </p><p>This past Saturday was Crown 103. It was held in Trois Rivieres, Quebec. I had a great day. I advanced from my pool without a loss. In that pool I beat Sir Mohammed, the eventual winner of the day, with a beautiful slot shot. I also be Galbraith, a big unbelted fighter from Quebec. In the double elimination section, I lost to Sir Mathias Gurnwald, I beat Sir Angus Grove, I beat my squire Padraig, I beat Jan Janovich (normally my kryptonite), and I lost in a rematch with Galbraith. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZQylt74OHJWNTCtELjexuewuzaOlCfbHWmbB4jkDXrGAQFaU4jpl61tUVued2HSikneFZe9tphNQelDE9vjNCfcxJqdyNed4A0aCOSaJp-tifx9vzCc9CWzUmUJYM0naOXWqSWHyAZxMzzYYACSkJlPLr5M-zWOquq9k0SmedEXnAJ3jx63zEIheOw/s1440/278508552_5430384020326710_3986207684440668039_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZQylt74OHJWNTCtELjexuewuzaOlCfbHWmbB4jkDXrGAQFaU4jpl61tUVued2HSikneFZe9tphNQelDE9vjNCfcxJqdyNed4A0aCOSaJp-tifx9vzCc9CWzUmUJYM0naOXWqSWHyAZxMzzYYACSkJlPLr5M-zWOquq9k0SmedEXnAJ3jx63zEIheOw/s320/278508552_5430384020326710_3986207684440668039_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>I was trying to fight a reactionary fight. Instead of forcing the offense, I was trying to let my opponent tell me how to kill him. But I think that made me too cautious. </p><p>My current project is to improve my wrap, both the targeting of my leg wrap, and the power of all my wraps. </p><p>My next time in armor will probably be this Sunday, but I might take a day off. </p><p>The next event I plan to fight at is War of the Roses on Memorial Day Weekend. </p><p>It's 80 days until Pennsic. </p>M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-90549027611452608232020-10-12T23:01:00.004-04:002020-10-12T23:01:55.208-04:00Armor for the first time in months<p> I got into Armor on Saturday. It was the first time in months. I wasn't sure what it would be like. I mean, if we're ever invaded by an army of pells, I'm all set, but actual fighting is another thing. I had not fought in six months, since Aedult Swim. Before that, I'd had three health issues last fall, missed Crown, and took two months off. Really, since Pennsic 2019 until last Friday, I think I had been in armor six times. So Saturday makes seven. That's a far cry from when I used to practice four times a week. I miss those days. I miss being able to do that. </p><p>I was in a new to me helmet, a heavy, large bascinet that I was able to pad up with some of the anti-concussion foam Icefalcon sells, plus the skull cap that Dag manufacturers. So an inch of padding, three densities. That worked well. </p><p>I took the train out to Duke Ronald's. It was just me and Baron Jonathan in armor. Jonthan is one of my favorite training buddies. He has very fast hands, so it's a great sword and shield workout. He's also good at other forms. We did three sets -- a long sword and shield set, a sword and buckler set, and then a single sword set. </p><p>I felt good in the helmet. He tattooed my leg (I was using Ron's shield, which is narrower and about two inches shorter). I felt my targeting off. I had some trouble figuring out what to do. My shoulders ached afterward from the work. I was using my heavy sword, which I really don't like, but it allowed me to use all sorts of Bellatrix/Flieg heavy sword tricks -- momentum shots, slow moving shots, etc. I had some really good leg shots, but my targeting was way off on my snaps. I was throwing right into the middle of the shield. That was probably the weight of my armor and of the sword. </p><p>I did not work on any specific technique. I was not using my footwork at all (odd, since I've been practicing it). </p><p>I felt good and had a very good time. </p><p>I don't know when my next time in armor will be. I'm not sure we will ever hold another Crown. </p>M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-75266579222048402062020-07-12T13:33:00.003-04:002020-10-12T22:48:39.838-04:00COVIDHere it is, July. Covid has hit us hard. We lost one of our best friends, my sweetie's "Gay Best Friend" / Other (Gay) Husband in the first few weeks. Olan Montgomery, one of the most talented artists/photographers/stylists/actors/directors I'e ever worked with. He was also a drag queen and an 80s club kid, and he had great stories about Andy Warhol (and one biting story about Donald Trump). It was a devastating loss for us both personally and professionally. In addition to being our closest friend and one of our chosen family, he was also our wig maker, photographer, acting partner, and sometime director. As an actor he was just becoming successful, with a recurring roll on last season's Stranger Things, and a couple of big film rolls in the past year. He had just booked his first official guest star spot, on the Righteous Gem Stones. And he was attached to *every* film project I was working on. His loss makes it that much harder to get any of them financed. But we also lose the kindest soul I think I've ever met, someone who loved us dearly and whom we loved as well, someone who was so nice that nobody he met didn't love him (well, that probably doesn't include Donald Trump). He can't be replaced professionally, let alone the gaping hole his passing left in our hearts. We did inherit his marvelous old cat. He was one of the first New Yorker's to get the disease, and he died in April, unfortunately after being taken off the vent and moved out of the ICU. Two days before he died, Jimmy Lee, a local SCA person I'd known for all of the 20 years I've been in Ostgardr, passed away. He was somebody I always liked and enjoyed talking to, an archer in a Mongolian household, and a very talented stained glass artist. That hit the local SCA hard. Then, about a month later, we lost Liam St. Liam, a Tyger of the East and probably the most popular and well liked person in the whole SCA. Liam and I were great friends. We shared a lot. Like Olan, he was more like family than a friend. He was a great sports writer, a great philosopher, a quintessential Southie (though he was actually from Rhode Island). He supplied more than half the photographs in my book. I can't describe how important Liam was in my life. He'd been in a nursing home after having suffered a stroke a few years before, and when he caught the bug he went fairly quickly (at least much quicker than Olan had). I was heartbroken once again. In addition to that, the virus took two of my school colleagues, and Terrance McNally, whom I can't say I knew well, but at least I'd gotten to meet years ago. And, of course, while I didn't know Nick Cordero, I know two people who were close to him. I think I'd met Mark Blum once, and certainly we had a lot of folks in common, both via theatre and via CUNY. Somehow, I missed his passing, and just found out about it only day before yesterday.<br />
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And then there is the social distancing, the monotony, being unable to do ANY of the things I loved doing -- not just SCA, but theatre, movies, dining out, shopping in Manhattan, sporting events, all of it. And teaching, the thing that keeps the lights on and me sane. So it's been rough.<br />
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What is the point of mentioning that in this blog? Well, here's what it has to do with fighting. Never give up. Never stop training. Never.<br />
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I live to fight in Crown Tourney. I've never made any attempt to hide that fact. I fight in every crown I can, and I've fought in 100 of them so far. One year -- the year I was researching my dissertation, and was traveling back and forth between New York and California regularly -- I fought in five of them -- both of them in the East, all three in the West, and two of them (the fall crowns) I fought with a broken leg -- the leg I'd broken in the Belted Champions battle at Pennsic (I killed the guy who helped me break it and then walked off the field. Still my proudest "fight club" moment). But now, for the first time since I started fighting in crown almost 40 years ago, I have gone more than a year without fighting in one -- since May 2019, due first to the blood pressure spike I had last spring, and now to the fact that the actual SCA (because to me, E-SCA is not the real SCA) is shut down. But I'm still training. Every day.<br />
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I haven't fought since AEdult Swim V on February 15. That is also the last post in this blog. I haven't even had my armor since then. I left it with William McCrimmon after our ride home, and then we went into lock down, and then he caught the disease (he's recovered now).<br />
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There's no fighting right now in the East Kingdom. Some places have been allowed to hold non-contact socially distanced practices. I'm sure some people are getting together and fighting in their back yards. Not me. Right now there is a very good chance we won't hold a crown tournament this year, since Tindal has said that there will be no Royal events until the border with Canada is opened, and I don't see that happening any time soon. I suspect by the time we have a Crown again, I will be 57, and will have not fought in a Crown in two years.<br />
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And that's why I train every single day.<br />
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My daily training is what I've written about before. I hit the pell at least 100 times, do 50 push ups and 50 squats every day. I also do footwork drills a couple times a week, and mix in two handed drills and two stick drills. I work in my Indian Clubs sometimes, mostly to keep my shoulders loose. When it' rains outside, I do my pell work indoors. Currently, I run three days a week, at least a mile, sometimes more, with a mask or gaiter around my neck, that I can pull up when anybody approaches. A couple weeks ago, I ran a little over two miles with a surgical mask on pretty much the whole time. That was hard, but I look at it kind of like running at altitude. Most other days I get a walk in, about 10,000 steps. My next task is to get a mail shirt, I haven't owned one since the 80s, to train in a few times a week.<br />
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Because you should never stop training.<br />
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Someday we will get back into armor. Some day we will hold tournaments again. Some day we will hold crown again. I intend to be ready. And so should you. Train every single day.<br />
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For fun, here's a good picture of me from Aedult Swim. It's by Ursus. <a href="https://www.bogpages.com/" target="_blank">Go here</a> and check his photos out.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Tim Tyson</td></tr>
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#traineverydayM.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-32757696321932971972020-03-03T14:12:00.001-05:002020-03-03T15:54:18.511-05:00Fight Fight Fight and healthIt's been awhile since I posted here. I'm kind of losing the drive to keep posting. I also took some time off from fighting for a medical issue. That issue has been corrected.<br />
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TRAINING<br />
Is limited to my normal workout of pushups, squats, and pell work daily. I've run a couple of times on the treadmill, and once outside, but walking and stairs is most of my cardio (12,000 steps yesterday=6 miles).<br />
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TECHNIQUE<br />
I've not been working on anything specifically. I've been using Count Gemeni's wards, for the most part-- at extreme range fighting a strong high open form (bellatrix), at medium range a weak high closed form (Von Drachenklau), and at close range a strong high closed form (almost everybody else). I still mix in a few A-frame.<br />
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FIGHTING<br />
My health issues were three fold. The first issue was the possibility of a blood clot having developed at Pennsic from wrapping my knee too tight after I was injured (see earlier post). My D-Demer test was positive, and my leg was swollen, but two ultrasounds revealed nothing.<br />
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The second issue was a concussion suffered at the Cloisters. I developed concussion issues after I hit myself in the head with a sword while doing pell work years ago (no, really), and suffered my first recognizable fighting concussion a year or so later, (i'd probably had at least one before, but this was the first one with classic symptoms), when Gui accidentally face punched me at Acheron, resulting in a concussion that I felt as a pain at the back of my head from my brain bouncing off the back of my skull. I took time off from fighting, told my doctor, and retired that helmet. I changed my helmet and padded it with anti-concussion padding from Windrose. It worked, but my new helmet did not allow for any padding beyond that. I stopped getting my bell wrung, but at Pennsic I did have a couple of headaches. Then, at Cloisters, I got hammered literally, with a big hammer-headed polearm. The next day I had a migraine that was pretty bad. It went away so I fought that Thursday at Hawethorne, and had another migraine the next day. I had concussion symptoms for a couple of weeks, and ended up taking a lot of time off for reason three.<br />
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The third issue was a spell of really high blood pressure. This was result of a lot of things -- pain from the concussion, fatigue, work stress, general politics stress, producing a show stress, and--especially--SCA stress brought on by the arrest of Louis Rondon/Lousi de Castillo, whom long-time readers of this blog will know from mention of our bouts over the last few years, particularly the drown that he won last May. At the same time, my doctor changed my medication. I'd been really dehydrated at Pennsic, and I asked her to take me off the hydrochlorothiazide, a diurettic. My blood pressure started going up, and so she switched me from Lisinopril to Nephedipine. It this time I was suffering from fatigue and headaches. The neephedipine had a lot of side effects, including chest pains and shortness of breath. The first or second day I was on it, I went to the ER with blood pressure of 198/154, which is very bad. Eventually, I was switched back to my old regimen of hydrochlorothiazide and lisinopril, which had worked before. I just need to hydrate a LOT (as I type this I had another bout of fatigue and headache, which is dehydration). I missed Crown Tourney for the first time in years as a result -- doctor's orders -- and ended up taking about three months off from fighting.<br />
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My health is good. I had a great stress test and echo. My BP is 110/70. Both my GP and my cardiologist have cleared me to fight.<br />
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I'm back to fighting, but in my Crusader helmet, which is big and heavy and has a lot more padding in it, but has lousy visibility. I've got a big heavy bascinet I'm going to pad up, but it's not the period I like to fight in, and it doesn't have an aventail yet, which is an aesthetic that I think is necessary for bascinets. But it it will do for the moment. Long term I am going to go to an open faced helmet with a suspension liner. I've considered for some time going to a late period rig with a shoulder mounted helm (Icefalcom makes one I really like) but I would not want to fight in crown in that helmet, for a lot of reasons.<br />
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Meanwhile, I have been fighting a bit lately. I had a great time at Aedult Swim this year. I was only there for one day, but I fought 18 opponents, which works out to right around 100 fights (I fought at least five fights with al of them, and more with some). I ended my day with fights with Duke Rangvaldr, in my book one of the top ten fighters in the SCA. I killed him twice (he killed me five times). Any time I lay stick on Rangvaldr I count as a great day. I also had a great set with Duke Christoph from Atlantia. The only Easterner I fought was Pelandreas, but he's from Quebec, so I never see him anyway. He will likely be a tough out at Crown. I did get him once with a good face thrust, and fought him pretty well over all. got to fight a couple of those Ansteoran two sword fighters too. At first I was totally dominated by that style, which I'd never fought, but after four or five bouts I started winning most of my fights. It mostly requires attacks down the middle. After that I fought a knight using a more standard two-sword style, and I did well.<br />
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Here is some video of one fight from SCA tally, starting a bit out of focus. I'm so slow! I also wonder why I didn't take that backhand. The rest of the video is cool too.<br />
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It is exactly 60 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Nutley next week, and my tournament with be IceDragon in Aethelmarc on March 15.M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-55287151668425426582019-09-30T15:55:00.001-04:002019-09-30T15:55:19.754-04:00Train every dayI do. I train every day.I do my pell work, push ups, and squats every day. As Crown gets closer I start to run daily (although this time round I've been doing it gingerly, since I injured my knee at Pennsic and it hasn't fully recovered). My squats, at the moment, double as part of my PT. Also, Ibuprofen and ice.<br /><br />But fighting, that's where training really has to be concentrated. I'm practicing at once a week now, but it's going up to two a week. I've made it either to Nutley or to the local Brooklyn practice, or to hopewell, every week so far.<br />
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This week Nutley was wonderfully intense. I didn't fight a lot of fighters, but I got good quality ass whuppins. A Duke told me at Pennsic that, when you're getting ready for crown, you should stick to fighting people who are better than you. That's nice. As I was getting into armor on Wednesday, so was Stephan Von Dresden. He yelled "hey, Val!" So I jumped into the shark-infested deep end of the pool. That was fun. I did not have a thrusting tip on my sword, which makes it all the harder against Stephan. I did not lay stick on him, but with Stephan, sometimes the benchmark is how long it takes him to kill me, but which I did quite well. Then I fought Horic and did extremely well. I won six out of seven bouts. After that I fought Duke Brenan. He said he was impressed. I won several of our bouts. He said that he thought I was doing much better when I got a flow going to my blows than when I fought staccato (interesting, since Staccato was how I'd planned to fight on Wednesday, but I started throwing combinations out of habit. There was a pole-arm fighter visiting from Meridies, an unbelted fighter with Japanese armor. I took my poleax out against him and won three out of four bouts. To finish off, I got a set of great-sword bouts in with Cullyn, probably the top great weapon fighter in the kingdom ATM. He actually had his body armor off, but when he heard I was looking for some great-sword practice he put it back on. We had some good sets. He definitely bested me, but I won three bouts out of (I think) seven). Great stuff.<br />
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This Sunday was the Cloisters demo. I was pretty sure I was going to be the only knight there and, since I wanted more pole-arm work, and since I also wanted to handicap myself, but mostly becuase it was a subway ride from south brooklyn to the far north tip of Manhattan, I left my sword and shield at home. Taking just a bastard sword, or just a poleax, is so much easier than hauling around a shield, which is sort of awkward. I fought in the noon session for about forty minutes. There were five other fighters in armor, including Gawaine, who is tough with anything, and Murdoch, who has good weapons depth. I had some great fights and some great wins, but Murdoch beat me twice with pole-arms and once with great-sword. I think I beat him once with my poleax vs. his glaive. He was a real test. He also won the provincial championship later that day.<br />
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But my favorite moment was against Alberecht, a tall lefty from Queens. Because he is left handed I used a left hand lead on my poleax, which I rarely do. I threw my best polearm shot--a feint thrust to the head, and a circle that looks at first like a leg shot, but then continues up into the face. It's my patented "best shot," and I've killed people with it using both glaive and bastard sword, but I don't think I'd even thrown that left handed before. As I saw that it had worked, and my point was getting in behind his shield, I stepped off line to give myself a better angle, and landed a face thrust.<br />
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It's 40 days until Crown Tourney. My next time in armor will be Wednesday at Nutley.M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-70656748262600788882019-09-18T23:39:00.001-04:002019-09-18T23:39:06.627-04:00This summer was a bust Boy, has it really been since June that I’ve written in this blog? I’ve gotten even worse at it. <div><div><br></div><div> A good practice tonight. I fought Beatrix, Jan, Arne, Gawaine, and a newer left-handed fighter who told me his name, but it completely escaped me. This guy, by the way, had an incredible kit. 14th century helm with a giant nasal and aventail, great coat of plates, but the best thing of all was that he had Kydex plastic arms that you could not tell where Kydex plastic arms, because he had built them on a freaking last! They had a Great coke bottle shaped to them, and he had riveted them so it looks like they had splints. </div><div><br></div><div> Nothing really special to say about my fighting tonight. I avoided the thrust most of the night and worked on the edge. I only managed to kill Arne once, but he told me afterwards that he did not like what I was doing. I had him back on his heels the whole time, which was the idea. I try to fight Arne by channeling Joe Frazier. Beatrix I did really well against, and I think Jan beat me three out of five. Not too bad. </div><div><br></div><div> I had a very decent day at Ducal Challenge couple weeks ago. Well, I kind of decent day. I barely made it out of my pool. I was in the pool of death, which also had brick jams, Ionis, Hassan, and Arne. I ended up in a three-way tie for fourth place, the last slot to advance, with Hassan and Brick, but I killed both of them. Then I went to quarterfinals and got knocked out by Cullen, who eventually won. So that wasn’t bad. </div><div><br></div><div> I didn’t report on Pennsic. Here is my report: every days fighting was more fun than the day before. I pulled a calf muscle, twisted my knee, and probably got a small blood clot in my calf, my doctor freaked out a bit, but the ultrasound showed nothing so I was cleared to fight again. If I did get a blood clot, I’m pretty sure it came from wrapping my knee too tightly on Friday. I could not fight for a month as a result. So Pennsic wrecked me. </div><div><br></div><div>It’s 52 days until Crown Tourney. My next time in armor will be Tuesday at McCareen Park. </div></div>M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-23431980113251520122019-05-25T11:57:00.002-04:002019-05-25T11:59:16.331-04:00When You Play The Game of Thrones, You Either Win or You Die This is three posts in one:<br />
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THE GAME OF THRONES<br />
In the SCA, we play the Game of Thrones. It's what we do. The SCA is literally a game of thrones. As I wrote in my book (see sidebar), the SCA is a more-or-less accidental recreation of the medieval "King Game," a peasant game in which a contest is held for a mock king to reign over a mock court (king of fools, boy bishop, mock mayor, and May king are all examples). So, what happens in GoT is an interesting reflection on what we do in, and how we might play, the SCA. As such, last week's finale has a bit of a message for us. I won't go into all the flaming details. I was not nearly as disappointed in the ending as so many others were. I agree that it was rushed, but I thought they got to the right place on nearly all the story lines. Dany was always going to turn into a tyrant, Jon was always a well-meaning idiot, and Bran was being groomed to be king in the first episode. No big surprise. But there are two ways in which the last episode intersects with the SCA.<br />
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First, with how to deal with a tyrant. Our tyrants don't burn cities to the ground. They are merely assholes, and they have a sunset clause. My personal philosophy has always been closely aligned with fighting: just as anybody I face has the right to decide none of my blows was good, every king has the right to be a tyrant. I put myself in danger, submit myself to another's control over me, in fighting and in serving the king. It is an act of trust. If I am let down there is no real harm. He's not going to take away my birthday, after all. I like our way. I am a big one for giving people the opportunity to easily be assholes, because only then do you actually give them the opportunity to shine and be heroes. But I know people who wish regicide were an option in our game.<br />
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The second thing is what to do with our kings when they are no longer king. Jon was crowned King in the North, and he is actually the rightful king of Westeros. In this case he is sent off to the Night's Watch (another way the show has come full circle), and then is (sort of) released to go off into the True North with the Wildlings (Ken Mondschein and I will be working on a paper on this topic later in the year). In the SCA, our ex kings get a county, or maybe a Dukedom. That's not too different from what happened to Jon. It is a good convention.<br />
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I think we do it right.<br />
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NUTLEY<br />
Getting back into armor after Crown is always a bit difficult. What, exactly do I wok on. Staying with my plan? Power generation? Having no plan? Thrusts? What *didn't* I do at Crown that I need to do next time. The zen answer, of course, is "win."<br />
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The dangers of Nutley last week was getting lost, which, in a way, is what I did. It was the best Nutley practice in a long time. There were several out of towners, and 24 fighters in armor. I wanted to fight people I don't fight a lot, but in that crowd it wasn't easy. I only got five opponents, one of them was brand new, two were regulars. I worked with Dwight, who lives near me in Brooklyn. I fought great swords against Jonathan, and I warmed up with Galvin. I managed to get my set with Victor, which is the thing I wanted most. With the new, lighter sword, I was having trouble with power, but I was also firing too much into his shield which, with pell work every single day, should not be a problem. I'm very disappointed in that. But with so many to choose from, I did not get in as good (read rough) a night as I should have.<br />
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HOW TO RUN A PRACTICE<br />
We had a practice last weekend, with me, three brand new fighters,and one fairly new fighter. Two were left handed, two were right handed. It gave me an opportunity to run an actual class, as opposed to bashing practice, again. The curriculum this time was as follows:<br />
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(unarmored)<br />
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<ul>
<li>Footwork drills</li>
<li>Structured slow work (I worked with each of them individually, critiquing their form)</li>
</ul>
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(armored)<br />
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<ul>
<li>Slow work warm up. </li>
<li>Striking and moving: I drilled each one individually, having them strike and move, with the goal of keeping their shields in place as they did so. I'd occasionally lightly tap them if they let their shield drift too far. </li>
<li> Sparing with each other -- righty on righty/lefty on lefty, then switch, with me critiquing</li>
<li>Circle drill, (ie bear pit) in which one person holds the field against each of the others, in turn. I didn't hold the field but I did enter it to fight them. I used a small (22" round) shield for this, as a handicap, and I did get hit a couple of times. This last part is so people have fun and feel they've gotten enough fighting in, which is always important. </li>
</ul>
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It was a good practice. My most satisfying part is seeing how, even though I didn't work with him much at all last year, Austin, the more experienced fighter, was employing the footwork I had taught him effectively. </div>
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HOW TO RUN A DEMO</div>
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I've harped on this before. </div>
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We all do demos a bit differently, and for different audiences. A lot of the early demos I was involved in were simply that--demonstrations of how our combat works for a lay audience. It would be mostly built around pairs. They'd fight. Someone would win. Emphasis was put on explaining to the audience our conventions of combat and the armor and weapons being used. Effort would be made to demonstrate lots of different weapons forms. It's not about medieval history, it's about SCA fighting. </div>
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The next step is often to emphasize the entertainment value of the violence. People take on "villain" rolls. There's lots of playing to the crowd. Some fighters do things (ignore blows, back stab) that are against the rules, but are entertaining to an audience not familiar with what we do. </div>
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Another variety is to purposely fight in a more medieval fashion. This also breaks our rules through the addition of grappling, punching with shields, etc. We used to do a fighting show at the Renaissance Faire in Black Point. It had started out, years before, as an "SCA Demo," with SCA rules. It evolved into a show that was not a demo really at all, because we never mentioned the SCA. It was a tournament in which we used, basically, the conventions currently employed by ACL and BOTN. We fought to submission or to three point contact with the ground. I suffered a couple of concussions in those fights. </div>
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I've always thought the best way to run a demo is to run a structured fighting event. Either a small SCA tournament, fought with SCA rules, or a challenge event of some kind. A pas d'armes with a barrier is great for this, because it requires less space, and because it does away with fighting from the knees. Another similar way is to do the event as a series of challenges. </div>
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So, last weekend we also had a demo for the Brooklyn's Viking Day festival. As usual, the SCA set up on one side of a concrete path, and the MSR SET up on the other. In years past, we've gone back and forth between each other's spaces. This year, however, we each only had one fighter. The SCA had me. MSR had Douglas Henry, who is both an SCA knight (one of the top four or five fighters in the kingdom) and the Crown Prince of Acre in the MSR. He and I decided to fight a passage of arms with SCA rules using 5 different weapon forms: arming sword, great sword, two weapon, dagger, abd sword and shield. It's more or less the finals of Crown Tourney. Here is how it looked (thanks to the Vicereign for the videos): </div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5gQ7gNLPy-A" width="560"></iframe>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mt69KQ-xvM4" width="560"></iframe>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hkksc89Cerk" width="560"></iframe>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-LR4QJbrgxo" width="560"></iframe>
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We split even, two each and a double kill, but actually I thrust him in the face in the two sword fight, which he acknowledged, and kept fighting, so I won three of the five. This doesn't mean I'd have won in a tourney, but it does mean that every blow I killed him with was to the face, three thrusts and a cut with the great sword. Doug needs to improve his face defense.<br />
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The real point is that this is a fun way to do a demo if you only have two fighters. A passage of arms like this one is described in Hutton's <i>The Sword And The Centuries. </i>It allows us to teach a bit about SCA fighting, a bit about 14th Century fighting, and put on a good show.<br />
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There are 62 days until Pennsic (yikes!).M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-88374283512540334582019-05-08T13:35:00.000-04:002019-05-08T13:35:15.855-04:00Crown #100In the end, I was knocked out by the same two people who knocked me out of Mudthaw.<br />
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This was my 100th Crown Tournament. I have been victorious in 1% of the crowns I have fought in. </div>
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In truth, I am extremely frustrated with myself over this crown. I should have been tighter against Luis. I should have closed the deal with Jan after I took his leg. They were both awesome fights, but I could have and should have done better.<br />
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I knew going into this crown that Luis would be my toughest fight, that Jan, Randall and Arne were really tough to crack, that Sterling would be a dark horse, and that Ryo can mess up anybody's day. There were no push overs in this particular crown. I had trained specifically to fight Luis, Jan, and Arne. I never got matched up with Arne, but I failed in my prep for Jan and Luis. </div>
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It was actually a very small list. Although I made it to the final eight, That was only five rounds, and seven fights. </div>
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Randal and I were both a bit surprised when the shields went up for the first round, and we found out that we were paired against each other. Turns out it was a bye, and they'd just drawn our names out of a hat. I took a polearm, on the theory that win or lose (I lost) it would be over quickly and neither of us would get tired. </div>
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Next I fought Joseph von Ulm. I fight Joseph a lot at Iron Bog practice. He fought better this weekend than I have ever seen him fight. He was a tough out for me. Very strong offense and a solid defense. </div>
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Next I fought Luis. It was a hard fought bout, and I lost. He toasts me with a head shot and a body thrust in fairly quick succession. They were both good. This video comes from SCATally on Youtube, who has great videos of the finals and semi finals. </div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bJAHq3SVvwc" width="560"></iframe>
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My fourth pairing was against Tomasso. I haven't fought him much, but he is one of Wulfsan's squires, and in the household, so I knew he was going to be rough, and he was. </div>
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Then they decided to change the format to best two out of three each round, and I got three truly savage fights with Jan. He won the first, I won the second, then we took each others legs before he got me with the slot shot which is his bread and butter. At about 10:19 below you can see most of our third fight. It was a fun one. Unfortunately, the sound is out of sync. Tanaka is in the way, so you can't see the shot that kills me. I know what it did, but I'm still trying to figure out why my shield was so far out of position. Thanks to Alexie Cruz for this one. </div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TUumDrtiI08" width="560"></iframe>
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So I lost to the eventual winner and one of the semi-finalists. I was a contender. I was fighting really well. I love my footwork in both these fights. Now on to #101. </div>
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It is 79 days till Pennsic. My next time in armor will (hopefully) be Thursday Night at Rusted Woodlands. </div>
M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-47950813312095358432019-04-28T00:05:00.002-04:002019-04-28T00:07:11.270-04:00Crapaud #277, and Other MusingsSince last posting here, I've been training for crown, went to quarters in Mudthaw, and broke my training to travel to Oregon due to a family emergency. I even drank beer. While on the West Coast I ended up with time on my hands, and a need to get away, so I lit out for California and my West Coast home.<br />
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It so happened that Crapaud #277 was that week, and I would be there. I had my West Coast armor, so I decided to fight. I really really needed to hit something. When I was living in the West, Crapaud was in Cynagua and I was in the Mists, and I was only once (as I recall) invited. So fighting in Crapaud was kind of a bucket list for me. Plus, I wanted a tune up for Crown.<br />
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My participation in Crapaud was comically wrong. See, I did not want to fight with my bunny round. Crown is coming up, and I didn't want to get into any old bad bunny round habits since I would be using my heater. So I asked if anybody had heater I could borrow. Bad mistake.<br />
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First, I got Hanse's heater. This is about--I don't know--maybe 30" long, maybe 28". And it's narrow. I used that for two rounds. Then I borrowed a shield from an Atlantian, which was about the right size, but strapped all wrong for me and a bit heavy. I used this for two rounds. Then I borrowed a center-grip heater, which was probably 32" long, maybe more. At least I was relatively comfortable with that one, but I fell into some Branos technique because, you know, center grip, which is decidedly NOT my style. Anyway, trying to use these different shields, not being comfortable with them, trying to figure out my defense on the fly, was all patently stupid. I'd have been better off just using my bunny round. Win or lose, I'd have felt better in the moment.<br />
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Oh, yea. I was also using a log with no counterweight as my sword.<br />
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As it was I finaled against Hanse. Video is below. It picks up in round 2. See Valgard move like a slug. See him try desperately to figure out his shield. See his blows come in at half speed and odd angles.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/La7qjYqx2eo" width="560"></iframe>
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It's seven days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Crown.M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-61391825697454488042019-03-26T22:14:00.001-04:002019-03-26T22:14:41.153-04:00Mudthaw is coming up Sometimes you need to train, and sometimes you just need to fight. <div><br></div><div> I have been training, but not truly fighting. I’ve been doing my daily pell work, Push-ups, squats, lots of walking, occasional running, and tackling that hill, though nowhere near as much as I need to or would like. I have not been in armor very much at all. In large part, this has to do with logistics that I need to overcome. Translation, it is no longer as feasible as it once was, or frankly as simple, for me to haul my armor to work with me and then go to practice in New Jersey, and quite frankly, after 25 years, I’m just tired of hauling my arm on the subway. So I’m taking cabs or Zipcars, and due to the expense I don’t do that very often. </div><div><br></div><div> I have made it to Nutley, and the Hawthorne, and to the local Brooklyn practice. Today was the first day at Brooklyn there was someone besides me in armor. But spring has sprung it, and practice is picking up. </div><div><br></div><div> At Nutley, and Hawthorne, all I want to do is fight. Last time I was at Nutley it was a fairly late night, but I got to fight four knights and an otc, and it was a great workout. </div><div><br></div><div> Tonight, was in someway is much better. There was only me and Travis in armor. He had already been doing some work by the time I got there an armored up, so he was not interested in slow work or warm-up drills. We did some free sparring for a while. Then we did situational drills. We did duke Paul’s offense/defense drill. Then we both did some work fighting from our knees. Then more free sparring. He is super fast and has a pretty tight defense, and he nailed me with an excellent body shot in our first fight, in which we double killed. In our last sparring session, I did a couple of things that I really enjoyed. And one of our fights, are used to technique that I’m playing with but had not done a lot of recently, essentially Duke Lucan’s footwork, but with the heater shield. The way I use it I fight in an A-frame and clock my shield over to guard my leading, stored side, foot. It worked perfectly as I passed to my left and hit him in his offside body. </div><div><br></div><div>This is the kind of work that everybody should do more often. You can improve your fighting more efficiently by drilling with one good fighter on a regular basis, then you can just by doing a bashing practice with five good fighters. This is the kind of work that everybody should do more often. You can improve your fighting more efficiently by drilling with one good fighter on a regular basis, then you can just by doing a bashing practice with five good fighters. But you definitely need both, and the bashing practice is a lot more fun! </div><div><br></div><div> My next time in armor will be Saturday at Mudthaw </div>M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-11750980127188909352019-03-08T13:10:00.001-05:002019-03-08T13:10:18.910-05:00How to run a fighting practiceI taught two classes at Aedult Swim this year, one was called "Footwork" and the other was called "Structured Drills for Sword and Shield." What they actually were, were classes on how to run classes--not the meet once at Pennsic then go home and practice what you've learned if you can remember it classes, but how to run a weekly fighter practice.<br />
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Now, we rarely get to do this. I tried to do it when I was the provincial Knight Marshal, but most people aren't interested. The want to fight. For the most part, we don't teach in the SCA and we don't train in the SCA. Those who do (Duke Paul, Duke Sean, Duke Lucan, Viscount Wulfsagan, Duke Branos, the Trimarans at Duke U) are, even now, fifty years into the SCA, way ahead of everybody else.<br />
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Most of the stuff in this blog comes from my teacher, Duke Paul of Bellatrix, and detailed discussion of these ideas can be found at the <a href="http://www.bellatrix.org/school/" target="_blank">Bellatrix Fighting School web page</a>.<br />
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For most of us, the SCA teaches the way it always has--by the school of (literal) hard knocks. You put on armor, and you practice. Individual trainers may spend some time working with you on this or that shot, but mostly we train ourselves, on the pell, then we jump into the pool and fight. At first, as new fighters, we are trying to survive. Next, as we gain experience, we try to win every fight. Then, one of three things happen. In the first scenario, we go to practice and fight five-ten fights with an opponent. We try hard to win the first two, then we get lazy. We start fighting silly. We start trying stuff we have never practiced before. Or we fight five to ten fights with an opponent and try a new technique we are working on over and over again, as though the person is a moving pell. In the third scenario, we fight five to ten fights with someone, trying a different technique in every fight. The first of these is terrible. It teaches you bad habits. The second of these is better, as you are working on technique, and you can perfect your body mechanics, but that's all. After the first two fights your opponent knows what is coming and always blocks it. This has the additional downside that it's a waste of your opponent's time. Such an approach is usually best left to structured drills. The third approach is better. Work on a variety of techniques in each set and mix them up. It's often a good idea to limit the number of fights you have with each fighter (I usually cap it at either five or three when I'm training for a tourney).<br />
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More structured training is available. The SCA Fighter's Handbooke has a long article on how to teach and train, with some good ideas in it. Paul's website is a good source. Even more useful, in some ways, is his article in the Known World Handbook, where he talks about how to organize classes. That's what I was working on, particularly in class number two.<br />
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In the footwork class, I taught foot work drills that can be done out of armor and should be part of any class you teach, armored or unarmored. We worked on incressare and decressare (fencing footwork), walked in straight lines with toes on the ground, walked with a pavane step, a grapevine step, and a cha-cha. We worked on direction using a compass star. Then we did distance drills in a straight line. Finally we did distance work in the round, where the agent tries to advance on the patient agent, who tries always to keep his opponent in front of him.<br />
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In the armored class, I set out to teach, not the drills themselves, but how to run the class. The class wold normally start with some footwork drills, but we'd done that in the previous class, so I skipped it. We started out with simple sword blocking drills (like the saber parry drill, which looks like Heidelberg fencing), then sword and shield drills. Next comes slow work. Then comes structured situational drills, where they were given a specific technique, like a blow and footwork combo, and they drilled it slowly with one another. Then I worked with each of them individually on target recognition. Finally we did some free fighting. Every practice should end in free fighting. We lined up, and everybody in line had to fight everybody else once. There are lots of drills you can incorporate into this training.<br />
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The core to this idea is that fighter practice for newer fighters, and perhaps all unbelted fighters, should be run as a class, and that class should have the following components:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Footwork Drills</li>
<li>Weapon (and shield) drills</li>
<li>Slow Work</li>
<li>Situational drills</li>
<li>Free Sparing</li>
</ul>
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These techniques should be done with partners. If preferable, they should be of the same height. If there is a left handed fighter, some of the drills are a bit different, but the structure is the same. If there are two left handed fighters, don't have them drill with each other often (one in three classes is probably good) since most of the time they won't be facing another left handed fighter. </div>
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A couple more points. </div>
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<ul>
<li>This article is about teaching not training. Training is a broader topic. It is more individual. It has a different purpose. It involves a lot of things that are a part, of but outside of, fighting -- strength, flexibility, aerobics, etc. </li>
<li>Advanced fighters need more training, less teaching. In armor, this is mostly done through fighting--in tourneys, free sparring, etc. Once of the reasons SCA fighter practice is usually just a bunch of free sparring is because this is what the advanced fighters need, so that's what they want to do, leaving few people to teach. </li>
<li>HOWEVER, advanced fighters need a trainer too. This is best done in small groups or individually. Now you are not learning techniques, you are perfecting them, which takes a lot of individual work. It was said back in the day that the best way to get really good was to learn from Paul for two or three years, then go train with Sagan. Paul would teach you what you needed to know, Sagan would make you good at it.</li>
<li>Paul's method of teaching new fighters involves a lot of training before getting into armor. Some of the best fighters I've run into were people that worked with Paul just doing slow work and pell work for a year or more before they got into armor for the first time. (I was the first person ever to fight Paul's son Duke Stephen. Me, Njal, and Stephen were on our way home from a West/CAID war and we took a detour to Santa Cruz. We went out to the beach next to the railroad trestle, where they filmed The Lost Boys, and put Stephen into Njal's armor. He was still in high school, and had never fought heavy before--but He'd learned from his dad. He was as good at that moment as I was--at the time fighting in the upper rounds of Coronet, one of the better unbelted fighters in the principality. </li>
<li>Dance is the best way to learn footwork. It's also good for aerobics. </li>
<li>Most of your work is done without armor on. </li>
</ul>
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The classes at Aedult Swim went really well. While I hope the students got some practical drills out of them, what I really hope is that they got a new way to approach fighter practice. </div>
</div>
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<br />M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-65514387728225994632019-01-01T14:27:00.000-05:002019-01-01T14:27:41.874-05:00Happy New YearGreetings fellow travelers.<br />
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I've never been a big fan of the new year. I don't like retrospectives, and I don't like resolutions. They remind me of the things that I haven't been doing lately, and also make me think I'm old. But, reflection is not a bad thing, nor is being resolute, from which we get resolutions. It's good to take stock, and it's good to make plans.<br />
<br />
My squire posted on our household list that he had a lot of goals to accomplish this year, and he expected to get his ass beaten a lot in the process. He is looking forward to the ass beating, the rest of us should name the time and the place for him to show up and that he would come and take his stripes. This is good. He and I had his annual review a couple weeks ago, and we laid out what his goals in fighting were to be for the year. It's a good idea to do this, not just with our students but also with ourselves.<br />
<br />
In review, I did well in both Crown tournaments that I fought in. I went to semi-finals in on, quarter finals in the other. I also went to semi finals in Mudthaw and won a couple of other tournaments. I killed a number of high quality fighters, but still lost to Matthew, Randal, Avaldr, and Wilhelm (whom I had been beating). As usual, my biggest asset was perseverance. I find that I'm fighting very well, I'm focusing well, but I'm pressing too much with the top level fighters.<br />
<br />
I have not bee practicing as much as I'd like. I had the usual spate of injuries to deal with. I did not make it to Birka.<br />
<br />
Since I will not be making Birka again this year, I am unable to kick start the season the way I prefer.<br />
<br />
Physically, I put on about 5 pounds, which I'm not too happy about, though some of that is muscle. I did not miss a single day of my push ups, squats, or pell work this year.<br />
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Goals for the coming year.<br />
<br />
Win Crown.<br />
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Champions battle at Pennsic.<br />
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I will go to more events, but I plan to focus on one event a month this coming season. The events I'm aiming for right now are AEdult Swim in February, Mudthaw in March, Balfar's Chalenge in April, Crown in May, Les Beltaines in June, Pennsic in July and August, Ducal Challenge in Septamber, Roses Tournament in October, and Crown in November. December I'll leave up in the air. There's a slight chance I will be at Double Wars in May and Great Western in October. Counting events, I want to be in armor at least six times a month between February and November (which is a low bar). Ideally, I'd be in armor, at least for light practice, three times a week. I'm going to California for three weeks in January, and will fight in both the West and CAID.<br />
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In terms of workouts, I will continue with my daily routine. Once the semester begins, I will start running more. I also need to start taking yoga again.<br />
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It's 46 Days until AEdult Swim. My next time in armor will be this weekend in the West.M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-68457119061073322582018-12-18T14:28:00.000-05:002018-12-18T14:28:28.569-05:00Iron Bog 12/16I had not been in armor since Crown, which was a six week layoff. It was mostly for deer season.<br />
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There were five fighters at Iron Bog: myself, Sterling, Gui, Bran, and Mike. Good practice--two knights and three OTCs. Ron was there for a while, teaching. He says I'm throwing too many wasted shots.<br />
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Gui beat me 3 times out of 4, and really rocked me once. All of his wins on me were his short punch, once while I was on my knees. I was trying only one thing--to kill him with an off side thumb lead scorpion, mostly because it's a shot *he's* trying to learn right now. I've tried it a few times, but can't quite get the angle correct. The only people I know who do it well are Ionis and Duke Anton from Atlantia. I never did land it, though in our last fight I started to throw it, turned it into a for-edge shot, and it worked. My fights with Sterling were rough, as usual, but I won 4 of 5. Once I got him with one of Ron's shots--moving my hand in front of my face, as though to throw an off side, then hitting him in the head. It's more subtle than the way I've thrown it in the past. I felt best against Elglin. I was able to control the fight with snaps to the head and use that to set up everything else.<br />
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No video.<br />
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I'm not going to Birka at this point, because it's my birthday weekend, and Hanna got us show tickets. My next time in armor will be at Western 12th Night.M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-77078815255542376812018-11-09T18:10:00.002-05:002018-11-09T18:10:27.062-05:00Crown Tournament #99God! I've been doing this a long time!<br />
<br />
So on Saturday I fought in my 99th Crown Tournament. This is a lot, I know. My record isn't that good--1 for 98. But I'm fighting as well now as I ever have, I think. I felt good going in, and I did not go in just to fight. I knew I was a contender and I was fighting to win. I only have a few more years where I have a legit chance at this, and I want my strawberry leaves, I want to make Hanna queen, and I always planned to do it three times.<br />
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This was a lovely crown up in Ellsworth, Maine. We flew. Gracia's family owns a very small island up there, off of Winter Harbor, which her grandparents bought in the 50s. I'd never seen it before, except in pictures, so we drove out to look at it. If we'd been earlier, we might have been able to go out to it. As it was it was fun climbing on the rocks, just a couple hundred yards away. We had a nice lobster dinner that night in Bar Harbor.<br />
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The crown was at a Boy Scout camp halfway between Ellsworth and Bangor. Thankfully, they had a barn with a concrete floor we could fight in, because the rain was fierce. It was great to be there with Harold, William, and Murdoch from our household. The three knights fought, while Murdoch fought pickups and squired for us. <br />
<br />
TRAINING<br />
I trained pretty hard for this crown, but injuries got in my way. I hurt my Achilles tendon running, about three weeks out, and haven't run since. I've walked a lot, and hit the elliptical a couple of times, but that isn't really the same. I also had tennis elbow for awhile, which I had to rest, and my back is always a problem. The result was that I did not fight as often as I'd planned to in the weeks leading up to the tournament. As referenced earlier, I did fight in three tourneys as prep--the practice tourney in Rusted Woodlands, Falling Leaves, and the tourney at Coronation, which I won. I've not missed my daily workout--50 push ups, 50 squats, and 100 pell strikes.<br />
But not this time. Not quite.<br />
<br />
FIGHTING<br />
So, I fought awfully my first fight, great my last, and got better each time. I never got gassed. The format was double tree double elimination. From the round of sixteen onward, it would be best two out of three each round. Deaths would be forgiven in semi-finals (a big change), and finals would be three out of five with matched weapons.<br />
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I think my fights were Embla Knutrsdotir, Harold, Thomas de Winterwarde, Duke Randal, Bill, Sir Rory, and Sir Matthew. That took me to the round of six. I lost to Randal, who went to semi finals, and Matthew, who went to finals. All I have really are impressions of the day.<br />
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I beat Harold with a body thrust. He opened up too much.<br />
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I beat Bill first with a downward counter to the off-side head, and second with a molinee-face cut (that was pretty).<br />
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Rory started out super aggressive, but I was able to block his stuff. Once he settled in I killed him the way I did last time, with two hook/thrusts (I actually threw 5).<br />
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I died to two shots--one from Matthew, one from Randal, that were pretty light, but both were in the face. Matthew's was a thrust, very pretty, first one he'd thrown. I almost got him at that same moment with a thrust to his armpit: Randal's was a backhand. Matthew also killed me with a counter off-side, and Randal with a body thrust as I took his leg. I did beat Randal in our first fight. I did not beat Matthew at all.<br />
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I was definitely fighting well. I was a contender. I wish I'd fought Ozur, because I fight him better than most. He was a beast all day.<br />
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Afterward the household went to Texas Road House for rib-eyes. All three of us--me, Bill, Harold-- had reached the round of sixteen, and each of us had fought the other two.<br />
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Gracia had a really great time.<br />
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I've seen no video of my fights.<br />
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I didn't get tired, I didn't get hurt, and I didn't beat myself. I was in contention. Pretty good day. If I keep fighting like this I can definitely win. <br />
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It's 78 days until Birka (on my birthday). I don't know when my next time in armor will be. M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-20291510893175697232018-10-22T15:18:00.000-04:002018-10-22T15:26:39.693-04:00Iron Bog and other joysIt takes me a long time to get to the Iron Bog practice in South Jersey, especially if I'm not driving. Sometimes, I rent a car, sometimes I catch a ride with Gui (even though we both live in Brooklyn, we consider the Iron Bog practice to be our "home practice," mostly because it's where most of our friends are). Otherwise, I have to go by train and link up with one of my household members traveling down there from Central Jersey, like William McCrimmon or Jonathan Bayles. So yesterday, it was like this: I left the house at 9:30 AM. I took the subway to 34th Street. I was a bit early (the train runs every hour) so I grabbed a quick breakfast. Then I took the New Jersey Transit train to Newark Penn Station. It seems the Raritan Valley line wasn't running into Newark because of a cancer walk, so they put us on a shuttle bus. That got me to another train station, where I boarded the train and for Somerville. Jonathan met me there (I was really late), and we drove down to practice together. We got there an hour late. We fought. We went and grabbed dinner with some of the other fighter. We drove up to New Brunswick, where he dropped me off. It was a 50 minute wait for the next train to NYC. Exhausted, I took a cab home ($46, counting toll and tip). I got hom at 11:30 PM. Granted, there was a lot fo down time in there, including a long meal. But it's still an exhausting trip.<br />
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I've done a few things since I blogged last. I won the tournament at Coronation, defeating Sir Victor in the finals. I've practiced at Nutley as well as at Iron Bog. Mostly I've been managing pain.<br />
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Pain is a constant companion when you're a fighter, and it increases with experience. This training cycle has been tough. I had two very slight injuries at Ducal Challenge that didn't seem like much at the time, but are still bugging me. I missed a shot and torqued my wrist, and, when fighting Duke Hanse, I strained my shoulder. I have shoulder pain fairly often. I've got bursitis that flares up. Amd tennis elbow. Pretty much my whole arm, really. My technique is pretty good, so I don't put a lot of strain on my shoulders, but it still comes in. Plus, I sleep on it wrong a lot. This isn't that. This is a pin-point pain in the front of my shoulder, that only hits when I move in one certain way. Then, I strained my Achilles while running. I rested a coupled of days and ran again, and it got worse.<br />
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So, you manage. First of all, you rest. To I haven't run for a couple of weeks. I skipped three practices. Then you rehab. I stretched a bit more. I've got some light Indian clubs I use for rehab, and I started a rehab routine with them. Push ups are good for rehab, so I kept doing those. I stuck to the wiffle ball bat for pell work. Tiger balm. CBD Oil. You get better. Rest is the most important thing.<br />
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Here's some video of me fighting Arne at practice two weeks ago.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VSZUwTj1wYY" width="480"></iframe><br />
(in which I twice ask Arne to use my shield as a coffee table).<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aA2MKyjQBXo" width="480"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-By-OXKhZKw" width="480"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TvRHHCx63DE" width="480"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c6ugS7SEL1I" width="480"></iframe><br />
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Truly, in these, my targeting doth suck. My blow angle is way low. Also, I just seem slower than I've been lately. I fought better yesterday, but I'm still not where I was at Pennsic.<br />
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I wanted to tighten up my defense and simplify my offense, and I've don't a pretty good job of that. Yesterday I foguht two sets with Ronald, plus sets with Sir Bill, Sir Harold, Sir Jonathan, Sterling and Bran. They were all good, tough sets, and I was pretty sharp, especially my defense. Yesterday I also got my new sword from Bill (he's my sword gaffer). It's heavier but balanced more toward the hilt, witha stainless steel Bedford basket, instead of the plastic one I've been using. It is what I wanted. It's really fast! But because it doesn't have as much of the mass at the tip, it's hitting lighter and bouncing back. This was to be expected, which is why I needed to get it two weeks ahead of time. Much pell work is called for.<br />
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But it's time now set all the rest of that aside. Crown Tournament is in 12 days from now. I will try to be in armor one more time this week.M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-28942534561463979282018-09-20T18:27:00.001-04:002018-09-20T18:38:10.168-04:00Ducal Challenge and RosesI've had a lot of good fighting recently, but I feel I've taken a step back. I'm not as crisp as I've felt recently. My endurance is ok, but I feel a bit sluggish.<br />
<br />
Ducal Challenge was wonderful, mostly because Hanse flew out from the West to fight. He won, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was he was in my pool. I double killed with him, a really nice face thrust after taking his leg, but he got me with a nasty shot to my left nipple at the same time (ouch!). Later I fought him some pickups and killed him at least twice, both times with thrusts (the best was with the foot-stomp thrust I used in Crown). In my pool I won all my fights but Ionis and Hanse. That included beating Ryo. I lost knock out rounds to Lou and Douglas. Not bad, but not as good as I should have done.<br />
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Hanse also got me clobbered at Roses. I LOVE the Roses tourney. Teams of 5 match up. You fight three fights against one opponent (unless your team is short, in which case you can fight extras), then record them. Points are given for wins, losses, and double kills. By my count I fought 21 fights total. I lost two and won one against the prince, with bucklers. I was even--win, loss, double kill--with Kettle (this was when I got clobbered. I set up in Hanse's high/weak/open guard and Kettle counterpunched me hard, when I was wide open). I beat Sir Willem 2-1, which is pretty good, as he is a really tough lefty with a big kite shield. I also beat Baron Joseph, Euric, Durkin, and... and.... never got that last guys name. My off side body shot was really on. I got a killer ass bruise.<br />
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It's 44 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Sunday in Iron Bog.<br />
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Bonus: me fighting Bill at practice:<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S0rsXhZGHeA" width="560"></iframe>M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-34609640158249477472018-08-31T15:50:00.002-04:002018-08-31T15:50:28.768-04:00Rusted Woodlands TourneyLast night was a small tournament in Rusted Woodlands. I went to the finals and lost to Quintus. It was a good night. I've also been to a couple of Brooklyn practices since Pennsic. I'm trying to increase my helmet time.<br />
<br />
TECHNIQUE<br />
I finished my new shield for Pennsic (though it's only painted black), and I've been using that. It's an inch shorter, but still hung with a lot of shield above my hand. I am losing my leg a bit more than I was with the old shield. However, I'm moving it much better, and I've been winning a lot with it.<br />
<br />
I've been trying to use primarily a Bellatrix overhead return and counter hip technique. I've been working on improving my teardrop return as well. My speed is pretty good as a result, but I'm a bit wild on my defense.<br />
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I used my heavy sword a lot last night. Oddly, unlike at Crown, I had trouble getting a couple of people to take shots, whereas with my light sword it was no problem. That's opposite.<br />
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I also, on Paul's suggestion, used boxing wraps on my hands and wrists. This was designed to help strengthen my wrist and lock them into place (Paul uses a locked wrist, something I've always struggled with). This cost me about 30% of my usual offense.<br />
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FIGHTING<br />
If you are on facebook, the tournament was <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mabel.fortune/videos/1906975776045909/" target="_blank">live streamed</a> by Mabel Fortune. (There's more than one video, so look around on her page). I fought eight fights last night. Tanaka dropped out before I got to him. I lost my first round fight to Lou (go figure, Lou and I would meet in the first round), but won all the rest of my round robin fights, including against Sir Eric Hundeman, the only other knight I fought. My toughest fight, not unsurprisingly, was against my squire Padraig. It got down to me, Lou, and Quintus, each with one loss (to one of the others--I beat Quintus, he beat Lou, Lou beat me). Lou and Qunitus fought, and Quintus won, but then Lou dropped out, leaving me and Quintus to fight the finals. Instead of a single fight, or two of three sword and shield mess, I suggested we mix it up. He chose greatsword. That's the only fight I'm disapointed in. He cought me thiking--a big transition window as I as changing my stance. Stabbed me right in the face. My choice was second, so I chose daggers, since we might not have gotten to it. I beat him in a great dagger fight. Last we used the big honking mauls, and he clobbered me. I mean Bam-Bam style. It was a really fun night, but boy do I have a long way to go!<br />
<br />
My best takeaway was that, of the four knights in the list, I was the only one who didn't drop out (it was SO FREAKING HOT in there. I drank a Gallon of water. No, really: Padraig brought me an unopened gallon jug, and I finished it between my first fight and my last). My endurance is better than I thought.<br />
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There are 64 days until Crown. I've booked my flights. My next time in armor will likely be Sunday in Iron Bog.M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-14246957942631010002018-08-31T15:31:00.000-04:002018-08-31T15:31:09.196-04:00Leaving PennsicApparently, it’s not as easy to blog about the war as I thought.<br />
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I’m leaving Pennsic. We are on the PA turnpike heading toward Jersey. Some of our gear is wet. We are tired. Very tired. I wanted to blog the war every day, but Pennsic got in the way. It was a long war, but I still didn’t spend enough time with my friends who were there. Some I barely saw, some not at all. The only time I got to the bog I was working security, but I did make it to Bardici twice. </div>
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I ate poorly. </div>
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I drank beer. </div>
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I spent time with King Agrippa and his king consort Davyd, who is funny and nice and one of the greatest clothes horses I’ve met. </div>
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There was a blowup in Trimaris. Eilis said it was always the “A” kingdom’s that caused trouble—Ansteora, An Tir, A-Traris. Their king is an obnoxious troll. Before it all went down, I commented to someone that I thought he was trying to get R&D’d. This—elevating a known racist to a peerage order in a secret court over the objections of the entire order—managed to troll about two thirds of the SCA, of which I am sure he is proud. #istandwitdavius means I object to what the king has done. It will all be hashed out over the next few months. Expect fallout. Nuff said. </div>
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FIGHTING</div>
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Saturday was Aedult Swim. The heat index was over 100. The small amount of fighting the day before has exhausted me. I fought ten fighters, including four knights: Sir Luis from the Middle, Duke Garrick Von Kopke, Ajax and Geoffrey Scott. I took 2 of 3 from Ajax and went even with Luis and Geoffrey. I was dead afterward. </div>
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Sunday I was an alternate for the Belted Champions team but did not get in. Due to the heat there were almost no pickups. I got two sets in. </div>
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Monday was my favorite battle, the open field. I took my six foot pole ax. The official count had us outnumbered by 300. We took two of five. Later that day was Gui’s William Marshal tournament. I took four ransoms, including ten Robert Macphearson sovereigns, worth a buck apiece at his booth. I got into good fights with Bryce and Donegal. In the last fight, I used my poleax again and slew mightily. </div>
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Tuesday was the woods fight. I fought spear and ditched both my breastplate and surcotte. I got some wicked bruises, got to comand a bit, and did not collapse. </div>
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Wednesday was the best day. It wasn’t quite as hot. I was on the field from 10:30 to five, with some time out to help Paul teach a class. I was fighting really well. I fought a lot more fights than I had on Saturday. I bested a lot of guys, including a couple of Dukes. Only one fighter, a count from Drachenwald, had taken more than me (3 of 5). Then I sought out humility. I wasn’t going to fight Rangvaldr. I was tired. Then I thought to myself “why would I duck Ramgvaldr?” I knew what he would do and how he would do it, but it was interesting being on the receiving end. I’d been working on his center mass boxing style a bit that day. Watching him do it was impressive. </div>
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Thursday was the Bridge, and all I fought was spear. We faced the tuchux. It was a brawl. </div>
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I didn’t fight on Friday. </div>
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Last Pennsic I added 50 squats to my daily routine of 50 push-ups and 100 pell strikes. It has definitely helped. </div>
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It’s 84 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Tuesday at McCxarren Park. </div>
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M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-84449015776223999192018-08-04T12:00:00.000-04:002018-08-04T12:00:12.479-04:00Pennsic chronicles 8/4<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">So I making an effort beginning with Pennsic to go back to writing this blog. But it’s easy to blog about the war.</span><br />
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Friday at peace week. Time to get inspected. Some marshals failed my sword because, and I’m not kidding, it was perfect. It fit exactly with an air marshal engage and they said, “can’t use this one. Put a single layer of duct tape along each side and it will pass. By the way, the gauge he was using was not designed to be a negative gauge, meaning that it was supposed to fit perfectly. Actually, I just acquiesced and smiled.</div>
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There was almost nobody out there. I was shocked to see how few people were fighting pick ups on Friday. Not only that, but against my very first opponent, a Roman name Valerian, my new shield broke. The palm strap snapped. So I got in one set of sword and shield fights. I thought a night, I don’t know his name, using my sword and Buckler. My booklet is really heavy. It’s made of marine grade plywood with channel edging and heater hose. It doesn’t move very fast, and I’m behind on my blocks a lot, but you cannot blow through it. When you hit it it stops your sword. He was kind of shocked that I killed him as many times as I did. I thought a fairly new fighter named off using my broadsword and short sword combination. I find that when I’m finding weapons form that I don’t use very often, it’s difficult for me to hold back against a new fighter. I’m working I’m just making my form work and I’m kind of extra focused on my blocks. The result was that I beat them a lot, and was unable to do a lot of training until we got off the field and I could tell him what I thought he was doing. Keeping with this use all the stuff you brought to the field theme, I went out pull her next. And the guy who came out towards me was in a perfect Norman kit with a short pole arm and he was taller than me and he had a white belt on and I knew just from the way he walked he was good. I said out loud to myself “this will be humbling.” Turns out he was duke Edward of the red, a pole arm God from up in Canada. Oh my God! Was he good. My polar and has an ex head on it. It’s a bit heavy and a bit slow. He was just whipping all around minute. I acquitted myself fairly well. I had a lot of good blocks, and I made him work, but I only came close with one thrust that died before it got to him. I even saw a thing that he was doing, blocking the outside of my pulled in countering with a headshot, but I kept giving it to him anyway. I thought oh this will beat it. Ha ha ha. He’s the tall guy in mail in the background. The skinny one with the coif. Who looks like trouble.</div>
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Saturday is Aedult Swim. </div>
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<img alt="" id="id_6236_d199_961_d948" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3EKqh5jq9b1oshlVT4NIe9zsVJInOHhH6mjV_M7ekwi6HdOsUvmXgUNLE8Bzx-oaVBmvZi9cglhFQlk-EdztzlA-P-1rVyov97y53rVnMcUUN6D3kR3ez56yrfhbydWmfsQozHQY-xkHm/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; height: auto; width: 298px;" title="" tooltip="" />M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-46298740154630388902018-07-11T15:30:00.001-04:002018-08-04T12:01:13.431-04:00EK50, plus some other stuffEK50 was amazingly hot, but I loved it. My favorite events of all time were SCA 20 year and SCA 30 year. I was extremely sorry I missed SCA and WK 50 years. I wasn't going to miss this one.<br />
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To me, these anniversary events are really magical. They are relaxed, but full of importance at the same time. They mix SCA history (which I love more than I love medieval history) with SCA now. THey celebrate us for no other reason than what we do is so much fun. And we get to pretend, for a minute or two, that the game really matters. I mean, in the great scheme of things, who cares about the history of the King's and Queens of the East? At an event like EK50, more than anywhere else, we get to care.<br />
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My favorite part was getting the herald for Ken Mondschein in the joust. It was excellent, but it was so hot that they had to end it early. I'd worked competitive jousts before, back in the old days at Ren Faire, using balsa-tipped lances. I always thought the SCA foam-tipped lances were a dorky idea by comparison: but watching them side by side, I have to admit that the foam lances are cool, because they EXPLODE when broken.<br />
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Oh: fighting.<br />
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I did ok. Not great, but ok. We started the grand tournament with 4 double elimination lists. I went into the losers list courtesy or Arne (although we had a great fight) and it got down to four of us for three spots--me, Arne, Horic, and I don't know who else. I lost to Horic, but won the third spot by beating that fourth guy. I was again using my light sword, and my double strike technique landed on Arne but I couldn't kill him. I hit Horic too, but same thing. That's the problem with light shaved rattan swords. For my third fight, I grabbed my crown sword. I through an Upsilon leg shot, and then threw a hard shot that I think caught some shield but was good anyway.<br />
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I the pulled an Aethelmarc knight named Flossen. He was really tough. He ducked a lot. I took his leg killed him. Then I drew Duke Tindel, who took of both my arms. My last fight was against Ricahrd Crow. I took out my polearm, and we had a good fight but he creamed me. Did I mention the heat index of 110 degrees? Can you say "Hydrate?" I got the shakes pretty bad once the adrenalin went away. Had a headache till the sun went down. Pounded water, but that didn't matter much.<br />
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Went to the shop and did my Pre-pensic armor overhaul. FINALLY cut down my Bauzebauds. Now they fit. Fixed the broken straps too. Hung my new shield, Altered my C belt so it will hold up my current leg armor. Ready to go.<br />
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Last night I went to practice, still using my old shield. I got one fight in, then a loose zip-tie poked me in the eye and I decided that, in memory of Merlin, I was quitting for the night.<br />
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It's 17 days until Pennsic. My next time in armor will be next Tuesday at McCarren Park.<br />
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<br />M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-2937454923578144422018-05-27T23:54:00.005-04:002018-05-27T23:54:57.106-04:00Quest! So, I won a tournament yesterday, and that was kind of awesome.<br />
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Training:</div>
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I’m still in my post crown well, and have not kicked it up again. Just push-ups, tell work, squats, and walking every day. </div>
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Fighting:</div>
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Quest was a nice little tournament. It was a counted blows at the barrier tournament, which is always a lot of fun. We started out by just issuing challenges at the barrier. I pulled a totally medieval Chivalry move, and challenged the person holding the field to give and receive a single blow without attempting to block it. I let him go first, and he just reached out and tapped me on the shoulder. So I just reached out and tapped him on the head. I was totally prepared to light him up, but he was nice. That sort of thing is a test of courage. You read about things like that all the time in the chronicles.<br />
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I had a few good single sword at the barrier fights. Then we got underway.</div>
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The tournament was counted blows at the barrier. You had to defeat someone best two rounds of three, but each round was to three good blows struck. It was a single elimination format and it was an even tree with only eight fighters, but four of us were knights. I got to fight two knights, and an OTC, so my day was pretty intense.</div>
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My first fight was against Gavin. We chose to go out with swords and bucklers at the barrier. This was an awesome flight. I noticed that he was creating a slot. He was fighting in a high closed form, sort of an East Kingdom a frame, but with the buckler. I do this a lot too. It’s my favorite way to fight with sorting buckler. But he was holding his buckler a little low and every time he moved his sword to throw blow it would open a really big slot for a straight snap. I threw a few other things, but mostly I waited on this and got him with it. I also hit him with one of those dropping leg wraps to the back of the leg. That really shocked him. </div>
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Next I had a polearm fight against Manfred. This was just a lot of work and very exhausting. It took us forever. I’m pretty sure I beat him 3-2 then 3-1, or something like that. Most of my pole arm technique won’t work at the barrier, so I was basically just doing downward diagonal strikes to the quarters. And maybe a straight snap or two to the head. I’m very very very proud of that fight.</div>
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Finals was me versus Tanaka, so you knew two things. First it was going to be a show. Second, it was going to be knocked down drag out fun. He gave me first choice, so I chose single swords. He moves so well, and has such a tight defense, that it was really really tough to break him down. We traded a couple of taps, and then for the last blow, and I am really proud of this, I threw into his sword and then as he countered I jumped into his shot, crashed the barrier and threw a wrap. It caught him off guard and won the fight. When it was his choice, he said “we are going to do a real hard-core New Jersey beat down.” This meant maces with left hands clutching the barrier. I blocked his first shot and then saw a beautiful slot open right on his chin. I just started punching him in the face with the head of my mace. One, two, three. </div>
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There are 61 days until Pennsic. My next time in armor will be Tuesday at McCarren Park.<br />
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M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-48444246508050247032018-05-16T12:54:00.000-04:002018-05-16T21:45:36.273-04:00Crown Tourney #98<div style="text-align: left;">
I'm getting close to that 100th Crown. </div>
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To those of you who read this blog a lot, I'm sorry I haven't been writing in it much. At first it was because I was not fighting as much, taking time off to play Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. After that it was because I did not feel like writing about my training. </div>
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I trained for this crown in much the same way I had the last two. My daily routine includes walking between 8,000 and 12,000 steps most days (my fit bit broke. I use my phone to track steps, which under counts), plus 100 strikes on the pell, 50 push ups and 50 squats. Since I added the pell work last august, I have not missed a day. Once again, I added running to my routine as Crown approached. I ran five times a week in the 6 weeks approaching Crown, except the last one. I did not fight nearly as much as I would like (I never do), but I made practices at Nutley, Iron Bog, Midland Vale and Aedult Swim, plus events in Tourney of the Daffodils, Mudthaw, and Balfar's Challenge. I went to semis in Mudthaw and I won Daffodils, so I was doing ok. </div>
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Crown was in Halifax. Every time I've gone to a crown in Halifax, I've had a good time. It's a fantastic city! I highly recommend it. We stayed at the Hearthstone Inn in Hamilton, which was nice, with a Victorian theme and a good pub. </div>
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This Crown was great, but I really need to win another of these things. Randal, who's 5 years older than I am, was only one blow away from winning, which is encouraging. I ended up fighting nearly everyone I prepared for: Avaldr, Marcus, Zippy, and Wilhelm. I also fought Mathew McGuyver, Reinhardt, and one other (I cannot remember the name of my second round opponent). There were 22 participants in total. The list was double elimination and rounds were being fought best two out of three. This included the semi-final round, which meant that the fighter out of the winner's list could win fighting only two fights, but the fighter out of the losers list had to win four, and could end up fighting six fights. Yikes! </div>
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I thought the format would be hard on me. Most of my rounds went three fights but my endurance was good enough that I really never felt that tired, and certainly no more so than my opponents. Well, maybe I did against Reinhardt. I lost to Avaldr in the third round, and to Prince Wilhelm in the semi-finals. The format actually helped me out, since I lost my first fight twice while going on to win the round.
I was particularly proud of three things. The first was my one win over Avaldr, even though he won the round. He'd beaten me in our first fight, but I killed him with a hook-thrust in the second. Next was my third fight against Reinhardt. He is really good. He fights with a fairly small center grip scutum, and he blocks his legs with a window parry. I killed him with a foot stomp and thrust. I didn't sell it really big. I shrugged my right shoulder, took a half step, stomped my foot and dipped my shoulder, then thrust him in the face. Third was my final fight against Marcus. I had been working on King Brennan's off-side leg shot a lot lately. I threw it at Marcus in our second fight and noticed he picked it up early and cocked the point of his kite over to cover his off-side leg, so in our third fight I faked it by throwing the setup (a cock that resembles a snap to draw the shield up and to the on-side) took a slight step off line to my left, then stepped back to my right and threw a leg wrap. </div>
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All my fights were excellent. I had really hard rounds the further I progressed. I never lost my focus. I did not kill myself by getting lazy or silly or playing with my food. I Went to semi finals and lost two straight to Wilhelm. Those were both great fights, a lot of fun. I had been beating Wilhelm in most of our encounters the past three years, and it was interesting to see what he'd done to respond. First, he's lost about 50 pounds. Second, he seemed much more focused and precise. When I tried the set up for the leg stomp it was obvious he was ready, so I never threw it. He got me with a straight body shot in our first fight. After he'd taken my leg in our second fight, I threw the same thing I'd killed him with at Roses in November, coming up high on my knees and then, as he stepped in, sitting down and throwing a body shot--an old William of Houghton technique. He obviously remembered it, because he this time as he stepped in and I threw the shot, he brought his sword forward in a guard to block mine, then he killed me the way I would have, with a top-edge hook and a snap. </div>
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If you are on FaceBook, you can see the semi-finals <a href="https://www.facebook.com/revolos55/videos/10157485410302576/" target="_blank">HERE</a>. <br />
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So here was the funniest thing coming out of crown. At Balfar's Challenge two weeks before I had spent a lot of time watching Zippy and Avaldr, as they were obviously training very hard. They were the last two knights to leave the field from pickups. I left after somebody hit me in the calf and I decided not pushing the injury was smart. I was fighting with my Crusader pot helm because Cet was doing a repair to my conical. My pot helm is heavy, not very comfortable, is super tall, and has lousy visibility, so I only get so much out of using it (mostly aesthetic pride). Avaldr was using a center grip kite, the first time I'd ever seen him use one. It closed off his biggest window, but was obviously a bit easier to move around. At Crown, Avaldr was back to using his regular strapped kite. Afterward I ran into him and Nomi leaving, and they were carrying his center grip kite shield. I said to him "I spent the last two weeks preparing to fight your center grip because I saw you training with it at Balfar's." He said, "Yeah, that's why I was using it. I figured you were doing the same thing with your other helm." I replied, "I wasn't, but thank's for the compliment!" It's really funny to know that we were indeed scouting each other. </div>
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There are 72 days until Pennsic War. My next time in armor will be Sunday at Viking Day in Brooklyn. </div>
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M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-15735032801538176102018-02-25T21:49:00.000-05:002018-02-25T21:49:20.693-05:00Aedult Swim IIIIt's kind of hard for me to write about Aedult Swim this year, because it's all a blur. I hadn't fought much this year (I'd taken time off to do a play). I was in good physical shape, but not good fighting shape. Did I mention the blizzard we drove through on the way home? (eight wrecks, including a car that spun out right in front of us on 287--I looked up from my phone and there were headlights facing us, not what you want to see on a freeway: but I digress).<br />
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WORKOUT<br />
I've picked up my workouts a bit. In addition to the daily push ups, pell work, and squats (still haven't missed a day), I ran three times last week. There are some Indian Clubs and yoga involved as well.<br />
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TECHNIQUE<br />
I used absolutely every technique I know, and they all worked.<br />
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FIGHTING<br />
Ok: like all knights, I had a target on my back at Aedult Swim. I'd put my helmet on, and before the chin strap was tightened, I had an unbelted fighter challenging me. I didn't get to fight as many chivalry as I wanted to. I wasn't keeping track this year. I fought either 6 or 7. Since I fought at least two unbelted fighters for every one chiv I fought, that would be somewhere between 18 and 21 opponents total, and right around 100 fights. That's spread out over 4 hours (and it's nothing to brag about. My squire Padraig fought more than 40 opponents, and 220 fights).<br />
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Like I said: I used every technique I knew. Against one fighter I'd use a the Bellatrix technique. That would work fine. Against one fighter I used an A-Frame defense and a pure Gendy offense (thumb and forefinger grip, minimal body mechanics, different grips for each shot--pink for snaps, ring finger for leg shots, middle finger for off-side shots, index finger for wraps). That worked great the one time I used it, then the next guy I fought it got me nowhere, so I switched to a high guard with more of a classic technique, and it I was slaying mightily. Only one knight totally had my number, a guy named Thorin (or Torin, or... I don't know, there were so many!). He was one of those squirrelly guys, you know, ducked and jumped. He was shorter than me, and crouched down, but then jumped so high he hit me with a scorpion wrap. I tried to throw into the zone he was moving into, but by that time in the day I was really tired.<br />
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My fighting muscles were really out of shape. I was strong and had decent wind, but I ached so much afterward!! OMG, I was tired. Good fighting, though. Every SCA fighter should make the trip.<br />
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It's 68 days until Crown Tourney. My next time in armor will be this thursday at Hawthorne.M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-33538465885697065462018-01-04T16:33:00.000-05:002018-01-04T16:33:05.837-05:00A New Year, Same Old QuestThe new year has broken! I've not written in this blog since Crown, but I hope to post more often this year. I've only been in armor three times since Crown, it being first hunting season, and then the holidays. I will not fight much in January because I'm rehearsing a play, and don't want to risk injury.<br />
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TRAINING<br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/4qt91kF-kVM" target="_blank">The 1-6 drill</a> is the core of my training. I don't do it every day--although I do do pell work every day--but I do do it at least three times a week. The rest of the time I work on other pell drills. I have not missed a day of push ups since my surgery, or squats since I added them to my workout over the summer. I've also been doing indian club drills a couple of times a week (this dovetails into my pell work--on those days I use the Indian Clubs for my pell drills, and work on two-stick drills).<br />
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FIGHTING<br />
I fought at Nutley right before Xmas, but only against three or four opponents. I was mostly their to train my squire Padriag, and he took upmost of my time. But I did get fights in with Arn and Jan as well, and was fighting pretty good. When I train Padraig we have settled into a system. First we warm up using the saber drill (the hanging guard/cut drill, where we alternate quickly, like its a schlager fight). Then we do some slow work. Then we do Sagan's trigger drill. This is where we both come on guard, and I make a move of some kind--take a step, move my shield, shift my weight--and he is supposed to recognize what opening this creates and tap it lightly. The advanced version of this is to throw a combination and have him recognize the opening after two or three blows, incorporating his own blocks). Then we work on one or two specific techniques. Then we do Paul's offense/defense drill. Usually, not always, in that order. At some point we will fight one or two passes. This seems to be working for him. He's got a lot of years into Karate, and he still competes, so drills and Kata he responds well to.<br />
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I went up to Middle Town for their holiday tourney. Gui and I took a day and drove up early, had dinner, hung out till practice. Padraig wasn't there, but they were having a silly tourney with santa-hat crest fights and so on. I did not have a shield with me, so I mostly fought sword and buckler. There was no real training involved. Here's me doing some sword and buckler. I'm really slow.<br />
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part two:<br />
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Here's Hassan kickingmy ass:<br />
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Me and Matt:<br />
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and, finally the silliness:<br />
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You don't practice that much.<br />
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I don't know if I will be attending Birka or not. My next time in armor will hopefully be Saturday Night at West Kingdom 12th Night.<br />
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<br />M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1869073775890369675.post-21820857539878082192017-11-07T20:06:00.001-05:002017-11-07T20:20:12.906-05:00Crown Tourney #97 So I went to semi-finals in East Kingdom Crown on Saturday. This was the best I've done in the Crown Lists in the East in the nearly 20 years that I've lived here -- and, no, it doesn't seem nearly that long, but right about now, I've been active in the East for as long as I was active in the West.<br />
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Speaking of being active in the West a long time ago, here is some video from March Crown Tourney 1990. This was about four months before I was knighted. At the end of the first reel you can see two fights of mine, one with William the Lucky and another with Andrew Shay Forestborn. This video is pretty amazing. In the East and the Midrealm, unbleted fighters have a common bond. They all fight on the unbelted champions team at Pennsic. They train together for months each year, and it's the biggest honor they receive as unbelts. In the West we don't have that. But the West is tourney focussed. What we do have is the three crown tourneys a year that we all fought in. Looking at this video, most of my peeps are there--some knights already, some not: Elrik, Fabian, Ob, Steven, Douglas, Neal, Theodric, RAT, Cybi, Farin, Keythen, Gareth, DOA, Collin, and more. Jad eis fighting byes. Plus there are Greyhelm and Rolf and Lucky, and there are a few who were never knighted like Ulrick and Malcolm and Seamus.<br />
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And part two....<br />
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And what stands out? How slow I was, and how fast everybody else was. Especially Jade. I mean, we know that, but wow!<br />
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Oh! as for this past crown: I can't remember the name of my first round opponent. I fought Duncan Kerr, Sir Mathias, Sir Thomas, Sir Rory, I lost to Duke Brennan and the other finalist, Sir Matthew D'Arden. I used nearly my whole arsenal. A butterfly to kill Matthias, a hook/thrust to kill Rory, a top-edge hook to kill Thomas. And the kitchen sink against Brennan, but that was futile. It was also the first crown I've ever fought in wearing my contacts. I don't think that made a difference, but I'm wearing them again in the spring (I rarely wear them at all).<br />
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It was a really good day. The two fights that stood out, of course, are the ones I lost. against Brennan I had a great fight, but once he took my leg, while I could make it last a long time, I couldn't kill him. I was able to get the shot I wanted twice, but I was falling over both times so I had no ballance and, ergo, no power. Against Matthew, I set up using Gui's footwork, which I've been practicing against lefties for awhile. It involves setting up with your shield side foot in front of your sword side foot, not in line, so that you are set up to walk a diagonal past your opponent. This kept him at bey for a pass or two, but then he countered it beautifully by stepping into me and passing really close on my shield side as I was doing an incresare step to take his leg. It was kind of a houghton maneuver, that finishde with a grape-vine step, and he ended up basically behind me, and back handed me to the head. It was a great shot. I felt good because I hadn't been stupid, he'd just countered my technique and beat me. Besides, I was giggling I was so happy to have FINALLY made it into semi-finals. I've been in the final six several times, but I had never made the final four, where you get presented to the crown and everything stops for your fights. (I'd been in the finals of King's Champion once--that's the best I had done in the East up till Saturday).<br />
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Tina Degenhart<a href="https://go.twitch.tv/videos/187605675" target="_blank"> live-streamed Crown</a> on her twitch feed, so you can see my two defeats (and one of my victories). It's a four hour stream, and she was on the opposite field from me, but at 3:19 you can see my fight with Brennan. Note how I had fallen dead but he insisted I not take the shot, so we keep going. At 3:32 is my fight with Rory, which ends iwth a good hook/thrust. At 3:49 is my semi-final bout with Matthew. What I love most about this fight is very subtle--how we were both setting up for a face thrust, saw the other doing it, and backed out. Also look at me when they call us up for final four. I had no idea that I had that huge giggly grin on my face! I'm on cloud nine! :-)<br />
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It will be some time before I'm in armor again. I need to heal my shoulder and my heel--which still hurts from Pennsic (I've got an appointment with a specialist coming up). Plus hunting season, holidays, and The Importance of Being Earnest. I don't like to fight when we get into rehearsals, because I don't want to get injured and screw up the show, meanign I will *not* be fighting at Birka. I scheduled this production to be over the week before Aedult Swim, but I'm sure I'll practice before that. Oh! <a href="http://www.igg.me/at/importantearnest" target="_blank">Visit the crowd funding campaign for the play</a>! Send us money!<br />
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To be honest, I am STILL grinning about crown.<br />
<br />M.A. Cramer/Valgardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12724728879607388455noreply@blogger.com0