SCAFighter

BATtle Royale (with cheese)

2012-02-13T00:47:00.000-05:00

I had not really decided that I ws going to fight at BATtle Royale (With Cheese) until probably Saturday, but my elbow had been feeling good all week and I decided to go ahead and give it a try. The event was our farewell event to our glorious Brooklyn practice site, which probably bears mentioning.

About four years ago Oscad de Segovia moved to Brooklyn from Michigan. He was running the Brooklyn Free Lighting Project, which occupied space in an 8th floor warehouse in the Brooklyn Army Terminal. It had plenty of room for fighting, ceilings that were high enough for polearms if you watched out for the sprinkler system, space where we could store our armor and even a place to set up a shop. As Oscad said, his only goal was to set up a fighter practice that he could walk to and where he could store his armor, but the site became a great deal more. Not only did we have regular heavy and rapier fighting practice there, we started holding monthly tournaments there in both forms, the Beau Geste and the Lapin Agile. It quickly became a site for meetings, dance practices, calligraphy workshops, and events. For a time the local ladies brought food to the workshops. I fought a *lot* more simply because I didn’t have to haul my armor on the subway, and since Oscad had the only pickup in the canton, he was more than happy to haul people’s armor to and from events, since it came and went from his own warehouse. A few of us who, like most New York residents, don’t own cars (the SCA is the only thing that is made harder by that) got to a lot of events we otherwise would have missed, because all we had to do was get our bodies there. Best of all, we armored and trained several new fighters out of BAT, and likely would not have done so, or at least not had as many successes as we did, were it not for the combination of a well equipped shop, an indoor practice site, and a place for new people to store both loaner gear and their own. Now that the lighting project is over and we are losing the site, it will make SCA in New York city a little bit harder. But then, being spoiled as we have been all this time probably has its pitfalls as well—though for the life of me I can’t think of what they could be.

BAT showed how vibrant an Urban SCA branch can be *if* it has that greatest of luxuries in an Urban setting, space!

It was a very nice event, with the usual excellent pot-luck, nice schmoozing in the hall, a rapier and a heavy list, and visitors from far away. Lots of fun!

WORKOUTS
I had relatives in town this week (when you live in New York City everybody eventually comes to visit) and nothing throws off your routine like house guests. When I wasn’t working I was playing tour guide or going to a Broadway show (they wanted to see Phantom, which New Yorkers generally only see when relatives are in from out of town). My workouts and even some of my PT went out the window. I did hike aorund the city more than usual though. AND I got to fight today!!

TECHNIQUE
I mostly wanted some time with my heater shield, which I had re-strapped right before Crown and had only used that day. It is a standard 2x3 heater, but whereas the old strapping had my hand high up in the corner, I brought my hand down and flattened the angle of my arm out a bit, to make it easier to fight left handed fighters. It is a touch harder to hold up that way, but it is aluminum and fairly light. My technique for the day was dictated by my concern for my elbow and my desire to shake things up a bit for myself. I fought in what I like to call the “classic Atlantian style” mostly because it is in Atlantia that I see it most often. But it’s probably a misnomer. Not all the Atlantian fighters fight this way. It is the polar opposite of Oldcastle style (which is basically what they call Bellatrix out here). There are also fighters in the East and Aethlemarc who fight this way as well. But it does seem to be the most common way to fight in Atlantia: 2x3 heater with a short, light sword and no thrusting tip. It uses a closed form high guard and really fast snaps. The no thrusting tip was important because I sometimes rely on the tip too much. The thing about the Atlantian style is that it relies very heavily on one shot: the downward slot shot, which with that short sword comes very fast and hits hard. I fought about half the time with my shield-side foot forward. Once I switched to using Branos’ defense, with the shield high on the left side and looking past the leading edge, with the sword guarding the right side. When I fought a great weapon I switched to my longer sword with a thrusting tip. The great thing about the Atlantia style is efficiency. Movement is economized, and there would be a lot less strain on my elbow.

THE FORMAT
The format was a round robin with a total of ten fighters. I turned out to be the only knight in the tourney when Gui dropped out to take care of some Vice Regal business. I had planned to fight fairly relaxed and mixing my forms up a bit, fighting pole arm and possibly even ax and buckler against one of the glaives, and use sword and heater sparingly, just against the two or three more experienced fighters. However, I didn’t face them until the late rounds, and by then I was too tired to do anything else, plus I realized how stupid it would be to put more strain on my elbow. So I stuck with the heater the whole day and, as I said, only switched swords for great-weapons. It was the best way to protect my elbow.

THE FIGHTING
I won the tournament without a loss. Ended up I had to fight Everet twice because they wanted a final round and he had the next highest number of wins. I also fought Deklin, Avran, Ervald, Duncan, Shandar, and three visitors from House Three Skulls, including Hassan, the guy who runs this very cool video blog I like to watch called The Easter Fighter. Watch it. His feed is good too. Two of the fighters were using polearms and one, Avran, used a great sword. Everybody else was sword and shield.

Since I was rusty and a bit worried about my shoulders, I warmed up wearing leather body armor and my stainless steel shoulders. However, being as out of practice as I was my arms were getting very heavy very quickly, so I took the shoulders off. Wise choice. I warmed up with Everet, Deklin, Avran, and Duncan. Deklin being a lefty it was good practice.

My wins against Avran and the first polearm fighter I fought—the one from 3 skulls—I won with thrusts. I can’t recall if I beat Shandar with a thrust as well, but I think I did.

My fights against the others were all very simple and straight forward. I won most of them with the aforementioned slot shot to the helm. I had three victories that stand out: my fight against Hassan, where I took his off-side (leading) leg with a keelson-like shot—acting like I was throwing Brion’s off side leg-fake, head shot, but instead pausing and cocking on the fake and following through to the leg. I killed him with a good combo too. I threw Radnor’s version of the butterfly (locked wrist, wavy-rising-off side body). As I did so I did a slide-step off-line to my left. I hit his arm, light, but that moved me so that I was a bit to his right and his shield was no longer in my way, so I got him with that slot shot as my followup. I often find it is better, instead of crowding someone, to step off-line to the left when someone is on their knees. This opens them up by changing the angle, so that the shield is no longer in between your sword and their bodies (always a good thing). I did a similar thing to Ervald after I legged him in our fight. I moved to my left, but not into him, and hit him in the belly (at least I think that was that fight—they do blur in a round robin). In the final round fight Everet did it for me. I more or less waited for him to step to his right and throw a blow at me. When he did so he opened himself up and I slot shotted him. He uses a center grip kite (which he picked up from me) and so he’s particularly vulnerable to that slot. Ervald got that one on video, so I hope to post it here.

I was SO tired by the end of the tourney. Most of my power was gone and I really only had a couple of shots. I slowed way down by then, which was draining my shots of power. That’s the rust.

My elbow felt good the entire day. In fact, it felt great. My shoulder and my back hurt a bit, but those are things I can deal with a lot easier than the elbow. Afterward it started to stiffen up. Right now it hurts a tiny bit, but it is nowhere near as bad as it was in the fall. It is also not tender to the touch. I iced it, and my shoulder, and my back, rotating the ice back between them every twenty minutes, for a little over an hour total. It is stiff and hurts a bit when I bend it now, but I am not displeased. I don’t intend to fight again for two more weeks, however, as I want to make sure it recovers.

What a fun day of fighting! A good way to end our tenure at BAT. And, as a slightly broken and very rusty knight I feel good about winning the tournament. No, there were no other knights in the tourney, but any day you win a tourney is a good day. I felt my fighting was nowhere near where it should be, but was in a much better place than I expected after such a long layoff and injury.

Progress Report

2012-02-06T19:08:00.000-05:00

A few things worth talking about:

REHAB
Since I am working out more my elbow has felt a little more tender, a little tighter. I haven’t hurt it but I am going carefully. I skipped my PT exercises today, with no good reason other than I wanted to leave the house early. But I did do yoga, which included some elbow stretches. I worry a lot about how this is going to heal. I have not fought since Crown on the first weekend of November. I don’t want to rush back in and hurt it but I want to fight, dammit! I was planning on fighting at our event this Sunday at BAT, but at this point I don’t know. At some point I have to get back into armor.

WORKOUTS
Last week I didn’t do much in the way of aerobics, just 25 minutes on a life cycle. But I did lift and do yoga, and that worked well. Wednesday I did circuit training and Saturday I did a cable workout. The cable work out is special because, even though I was using it as a total-body workout to just do simple resistance while burning calories, it is one of the two best workouts of building fighting muscles I know (the other being the kettle bell/Indian club workout). My workout goes something like this (everything is three sets of ten except the last one, which I just do to fatigue).

Standing cable flies, like this: http://youtu.be/5u-g1wgRCiU
Double low cable curls
Standing cable press (these I’m probably doing wrong, since there’s nothing on YouTube like that).
Cable rope lat pulls like this: http://youtu.be/_U6Zlc_WQGI
Rope tricep push down like this: http://youtu.be/beUkpEHwjwo
Overhead cable rope tricep extensions like this: http://youtu.be/gNTHN_k-8_E

The last thing I do, which I do to exhaustion, is kneel facing away from the pulley and grip both ends of the rope with both hands. I pull from behind be but, unlike the tricep extensions, I don’t lock my upper arms to keep my elbows in place. I pull all the way through, and I alternate bringing the cable to the left side of my head and the right (there’s no video of this on youtube). This is the key exercise. Here is why:

The best fighter I have ever seen is Duke Radnor of Guildemar. The best fighter I have ever seen his first day in armor is his brother Manu. The best unbelted fighter who was never knighted that I saw was Wolfshawl MacWombat. All three of them grew up in Hawaii and (I’m told by one of his squires—I need to ask His Grace this) all three of them raced out-rigger canoes growing up. That pull down and through motion is *exactly* the same motion the elbow makes when throwing a snap, especially the way Radnor throws it. Check out the first blow in the first fight here.

See how his elbow comes down before his hand goes out? Note also the little crunch he does with his abdomen. He even breaks one of the cardinal rules (which I learned from one of his former squires) by lifting his back foot off the ground. As Paul says, he uses his body like a whip. Core strength is important to everyone, but in Radnor’s style it comes from that straight handled oar. Study this.

BAT 1/29/12

2012-01-30T19:18:00.000-05:00

Hey, we held a practice and somebody showed up!!

Practice on Sunday was good. Considering that this was Birka weekend I expected nobody to show up. I certainly didn't expect anyone to fight.

REHAB:

Rehab feels like it has been set back a bit, but probably that's nothing. I did my rehab every day last week except Tuesday, when I went hunting. My elbow still feels fine most days, and I continue to do pt on it. But it has been a bit stiffer than two weeks ago. Yesterday at bat I picked up a waster in order to demonstrate, in slow motion, a technique. My elbow felt tight right away. Then I went to a sword, same thing. So I used a dagger for the rest of the day, or just open hand (the way fighters always talk). At one point I threw a light snap at the pell with the dagger and my elbow actually hurt--not bad, just a bit tender. So I'm glad I decided to skip Birka and give it another month.

WORKOUTS
Workouts, on the other hand, have been great. Not only have I been walking a lot, and running a bit, but I've been doing other things too. Beginning of the week it was walking. Last Sunday I took a two mile walk. Monday I went deer hunting, traipsing all through the snow. I was out for seven hours and probably walked a total of about three miles. Wednesday I took a mile walk. Thursday was my birthday and I even had a cupcake. No working out (other than climbing those stairs up to the balcony at the BAM Harvey Theatre, which equals about six floors. We saw Kevin Spacey in Richard III--I guess thunderous applause counts as a workout too). Friday I had a great workout! I did 25 minutes on the recumbent bike at the gym and then a 20 minute medicine ball workout (loves me that medicine ball). Saturday I did kettle bells and Indian clubs, which is my favorite workout. (Sunday, were I to count it, was 20 minutes of yoga and then two hours of slow work training people at BAT--much of that left handed, since one of my trainees is a lefty).

FIGHTING
As noted I didn't fight again this week. However there was a really good practice. We had a newbie, Ashanti, Deklin and Duncan (who have now been around a year and are no longer newbies), Dugal, who is a really good unbelt, and Oscad who is a crown contender. It was a good mix of folk and good skill level.

Dougal fought mostly two sword. He used to fight with two long heavy swords, but has cut them down to short swords, maybe 24" long. That worked great against the new guys, not so much against Oscad.

I have changed a major portion of my fighting and it is reflected in my training style. Taking after the Bellatrix model, I had always drilled offense, offense, offense. Paul's axiom is that you train your offense endlessly so that you will have perfect technique in terms of targeting and power, and so that you don't have to think about your offense during a fight and can devote most of your time to your defense. In period what we do was always referred to as the "Art of Defense", and all the fechtbucher describe mostly counter or reactionary techniques as opposed to offensive techniques. I have started becoming more of a defensive fighter than an offensive fighter, and a bit of a counter puncher (not exclusively). Now I have started training my students in this manner. I want them to defend. This worked fairly well with Duncan when he fought Oscad. I gave him Paul's defense drill (the defending fighter gets three and only three blows, and the offensive fighter gets as many as he wants, kills are just called out). With his last blow he threw a perfect offside coutner and killed Oscad, the only time he did so.

I also gave him the first part of my new kata, which seemed to help him a bit with power generation.

Good week.

Calontir Crown

2012-01-15T13:11:00.000-05:00

I have reached the doldrums of my rehab. It is frustrating. I want to be fighting. I want to be training. I am being careful instead. Bright idea, I know, but not happy making. However, I did get to both 12th Night and visit a foreign kingdoms crown, so I’ve gotten to watch some fighting, which is frustrating but educational.

WORKOUTS
I am on an extended trip, and working out hasn’t been easy. Workouts have mostly consisted of walking (lots of it) and yoga. I took a class on Tuesday in Sacramento. I did a lot of walking in Capitola and in San Francisco. I was on my feet a lot last night. But I have not really worked out this half of the trip. I took a Total Body Sculpt class at this fantastic gym in Palo Alto called Vivre. (I saw that they had a free day pass for newcomers, and I wanted a workout). Great facility. It doesn’t have a squat rack, so serious weight lifters are not their clientele. It is a lot of the Mercedes and Jaguar crowd. But they have good machines, lots of spin classes, and a spa-like locker room. Albert, the teacher of my aerobics class, had a bit of Marine in him, which was good. I had real trouble keeping up due to my Achilles issues. At some point in the class I tweaked my back slightly. It was a really good workout combining palates, weights, and aerobics, and it kicked my ass. It took me two days to recover.

REHAB
I brought along a rubber band and my new flex bar. (the flex bar was a big hit at 12th Night, since everybody was saying “I’ve been having elbow problems—I showed it to Duke guy and he loved it). I have skipped a couple of days but I’ve been keeping it up. My elbow feels great. I am still weighing when I want to get back into it. I am leaning against going to Birka at this point. I still feels tight when I grip the sword—not painful, but warning me it is there. We’ll see after I do some Indian club work this week.

FIGHTING
Needless to say, I haven’t been fighting. However, I have been able to watch a lot of fighting. Duke Guy was fighting at 12th Night. I mostly missed him, but saw a bit. He is one of the greatest. His style is pure power, and it is one of the most fun fights you will ever have. Jade was doing some unarmored training. Gui had never watched him before, and he was amazed at the precision of his form, even in slow work. I was digging how his feet were more in line than usual.

The real treat was an unexpected visit to Calontir Crown. I was going to be in St. Louis visiting a friend, and it turned out Crown was that weekend and local. I really enjoyed it. It was only a 16 person list (no byes) and it went by really fast. They held it indoors. They had a very nice list enclosure. Because it was so small they did one fight at a time. The list table was off to one side with a huge shield-board and a double-bracket tree. Calontir seems to be a small shield kingdom, and the fighting was faster and more elegant than you usually see in the East. The two most impressive fighters all day ended up in the finals. One was Duke Donegal, a left handed fighter with a center-grip round shield. He was beautiful to watch, with deep steps and lots of interesting angles to his shots. Like all center-grip lefties his defense was amazing. The other finalist was Sir Lucien, a Roman with a center-grip oval. His fighting was a bit more compact and efficient. He didn’t have quite as many shots available to him as Donegal did, and only Donegal had a thrusting tip. However, his style gave him an nearly perfect defense. Donegal won the first fight and Lucien the second. They double killed in the third, then Lucien won. Twice Lucien talked Donegal out of taking a blow that would have won him the crown. They were very hard, fast fighters and it was a joy to watch. I’m not sure I learned anything, but I liked it.

This is a shot of Lucien in his semi-final. He came out of the losers list.

I really like the Calontiri. They remind me of the West in AS 13. It is probably all the singing.

The new year is upon us. It is either 14 or 15 weeks to Eastern Crown. (date tba).

Brain power

2011-12-28T18:34:00.001-05:00

So the holidays are over. Ok, New Years and 12th night are still to come. This year, while I did watch my portions, I threw the diet out the window-- and it is starting to show. Food was incredible. If you followed me on FaceBook you saw rib roast, squash soup, lemon bars, pies, and fudge fudge fudge--not to mention a Dartagnan gift basket from Alfred of Carlysle. The pate and smoked duck, amazing! Also, if you followed me on FaceBook, you noticed that I was working out a bit more than normal. Not too worried about the extra pounds. Oh yeah: I got the tomahawk off my Amazon wish list!

REHAB:
Rehab goes well. Unable to pack my Indian clubs I brought my rubber yoga band. I did my wrist, elbow, and shoulder rehab with it every day. The elbow is better to the point that I will try kettle bells next week after I see the doc.

WORKOUTS
Workouts were great this holiday. I managed to keep my schedule--Yoga class on Monday, treadmill and Yoga Wednesday, another workout Thursday or Friday. Since travelled last Friday I called up a full body dumbell workout on in demand before we left. Not amazing but there were two exercises I had never seen before. Pretty rare. Then Saturday I went for a run in Falls Church. Monday a bunch of us-- Me, Hannah, her dad, step mom, and sister--took a yoga class at the DC University Club (very 1%). The instructor.declared us to be a talented family. Yesterday I went for a longer run, then today I did a full body workout combining the rubber band arm and shoulder work with pushups, squats, calf raises, and lunges. So I have worked out a lot the past week.

FIGHTING:
What I haven't done a lot of is fighting, but that is ok. I have a slow motion kata that I do, which is designed to concentrate on ballance and core strength, and I have been doing that. It is pretty simple:

* In a sword forward stance, sword back (high open Western form) throw an off side head shot.
*use a Bellatrix over-head return and pass forward on the right.
* Throw an on-side head shot.
* use a teardrop return and pass forward on the left.
* Throw an on-side leg shot.
* Use an inside return and pass forward on the right, aligning your feet, toes pointed parallel to the left.
* Throw an off-side body shot.
*Side-step off line to the left.
* Throw a molinee to the off-side leg.
* Pivot into the right, entering a sword-leg lead (weak closed form).

From there I work various combinations-- Double strikes wrap fall away snap: lucky's off side pass. Paul's on side pass. Lucan's off side pass. Radnor's seven blow combination, upsalon leg shot, foot stomp, and his version of the wavy-rising snap. Speaking of Radnor, I watched a couple episodes of Brain Games on National Geographic Chanel. Watch it! One reason Radnor is the best fighter I've ever seen is because of the way he apparently could control his opponent's mind. Papa Houghton and Macenruig could do this too, but Radnor was faster, stronger, and trickier as well. Most of this he accomplished by using the types of brain tricks discussed in the NGC series, especially the mis-direction. He had three rules in fighting: no one can flow three direction changes; all fights are won in between beats, and hit them in transition windows. I guess the fourth rule would be establish a pattern and break it on the third or fourth time through. Oh, change your body tempo to control your opponent's. I guess that is five rules. The transition window is the most important and the hardest to execute. Because, as the NGC show notes, nobody can do two things at once, fighter brains cycle between offense, defense, and movement. The best fighters train theselves to bypass this by honing their reflexes (which can be used against them). But most fighters are constantly cycling. If you can pick up on this and throw a blow at the precise moment that they are cycling off of defense, they will probably not see the blow that hits them. More on this sort of thing later. -r

Rehab and Report

2011-12-18T15:18:00.000-05:00

It's been two weeks since my last post. I sit here at BAT, unable to fight because of my elbow. I've been working on a lot of things lately that are worth talking about, but I am in that period where I'm getting really frustrated not being able to fight.

REHAB:
I have moved to Indian clubs with my rehab with really good results. My elbow is no longer tender to the touch. It doesn't get wore with normal usage. It's not longer stiff. My doctor gave me a ot of exercises where I'm supposed to use a hammer to go through range of motion with my wrist. It is a weight on a stick. Even though they are a bit lighter I'm doing these with the Indian clubs. This week I added some of the basic exercises, like this one: .

However, today I wanted to test my elbow a bit, so I played a little Wii Fit. I went throught he Tennis, Bowling, and Baseball exercises, and my elbow started to hurt so I stopped. It's improved a lot, but it's not healed.

WORKOUTS
I've managed to do some form of aerobics three times a week, which along with my rehab is all I'm trying to do right now. Most of this is at Map My Fitness and on Facebook. This week I bagged my Friday workout in favor of a long hike with a weighted backpack on both Thursday and Friday. My Wednesday workout was an aerobics class at Kensington Fitness, and Monday was Yoga. The week before I had gone to the gym a couple of times and done a lot of walking. I've been running in my five fingers on the treadmill, but no street running.

My nutrition, however, has not been as good. I haven't been keeping good track o it this week, but it's just as well because the holidays have been taking their toll.

Nothing to report here

2011-11-28T15:12:00.000-05:00

When I was Prince of the Mists, we used to call the winter reign "The Fat Season" because from Investiture, usually the third weekend of November, through Cynaguan Investiture (which usually fell on Super Bowl weekend back then, and my birthday), you had at least one feast every weekend. That's two and a half straight months of excess. I'm including a Christmas dinner in here. It wend something like this: Investiture, Thanksgiving, Golden Rivers Aniversary Banquet (that's three in eight days), Jingles, Esfenn Yule, Westermark Yule, Christmas, New Years, 12th Night, CAID 12th Night, An Tir 12th Night, Cynagua Investiture. Calories!! I'm not sure I went to An Tir 12th Night that year, and they don't always fall like that. But I went to something that third week of January. I gained a lot of weight.

I don't have to deal with that anymore, but the holidays are the bane of most fighters. There is a statistic that indicates that all the weight we gain in a year we gain over the holidays (kind of like all the profits a retailer makes).

This year I went to my lady's family in D.C. I had gone on a low-carb crash the week before and gotten down to 211, close to my best weight recently. I then basically ignored my diet. I decided that I was going to eat everything that appeared in front of me. Not much (I only had half a crescent roll, but it was my first crescent foll in at least five years). I even had a beer while watching football on Saturday. The result; today I weighed 213. That's nothing. I weighed 217 four weeks ago. Of course, it wasn't easy.

REHAB;
I have been rehabbing every day. My plan is to start strengthening exercises today (Monday) after Yoga. Alberecht turned me onto this new physical therapy device, which he and Tanaka are using. I am going to give it a try.

WORKOUTS:
I am still doing my workouts and still tracking them on mapmyfitness.com and occasionally on facebook. I did yoga on Monday, which has now become a regular thing. I had strained my groin on the elliptical the week before and it was really effecting my yoga (It hurts to assume the lotus position), so my teacher advised doing something else. As a result I am mostly on the treadmill. I ran for 25 minutes on the treadmill and then did yoga for half an hour on Wednesday, before the long bus ride down to D.C. On Friday I did a 3.45 mile run to help work off that turkey. I ran it in 5-fingers, and my calves still hurt. I also went shopping on Black Friday. As Keri said on "Sex in the City": "Shopping's my cardio."

FIGHTING:
As I said, no fighting right now. However, I'm considering fighting single-sword left handed at Season's Beatings this weekend. I'm antsy to put the armor on. Probably wear my plate and splint arms if I do. I've got some stuff I've been working out that I want to try.

Progress report 2

2011-11-21T15:30:00.000-05:00

REHAB:
My arm hurts a lot still. It is intermittent. It didn't bother me at all yesterday. Now it stings. I have done my rehab every day. It says not to do the strengthening exercises until the stretching "barely hurts". I planned to be doing strengthening exercises by now, but the stretching still hurts a lot. I suspect now that I won't be able to fight at 12th Night.

WORKOUTS:
My workouts are going well. Yoga on Monday was great. I felt drained but rejuvenated at the end of it. Wednesday's gym workout went much like the week before: I did 20 minutes on the elliptical, about 30 minutes of yoga, and abs. I was again planning to go hunting on Friday, so I was skipping he afternoon gym session. Thankfully Vitus was teaching an un-armored class on Thursday night, which I took. (I did about half the work with a left hand grip, which was less stressful) It wasn't a very strenuous workout, but it was a good one. (see below). Also, I got a pretty good workout dragging a deer out of the woods on Saturday.

FIGHTING
Like i said, I haven't been fighting and likely won't for months. But I went to Vitus' bastard sword class, which as excellent.

Vitus uses some techniques adapted from Fiore, but not really. He uses a true bastard sword length sword, not the slightly longer version Marc uses. His sword is weighted with a metal pommel and has a thrusting tip. It can easily be used one handed. As mentioned before, Vitus is very interested in creating a period impression of a 12th Century knights, and the way he fights bastard sword reflects that.

He taught us a cool kata. He holds his sword low and behind him in a right-hand grip, with his left foot forward, as though inviting a thrust. When the thrust comes he voids by passing off-line to the right. Then he does the standard fiore move of driving his opponent's sword down and then striking with the back edge. He comes out of this into the True Window guard. From here he incresares and thrusts. Then he passes back on the right and brings his sword down to a long point that originates at the hip (don't know where this comes from). He passes on the right and thrusts, then passes on the left and cuts stotatti reverso, then does the same on the right.

At least, that's how I remember it.

Next he showed us his version of vom tag. It is the same as Paul's high guard. He passes on the right and strikes a horizontal cut to the head with the back edge (I know of know period description of this) then passes on the left with a for edge strike.

He likes to half sword against pole arms, but since he can't use pommel strikes he will block with the point down and then let go, starting a cut to the head and grabbing the pommel for added power.

Like Marc, he strikes Dritto passing with his right-foot forward and reverso with his left foot forward.

The main elements of his style seem to be high attacks (he never really strikes downward, always horizontal or upward, and says downward strikes are a mistake), voiding, and striking out of window parries (or the King's guard and the Queen's Guard). He seems to prefer the back edge when striking Dritto. It is a neat looking style, and he fights it well against either sword and shield or two weapon.

None of this makes much sense when I describe it, and I'm probably describing it wrong. I'm working of four day old memory and am unsure if I remembered all the steps of his kata. If the video comes out I will post it. Regardless, he is a fun and interesting knight, with a lot of knowledge and a well developed and effective style which looks more period than most. It was a great class.

Progress Report

2011-11-16T11:25:00.001-05:00

So my first week (last week) of off-season rehab went pretty well.

WORKOUTS
Last week I did Yoga class on Monday. It was a good class. The instructor is very good at moving you just to the limits of your body and no farther. I push myself farther than she would like, natch, but I like her approach. I feel a bit tired but invigorated after her class.

Wednesday I did my scheduled gym workout #1, with 20 minutes on the elliptical, abs, and stretching. At some point last week, and I think this was it, I strained a hip flexer. But the workout felt good.

Being in a rush to go meet Big Mike so I could ride with him up to Cornwall, I did not do my Friday workout. It needed to be replaced, so on Sunday I rode my bike to BAT. Not a long ride, only about 6.5 miles round trip. I also taught a class at BAT, which was a slight workout in itself.

I have decided to re-order my workouts a bit. I am devoting Monday nights to Yoga from now on. The gym near my house has class at 7, which is easy for me to make. I do some brief Yoga most mornings along with my rehab exercises. I am also still feeling pain in my elbow when I stretch it, so I'm not yet adding the strength exercises.

PRACTICE
At BAT I taught a class and did pell work with my left hand. I worked on both regular snaps and on stepping to generate power.

COMMENTS
Count Vitus from Drachenwald was at BAT on Sunday and will be there again on Thursday. He was great to have around for a number of reasons.

His primary goal is to create a good 12th Century impression. Here is a picture of him:

Note the very cool mail chauses, the soup-can knees and elbows, the pot helm and the cross-hilted sword with finger gauntlets. This lead to some great discussions on the place of basket hilts in SCA fighting. He fights an old-school sword back style, not because he thinks it's stylistically superior but because that is the way you see fighting being done in the Maciejowski bible and the Manesse Codex. Since he uses finger gauntlets, he really doesn't want to be blocking with his hand (this is also the reason, from the days of hockey gloves, why hands are not a legal target).

Listening to him talk to Ervald was a lot like listening to me talk to Ervald ten years ago, when I was trying to explain to him why i fought in a sword back style (although i used a basket hilt and employed a lot more sword blocks than Vitus). The difference is now I've adopted an East Kingdom sword forward style, because I realized that the sword back style (and my smaller shield) wasn't allowing me to compete with the top Eastern fighters. "The top level fighters, they won't fight with that sword guard" Vitus said. Of course, nearly all the top level fighters *do* fight with that sword guard. However, he had some good ways around it, and I really liked watching him fight.

His position does raise the common question, where do we draw the authenticity line? There are no manuals for armored combat from the late 11th century, the time period we are all supposed to be armored for, but we do have the armor and some illustrations. Until the 15th or 16th centuries, blocking with the hands was suicidal. But we do it all the time now. It is an integral part of our art. At what point do we sacrifice our art for a more period look or, arguably, a more period style? It's pretty telling that in the class I taught before they armored up, I concentrated on sword blocking.

Working Out

2011-11-07T15:22:00.000-05:00

Today I'm starting an 8 week workout program that will take me through December 31 and help me to stay in shape while I rehab my elbow. My workouts will be as follows:

Rehab daily
week 1: range of motion exercises (flexing and extending arm) 3 sets of ten, wrist range of motion (turnovers) 3 sets of ten
wrist stretches (qui gong stretches) 3 sets of ten
Week 2, add tae kwon do wrist stretches, 1 set of ten
Week 3 add Strengthening, hammer turn, 3 sets of ten, Can roll 3 sets of ten
Week 4 :replace range of motion with rubber band curls and extensions,3 sets of ten
Week 5 add shoulder rolls, 3 1 set of ten; draw the sword, 1 set of ten
Week 6, add Indian clubs

Gym Session 1
20 minutes on the elyptical
10 minutes stretching,
incline sit up, 3 sets of 10
ab pull overs, 3 sets of 10
20 each: crunches, leg lifts, right oblique, left oblique, raised knee

Gym session 2
20 minutes on treadmill
leg press, 3 sets of 10-12
leg curls 3 sets of 10-12
leg extensions 3 sets 10-12
10 minutes stretches

Classes: cardio blast, yoga, spin, dance aerobics, stair climb

Running

Cycling

First two weeks should look like this:
Today (Monday 11/7) Yoga
Wednesday, Gym 1
Friday, Gym 1
Monday 11/14 Gym 1
Wednesday, Yoga
Thursday, Gym 2

Second segment, weeks 3 & 4
Monday, 11/21: Yoga Class
Wednesday, Stair Climb
Thursday: 2.5 mile run
Monday 11/28: Gym 2
Wednesday Gym 1
Friday: (Class)

Segment 3, weeks 5 & 6
Monday, 12/5 Yoga
Wednesday Gym 2
Friday Gym 1
Monday 12/12 Gym 2
Wednesday Gym 1
Friday (Class)

Last segment, weeks 7 & 8
Monday 12/19, Yoga
Wednesday, Gym 1
Thursday, (Class)
Friday, Gym 2
Saturday Yoga
Sunday, 2.5 mile run
Tuesday Gym 1
Wednesday (class)
Thursday Gym 2
Friday 2.5 mile run
Saturday Yoga

There will be no fighting here. There might be pell work later on. Maybe I will fight left handed without a shield a couple of times. I may or may not fight at Western 12th Night. I might not fight until Birka (though I will probably need to practice a couple times before Birka).

Fall Crown 2011

2011-11-06T18:36:00.000-05:00

Ok: no more fighting till January. Got to heal.

I had a great crown in many respects. No, I didn’t fight as well as I wanted to. I got taken out by two guys whom I normally beat. I’ve been training with Oscad, and doing slightly better than him in most weapons forms. He went to the final four--not an indication that I’d have gone that far, just frustrating. But I am happy with this crown for a lot of reasons. First off, I made it out of my pool, which was my main goal going in. I had some great fights, and even though I fought like crap I persevered.

INJURY
I had not fought for a month, hoping to heal my elbow. I took some ibuprofen and warmed up. Even though it always slows me down and makes fighting harder, I put on my neoprene elbow brace.

My first fight it was terrible. I fought Willum, the new OTC. My blows were slow, my targeting off. I was striking like crap. Don’t know how I beat him. By the end of the pool my arm was hamburger, then it got worse. In the break I cooled down and stiffened up. That sucked. I couldn’t actually lift my arm directly to my shoulder. I couldn’t’ do a bicep curl while holding anything. Instead I had to lift with my shoulder and then swing the sword around my head, like an over head return. After my first fight I was able to use some of my sword-forward techniques, but by the end (and probably, effectively, all day) I only had about three shots. I was limited to classic bellatrix style which uses next to no arm strength to generate power. Head shot, off-side head, leg. That was about it. I tried some hammer blows and the classic 1-2, but not to any effect.
I was sitting with Artos and Gwyn. Gwyn is a great coach and Artos is my swing doctor. They are even more Western-centric than I am, being prejudiced against big shields and in favor of tip-heavy swords and the bellatrix snap. But they were right about what I was doing: I needed to sit into my shots, relax and fire. More on this later.

The worst thing about the injury was not being able to grip the sword properly. I hit three people in the side of the head with full on Bellatrix snaps, from behind my head, and it was shrugged off. I hit three people with my hook-thrust, my best shot, and that got shrugged off two. Given the number of blows getting shrugged off, and by different fighters, the obvious answer is that I couldn’t deliver a sholid blow because I couldn’t grip the sword properly.

FIGHTING
I was in a very tough pool. They seeded the list kind of weird. They said they were going to do it by order of precedence, but they didn’t. They also didn’t do what they had done last time we had pools like this, with three dukes and two counts. That time they put a duke on the first three fields and Thorsen and I on the fourth. This time they gave Edward his own field and put me on the field with Brion—this is fine, because I wasn’t fighting well enough to warrant my own field. I’m told that what they did was seed the dukes in alphabetical order and then the counts the same way.

Anyway, my pool had Brion in it. There were four lefties, including John the Breeder. It also had Eric Hundeman (sp) who gives me fits. The third knight on our field was Sir Collin. Tough pool.

I had three losses and seven wins, which was enough to advance. I placed fourth in the pool, and all three of my losses were to the other three fighters who advanced: Kenewulf, John, and Brion.

The fights I lost were the ones that stood out. (isn’t it always the way that your favorite fights are the ones you loose?). Against Brion I fought really really well. I was warmed up but my elbow hadn’t tightened up too much. IU hyad gotten the first fight out of the way and I was more relaxed. And it was Brion, so I was totally focused. My defense was good, my offense pressed him, and I even tried a spin move on him—my plan had actually been that he would catch the spin on his shield and then I’d throw a back hand to his leg. It almost worked, but almost isn’t worth much. But that was a really fun fight. John and Kenewulf both beat me by being super-aggressive and forcing me out of my game. (not unlike what Oscad was doing all day).

Collin said my fight with him put him off his game because, using the heater, I had many more angles covered and he couldn’t knock my shield around. I got him by taking his leg and the hitting him in the body. Eric I got with a great low-line body thrust. The upward thrust was having no power problems. Artos and Gwyn, watching these fights, kept encouraging me to throw classic snaps, to relax and fire from my butt. Not only had I painted my shield but I re-strapped it as well. I lowered my hand, changing the angle my arm was at, so that I had better off side protection. It worked well, but I did get my sword caught up a few times on the top edge. Just take some getting used to. Artos was razzing me about it all day. “you fight so much better with a bunny round”, “what are you doing using sword blocks when you got that big shield to hide behind?” etc.

The elimination portion was a double elimination with sixteen fighters, the top four from each pool. Each round was 2 out of three, matched weapons, higher ranked fighter chose first. I did not do so well. My first fight was against Jan Janovitch. I chose great-sword, then made the same mistake against him that I’d made against Ron, faked high and shot for his leg and he just hit me on the top of the head. Our second fight was with sword and shield. I hit him with both a snap and a hook thrust, neither of which he took (the thrust probably just caught his camail). He got me with a straight up snap after a long fight.

My second set of fights was with a fighter from Quintavia named—I thin—either Valdur or Evaldur. I’d seen him fight earlier in the day. I took sword and shield first and, after a really long fight, I hit him in the head. Then we fought polearm and he killed me, but I had a blast. I was really into that fight. I was using my new poleax and chased him all around the field. Our third fight was two-weapon. He took two arming swords while I fought sword and short-sword. I took his arm and then killed him with a body shot.

My next fight was against Jabril. He showed a lot of patience. I chose sword and shield first and could not break his defense down. Then we had a great great-sword fight, which he won when I missed a shot at his head and didn’t recover properly, so my sword was out of position. Great fight.

At no point did I chose the sword in one hand, which I’d considered. I wish I’d done it against Jabril.

TOURNAMENT
The tourney itself was awesome. I picked the final-four, the finalists, and the winner two weeks ago when the list came out, so I felt the great prognosticator. The final four were Omega vs Kenrick and Edward vs. Oscad. Kenrick beat Omega in two fights. Oscad beat Edward with greatsword and then lost a two weapon fight because he talked Edward out of taking a shot. That was his game, but after Edward was almost slain he found another gear and just turned it on. He was swinging hard with both swords and Oscad said he was hitting harder than Douglas. It was fantastic. In the finals, Kenrick won the great sword and the two weapon fights, Edward won the polearm and the first sword and shield fight. In the last fight Kenrick took his leg, then his arm, then killed him. Everyone was happy. Kenrick had been in finals something like eight times before.

My tourney was awesome too. All told I fought seventeen fights and I won nine of them. I fought like crap, at no more than 50% of my normal level. Not what it takes to contend but a good day considering.

Sacrifice and Inspiration

2011-10-28T12:25:00.000-04:00

The SCA, as I point out in my book, is a middle-class activity, and has all the trappings and characteristics of a bourgeois capitalist hobby: it is bound by large numbers of rules, it is concerned with protocol and form, it is extremely hierarchical, and it seeks both permanence and legitimacy (by expanding the society through recruitment, by establishing its own history, and in the continuous push toward authenticity). It is also middle class in the most simplest of ways: people of the middle class make up its members. There are few truly rich people in the SCA. They tend not to need the emotional validation the SCA provides to its members because they get it through real-world as opposed to play-world success. There are poor people in the SCA, but the SCA is a luxury, and simply because of cost the poor have to limit their SCA activities. Although it began among college-students and “Berkeley hippies protesting the 20th century”, the SCA is structurally middle-class. It works best if you have a job that provides leisure time and disposable income, a car, a garage, and a 9-5 weekday job, because fighter practices, dance practices, and events take place on weekends.

I have long been frustrated that I do not train as often as I should or as I did when I was 25. Back then it was nothing for me to fight two practices a week plus an event nearly every weekend. One reason I quit my retail job (losing almost $1,000 in extra income a month), was because I didn’t have time to fight anymore. Living in New York City makes training hard: I don't have a garage or a car, for instance.

As I’ve documented here, I decided to train hard for this crown. I made an effort to be in armor twenty times between Pennsic and Crown tourney. Through Cloisters I had been in armor eleven times, which put me well on my way. But with my elbow hurting as it did I decided to take time off. I have run and done Yoga and rehabbed my elbow, but I have not been fighting (this week I added Indian clubs to my rehab workout, but I haven’t used the kettle bell all this month).

SACRIFICE
With the time off I decided to get ready for crown in other ways. I have been watching tape. I’ve been visualizing fights, and I’ve been working on gear. Last week I shaped and taped two new broadsword blades. Sunday I stripped my shield and painted it two coats of flat-black. I also took time to do some teaching at BAT and at Nutley.

I was making a bit of time for my other hobby: I went deer hunting on Saturday and planned to go tomorrow. Problem is, there is a snow storm forecast for the area I hunt tomorrow, up to ten inches, maybe even a foot (I’m betting on three inches myself). This means that Sunday is going to be great hunting, and I would have a real chance at bagging either the six or the eight pint bucks I saw last weekend. But Sunday is the last BAT before Crown. I need to put armor on, even if I only fight left-handed. I need to paint my device on my shield (a long and arduous task), and put the basket hilts on my new swords. I made the plan that fighting took precedence over hunting before Crown Tourney, and so I am going to sacrifice probably the best day of bow-hunting this year to go to a fighter practice where I probably won’t even be able to train, just get some helmet time and fight left handed. (Which reminds me: see the orthopedist this week).

INSPIRATION
Which brings me to inspiration. I am inspired by numerous things. My lady inspires me because I want more than anything else to make her queen. Sissule inspires me by her grace. Alethea inspires me by her joy. Mom Eilis inspires be with her nobility. I am inspired by Omega and Lucan and Andreas and Brion simply through their prowess. I was always inspired by Radnor to be that amazing heroic knight. Rolf and Thorin and Bedford have inspired me by proving that I am, in fact, not too old for this game.

But lately what’s been inspiring me has been the knights on the new Chivalry FaceBook group. There was a discussion of how people trained and how often. I noted that before I stepped it up for crown and then got injured, I would normally try to fight once a week and do aerobics 2-3 times a week, mixing in Yoga and kettle bells, but I would often rely on the simple fact that living in New York provides a good workout. This is true, but it means that I don’t keep a good workout schedule. (today I will go to the gym for the first time this week). The knights who posted are doing some amazing things. They are doing pell work every night. Some are lifting three times a week. Most are fighting 2-3 times a week and running or biking for endurance. One knight said he does yoga four times a week and fights twice a month (which I can totally understand, no matter how many people said he needs to reverse that). I am inspired to knuckle down over the winter and go back to doing a solid off-season workout after crown, concentrating on yoga and aerobics until my elbow heals, and then adding in pell work, Indian clubs and kettle bells in addition to fighting. What my brothers are doing is awesome, and although my fragmented urban life-style makes it hard, I intend to emulate them.

Crown is in 8 days!

Mists Coronet

2011-10-17T14:07:00.002-04:00

Ajax won Mists coronet last weekend. The video is below. It starts out slow, but the final blow is pretty incredible.

Injury update

2011-10-16T12:41:00.001-04:00

The tendinitis in me elbow hasn't gotten much better. I am doing my rehab and stretching. I might go get a portion shot. Regardless, I haven't fought in two weeks and will likely get only one practice in before crown at this point. I might even have to fight left handed without a shield.

I also have not been doing my kettle bells or Indian clubs. Both will be important in my rehab, but later. Right now it's just rubber bands.

Haven't been to the gym much lately, but I did run today.2.5 miles in my 5 fingers. Not a lot, but it felt great.

Low Cost Armor, yet again

2011-10-04T12:49:00.000-04:00

I recently updated my article on Low Cost Armor yet again (the last update was 2008, wow!). The cost for a period looking suit of armor has crept up, but it can still be had for right around $300, and less if you want to get creative. Here are the high lights:

The two armorers I use most often are both armoring laurels who make affordable mutions grade armor at good prices: Master Alail Horsefriend and Master Cett Donegal. (Among other things, Alail made the helm I wear using Rough from the Hammer parts made by Ronald Wilmot, and then Cet put the bar cage on it: so three armoring laurels worked on my helm, which in the end cost me less than $100).

Cet Donegal now owns Rough From The Hammer (http://roughfromthehammer.com). This is the place to go to REALLY keep the prices down. Cet’s stuff comes rough finished and un-strapped—he sells parts to other armorers who finish the products and resell them. Elbow cops from this shop are $12 a pair. Spaulders are $20 a pair. He makes very affordable helmets, but only as custom orders.

Alail’s website is located at http://www.horsefriendarmoury.com. Like Cet, he has some great prices on munition grade armor: a sugarloaf helm for $100 in 14ga mild, splint legs for $120, splint arms for $80 and stainless for only 150% of his base price. Here is a basic suit put together from his old price list:

Great Helm, $80
Elbows, $20
Knees, $25
Churburg Breast plate (w/ Kidney Protection)$120
Simple Gorget, $30
Spaulders, $20

That totals out to $295. We still need a few pieces. We have to make cuises and vambraces and we don’t have hand protection. Some scrap leather to make vambraces and cuisses out of, the basket hilt and shield basket from Ashcraft Baker, and you’ll have a suit of armor most of which came from an armoring laurel within our target price. Not too shabby. Then add a gambeson and a nice surcoat and you will look very knightly.

A few armorers have beginner’s kits for sale in the right price range. Ashcraft Baker (www.ashcraftbaker.com) has a beginner kit that includes helmet, gorget, basket hilt, shield basket, and articulated elbows and knees for $220--a great price! Add some kidney and lumbar protection and you’re SCA legal. If that’s what you can afford go for it. However, the helmet is a spun top and I’m looking for something a little more period in style.

To complete the project you have to pick and choose pieces. Some armorers have expensive helms but reasonable legs. One has the best price on bascinets but their gorgets are expensive. In every case to keep prices down avoid buying cuises and vambraces. Those are easy to make. I want to put together not just SCA armor, but a knightly kit that, if not historically accurate, is at least evocative of a single time period. Below are a few more kits which fit the bill.

Crusader Kit:
From True Hearth Armory (http://www.truehearth.com)
• Teardrop Helm $80
• Standard gorget $40

From Bokalo’s Armoury (www.bokalosarmoury.com)
• Demi Gauntlet $25

From Rough From The Hammer (http://roughfromthehammer.com)
• Fanless elbow cops, no wings, pair $12
• Fanless knee cops, no wings, pair $13
• Spaulder A $12
• Kidney Plates $20

From Ashcraft Baker (www.ashcraftbaker.com)
• Basket Hilt
• Shield Basket $25 (set)

That’s $227. Now invest in Period Patterns #101, available from several SCA merchants (try http://camelot-treasures.com/patterns/index.htm) for $21. Make the long, short sleeved crusader gambeson, reinforced with some of the plates from Rough from the Hammer. Make the gamboized cuisses, also included in the pattern, and attach to those the kneecops using leather lacing or cord. Use an inexpensive canvass and cotton batting, and materials for this should be about $40. They are not required under SCA rules, but some kingdoms require vambraces, and they are really a good idea. You will need to make some out of scrap metal or heavy leather, but the elbow cop is the hard part and you bought that.

We are now SCA legal. Total for this project before shipping is $288, including the cost of the pattern, which really shouldn’t count towards our total since it will be used several times over. Note: I didn’t include materials for a shield, but my first several shields were free anyway—scrap plywood, discarded garden hose and an old belt for straps.

14th Century Suit #1
One variation is to turn this into a Wisby suit. Do everything as above, except don’t get the helm or the kidney. Instead, you need to get hold of a sheet of 18 gauge steel and a way to cut it (with GAA out of business I could no longer find a metal Visby kit. I hear Alchemy has a plastic one, but I’m trying to avoid plactic in this exercise—however, cutting your own keep the price down. I used to use a jig saw with a hack saw blade). Go to the armor archive wisby coat page and download the patterns. You can also buy Period Patterns #102 (see below), which has a Wisby coat pattern in it. Then add From Boldo’s Armory (http://www.boldo.com/armory/index.html) the “Classic Pembridge” greathelm for $100. This will take you a bit over our budget when all is said and done, but still very affordable and it will look sharp.

Now for the hard one:

14th century suit #2

From Illusion Armory (http://www.illusionarmoring.com/)
• 14 ga. Bascinet (don’t get the 16 ga). $110

From Bokalo’s Armoury
• Pinned dog collar gorget $35
• Demi Gauntlet $25

From Rough From The Hammer
• Fanless elbow cops, no wings, pair $12
• Fanless knee cops, no wings, pair $13
• Globose Breastplate $60

From Ashcraft Baker
• Basket Hilt
• Shield Basket $25 (set)

That comes to $280. NOW: get both Period Patterns #101 and #102 ($21 each). Make the gamboized cuisses from pattern #101 and the jupon (short, long sleeved gambeson) from pattern #102. Materials for the jupon and cuisses, again, are about $40. Use some sole leather for vambraces. Note that this suit doesn’t have shoulder protection.

Really, the secret is to get a good looking helmet. The rest of your hard points can be armored fairly inexpensively. Then cover it up with a good surcotte and you won't look like a schlub.

West Kingdom Crown

2011-10-03T14:45:00.001-04:00

Here is some video of West Kingdom Crown Finals, Duke Uther vs. Duke Connor, great fighters whom I love to fight against. Note three things: first is how Uther clearly does not wantto close with Connor (wise, since that's how he lost the second fight). The second is that Connor keeps looking for that shot I throw with the bunny round (and a bit with the heater and kite) where I block the on-side leg shot with shield low and a hanging guard, and as soon as the sword contacts with my defense shoot straight down with my sword (most people lean into their leg shots and this catches them--we both learned this from Hauoc, I'd bet). The third is something I always say: many times, it's much better to go for the shoulder than the head.

There's lots more from crown over on Youtube.

Colisters!

2011-10-03T09:55:00.001-04:00

My favorite Ostgardr event is the Fort Tryon Medieval Fair demo. The fair is put on annually by the NYC parks department in the park where the Cloisters museum is located. It is a great New York type event. Incredibly crowded and full of energy, and just a little bit weird. I love it. We usually get a good audience for our shows and this time was no exception. We also have a very well organized demo team in Ostgardr. Under a big Marquis tent and a few pop ups we had pictures and fliers, arms and armor, and demonstrations of spinning, weaving, sewing, leather work, armoring, and stone carving. There was dancing, rapier, and chivalric combat. They put on a good show. On top of that, Gui and Johanna are turning out to be a GREAT Viceroy and Vicereign. They were a strong presence this weekend. Gui made new weapons, organized the fighting, oversaw the tourney, and played the crowd.

The tourney, by the way, was for the Champion of Ostgardr. It was limited to unbelted fighters living in the province. There were four combatants and the victor was Tormundr.

In progress weapons

The weapons rack at Cloisters

Of course, I was mostly there to fight.

INJURY
The bad news is that I've decided to abandon my training schedule to let my elbow heal. I took a week off to let it heal, went to the orthopedist (who confirmed that it is tendinitis and not something more serious) and even had two spa treatments (I was on vacation after all). I had had an opportunity to fight on Saturday at coronation, which I'd been looking forward to, but decided that I wanted to rest it a full week. It didn't' help. In fact, my elbow hurt worse on Sunday than it ever has.

FIGHTING
As I've said in the past, a demo is not someplace you work on technique. There is too much show going on for that. Even if you are fighting the way you always fight, the people you are fighting are often doing something crazy. However, it is a great place to get in helmet time and fight with odd weapons.

I was not fighting well at all. My elbow was effecting both my speed and power. But I was having fun none the less. All of the fights except in the tourney were to counted blows, usually three. Gui had made new maces using the awesome rubber mace heads Icefalcon is selling. Those got a lot of use! I fought one handed at the barrier against Tormundr with them. Then I fought with great sword and great ax. Later I did some fights with sword and shield. My last set of fights I was fighting sword and shield against Timur and my elbow just would no longer function. I won the first fight and then just gave up on my right arm. I switched to fighting left handed with no shield. I struck him twice more as he struck me, so I won that fight, but that was when I decided that I'm not fighting again for at least two weeks, possibly three.

Once again, I cannot stress how how useful a barrier is at a demo. It provides for some really dramatic fighting, it's showy, and it keeps the fights rooted into one place so they don't get too close to the audience. For the finale of the day I ran a single-sword melee at the barrier the way they do it in the West, where you have two guys on each side and as they are struck they cycle out and are replaced by new fighters, so the action is fast paced and non-stop. We disallowed arm shots to make it more dramatic. They destroyed the barrier in the process. It was a lot of fun!

This was my eleventh time in armor since Pennsic. Unfortunately, I will not be in armor again for at least two weeks, probably not until Nutley on Wednesday the 26th.

Sunday 9/25 at Conrad's

2011-09-27T08:23:00.000-04:00

For practice on Sunday we skipped out on BAT and went to Conrad’s house in Jersey. The knights resent were me, Oscad, Conrad and Roger. Unbelts included Shandar, Deklin, Wulfgar, Gunther and Johnathan. It was an excellent practice.

INJURY
My elbow needs to be xrayed and it needs rest. I am still convinced that this is tendinitis, but it flares up regularly and it is really painful. It is effecting my technique, my speed, my power, and I ended up getting out of armor much too early because of it. As a result this practice started out great and ended up being frustrating.

TECHNIQUE
Very oddly, I fell into a technique I can’t recall ever using before. I think it was to rest my elbow. I wasn’t doing it constantly, but that I was going it at all surprised me because it was unplanned. I am not sure it was at all effective, but it was interesting. I was essentially fighting like Kelson but goofy footed, which I suppose made it more like Omega. I went into a slight crouch, raised the front corner of my shield, looked past the front edge instead of over the top, and kept my sword low, in a true saber parry 3 position. Like Kelson, I was guarding left side with the shield, right side with the sword. It was an interesting defense, so long as I moved my feet a lot.

FIGHTING
I fought Wulfgar, (not Master Wulfgar) first. He usually hits very hard but he was being tentative and not committing to his shots. He was also over swinging. I began experimenting, which is how I fell into the odd guard I was playing with.

Next I fought Conrad which was awesome. I killed him a number of times, the best one being a simple old-school trick of throwing a flat snap, slide-stepping to the right, and throwing the same snap. It is a trick employed by both Bellatrix and Von Dresden. I also got him a few times with the hook, particularly the top-edge hook, but he says I am using it too much and I hooked too deep and caught his bicep at one point. E also said he expected me to hook and then throw a leg as he recovered, which is odd because that is something that I do and I don’t know why I didn’t attempt it against him. We took each others legs several times and once he got me with a shot that never should have worked, what looked like a wavy-rising snap that turned into a straight down body shot to my right pec. Nice bruise too.

I fought Roger next and that was interesting. He is pumped up with that “I just got knighted!!!” extra 20%. He’s more aggressive and more precise and he is not over thinking or worrying about his fights. I killed him with a few thrusts, but it was mostly an exercise in defense for me. He was tight and on. He got me with an interesting stop thrust right in the face.

My fights with Oscad were awesome as usual. In the past we have fought a lot alike, mostly to my advantage. He would work mostly at long range, use sword blocks and foot work, use kind of a saber attack off his blocks with a good straight line thrust. He doesn’t’ realize it (we talked later) but around Birka his fighting took a big change, and he now is more aggressive, he closes right away, he mobs me with offense and he presses his attacks. It is the main reason why he got knighted, but he doesn’t realize he’s doing it. Our fights were a blast. He won more than I did and my best kill on him was when I was on my knees and he was crowding me, I got him with a sit-down dropping shot, like I killed Doug with two weeks ago. Conrad said that it looked like I owned his leg early on but then went away from it to work on other things (true) but by the time I went back to it I was too gassed to take it (also true).

After that I stopped fighting. I wanted to fight everybody there, but I took my legs off to use the bathroom, cooled down, and when I next moved my elbow it didn’t want to move any more.

Two interesting things from this practice: I am definitely game planning around my elbow. I don’t ave much of a wrap. I’m not using some shots because of the strain they’d put on me, I am using more Bellatrix technique to rest that tendon, I’m slower and have a very weak off side, so I may be thrusting a bit more. Second, roger says he fights and does better against me if I am using the heater, while Conrad (and earlier Ice) say I am much more effective with the heater and am a much more serious threat. In both cases it is for the same reason: I am intentionally trying to fight like an Easterner, not only in shield shape but also in technique, style, and shot selection. I use fewer molinees, fewer fakes, fewer tear-drop returns, I keep my hand forward in a sword-side guard and, most importantly, I am trying to be a defensive fighter and counter punch rather than an offensive fighter and create openings. To Roger this makes me less of a threat because I’m not doing anything that freaks him out. He is comfortable in that fight. To Duke Conrad, who was never freaked out by me (even when he was an unbelted fighter) it makes me much more effective, because now I am fighting a smart fight. Both of them see the same thing—that I am fighting more like them—but it means different things to each of them. I find that to be pretty cool.

I asked Conrad what one thing he would have me work on. He said I should add an offside shot of a rising snap—not quite the one he hit me with, as he demonstrated. He wants me to cock like it’s a wavy rising snap but pull my elbow in as I throw the rising part then drive it up into a straight off-side head or off-side body. It should be distinct from a butterfly because it doesn’t take that sweeping upward arc. It is kind of like the blow Radnor gave to Leon when he fixed his elbow cop during coronet finals, when Leon beat Uther.

This was my tenth time in armor since Pennsic (!!). Commitments in October will make it hard to get ten more practices in. My nest time in armor will likely be at the pas d'armes at Gregor's coronation. This will give me five days of rest on my elbow. If not then it will be at Cloisters on Sunday. However, I'm planning on seeing the doctor today, and I might end up taking more time off as a result. Such is life.

BAT practice, 9/22/11

2011-09-23T13:02:00.000-04:00

So I dragged myself off the couch, forced myself out the door, and—elbow more or less the same—called a livery cab, heading to Brooklyn Army Terminal. The Thursday practice is mostly a training practice for our new guys. The three who are most dedicated were there—Deklin (Eddie), Duncan (Richard), and Shandar the Barbarian (Andrew: the barbarian part isn’t accurate, but we feel obligated to tease him about his name). We have at least four more new guys who show up from time to time, but these three are the regulars and they made it to Pennsic. Much of the evening involves Oscad and I giving instruction. I spent a lot of time describing to Duncan how to close with an opponent on his knees. But it does allow me to work on some things. I get to fight Oscad. As I said before, Deklin is a natural and Shandar is becoming a good polearm fighter. Duncan fights crisply and is a learning sponge. It is always good to train people like this, and all of them have reached the point where they surprise me from time to time. I ended up training Shandar and Duncan but not fighting them. I fought Deklin and Oscad (twice). Forcing myself out of my comfort zone, and having had a great sword and shield practice last night at Nutley, I just fought greatsword and polearm.

TECHNIQUE
When first learning two-handed sword I learned from Rolf (currently King Rolf) using a true hand and a half bastard sword witout a thrusting tip. This has always been my favorite vaiation, but with Rolf that mostly meant playing baseball with someone's helmet (in his case, with my helmet). I then studied under Elrik using his nodachi (which wasn’t really a nodachi but a blade with a tsuba that was about the length of a large Shinai). He employed a lot of kenjitsu in his technique. This is where I began employing the regular kendo stance. Then I began to study with Paul of Bellatrix. I’ve always found his technique difficult to master, but seeing what he’s done with it, it’s amazing. I then started taking WMA workshops and trying to employ some of that technique into my SCA fighting, which does not work well for me. Recently I’ve been looking at Marc d’Arundel’s work, since he’s the only person to win Western Crown with a two handed sword, and trying to learn his style.

I normally try to use Bellatrix’s high guard or his thrusting guard, which Lichtenaur would call “plfug” (plow). These are demonstrated at the Bellatrix Fighting School website. However, that works best with a true great-sword or a nodachi. My old way of doing things, if the handle of the sword was short enough, was to use a kendo stance, with the left leg forward. I try to incorporate Gregor’s high guard technique, he being the best great-sword fighter in these parts, but to little success. The various guards in Lichtenaur I will play with but I don’t find that they work all that well in the SCA game. Marc’s style, listed on his website, involves an A-fram guard, a central stance (mostly) a lot of thrusting, and striking only to the side you pass forward on (so if you are striking at the right side you pass on the right).

For this practice, I was mostly trying to stay alive.

FIGHTING
I only fought three sets of fights.

My first set was with Deklin. He is left handed but uses his greatsword sword with a right hand grip. I found that the kendo stance was working best for me, but nearly every fight we ended up core to core. I tried the same shot on him that got me killed against Ronald in Crown, knocking the sword up and sweeping the leg. It got me killed again. That used to work so well. I think I forgot to pass off line to the right. The one time I did take his leg I used the technique I learned in the great-sword list at Estrella awhile back, Half swording, passing on the left, getting between his sword and helmet, pulling his sword away, and clubbing him.

My first set of fights with Oscad were also with greatsword. I guess you could call it bastard sword, since that's what Mark calls it, becasue it's too small to be a zweihander, but it's really not a bastard sword either. Again, we ended up core to core all the time. I think we traded pretty evenly. I decided about half-way through that I was not moving enough. I was closing but then mostly going toe-to-toe with both him and Deklin. Attacking on offline steps became my main focus for the rest of our fights, which kept me at range and made our fights really dramatic, and certainly was better defensively. I did once take his leg and kill him with a one-handed shot.

In my polearm fights with Oscad I not only had fun I redeemed myself a bit from last crown. He got me with a sweeping thrust, but after that I was fighting really well. I won most of our bouts. I used a number of specific techniques against him and they all worked:

I have a thrust fake I use mostly against shieldmen. I fake a thrust to the face, draw a circle toward the leg and up again, and thrust to the face. It worked. He almost killed me with a thrust to the armpit at the same time, but it caught my gambeson and he pulled it because his head was being knocked back like a cue ball.

I used Tadgh O’Doin’s bayonet drill, where, with a right hand lead, I cut to the on side, pass on the left and cut to the off side, then choke up by un-crossing my arms and thrust and cut inside. Killed him with the cut to head.

I dashed his pole aside a la Ajax, hooking it away with my back edge, then gather stepped, and cut to his face.

Because he uses that odd reverse-grip guard, with the head held low, the pole high, and a left foot lead, I tried David Civet’s swim move on him, where I reverse so that my thumbs are opposed and just swim my way into him, trying to gain control of his blade by dashing it down. It worked really well. I closed in and cut him.

Oscad said my main quality was persistence. I kept coming, kept repeating the same few blows till they worked. That's about right, I don't have a deep bag of shots with polearm like I do with broadsword.

Those were all good fights, but I used just about every trick I know.

This was my ninth day in armor since Pennsic. My next time in armor will be Sunday, ether at BAT or in Iron Bog (we might get the whole crowd to go down).

Nutley 9/21/11

2011-09-22T14:03:00.000-04:00

Nutley last night. I traveled over with Oscad. Neither Gregor nor Omega were there, nor even John the Breeder, but it was a top heavy practice nonetheless. I only fought four sets, but they were all against knights, and I worked hard for everything I got.

INJURY:
My elbow had stopped hurting by Wednesday, but started again before I even got in the car. I need to take a month off, but it absolutely cannot be the next month. I will go in and have it x-rayed, though. I’m sure it is tendinitis, but just in case there is a bone chip in there I’d like to know. It affected everything I did. I wore the brace this time (and it didn’t hurt as badly a it did Saturday night), but the combination of the brace and the stiffness slowed me down. I had real problems generating power (though my sword was starting to broom as well, which could be part of it).

TECHNIQUE:
I took Omega’s advice and worked on my stance by switching my lead foot only between opponents. I concentrated on my shield alignment, setting up with my shield between my opponent’s sword and my head at all times. Because of the stiffness in my elbow I was mixing in some Bellatrix technique, which doesn’t require as much arm in your shots, but I was trying to minimize that. It’s not going to win me a lot of fights by itself.

FIGHTING:
I fought four opponents: Jan Janovitch, Max, Stephen, and Tzeitchel. I fought Jan and Stephen with a shield foot lead, Max and Tzeitchel with a sword foot lead.

Against Jan I was effective in my defense and many of my blows were landing on target but with very little power. This was when I started using the Bellatrix technique and my power went up. Jan fights an almost western style, and the Bellatrix technique worked well enough against him. I killed him a few times. He was hard to track down. Both of us are trying to play at extreme range, and a lot of the time we were just not close enough.

Against Max I felt more comfortable. When I fight goofy foot I bring my sword farther forward in defense but keep my elbow back to generate power through my core. I worked fine. I didn’t have many power issues against Max (except with an off-side leg blow I really didn’t expect to land). I think we fought three fights. The first one he blew right through my block. The second one I think I hit him with an on-side head shot. In the third fight I took his leg and he became a turtle. I used every technique I have for someone on his knees but couldn’t hit him. I used a standard butterfly and Ed’s butterfly. I used a hook/thrust. I used a top-edge hook. I used Rolf’s Head/body/head combo, and Gemini’s “magic button” press with the face thrust. I even went behind the back (which was flat anyway). I didn’t lay sword on him. Like Stephan and Jabril, he looks past the front corner of his shield intead of over the top, and when he does that on his knees it makes him really hard to hit. The hook thrust he twisted out of. The top edge hook couldn’t push his shield down far enough. Same with the press and face thrust. His shield was too high for the press to be effective. When he took my leg I went all rock and roll on him, trying to change up the tempo, and we had a good exchange but he hit me.

When I fight Stephen I count it as a success if I hit him once. I use those fights to find the most glaring holes in my defense. He is so fast and strong and precise that it is all you can do. I did kill him once, with the hook/thrust, which is much better than I usually do. But fighting Stephen is as much fun as fighting gets. Once again, I was fighting strong side (shield leg forward). Next time I will fight him weak side. The first thing I learned, or that he reinforced, is that the heater leaves me open for a quick off-side face blow. This is how Thorsen used to kill me all the time. As soon as I threw a leg shot, or started an off-side, or a fake, or (bad form) telegraphed a blow by cocking, Stephen would fire at my off-side face and usually kill me. The second thing I learned is that I can’t go to my right against Stephen. Every time I did he tent-pegged me—by far the hardest I was hit all night. He did it three times. Once I bit my tongue. It is a blow I use a lot in the same situation, but he had me timed perfectly. When we talked afterward, he said that straight on my defense was tight and he didn’t have many openings, but that when I moved to my right I opened up every time.

Fighting Tzeitchel I switched back to goofy foot and I was winning a lot of my fights. We were both tired. It was the end of the night. I found that I had a good gap on her on-side head when she was throwing a blow. The best kill she got on me was when I was aggressive and pushed her. She backpeddled and got me with a very high, over the shield off-side head blow.

All in all it was a good night. I was probably more comfortable fighting goofy foot, but my offense wasn’t as good. I had a pretty tight defense however. After my early fights with Jan my power problems went away. I had a lot of fun.

This was my eighth time in armor since Pennsic. I may fight tonight at BAT. If not I will fight this weekend.

Queen's Farm

2011-09-19T11:57:00.000-04:00

It is really not easy to train at a demo. The fighting is often not the same as tournament fighting. It can be, but there is a long tradition of putting on a show for the audience, and while some knights insist that fighting your best game and seriously trying to beat your opponent puts on the best show possible, others point out that often the subtleties of serious tourney fighting are lost on audiences not used to our combat. I tend to agree with the latter position. For instance, look at the way finals often go between our top fighters. They can stare at each other for five minutes before launching a blow, then back out and wait again, trying to entice their opponents to make mistakes. Lucan vs. Brian went on for an hour like that. On the other hand, it does little if there is one duke and four relatively new unbelted fighters, and the duke ends up killing the others with one or two shots over and over again. It is worse when there are only two or three fighters in armor. But if it looks too much like we are playacting we lose credibility with the audience. For this reason it is a bad place to work on your technique.
However, there are also some advantages to demo fighting. For one thing, it is easier to get in fights with two-handed weapons or Florentine, because this adds variety that the audience likes, and those weapons forms are often more dramatic than sword and shield (depending on who is fighting, of course). Plus the value of just time in the helmet can’t be stressed enough.

In Ostgardr, our two biggest demos are at this time of year. The first is the Queen’s Farm demo at the Queen’s County Fair (yes, Queen’s County has a fair. Really. Live stock and every thing). The second is the Fort Tryon Medieval Fair at the park that houses the Cloisters museum. Queen’s Farm was last weekend and Ft. Tryon is two Sundays from now. I fought Saturday at Queen’s Farm and, not only was it fun, but I did some good training. Unfortunately, I also ran up against my elbow injury again. Before the day I thought it had subsided, but by the end of the last show it was really bothering me and I had to sit down.

At Ft. Tryon there will be a tourney, but I probably won’t enter.
I also got in a little archery and thrown weapons practice for fun.

TECHNIQUE:
Because of the nature of demo fighting, I wasn’t working on technique much. I was either fighting full out or taking it easy to put on a show. I wasn’t picking specific techniques to concentrate on. The one exception to that is that I did work specifically on some Bellatrix technique. See below.

FIGHTING:
For two of the four shows there were only two fighters in armor, myself and Gui. Because of this, neither of us was fighting as hard as we normally would. We didn’t want to break each other, especially with more shows later in the afternoon. However, every third or fourth fight we would “fight one for real” and these were good practice. Gui is an excellent left handed fighter. When I use the center-grip I normally get the better of him, but when I use the heater he normally clobbers me. This time I was concentrating on attacking the back side of his shield and it was working well, at first. He Is using a narrow heater hung for punch blocking, with his arm almost parallel to the top edge of the shield almost in the middle. This gives him lots of sword side defense, kind of like the center grip does, but it opens him up for shield side shots because he ends up cheating too far over. I took his leg from that side, which I almost never do with a lefty, stabbed him in the body and later in the shoulder. My lefty defense was very strong as well, but with Gui I found that if I cheat as much as I had been I have no offense.
Alexander joined in for the second and fourth shows. I mostly worked on old-school belatrix technique against him (and a little against Gui) because it is more dramatic. This allowed me to do some slow-developing timing patterns and some old-style misdirection fakes. The fakes only worked once, but the timing and hooks was worked twice. In the fourth show he and I fought some great sword, practice of crown.

In the third show we got the best possible combination of drama for the audience and fighting for ourselves. I challenged Gui to a passage of arms with five weapons forms: glaive, great sword, short pole (he had brought his maul and his Danish ax, which are about the same size), Florentine (sword and poniard, my favorite) and sword and shield. It ended up a tie, with me winning the Florentine and the glaive fights, him winning the ax and the sword and shield fights, and us double killing in the bastard sword fight. In all of the fights what I was looking for was just getting used to switching rapidly from one form to another, a skill we rarely teach ourselves. I am competent with all of those weapons forms, good with two of them and expert with one, but moving from one to another quickly forces me to focus on fundamentals. In a way that is bad because it means I’m focusing less on the fight than I should be. It is good practice switching forms every fight. This was great practice!

I enjoyed the pig races. Yes, pig races. It was a county fair after all. :)

This was my seventh time in armor since Pennsic. Next up will be BAT on Thursday and hopefully Nutley on Wednesday.

The SCA of my youth!!

2011-09-15T15:05:00.000-04:00

Hal Ravn, who used to take movies of crown tourney back in the 70s, posted a 13 minute video of West Kingdom June Crown, 1978. It was the summer before I joined. There, in mostly black and white, are nearly all my heroes! It also displays how ugly fighting can look when its in slow motion. Man! That hit looked nasty. At the very end there is a real rockem-sockem fight between two of the knights most responsible for who I grew up to be: my knight, Alfrik, and Sir William the Lucky (who knighted Alfrik and gave him his chain, which I presented to Oscad at Pennsic). Ah! The good old days!!

Workouts

2011-09-14T09:03:00.000-04:00

I have been good lately in my cardio workouts, not so good on my strength and flexibility workouts. Since I'm not fighting at Nutley this week I was supposed to do a strength workout on Monday with the kettle bells (or more likely a plate with a handle in it, because I would have been at the gym at BMCC). However, yesterday I rode my bike to CCNY (15 miles or so, depending on the route). I rode back in three stages because I had a doctor's appointment and wanted to hit paragon for the warehouse sale. The last eight miles of the ride I was struggling to carry a big Marmot parka in a shopping bag. Today I plan to hit the gym for my 20/20/20 workout (20 minutes on the either the elliptical or the treadmill, 20 minutes for a quick kettle bell workout, 20 minutes of yoga).

However, it might just be a better idea to adopt Gunnvor's workout. My niece (she is squired to Omega) Gunnvor on her blog posts her current workout, and it is a pretty good one. Check it out.

The Feast of John Barleycorn

2011-09-12T09:58:00.000-04:00

The feast of John Barleycorn was this weekend and my boy Gui was being invested as the new Viceroy. It was a great time!! Oscad organized a tournament for the Ladies of the Rose, which I fought in. It was both fun and productive.

TECHNIQUE:
This week all of my work has been directed toward my feet. It has involved stance and footwork as I continue reacquaint myself with the heater: do I stand sword foot forward or shield foot forward? What is the proper stance for fighting a left-handed fighter? How do I move to keep the shield in the right place. I fought with a heater for 20 years and won my crown and my coronet with one, but I’ve used it very little in the past ten years. I found when I moved here (and I weighed forty pounds more than I do now) that I wasn’t doing well enough against the Easterners. I went first to a small shield to improve my offense, then to the kite because I found fighting so many really good fighters who used long kites to be a losing proposition with the 24” shield. With the heater I am not only re-learning what I knew but learning how to adapt to changes in fighting that have occurred over the last decade, and also how to integrate the stuff I’ve learned while concentrating on the bunny round and the center-grip kite, which in some ways are easier to use. Incidentally this week, particularly at Nutely, I also ended up working on my hooks and cuts a lot (as opposed to my bread-and-butter hook/thrust). This proved crucial.

THE FORMAT
I really loved the format of the Rose tournament. It was a blast. The tournament was contested not by the fighters but by the ladies of the rose. Each lady of the rose fielded a team of three heavy weapons fighters and two rapier fighters, with only one knight and one don allowed on each team. Then the fighters were paired in individual combat, with the knight fighting the other knight, the don fighting the don, etc. Winning three fights out of the five gained the Rose victory for the round. It was a very fun format. With seven teams we broke into two pools. I fought for Alethea and she was in the pool of four, against Brenwyn, Roxanne, and Svava. For me it meant fighting Antonio (for Svava), Gregor (for Brenwyn) and Omega (for Roxanne).

THE FIGHTING:
My fight against Antonio allowed me to use what I’d been discussing regarding lefty defense against a very good lefty. I lost the fight but was satisfied with my defense over all. I kept my feet parallel and my shield centered on his sword. As he moved to gain advantage I shifted my feet to always maintain that alignment. It worked very well as long as I was patient. We had several exchanges that were hard fought. I was practicing defense, patience, and counter-punching: the opposite of my old offence fist style. Eventually I decided to be more aggressive in my offense, and he took my leg. By biggest problem against Antonio was commitment to my shots. I hit him once or twice on the head and once with a body thrust, but because I was being overly defensive they all lacked power. The body thrust in particular showed me my problem: as I threw it I was stepping back to avoid his sword, and thus had no power behind it. Shortly thereafter he took my leg. The fight lasted a couple more exchanges but eventually he struck home. Omega said that my problem was that I had let him bait me into a slug fest, and that had cost me my leg. This is how I read it too.

Against Gregor I found myself to be very comfortable using the right-leg lead, but I switched a couple of times. We had several good exchanges as I worked hard to keep my distance and fight at extreme range where I could pick up his fakes (which are superlative) more easily. I tried my hook/thrust (which is a front-edge hook) but he was ready for that and backed out of range as I threw. Luckilly I had his counter covered. When we did close my Nutley experience from this week kicked in. I used a top-edge hook to take his shield down and stepped back with my left foot, cutting as I did so. He ducked (he’s so good at that) but I hit him in the shield shoulder, taking his arm as he took my leg. Now on the ground with him standing and with one arm, it was a fight in my favor. I eventually took his leg and killed him with my next combination.

Against Omega I was also using the sword foot lead primarily, switching to a shield foot lead only in transition. We had three or four good exchanges before he took my arm. Fighting him left handed with him still using his shield I acquitted myself well. I made several passes before he took my leg. He gave up his own leg, saying two points up was too many, but this just made it easy for him to throw his belly thrust, which killed me. Afterward he said that I had been fighting very well. He said that I had not left my arm hanging out but that we had both started blows at about the same time, but that mine carried my arm into the path of his sword. I had actually thought I’d left it out in the middle of a combination, but that was not how he saw it. He said my one-handed defense was excellent.

This was a great day. It was my fourth time in armor this week and my sixth time in armor since Pennsic, which feels good. Likely I will miss Nutley this week but should make it to BAT on Thursday. Queen’s Farm Demo is this week, so I will have the opportunity to fight twice this weekend, though I might head over to Jersey for a Sunday practice.

Helmet Time and BAT

2011-09-09T09:55:00.000-04:00

HELMET TIME:
There is one point where I differ with the teachings of Duke Paul, and that is in the value of helmet time, of actually fighting as part of your training. Duke Paul has long held that training should be done out of armor, and that for both the novice and the expert (I will have to ask him about the journeyman, however) fighting has little value. The novice will better learn technique if he is out of armor, and only when his technique is sound should he put on armor (why he prefers his students to train for a year before they put armor on). The Expert knows what combat is like, and doesn't need the experience of fighting as much as he needs to be constantly perfecting his technique through slow work and pell work (it is from Duke Paul that I learned the saying that the sport most like SCA fighting is golf, because it is all about the perfection of your swing).

My opinion is that unarmored training must supplement armored training. There is no replacement for actually fighting. I was a good fighter when I moved to the Mists. But moving to the mists meant two things. One, I could train with Duke Paul once in awhile--especially when we were working the Renaisance Faire demos together--and two I could fight more often. A lot more often. There was a fighter practice every night. There was a period between when I was 27 and when I was 32 when I was going to two practices a week and an event every weekend, and a brief time, after I got knighted, when I was going to four practices a week plus events: Monday night in Santa Cruz, Tuesday at Mission College, Wednesday in San Francisco and Thursday at BART, three crowns and two cornets a year, six wars plus local tourneys. Those were the days! That is also why I won crown.

My mighty and great descendant, Prince Miles of the Mists (who worked those faire demos with us as a page when he was ten years old or so) posted a list of every event he's fought in since he started on the Armour Archive this week. The thing to note is that he started fighting in 2008.

>>> (from the Armour Archive)
Tournaments

* Beltane, Prize Tourney, 08
* June Western Crown, made man at arms to Duke Uther 08
* First Sword of Esfenn, 08
* October Western Crown, 08
* Mists Coronet, 08
* Harbinger of the Mists 08
* White Shield 09
* March Western Crown 09
* Investiture Prince Alfar's Prize Tourney 09
* Newcomer’s Tourney, Open list, 09,
* Queens Champion Tourney, 09
* Western Crown, June 09, (D. Titus), Made Squire to Duke Uther
* Western Crown, October 09, (D. Uther)
* Canale Games Tourney 09,
* Warlord of Southern Shores, (Won) 09 got thrusting tip
* First Sword of Esfenn, (Won) vs. Viscount Leotulph 09
* Westermark Maddness, 09 (Won) Shepard Of Westermark
* Mist Coronet 09, (V. Leohtulf)
* Banner Bearer’s Tourney 09 (Finaled) vs. Egil Utherson
* White Shield 10
* Estrella, Outlands Prize Tourney, 10, (D. Uther)
* Estrella Knights Of Saint Michael Tourney, 10
* Estrella Cancer Tourney, 10
* Crapaud 164, 10,
* Crapaud 166, 10,
* Crapaud 167, (Won) Vs. Loy 10,
* Western Crown, March 10, (V.Alfar)
* Crapaud 168, 10,
* Mist Spring Coronet, 10 (Finaled) vs. Vis. Sir Marc
* Newcomers Tourney, Open list,10 (Finaled) vs. Duke Radnor of Guildemar
* Treasure Chest Prize Tourney, 10
* Beltane, Prize Tourney, (Won) vs. Vis. Sir Sigifrith Haukneff 10
* Live Chess tourney at Beltane, 10
* Princess' champion tourney, 10
* June Crown, 10
* West Antir War, Caid Prize Tournament 10 (Bjarnheddin Winner)
* West Antir 2010 Bellatrix 3 Generations Challenge
* Westermark Maddness, 10 (Sheppard and Troll) (current champion)
* Southern Shores Warlord, 10 (Won) (current champion)
* Final Sword of Esfenn
* Queens Treasure Tourney Purg 10, Finaled Vs. Viscount Gunther
* October Crown
* Great Western 2010 Rose Tourney
* Great Western War, Caid Principality Tournament (Won) Vs. Count Edward (east)
* October Mists Coronet
* Cynaguan Fall Coronet (Bye-Fights/Rose Fights)
* Crapaud 177, 2010, Semi Finals?
* Crapaud 178, 2011, Quarter Finals?
* War Collegium Western Unbelted tournament 2011 (Winner)
* Estrella 2011 Outlands Prize
* Estrella 2011 5th Annual Rose Tournament
* White Shield 2011 (Winner Vs. Duke Lycurges Outlands)
* March Crown 2011
* Crapaud #180
* Fettburg Baronial ChampionShip (Finaled) victor Count Alfar Utherson
* Fettburg Baronial Prize Tourney (won) vs. Count Alfar Utherson
* Mists April Coronet 2011 (winner) vs. Sir Loy (Sigurgata)
* Treasure Chest Tourney Nordwache
* La Prova Dura 2011 Finaled
* Beltane Queens Treasure Tournament (Knighted)
* Newcomers Tournament Open Tournament (Winner) Vs. Viscount SIr Jeffrey Scott
* Potrero 2011 (CAID) Halfdan's Invitational prize tourney
* June Crown (By-Fights Maybe) Pick-Up Fights Definitly.
* Pennsic XL - Second Generation Tourney (Finaled) Vs. Prince Quillium (Ealdermore)
* Caid Crown - (By-Fights)
* Purgatorio - Queen's Treasure Tournament (winner)

EXPECTED

* Rivenoak Baronial Championship
* Westermark Maddness
* October Crown
* Great Western War Rose Tournament

WARS

* Mist/Cynagua 08
* Duchess' War 08
* West/ An Tir, 08
* Great Western War 08 (Caid)
* Cynagua/Mist 08
* Boars hunt, 08
* Estrella 09
* Mist/Cynagua 09 Prince’s Lance
* Potrero War 09, (Caid)
* West/An Tir War 09,
* War of the Heart, Jeffries War 09,
* Great Western War 09, (Caid)
* Cynagua/Mists 09,
* Baronies War 09,
* Western war Collegium 10,
* Estrella 10, (Atenveldt)
* Treasure Chest War 10,
* Mist/Cynagua War 10,
* Potrero War 10 (Caid)
* Duchess' War 10
* Kingdom War Practice (Spartan skirmish with Ermine Company)
* West An tir, 10
* Great Western War 10
* Cynagua/Mist War 10
* Boars Hunt, 10
* War Collegium, 2/5/2011
* Estrella 2011
* Treasure Chest War 2011
* Cynagua Mists War '11
* May Potrero War (CAID) '11
* Duchess' War '11
* West Antir War '11
* Baronial Manuevers '11
* Spartans And Ravens Skirmish '11
* Pennsic War XL '11

* EXPECTED
* Great Western War
* Mists Cynagua War (Prince Miles Vs. Prince Achilles)

<<<<<<<

Yes, he grew up around this game and yes he has a lot of natural ability, but look at the amount he fights. this is just tourneys and wars, and some of those things listed are tourneys he fought in *at* wars, so they double up. But he also practices two to three times most weeks. The results are clear. In his second year of fighting he won three tourneys in a row. He won coronet in less than three years and then was knighted exactly three years after the first tournament he fought in. Now, I'm not saying you will be knighted in three years if you fight that much. I won't even say it couldn't hurt (fighting can hurt. fighting a lot increases the chances of being hurt). But that kind of aggression in training helped Miles a lot and, similarly, it helped me.

Locally I look at John the Breeder, an unbelted fighter in Duke Omega's unit who has been fighting less than two years and who, as I said, totally tattooed my legs two days ago at Nutley. John fights three times a week, and it shows. Not only did he final in the novice tourney at Pennsic, he finaled in the Atlantian Speed Tourney as well. His physical prowess is of knight caliber already. He is a legitimate threat even to the best dukes in the kingdom right now. All he lacks is depth, and he is getting that at a rate much faster than most people get.

If you practice once a week and average 1 fighting event a month (that's 12 fighting events in a year, which is actually hi when you look at all fighters), in a year you will have been in armor 60 times. Let's say that one of those events was Pennsic, and that you were in armor for all the battles. That would be another five times. Let's say 70 to be generous. But if you are practicing three days a week and averaging two events a month, then you would be in armor 168 times in a year. Assuming two of those events are major wars, let's make that an even 175. You are getting almost 130% more helmet time--more experience--in the same year. So when Miles had been fighting for three years, it was the same amount of helmet time that most fighters get in six years and four months (give or take).

My plan to be in armor twenty times before crown (which will be difficult) seems puny by comparison. But I do want helmet time.

FIGHTING
For that reason I let myself get trapped last night. I was hauling my gear over to BAT last night so that Oscad could put it in the trailer and take it to Barleycorn. But when I got there Oscad, Richard, Eddie, Andrew and Mark were all in armor. I had my armor with me. I was not planning on fighting but how could I not at that point? By the time I got into armor Richard and Oscad were out, but I still got some helmet time.

This night should have been more of a teaching night for me. I didn't fight any of the guys like I would if it were crown, and I spent time teaching each one of them, but they each also presented a challenge. Andrew fights exclusively polearm, and he's getting competent. Competent is how my polearm is best described. Since weapons depth is important in crown I fought him with a partisan. He made the same mistake four times (letting me get on top of his glaive), and I won each of those four fights . When he knuckled down and was more careful we were trading even.

Eddie is left handed, fast and strong. I practiced doing what I didn't do against John. I kept my feet in a line, almost like a fencing stance, so my shield was positioned more to my sword side. This limits my offense but increases my defense. As Eddie tried to move around me I circled always keeping his sword right in front of my shield, a la Gemini. It worked. It would not have been as effective against John with his deep steps and his speed, but it was significantly better. Eddie asked why I was holding my sword behind my head so much. I said it was because it was how I was most comfortable in that stance. If I brought my sword forward I would be squaring my shoulder and hip more than I wanted to. I didn't tell him that I was channeling Phil.

Against Mark I was fighting sword and short sword. He was sword and shield. Half the fights I was using the short sword tip up, like I was fighting Silver. He gave me the opening I wanted once: he threw an off-side head shot. I blocked it with my broadsword and, at the same time, took the short sword and pushed against his swordarm, turning him around and exposing the back of his head, which I then hit. The other half of the time I fought like Larry does at Nutley, with the tip down, dagger style. This was great fun, and very effective. It made the short sword both more defensive (better leg defense) and more offensive, in that I killed him with it three times. Of course, the times he took my leg it was a totally different story. I don't think I won any of those.

It's my fifth time in armor since Pennsic, so I am back on track. Barley corn is tomorrow.

Mutley, 9/7/2011

2011-09-08T14:23:00.000-04:00

Ouch.

TECHNIQUE:
What I am trying to do right now is reacquaint myself with the heater. I went back to it at the beginning of this year, and have been practicing with it since (except for last BAT, when I used a smaller one, and Western Crown where I use a Bunny Round). Aside from a couple years using a 24” round, two stints with a bunny round, and my two year experiment with the center grip kite, I have fought with a heater most of my career. It’s safe to say I have more than 20 years experience with a heater. However, most of that was using an open Western style, which no longer works in this land of huge kites and expert face-thrusting. I am trying to re-train myself.

The first big thing is do I fight sword leg back, the way I learned and fought for 25 years, or sword leg forward, the way I have fought for the last five years with the bunny round and the kite?

My sword leg back technique was originally a Bellatrix school technique, designed to drive the hip forward and generate power. It places the shield in front in the best position to cover the whole body. After moving too the East I went to a more closed form with the sword forward. There are two main variations of this. One is with the sword guarding the head area and the shield guarding everything else, not unlike Jade’s high/low technique, but with a bigger shield. The other is the way Duke Kelson fights, with the shield guarding the left side and the sword guarding the right.

Von Dresden uses an A Frame defense, which is similar, but I have never really pursued it. I mostly use the sword to guard my head.

Sword leg forward puts your sword in between you and your opponent. It allows you to strike at him while keeping your torso father away, out of range if he is your height or smaller. My sword leg forward style is a weird amalgamation of things I’ve learned from Lucan and form Havoc. Lucan points his lead foot way off to the left and pulls his shoulder back, tensing through his core and loading up his arm to generate power. Havoc is a little more square and his feet are closer together. With both the bunny round and the kite this style worked really well for me. The heater is tougher. It doesn’t move over as well as the bunny round or the kite, so with the sword leg forward the leg is harder to guard. This is what I’m working out right now.

FIGHTING:
Last night was Nutley practice. I rented a ZipCar and drove over, arriving pretty late because of traffic at the Lincoln Tunnel. I fought John the Breeder, a new (4 month) fighter whose name might have been Eigil, Vasilli, Brenan, and Sir Douglas. Because I need to practice my weapons depth, I fought Douglas two sword.

I found that the three right handed fighters were all pressing me and offering me their shields. I was doing a hook/snap, but passing back on the left as I did it, which I just fell into and which was very effective and against Brenan and the new guy.

Against Vasilli I found, for some reason, that a top-edge hook was working better. Vasilli, by the way, has taken a big leap in his fighting. He is not only better but more elegant. He is no longer clubbing people (he is super strong). I think he’s found that with his strength he will not tire as fast and will have better targeting if he throws with more control and less OOMPH. He was using a lot of wrist shots, but with him they are plenty powerful. They are also faster, crisper, and better targeted.

My fights with John the Breeder were fun and painful. He is totally brining the love. He hits as hard as Vasilli ever did, maybe harder, and faster too. I don’t think he knows how hard he swings, but that’s the joy of fighting three to four times a week. I may have won twice. I won the first fight by taking his arm, and I won another fight by closing and hitting an off-side head shot. He dominated the rest of our fights. I have six very colorful bruises on my right leg and hip, and one on the inside of my left leg, most of them from John.

Brenan fights the Lucan style and does it well, so that was good practice. I did very well against him. At one point he hit my elbow with a glancing shot that was also flat. He told me not to take it but, that is the shot that hurts most today. The main thing he needs is to control range a bit better.

Against Douglas I took two broadswords. I started out trying to use Alfred’s style, left sword on my shoulder right one on my hip. Doug said that that made him uncomfortable, so he simply waited me out, not wanting to close. When I closed and tried to sweep his swords he backed out., so I abandoned that Later, when I tried to close aggressively and attack with cuts from both swords, he jam blocked both my shots then threw a short blow down the center and killed me. I was probably best using the same sort of style he does, with both points presented, but I think the only kill I got was using an old Houghton trick. He took my leg, closed in real tight, and I sat down, aiming my basket hilt between his knees and hitting him in the chest.

On the whole I fought better than I did last week.

I asked Omega/Darius to watch my fights with Brenan because I was going to go back and forth between my sword foot forward style and my shield foot forward style, and I wanted him to critique me. He said I just looked uncomfortable. I hadn’t fought with the heater much lately and rarely ever with the sword foot forward. He said I looked most comfortable with my shield foot forward, but nothing was really clicking. He suggested nest practice I alternate, do one passage one way, the next the other, and figure out which is most comfortable. He said something interesting. He fought with a heater for 20 years before going to the big Lucan style kite and a sword foot forward style. He said that sword foot back is his most efficient and comfortable style, and that he can win 90% of his fights with it. But against Gregor and Lucan he has a better percentage with the sword foot forward, and that’s why he uses it all the time now. Watching Gemini on YouTube this morning and thinking about his mantra (keep your shield between you and your opponent’s sword) I think I have a new way to stand. I’ll try it out on Saturday. I also need to re-strap that heater so my hand isn’t so far up into the lead corner. Against John the Breeder and other left handers I need to do what I did back in the day: stand with my feet parallel so my shield is cheated all the way over, a la Phil Harlech. I knew this once upon a time, but I didn’t do it against John.

It was my fourth day in armor since Pennsic. I feel good, especially the bruises (bruises, like road rash, let you know you are alive). Next up, Barleycorn!

Messing with crown.

2011-09-06T22:59:00.001-04:00

People often object to the king messing with criwn. In most kingdoms there are no restrictions on crown. Everybody brings their best fight. In the east there is a tradition of multiple weapon formats in finals, which I have heard people object to. But sometimes it goes even farther. Two crowns ago the East used a pool play format for the first round, with four round Robinson and four people advancing from each. Last crown the round robin was limited to great weapon. This time the round robin will be any weapon, but the double elimination section will be best two out of three, a different set of matched weapons each round. Once upon a tome in An Tir Barek declared only center grip round shields for his crown. Cowryn fought with a five inch roundel. Michael in Atlantia declared no thrusting tips. Now Rolf has declared all swords in Western Crown must have a cross hilt. They can have a basket hilt, but must have a cross hilt too.

Ok. Rolf is my boy as well as being king. I think it is a bit silly, and since I'm not fighting I have no skin in it. I think it is the king's list, and however he wants to play it we play it that way. Cross halted swords will shake a lot of people up. Could be fun.

BAT 9/4/2011

2011-09-05T13:29:00.000-04:00

HOW TO RUN A CLASS

I spent some time training with Paul of Bellatrix. His training method revolves around unarmored work: classes, slow work, drills, pell work. He encouraged new fighters to train for a year before they ever put in armor.

I employ some of that. I try to lead unarmored classes at BAT and I do a lot of pell work and slow work. Along with Ronald, also a Bellatrix product, I am trying to hold unarmored classes every time I go to practice. We have instituted a policy at BAT that the new fighters need to do drills before they get into armor. Myself, GUI, and Cian will lead the classes (at least one of us is always there).

The form of our class is simple. First we do a set of blocking and striking drills. Then we review some of the stuff we learned before. Then there is a lesson, usually a new drill or a new concept. After that is slow work and perhaps some pell work.

Today we used the blocking striking drills. They are essentially the same as thaw in the Asgard system. We reviewed the salute, the various engarde positions, and the sabre parrys that are uses in sword blocks. The lessons was striking and walking. Then I did some slow work with each of them.

All of the fighters seemed to get something out of it, depending on their skill level. With myself, Gui, and Sir Edward there to teach, they got some quality instruction. The format of the class works well. If it were an armored class I would run it differently.

An interesting point: I was talking with a historian of fencing recently, wwho teaches both modern fencing and HEMA. He told me that the "class in a line, where the students are taught together in a group, comes out of 18th Century military training, and that before that all instruction was private. Students would take individual lessons with the master of a salon and then would spar with one another. I found this fascinating. It is, in a way, the way most SCA teaching is done, though it is even less formal.

FIGHTING

Oscad had my armor in his truck, and he was in Philly celebrating his aniversary. Oops. Luckilly we had a lot of loaner gear. I wore my old gambesson, a weight-lifter's kidney belt, some black plastic legs, Eddie's helm, gui's right arm harness, a Torvaldr bauzband (he's left handed), a demi of John's, a loaner gorget and what ever pads were lying around. We have a 32" loaner heater and some spare swords. I actually felt great. I lost my leg more than normal, but I also was pretty light on my feet. It would not have flowan at nutley, but it was fun. I fought, in order, Lou, Gui, Alexander, and Tormundr, which is a broad range of fighters and pretty good for a practice on Labor Day Weekend.

Techniques:
Used a larger variety of techniques than I usually do. It's kind of like I forget them while I'm fighting, but not yesterday

I worked on some old-school techniques, including a lot of Western high open form. With the shield I was using it made sense. Lost my leg a lot.

I tried the hook/thrust against Alexander and he killed me. He is the first person I've found who has a truly good counter to it. It comes from his fencing skills. He saw it as a thust to his torso. He passed forward offline, twisting out of the way of the thrust while cutting at the same time. Killed me good. There goes my money shot!

Still working on the punching head shot from a closed form (a la Ice). Found that against the kite, if I time it right to throw as he is thorwing, it cuts through where that corner on a heater would be very nicely. That's likely why Ice throws it. Have to try it against Rolf or Omega.

On my legs against Alexander I swithced from looking over the top of my shield to looking past the leading edge of my shiled. I looked twice at hie leg then threw a wavy rising snap. He was going for a body thrust, which missed, and I killed him. That trick is set up as soon as you change the shield position. It gets him thinking about the leg shot.

I did not use a thrusting tip against Lou and still managed to kill him, he was fighting sword and long madu, so the thrust was missed.

Jade's standard opening combo; sword foot forward, shield held low inviting the head shot, sword held high. When he throws the head shot bring your feet together and your shield up. Your left arm and your sword should form a line. As he recovers, your sword follows his back and you hit him in the arm pit.

Rolf's figure 8 attack. Strike on-side head, folw through so your sword is in front of your shield, strike off side body, follow through with a tear-drop return, strike onside head. Works with opponents on their knees or standing (look at the video of the last Western Crown finals).

Gemini's variation of that, when the opponent is on his knees, which ends by punching the corner of your shield into the lower-leading edge of your opponent's and thrusting to the neck or face.

Radnor's butterfly and upsilon leg shot, which are both locked-wrist techniques. In the first you start an onside leg shot, bring the basket hilt toward your face so the sword passes upwards in front of his shhield, then turn that into an off-side body shot. The second is just a wavy-rising snap that turns back into a leg shot.

A couple of those techniques were used on Lou and Alexander, a couple on Tormundr, who is newer. I just kept going to the well to see what might feel good at full speed and what wouldn't.

My shortcoming stemed mainly from getting lazy with my shield arm, and squaring up too much, which I was doing on purpose but it wasn't working. Gui pasted me a couple of times.

TRAINING:

Did a great 13 mile bike ride on Saturday. Haven't lifted since Monday last. On weeks when I fight at Nutley, like this week, my regimen will be recovery on Monday, bike or gym for aerobics on Tuesday, fight on Wednesday, recover Thursday, bike Friday, fight on the weekend. On weeks when I don't got to Nutley (unless I'm going to a thursday practice) I will lift on Tuesday and Thursday, bike Wednesday and friday, recover Saturday and Monday. Or that is the plan.

This weekend is the Feast of John Barleycorn, which will be Gui's investiture as Viceroy of Ostgardr and a rose tournament. I'm hoping to get some fighting done on Sunday as well.

NUTLEY!! 8/31/011

2011-09-01T15:15:00.000-04:00

Ow. My elbow hurts.

It got hit awhile back. Maybe at BAT ten days before, maybe at Pennsic, I can't recall, but it got hit. I thought it was healed but it ached all last night. Since I'm currently not allowed anti-inflamatories, and since I didn't put the ice packs back in the freezer last time I used them, it is still achy.

Also, I did not fight that well. But I did fight.

I only fought four opponents, but I had a plan for the evening. I would warm up with a good fighter, I would make sure I fought Omega and Gregor, then I owed Luther (or is it Uther) Crown Prince of Acre a fight. After that if I had anything left I would fight Douglas. Never made it to Douglas, mostly because I chose to wait and make sure I got my fights with Omega and Gregor.

My warmup fight went well. I fought that really good guy in 14th century blue and grey rig, Azure, a Lion Rampant within a tressure fleury or. (at least I think that's it--might be a double tressure). I think he's from Acre as well. It was a great set of fights. He won the first two, then I started wining. He one shotted me with a rising snap on our last fight, which means I was in deep suckage for the evening. My best kill on him was probably my double-pump wrap.

I was working on two things all night. The first was I was trying to maneuver myself into position so that my shield was always between me and his weapon. That meant, instead of going nose to nose like typical SCA fighters I would cheat to shield side and set up toward his weapon. THe other part of that, using my feet to move my shield instead of my arm, went out with the first engagement. Part of that plan was concentrating on defense. I've always been an offensive minded, Bellatrix trained fighter: grab the initiative, attack, and kill him before he can kill you. In a kingdom of counter punchers that has long spelled my doom. So I have been concentrating on patience and defense and it worked well against this guy. I blocked most of his stuff and waited till I could set up shots. It meant my fights were longer, but I felt good about them.

Against Omega I was toast. I did not touch him once. He took my arm, my off leg, and my onside leg at will. He picked up every shot I was aboout to throw well outside of commitment range. When I just defended and kept at range I could stay alive, but that is about all I could do. After awhile I was looking too much for the thrust, which John pointed out. Then I went away from it entirely.

Against Gregor that's what I tried to do, and it mostly worked. I stayed at range and picked up his shots early for the first few bouts. He was killing me when I started to attack, or when I was recovering. Then he started throwing that over the shield flip that Thorsen gets me with whenever I use a heater. The first time he threw it is didn't work. Then he opened up his stance by moving his right foot forward, squaring his shoulders a bit, that improved the angle and he killed me with it. I went exclusively to a sword forward guard and he started timing my shots, to throw it whenever my sword was moving. It was not good. Lateral movement to my right is probably the best defense. The only time I killed Gregor was with a hook/thrust. Troulbe with a money shot is that you can only use it once.

Against Luther I did great. He is an awesome quick fighter but he has some windows. I got him twice with Omega's deep off-side leg shot. I also hit either him or the first guy (at this point I can't remember) with it in the body. I took his leg and got him with Ed's version of the butterfly. Then I took his leg again. I threw a shot at his head and noticed that he was using an a-frame stance that left his body open, so I stepped in and smashed his sword and shield with my shield. As he recovered I stabbed him in the chest. That was a great kill, because I had seen the flaw in his style and immediately capitalized on it.

Both Gregor and Omega said I was not fighting as well as I usually do. For my fights with Gregor I had even taken off my breast plate, because it was restricting my movement and because it was so freaking hot. The heat, by the way, got to me. Plus I only ate 1,000 calories yesterday, *and* I had lifted on Monday and done some intense yoga on Tuesday, so I hadn't recovered. But my timing was way off, so was my targeting, and my elbow ached.

I've been working on a short-stick onside, a good shot to throw from a sword forward guard. It is a good hard shhot and I've killed with it a couple of times now. It is one of those shots that is more like a punch than a swing.

Best laid plans

2011-08-30T16:25:00.001-04:00

Oscad and I were going to Nutley last week. I was napping at home, having finished my final day at Paragon. Oscad was getting his armor together at BAT. about 6:30 we talked as he was leaving, and just before I hung up I asked "did either of us check to see OS Nutley is in this week?" The answer was no, so I checked and, sure enough, it doesn't resume till tomorrow. Then Irene came to town and the subway was taken offline. No BAT Sunday. So I have lost two practices already that I was planning to go to. Have to make those up somehow. Anyway, I will be at Nutley tomorrow.

Crown prep

2011-08-20T13:26:00.000-04:00

There are 77 days until Crown Tourney.

I have begun my new training regimen in ernest. I will not be able, due to circumstances like living in NYC and not owning a car, to practice twice a week as I would like. I have worked out what I consider to be the ultimate SCA training regimen, (next post) but it requires a midweek practice, and I can't get to Nutley every week.

Today I want to talk about two things: tracking workouts and scheduling.

I've started using the imapmyride app to keep track of my workouts and my nutrition (which can always use some help). Up until now I've just been playing with it, but from now on I intend to use it every day to record what I am eating and how I am training. The workouts show up on www.mapmyfitness.com and on facebook. It is a well designed app that will also track my runs and bike rides via gps (the main reason I got it). It is how I know, for instance, that it is 13.9 miles from my house to City College, where I teach Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was making that ride once a week (twice for one week) in July. Biking will be nearly all my cardio. I will also be lifiting, mostly kettle bells, doing yoga, and using my indian clubs. Fighting will show up as "miscelaneous martial arts". In this way I hope to keep myself honest as to how much work I am putting in this year.

It is important to make a schedule when you are training. I will be travelling a bit between now and Crown, and I'll hit the field once or twice for the early hunting season, so I won't get to as many fight practices or events as I would like. Currently my plan is as follows:

Fight at Barleycorn

BAT (or another sunday practice) every week but October 9 and October 30 (that's 9 practices). At least one of those should be at Andre's practice in South Jersey and two at Iron Bog.

Nutley on 8/24 (or 31), 9/7 & 21, and 10/12, 19, & 26.

I won't make King's and Queen's Champion at arms. I will try to make at least one more fighting event before Crown.

Crown is on November 5.

So between now and Crown I plan to be in armor 16 times. If I can stretch that to 20 I should be in good shape.

My goal in every crown is, of course, to make my lade queen. But my personal goal remains making it to the round of 4. Under the format for this crown that will be really hard, because it will likely take 26 to 31 fights to get there. That's a lot of fights for a crown tourney. So my wind better be up.

Next post I will talk abut the ultimate SCA Training Regimen TM.

Penndic correction

2011-08-15T23:04:00.001-04:00

Correction her name was Roisin Ailill.

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Last Day of Pennsic

2011-08-12T14:28:00.000-04:00

This has been a great war. I haven't fought as much as I'd like, but I fought a lot and partied a bit and great things happened.

We had three new fighters in our group, Duncan, Deklin, and Shandar, plus Thormundr, a midrealm transplant, to go with Me, Cian and Gui. Amalric fought with us a bit too. We fought well.

There were three knightings and two of them were the guys I have been pushing, Gui Avec Cheval du Guise and Oscad de Segovia. They are the two guys who basically run the Brooklyn practice. Gui is also about to become Viceroy of Ostgardr. They are both great fighters and I have seen them as knights for a long time.

Gui's vigil was particularly cool. He got called out of Scotch and Cigar party and we marched him to a pavilion on the side of the field, striped him naked and poured ice water over him. Cian was in charge of setting it up. The new guys formed his guard. It was awesome.

The third knight was Roger Stockton. That was a controversial knighting but in the end I'm happy with it.

I just finished my sixth day in armor. I did pickups every day and fought in every battle save the bridge (I had to take Hanna to the airport). I also fought in the Atlantian speed tourney. I went five round and lost to Duke Edmund and Douglas Henry, who eventually won. Not a bad showing really.

My pickups were fantastic. I fought a lot of easterners but, today at least, they were form Tir Mara so I had never seen them before. The two pickup opponents who stand out for me were a lady knight from North Shield, I thing her name was Roshamund, and Dongal a knight from Atenveldt. In both cases the key to winning the fights that I won was patience. As I figured, I am losing my leg more with the heater than I did with the center grip kite. I successfully used an upsilon leg shot, a hook thrust, a hesitation wrap, and a wavy-rising snap. But the real trick was a wrap that basically threw itself when my opponent closed on me. That was awesome.

Camp was also fantastic. We have a great bunch of people this year. I even made it to the Bardici party last night, which is truly up to all the hype. It was the most magnificent thing I'd ever seen at Pennsic.

pennsic prep

2011-08-02T08:57:00.001-04:00

Well I leave for war this Saturday. My shoulder is healed, my ribs are mending and my back is fine so long as I don't work retail. My armor is repaired and I have a tent. I've been biking, including a 32 mile day yesterday. Feel ready.

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Grumble

2011-07-28T11:18:00.000-04:00

Decided not to ride the bike today. Can't really lift either. Ribs feel better but still hurt from crash the other day. Supposed to be training for Pennsic (though since I can ride 32 miles in a day right now, I don't think my wind is a problem for Pennsic). But no training today.

It gives me a bit of time to talk philosophy. I never try to hide the fact that my main goal in fighting is to win my second crown. I've done some stupid things in that pursuit, like going to a bunny round for three years, but I still think I've got a shot. While spring crown wasn't too good, with sword and shield since I went to the 24x36 heater I am fighting great. Pennsic will be a real test. I've also given notice at Paragon which will free up a lot more Saturdays. So here is the philosophy part.

We fight for ourselves. We fight for our consorts. We fight for our kings. A lot of people try to say that you shouldn't want to win, or that you should fight for the pure joy off fighting or to make you consort happy or to support your king, but that fighting to win is bad. I fight to win. I have enjoyed fights I've lost, but I usually enjoy winning more. People also say you shouldn't want the crown. That's bull. Why would you fight for something if you didn't want it? I realize there are a lot of reasons to fight in crown that have nothing to do with reigning, and people who have little chance of winning still fight. And they should--I've got that old school Western attitude that Crown is what this game is all about and so everybody should fight in crown. But for me, if I didn't want to win I would feel bad about fighting. I've struggled with this the last few times I've fought in Western crown. Do I really want to try to be king of the West while living in the East. I can afford the travel, that's not the issue. I've got the savings and would spend it happily. So far, every year, the answer has been yes. I still love the West, I'm still active there, and I'd enjoy being king. If ever I felt that I couldn't do it, or that I didn't want it, I'd stop fighting in June Crown. But the alrger point is that I want to be king.

Shouldn't people want to be king if they are fighting in crown? And, in a larger sense, shouldn't people want to be king or queen period, since that is the foundation of our game?

Workouts

2011-07-27T15:01:00.001-04:00

So I succumbed to the advertising on the Tour de France and downloaded the mapmyride app. I am using it to keep track of my workout progress and, while I don't like the website, and there are some kins in the nutrition section, I do like the mapping feature, the calorie calculator, and the workout log. I wasn't able to find kettle bells on the drop down menu though. That needs a fix. It uploads my workouts automatically to Facebook and, in theory, to www.mapmyride.com, though I haven't figured out how that part works yet. But my workouts can be seen on facebook now, which will show everybody how much I'm slacking off.

My first experiment with it yesterday included some road rash. I rode my bike to work at City College (16 miles) and on the way hit a pothole on the West Side Highway and went over my handle bars, Well, actually, one of them hit me in the ribs, which still hurts. After class I rode down to Soho for late lunch with my sister and her family (about nine miles) and then home, though I didn't start the gps right away, so it only showed that as a bit over six miles. It was, for all intents and purposes, a 32 mile day. The app records my distance, elevation changes, average speed and total time. Pretty cool.

The day before that I did my kettle bell workout, but didn't upload that one. That log is pretty general though.

Today, though I had planned to ride to school again, I took the subway. My ribs needed the recovery time. Hopefully I won't have to wear the body armor at Pennsic.

And speaking of Pennsic, it starts on Saturday. I won't be there till second Saturday, but am already antsy.

More on spring crown

2011-07-25T21:36:00.000-04:00

I finally got some mroe videos uploaded to youtube of my fights at Spring Crown. There are at least three more, but they are all of the same fight.

This first fight I don't have much to say about. It was one of my two best kills. I'm very pleased with my execution of the leg shot, becaue I move right while throwing it and I get my hands high to block his shot at the same time. Range would have been more even if I'd used the bastard sword, but a maul is a polearm, and so it stuck in my mind that that was what I should be using. Regardles, from a practical poitn of view, it was the right choice.

The next one is my first fight with Oscad, in which we double kill. It demonstrates an axiom of polearm fighting: if you go to the opposite hand of your opponent, so that your polearms are in line instead of being crossed, you open up more attcks for both of you. That's why we double killed.

In our refight I am doing great. Watch how I fake him out of his socks and then miss the thrust with my first shot. I probaly would have had him if I'd followed up faster when he let go of his polearm, but I was too slow.

The next three are of me fighting a squire of Duke Gryfith. The long conversation in the first one is me trying to talk him out of taking a real wambly shot that he had clearly blocked. The embarasing part is how long it took me to kill him after I'd taken his arm. Note how the rules save me when he accidentally punches me in the face with his gauntlet.

Training and Links

2011-07-12T14:49:00.000-04:00

I've added a bunch of links to my blog over there on the right ---->

They are three of my favorite fighting styles, the three armorers I work most with, and a cool SCA demo site. Check them out.

Training. Yesterday I rode my bike to work again, 30 miles round trip. Today should be kettle bells. But hopefully tomorrow will be Nutley.

BAT practice

2011-07-11T20:37:00.002-04:00

Got into armor at BAT on Sunday. First time since a slight medical issue that occurred in California (at 47 I am now old enough for slight medical issues).

Started out by renewing my rapier authorization after a 25 year lapse. I fight it at practice all the time, but haven't been authorized since before there were society wide rules and all we had to use were epees. So I have more stuff to buy at Pennsic.

Donned my armor. Only fought 4 sets of fights, but there were only four of us geared up. Fought Dugal with Bastards swords. He is good but he comes straight forward and relies on the thrust. I was going back to basics, using my Elrik influenced long-point style and did well. Several times I got my sword on top of his and killed him, and once or twice killed him with the thrust. I could not kill him with a molinee however, and that usually works for me.

Next I fought Andrew with glaives. He is getting better. A straight up attack worked fine but opposing my thumbs didn't.

Fought Dugal sword and shield. Felt good.

Next I fought Nick with sword and shield. By then my arms were tired so it was an exercise in beating fatigue. His defense is always tight and he hits like a stone mason, so its a fun fight. He reminded me why I fight sword forward, even though I don't like that style.

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work has begun

2011-07-09T11:43:00.001-04:00

A good start this week to my training program. In addition to kettle bells on Monday I went on a 30 mile bike ride on Tuesday. Wed was a recovery day (except that I works my entail job). Thursday I did Yoga and Friday, in spite of some back pain, I did my Indian clubs. Tomorrow I fight.

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Training for crown

2011-07-04T12:18:00.003-04:00

Last post for today, then I have to get cracking on some real work.

Act two of crown training was spposed to start tomorrow. My first act has been limited to yoga and indian clubs and working reatail (great workout, retail, especially when stairs and ladders are involved) and fighting in Western crown. But I've been injured recently with a back that is bothering me (although it seems better when I've been fighting) and I've been working three jobs. Plus I had a slight health issue when I was in Cali that still needs to be resolved (read: I fainted, woke up alone on the floor of my room at a Motel 6 in Rhonert Park, which is not how I would like to go out--it seems to have been dehydration and stress plus way too much coffee). Tomorrow I start teaching summer sessiion, which means long long bike rides up to City College every day and Wednesday nights off (excpet for this Wednesday, natch).

In fact, act two started today, July 4. On employee apreciation day at Paragon I bought a sleeping bag, a brace, atheletic tape, socks, and a 12 kilo kettle bell. That's about 26 pounds. Today I used it for the first time and did my whole kettle bell workout:

Standingg rows
curl & press
two-handed front straight-arm raises/tricep extensions
two handed swings
Swinging stop-motion curls
one handed switch-swings
one handed snatch
turkish lift

I feel great! Tomorrow is the long bike ride and maybe indian clubs.

Now back to writing for pay.....

Some Crown Videos

2011-07-04T12:08:00.002-04:00

I posted two of Hanna's videos to YouTube.

It's odd reading my descriptions of these fights and then watching the videos. I got things so wrong. I totally forgot we double killed in this fight.

and

I thought we went core-to-sore three times, not twice. But, like I said, that round was a bit of a blur.

More videos to follow.

More on West Kingdom June Crown

2011-07-04T11:51:00.003-04:00

Finally, after two weeks I'm able to sit down and write more about Western crown.

1.) This is Rolf's ninth royal reign, five as King and four as Prince of Cynagua. His first reign was as Cynagua's second prince in AS XV (1980). Thirty-one years ago. His first reign as king was AS XVIII (1983). Twenty-seven years ago. His accomplishments rank with those of any duke at this point. Plus, I've been fighting Rolf since the day I first put on armor, right up to fighting him in the warm up melee this last crown, and I've still never beaten him. That was kind of amusing. I had just killed Sir Collin MacLear and Rolf had killed someone else. There were two guys fighting on their knees. Rolf and I looked at each other, then at the guys on their knees. One guy (it was probably Count Alfar) killed the other and Rolf said “You wanna do this now, Val?” He is, after all, the head of my household and we were fighting out of the same pavilion and we seem to fight each other in every crown. I think we both wanted to wait until later. But finally I said “nah, lets let the the guy on his knees watch. We fought and he killed me with a short punching shot from his mace.

2.) Finally, finally, finally I was a one seed in an Western list. In the West they break the lists into four fields and place the highest ranked fighter (by precedence) in the one slot on that field, then spread the other knights and the unbelteds who are crossed over out in the bracket. There were two dukes and three counts, one of whom was unbelted, so I ended up being the one seed on my field. It has no effect on who your first round fight will be wince that’s a challenge round and ended up with one of the best unbelted fighters in the kingdom first round. Now, it was a really tough tough field, with Sig and Loy and Bjarni and Eigil and I think Geoffrey Scott in it too. But that’s the way crown should be—tough. It is an honor I have always coveted—my personal sin being vanity. I guess you could say I was a one seed last fall in the East, since in the pool play there were three Dukes and two counts, and they put me and Thorsen on the same field.

3.) Rolf fought Duke Alden in the finals. Only two dukes in the list and guess who winds up in finals. Alden is Rolf's grand-squire, and they had trained together with Sagan for years. They know each other like brothers. Alden was using a little tiny square shield while Rolf was using his usual long kite. Alden was using a neat crouching sword forward style, not unlike Torgul’s round-shield style, while Rolf still doesn't even sword block. He fights the same way he did in AS 13. In both the fights Rolf won he took Alden's leg and then worked him till he was dead. They were among the neatest finals I've seen--clean, fun, honorable, and with two great contrasting styles fought by two truly great fighters.

4.) Sig placed third, which deserves a mention.

5.) The last unbelted fighter in the list was Roger Stockton. He killed two knights and lost to Viscout Rorik (who has finaled three times in crown) and to Rolf. It was a great day for him. The top level guys can beat Roger but the rest of the Westerners haven't figured him out yet (try moving laterally guys). He has been doing well in both the East and the West, which is also worth mentioning.

6.) As I said, I fought three of Uther's guys, small bunny round versus center-grip round, big center grip kite, and center grip heater. Like Alden, when I lost my leg I lost the fight.

7.) I love using the bunny round against lefties almost as much as I love using a center-grip kite against lefties. My fights against Alfar in roses were fantastic.

8.) On Sunday we held the long delayed discussion on terminology, which naturally turned into a discussion on technique. I learned a few things.
a.) Marc (most of this is up on his website) fights primarily in long-point and creates an A-frame defense. His only other guard is a hanging guard. He fights on his toes, strikes on the side of his forward foot except when crossing laterally, and times his blows to land when his foot stops moving.
b.) Hauoc generates all his power out of movement, or so he claims: I always thought that downward counter-strike of his was with feet planted. He says he steps with every blow he throws. He discussed the philosophy of the first-fastest (guarding where your oponent's fastest shot is available), which I’ve written about.
c.) Fabian and Hauoc did offense defense drills a la Sagan, wherein they struck in time with their opponent as their strike opened up a window. I’ve been trying to be able to do that for thirty-one years now.

There was more but that is most of what I absorbed.

western crown June 2011

2011-06-28T14:57:00.001-04:00

There is so much to write about Western Crown. On the one hand, I did terribly by my usual standards. I won only one fight and was hardly a factor at all. On the other hand, I thought I was fight well, I had fun, and my kind was right (I don't know how else to describe it, I felt better mentally than o had in years).

I fight three of Other's guys. They were all using.g relatively big shields. I was using my bunny round. My fights can be divided by leg shots. In the fight I won I took ly opponent's leg. He later took mine. In the fights I lost I lost my leg and then didn't take my opponents'. They pounded me into The ground.

I felt beter in the old school high open form, which indicates that I wasn't thinking on my feet.

I had a much better day fighting roses. I beat Alfar. He raved about how good I was. He called me sneaky. I won some other fights as well.

Rolf won crown. More on that later.

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Back in armour! Yay!

2011-06-14T22:59:00.004-04:00

Injuries and working retail have cut into my fighting this spring. My endurance is down, but only a bit, since working retail is the best workout I know other than living in a 12th floor walk up (which I voluntarilly did when I lived in the dorms and just stopped using the elevator one day).

So I went out and fought at the Kingsbridge Heights/Riverdale River Fest demo. It was a blast. First to a few words once again about demos.

This was a rare demo for us when we had more heavy fighters than rapier fighters. There were a total of 17 heavy fighters for the demo, and it worked out really well. We divided up time with the four (counting me, who isn't actually authorized) rapier fighters. Our first bit was just some general practice and smash and bash. We didn't do any heraldry for it. we just went out and fought pickups. Folks liked the noise. Then the rapier fighters took the field and did the same, with some heraldry framing the show. Our second set we fought at the barier. I have probably said it before, but I can't stress enough how useful bariers are at demos. They anchor the fighting in one place, they make it easier to see, they give the crowd something it wasn't normally expecting--even if they knwo a thing or two about swordplay or even wicker-whacking--and the crowd actually learns something. You can frame that part of the demo as a 14th Century tournament a plaisance, and it tends to work well. We had a herald announcing each fight (who was a fighter himself, and fought one bout himself). We had a good number of fighters particpate in that set (I think it was 12), and we provided a good variety of fights: two pole arm combats, a two on two sword and shield fight, single swords (girpping the barrier), a one on one sword and shield fight, and bastard swords. All of the combats were to three blows landed, even the two on two. The crowd loved it.

Our third set we did some melees to liven the crowd up, culminating in "the battle of Kingsbridge Heights," wherein an army (seven guys) under Sir Balin took on the Broken Bridge army under Gui (also seven guys). We fought three times and Balin's force won twice. Balina dn Gui are both great at working the crowd, so it was a really good show. Then we did pickups for the rest of the day as a cool down set later. (two fighters didn't arive till after the battle). This was a great fighting demo.

Ostgardr has a great demo crew. There were probably as amny non-fighters as there were fighters there. We had six pavillions up (plus our two changing pavillions). In one was a glass blowing demo. In one was a mongol culture demo. In one Poison Pen Press was selling books. In one was a mail-making demo. In one was an archery display. In the big tent was the main arts and sciences display, plus food for all of us. We looked really good.

As to my fighting, I was having a blast and doing well. Sword and shield was working fine. My fight at the barier was the finale, greatswords against Gui. I spotted him two blows by letting him hit me twice before coming on guard. Then I scored two and he scored one more, winning the bout. I wore the body armor for that one, and my wind was a bit forced. But when I wore my normal kidney belt and gambesson my wind was fine. My sword and shield work was adequate. My best fights of the day were the three bouts with Balin. He killed me in the first one. we took each ohters legs and then I killed him with a thrust in the second. I took his leg and killed him witha a thrust in the thrid. In both my wins I cheated to my left, which got me inside his defence. It was a lot of fun.

John the Bear posted some photos on facebook:

Oh yeah: I now has kettle bell (!!!)

A disapointing crown

2011-05-08T23:48:00.005-04:00

Since Lucan made his announcement about how Crown tourney was to be fought—with an elimination round of four pools, fought with great weapons, then the top four from each pool advancing—I’ve been joking about how much it would suck to have Balfar and Cullyn placed in the same pool.

Crown was glorious but I must say I am mad at myself. I did get Balfar and Cullyn in my pool. Not only that, but I was in the only pool with three royal peers in it—I had to fight both Balfar and Ronald. A knight joyfully fights all comers, and I did and it was fun! Hell, I got to fight the two best polearm fighters in the kingdom, and I almost beat one of them. But I am still pissed and, quite frankly embarrassed. And frustrated. This is the first crown in a couple years in which I have not been a contender and, of course, at 47 I am well aware that I don’t have all that many more opportunities to win that second crown. I really thought I would advance. I knew it was a tough row to hoe, but I felt I could do it. But I realized that I was the type of fighter it was most likely to frustrate. And I’m frustrated. And pissed. At myself.

I did not win more fights than I lost. That is my first measure of how I do in a crown, and I failed. While the four fighters who advanced from our list were all really good at what they did and many people would have picked them, I am better with great weapons than I demonstrated yesterday. I feel I let myself down, my king and my lady with my performance—not because I was not honorable, but because I was really not much of a factor.

Whine whine whine! One thing I will not do is whine about trying my best. Losers whine about trying their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen. In truth I had a lot of fun and I did have one or two perfect moments out there yesterday—just not enough. And for the first crown in the last—I don’t know, fifteen, my lady was there to watch me, and I owed her better than that. On the other hand I was in good company: Ron, Thorsen, and Wilhelm didn’t advance either.

As for the list as a whole, what I predicted came true. There were some unbelted fighters who are normally not a factor in Crown who advanced out of the pool because pole arm is what they do, but in the end the same dukes and up and comers were left for semi finals. It didn’t really change much.

I was using my new bastard sword, the one I made two weeks ago. I was also using brand new gauntlets for the first time (much more protective than my old ones) and a breastplate with shoulder armor, figuring that fighting thirteen great weapon fights without shoulder armor was pretty stupid. It was light armor—a Kendo do—but when I got tired it did restrict my breathing a bit. I’m not making excuses I’m saying I was stupid. That’s too much new equipment for a tourney, especially one when you’re fighting weapons that aren’t your best form. I’d fought in the breastplate only twice before, never used the gauntlets or the sword. The pole arm was one of the loaners from BAT and I’d used it some. And all that work I’ve done transitioning to a heater shield turned out to be for naught. Sigh.

But as for my fights. I got to fight thirteen great weapon fights, seven with glaive and six with bastard sword. Take Balfar out of the equation (who went though out pool clean) and I split evenly, six fights with bastard sword, six fights with pole, three wins with each. Well, I might have lost eight. They all run together. I think I beat Jonathan Miles, but if I didn’t then I was five and eight. But I think I won that one. It is a bit of a blur, the whole round. Anyway, I dominated fights I was supposed to. I lost the fights I was likely to. But I didn’t win any of the “tossups”. Well, no: Garret was a tossup and I won that fight. But I should have won two more of those at least and I didn’t. My record was therefore seven and six. I don’t hang my head, because I fought well, just not well enough. In general, I fooled myself in two ways. First off I wanted to fight more bastard sword fights, because that’s a weapon I’ve always been good at, and one that I have a lot more experience with, and one that I’ve had success with in the past. Hanna said I looked more comfortable with it than the polearm. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. I kept losing my grip on it and not getting my blows the way I wanted them. I was actually more comfortable with the polearm. However, on that end there was another problem. Whether it was the gauntlets or something else, none of the techniques that usually work for me, those I had been practicing recently, were working very well. And then there was the inspection, but more on that later. I think that if I’d stuck with one weapon I would have done better because I could have built some consistency, and that weapon would have to be the polearm, because, while I said very recently that I always preferred bastard sword against pole I reconsidered that recently after I fought Cullyn and didn’t hit him once. It was a mistake to switch back and forth. Hanna said I was thinking too much and I probably was, because after my first few techniques failed I was trying hard to figure out what to do next.

First round I challenged Ron with bastard swords. Good fight. I was in it up till the end, but I made a mistake and moved into a shot of his (I think I might have been going for a leg shot without being in the right position and having my hands too low). He killed me.

Then I challenged Cullyn with polearms. Yes, tough fights right off the bat. Only problem was the marshals failed my buttspike. Oops. That left about a quarter of my attacks off limits. I fought him any way. As usual he presented his tip then whenever I started to move he’d cock up for a shot. I could never engage him to tie him up, so I had to move into his first shot and try to displace it. In one of our exchanges I got the position I wanted—both of use with right hand leads, my blade on top of his. I cut to his head, hit him twice. It was all arm and now power. But I thought I’d won the fight and was so elated I wasn’t ready when he kept fighting. It was an Oh Shit moment and that’s when he killed me. That was a technique issue. I got the shot I wanted but I did not execute by putting some hip behind it. After that I got a new butt spike.

My third fight was a bastard sword fight against Garret. He threw a lot of fast shots with his light sword but I got on top of it and cut his head, winning the fight, just like I tried to do. I struck from my left and he did the same, then I turned my hands on top of his blade, cut and killed him.
Ok, after that, I’m not sure I got the order right. My fight with Johnathan Miles was with swords and, like I said, I’m not really sure what happened. I’m pretty sure I won.

I fought a guy in green and white. He used a maul and I used pole arm. I cut his leg as he charged me, then did a wiggle fake and thrust him in the belly.
Ivan came at me with a really long nodachi so I took the pole against him. After a couple of exchanges I realized that he was keeping his blade straight up and down. I presented my tip and he charged right onto it. Good kill.
My fight with Oscad, the fighter there I had the most experience with and the most experience fighting pole against, was predictably long. We fought each other well. He went into that point low guard of his. I tried to counter with a left hand lead and pool cue thrusts. We double killed. In our second fight I sent two thrusts past his face, about two inches off his grill to his right. Then he got me. That was a fight I definitely should have won.

My fight with Balfar I acquitted myself well. He fights that high cutting style. We both got some good strikes in before he cut my arm with one blow then took my head with the followup.

My fight with Sterling was probably my most frustrating. It was with swords, and it was the only fight I felt I didn’t know what to do. I might have berserked a bit. It was one of my last fights and I was tired. I got my wind back, but it was tough. I was trying just simple cuts, fast, a la Gregor, working the angles. At one point we both hit each other light, then he cut me. I think with a face blow. I don’t really remember.

I fought Killian, whom I think was Serpentius. He closed strong with me. I didn’t have an answer. My counter wasn’t working as he was following me and sticking to me. The third time we went core to core he thrust me in the face with his butt spike.
I fought a squire of Gryfith’s (who also might have been Johnathan). We fought with poles. I had to talk him out of taking a really wambly shot that he totally had blocked. Then I took his arm and killed him.

My fight with Simon was tactical. I moved into a stance he countered, he moved into a stance I countered. Eventually we through two blows and I was dead. It was actually a very good fight, and he totally beat me.

My last fight was a pole arm fight against Inkanta. He was using a left hand lead, so I used a right hand lead, flourished high and hit him in the hip. It was my last fight, it was a one shot kill, and it was my best execution of the day. It ended my list on a high note.

Hanna got some of my fights on video, and I’ll post them here later.
As for the list itself, it ended with Gregor vs Brian and Kendrick vs Balfar in the semis. Gregor dispatched Brian in a gorgeous fight. Kendrick beat Balfar in the first bout but had to fight a second and lost.

The finals were great sword, then pole, then sword and shield, then great ax, then choice. It didn’t get to choice. As expected, Gregor won the great sword and sword and shield, Balfar won the pole. They fought great axes and it looked like Balfar had killed Gregor. Gregor acknowledged the defeat. But Lucan stepped in and declared it haft. Then they talked. Then Balfar decided that a blow he had called haft had actually been blade and he conceded. It was an anti climactic way to end a truly awesome tourney.

I need to decide if I’m going to keep using the body armor in great weapon fights, if I’m going to use it in sword and shield fights, and exactly how much I need to practice with great weapons in the future.
On the way home I celebrated by having low carb cheesecake at the cheesecake factory. This morning I was achy in my arms, but I still got up and did my Indian club workout, because training for next crown started today.

Blood Guard University

2011-04-27T23:14:00.002-04:00

Saturday was a great practice. Gui and I went down to Ice Falcon’s for Blood Guard University. Ice lives in kind of an out of the way place. You can triangulate on it right in between Bum F*ck and Nowhere. It is in Jersey and—I’m not kidding here, and hour south of Philly. It’s maybe a half hour South East of Wilmington Delaware. It is so rurual we were off the freeway an hour without seeing a stoplight by the time we got to his house. Nothing but grain silos and tractors. He lives on one of those cul-de-sacs with new houses on them carved out of someone’s small farm. Their place is fantastic—a big colonial decorated in medieval, science fiction and Marine Corps chic. Unfortunately, most people bagged on it because of the weather. It ended up as Me, Gui, Ice, and two guys who had driven all the way down from Canada for the practice. However, that meant that we ended up doing lots of intense training. Bascially, Gui and I trained the guys from Canada and Ice trained all of us. The guys from Canada didn’t fight each other and neither did me and Gui.

Ice is an excellent trainer, and since I’ve gone to a 36” heater he was a good person for me to train with. Although it looks like he fights a fairly static, he is a very active fighter, punch blocking with his heater, striving to “win the place” as Fiore would say, and using strong technique—Elbow back, hip cocked, rotation, follow through.

Gui he was training out of that short off-side punch shot he uses. He was training him to cock and throw it with more travel and hiting on the end of the sword. It is a tough one, because Gui has always been successful with that shot but—as Bellatrix often points out, that shot comes in pretty soft and would *never* be effective in a real fight. He had Gui start his fights with his sword cocked to his left, ready to throw the shot. It worked pretty well, but it is taking away Gui’s main set-up.
My fights with him were more general. Our first set I didn’t win any fights. Our second set of fights I picked up late and won a couple toward the end. Our third set I was winning one out of every three fights. I had been trying to use some Gendy technique and Ice, bluntly, said the same thing to me that I tell everyone else—that that technique won’t fly anymore. He told me to move my elbow back and tighten up across the core, ala Bellatrix. One thing I worked through was that using goofy foot automatically forced me to pull my elbow back and tighten the shoulder, which is why I don’t have a lot of problems with power from that stance. Ice insists that my fighting picked up when I got off my heels and up on my toes. That’s interesting, because Bellatrix style digs the heels in and says you should keep them firmly on the ground when throwing a shot. But Ice was right. Gui says that I’ve been fighting my shield, and that fits. A big part of my fighting is always lateral movement, and that is what has been missing since I went to the heater. I’ve been sitting back too much.

Good fights!

More on polearms

2011-04-18T15:51:00.001-04:00

BAT on Sunday! Yay!

The frantic rush to practice with great weapons continues. Once we got inside (Oscad had stayed up in CT after Balfar’s Challenge, and John was at work so nobody had a key. Drew managed to jimmy the lock just before John got there) it was mostly a shieldless day.

Diablo was there to give polearm and greatsword instruction. Dougal was there, and he’s a really good great weapon fighter. Lou, Jibril, and I were also in attendance.

I didn’t fight much but the amount I did fight was great. I used the short bastard sword once again and had fun with it. I fought Lou with it and did really well. He had started employing some of the things I had taught him on Thursday. I also fought Dougal with it. I lost a few more of these fights and in one he re-set my neck when I walked into a stiff thrust. On the whole I was working on concepts as opposed to techniques. I pulled my hands together on the bastardword, which gave me a bit more ranged and prompted me to use the really old-style techniques I’d learned from Rolf back in AS 13. I found my core to core work was lacking considerably, which is frustrating since that’s a big part of the bellatrix style.

I also fought polearm against Dougal. I won about half our fights. With polearm I was at first concentrating on technique. I did very well fighting the tip-forward fencing style. I did horribly trying to use Oscad’s oarsman style. Our last fight I used an opposed thumb style a la Visivald or David Civet. This was fun and I beat him by chopping him in the back when he tried a spin move on me.

I fought sword and shield with Jibril. He and I were both defending well. I don’t know who won the most fights. My best kill on him was a hook thrust, and I almost got him with a followup thrust off a cut to the off side head. After trying for several fights I finally managed to get him with a wrap. I was completely unable to take his leg.

Afterward we talked a lot about why he had been fighting me well. I pointed out that against me his footwork is very good. I then explained to him the concept of “gaining the place.” My offensive footwork is designed to get me into a position where I can attack my opponent at an angle, so that I am not facing his defense headon. This is what Silver calls “gaining the place” and Liberi refers to as “pissing down his leg.” In other words, if you can park on your opponent’s hip you will win the fight. I used the following examples, which are all worth learning:

• The Lucky Two step, in which you strike an onside blow, pass forward offline to your left, briefly exposing the back of your head to an offside shot as bait, then pass gain with your left foot and square up, throwing an off side head shot. If your opponent hasn’t moved you are now nest to him and inside his defense.
• Lucan’s passing shot, which is the same thing except since he starts with his shield foot forward he has eliminated the first step (though he does start with that foot a bit off line and sometimes moves it more so, like Liberi) and, as he doesn’t close as deep, the body is a better shot for him.
• Bellatrix’s theory that you imagine your opponent inside a circle in a box, and you move to the corner of the box to attack where you can hit him but he has trouble hitting you.
• Gyrth’s explanation that you imagine your opponent’s range as a series of concentric circles or ovoids, and that you should pass off line and intersect the ovoid on a tangent, so that you are in a better position to strike than is your opponent.

Jibril knows I move a lot so he was circling away from me or trying to cut me off—in both cases denying me the place and forcing me to fight him toe to toe, where he is most comfortable. This was instinctive on his part but it had the effect of denying me the offense I wanted to employ.

I made a cross hilted bastard sword, about the same size as Dougals, but without a counterweight. I did it in the old style, using Artos’ technique for attaching split-rattan quillons between two duct tape bushings. Hopefully it will hold up for the next four weeks!

Crown Entrants

2011-04-15T14:31:00.001-04:00

Here is the list of combatants for Spring Crown as posted on the Armour Archive. There are 56 fighters, not 64.

Duke Ronald Wilmot
Duke Darius Aurelius Serpentius
Duke Gregor von Heisler
Duke Brion Anthony Uriel Tarragon
Duke Randal of the Dark
Duke Konrad Von Ulm
Duke Balfar Von Grunwald
Count Valgard Stonecleaver
Earl Edward Grey of Lochleven
Jarl Thorson
Sir Osgkar of the Wood
Sir Wilhelm von Ostenbrücke
Sir Antonio Patrasso
Sir Kenric of Warwick
Sir Sichelgaita von Halstern
Sir Culann mac Cianain
Pan Jan Janowicz Bogdanski
Don Ogedei Becinjab
THL Ávaldr Valbjarnarson
THL Oscad de Segovia
Baron Brennan mac Fearghus
Baron Wulfhere of Stonemarche
Baron Duncan Kerr
Baron Jean-Paul Ducasse
Baron Roger Stockton
Baron Jibril al-Dakhil
Baron Master Angus Pembridge
Baron Joseph Harcourt of Serpentius
Lady Roxalana Chaika
Lord Marcus Blackaert
Lord Armand de Crecy
Lord Tiberius Nautius
Lord Gunnvor Hausakljufr
Lord Theobald Hauoc
Lord Konner MacPherson
Lord William MacCrimmon
Lord n'Kante of Serpentius
Lord Bran ap Rees
Lord Lucas Beeskeart
Lord Gawyn O'Cleirigh
Lord Talan Gwyllt
Lord Tiberivs Ivlivs Rvfvs
Lord Erich Hundeman
Lord Eric the Nakinn
Lord Harold Hokonson
Lord William RavenHair
Lord Richard Leviathan
Lord Luis de Castilla
Lord Simon Gwyn

Thought on Crown and report on BAT

2011-04-15T12:41:00.001-04:00

Crown is throwing lots of people for a loop. For those who don’t know, Lucan has declared that there will be a round-robin elimination round. There are sixty-four fighters in the list, and so there will either be four pools of 16 or eight pools of 8, and the top four (or two, in the case of the smaller pools) fighters will advance to the round of sixteen, which will be a double elimination list. It is just like last time EXCEPT that it will be fought with great-weapons only. Some people are complaining that this is messing with the lists, and others that it is unfair to announce it this late because if people don’t have their authorizations they won’t be able to fight, and others don’t have gauntlets.

Me, I don’t much care. Although I am against messing with the lists in general, I can’t complain since as Prince I did something similar in Coronet. I required that the first round be fought without shields. I did this because I think it’s more ok to experiment with Coronet list than with crown, but mostly because there had been a lot of complaints at the time about people getting their arms taken and not having off hand and arm protection readily available, so I set it up that they had to have it on hand in order to fight (clever me). What Lucan is doing is strictly for fun and I intend to have fun with it.

I don’t think it messes with the list at all, because, especially with a list this top heavy, the same six guys are going to be around at the end regardless. Most of the dukes will advance into the round of sixteen and with seven of them in the list, plus three more counts, it is pretty likely that the final four will be royal peers. All this does is add a challenge to people like me, who are significantly better with sword and shield than with pole arm or great sword, but then that is the point. I am pretty sure I would have made it out of the challenge round fighting sword and shield. I might make it out with great weapon, but my odds are slightly lower. But that is no big deal. I get to have seven, maybe 15, fights with great weapons that actually matter. What’s not to love about that! The biggest deal will be the endurance factor. Great weapon fights are a LOT more exhausting than sword and shield fights, and if we have to fight 15 of them to advance many of us will be in terrible shape moving on.

But to that end people are scrambling to get into great weapon shape. I have always considered myself to be competent with a polearm but I don’t fight it all that often. Over 30 years I have picked it up a bit. But I studied bastard sword for a long time, and have had some success with it. But you wouldn’t know it by my performance last night.

Our special Thursday BAT practice last night was awesome. Three of the Von Drachenklau fighters came over from Jersey. It was supposed to be a melee practice and we worked on triads for a bit, but then we broke up into singles. I did some warm-ups with Oscad. We fought three fights. I had broken my shield in the melee, so was using a 24x32 heater, by old style. It was classic. I won two out of three, and I did it with well executed techniques. The first and third fights I won by taking his leg, both times with an upsilon leg shot. The first time I killed him with Gemini’s technique (which he and I had discussed after Estrella), where I throw an offside head and pull through, punch the lower inside corner of his shield with the leading corner of mine, and thrust to the neck or face. The second time I hit him with Fast Eddy’s shot, which I’d leanred from Radnor, where I miss an offside headshot, curl my pinky in to change direction quickly, and turn it into an onside head. As I said to Oscad, that was a shot that was old when I joined the SCA 30 years ago. (glee!)

But of course what was really happening was we were getting ready for crown. We had good great weapon fighters visiting us so we took advantage. I fought bastard sword versus polearm with Brenan. Uusally I like that matchup, because the bastard sword can get inside the poleman’s defense. Not this time. It was lots of pain. Then we fought polearm and I did much better. I used a number of techniques that worked well. I did the David Civet swim move on him and won. I even got him with a belly thrust, and with Mordreth’s lead switch (!!!).

But I was humbled by Cullyn. Now Cullyn is one of the best great weapon fighters in the kingdom, and he’s been training on great sword with Lucan for years. But we fought with bastard swords and I didn’t win a single fight. Not one. Yes, he had range on me, and I didn’t have much in the way of quillians, but that shouldn’t have mattered as much as it did. He also had more patience than I. Twice we did the same technique, but he did it better than I (once we did and it was just a stalemate). Our first fight was telling. We both went into long point and waited. I was waiting for him to move so I could cut his head, like in Kendo. He was waiting for the same thing. I moved first, launching a shoulder strike, and he disengaged and cut my head the way he was supposed to. Point to him. For our next several fights I tried to get control of his blade using some WMA techniques. He always disengaged in the same way, over his right shoulder, and struck at me, usually on my right side head. After that I started getting serious and trying some regular SCA technique. This worked a bit better, but he still won all those fights. I was totally schooled in a weapon I am pretty good at. I may want to fight polearm in Crown.

After that I fought Lou. When I went berserk he killed me by getting inside my attack, but then I settled down and beat him handily.

BAT 9/3/2011

2011-04-04T09:01:00.002-04:00

So BAT was a great practice today. It was mostly melee practice for the unbelted fighters. We put them through some drills. We did triad drills, attack and repulse, etc. As is common for melee drills we limited the targets for some of the fighters. Shieldmen were only allowed to attack heads while poles could attack any target. This is to simulate line combat, where shield don't normally get any other target and if they do attack legs or bodies often open themselves up too much. The goal of most of the exercises is not killing but gaining awareness and sticking together. I know Gui didn't like that aspect of it. His baskethilt got hit by a polearm driven into his thumb. It didn't appear to be a big deal, just sore, but Gui felt that it was because he wasn't allowed to attack the way he normally would. In lieu of that it's worth discussing whether or not these types of drills are a good idea.

I was there for singles so I worked with Sir Diablu to run the melee drills and then fought some single combats. I fought Jabril, Oscad and Roger. Gui and Lou got out of armor right after the melee drills and I didn't get a chance to fight them.

Gainst Jabril I did good. Testing my in fighting I found that I can't use an A-Frame defense very well. He (and Roger too) took my leg at will if I did so. I had some good fights against him. I am still figuring out how I want to fight with the heater, and I am finding that I don't do as well goofy foot with it as i did with the kite (makes sense, I don't do as well against lefties for the same reason--It doesn't move over as far because it's strapped to my forearm). I took the Brian Tarragon stand up tall and lean back stance with him and it worked fine. My best move against him was using my low-line hidden thrust when he was on his knees (this is where i hide my sword behind my rear leg, with the thrusting tip touching the back of my foot, then thrust inside his shield).

Against Oscad that stand tall and lean back theory was getting me killed. He came in with his typical aggression and our first fight ate my lunch. I went to a more mobile style, keeping him at range and working the corners and I started to kill him a lot more.

Roger was a fun fight for me. I did a lot of good stuff against him. I had his leg pretty well with double strikes and moving right to take it, even an upsilon. Twice I killed him with a top-edge hook while he was on his knees. About half-way through out set I set I lost my thrusting tip, but then the fights got even more fun as I went to strictly edge work.

Against both Roger and Oscad I was mixing up my aggression. I have been winning a lot lately by being patient, defending, and attacking mostly as a counterpuncher or using techniques that play into my opponent's attacks. (with the exception of my hook/thrust). Against Roger and Oscad I fought a couple of defensive fights and then attacked all out to change it up. I found that against Roger this was effective, against Oscad not so much. Oscad did say that I have the ability to totally disappear behind my shield sometimes, which is one of the things I try for. Something is obviously working.

Nutley 3/30

2011-04-01T14:58:00.003-04:00

For some really odd reason my retail job gave me a Wednesday night off. With Crown coming up I decided that I should go to Nutley.

I am not crown ready.

Oh, I fought well enough, and I had fun, and I had good endurance, but I am not there yet.

I fought Jabril, Jan, Darius, John the Breeder, and one of Gregor's fighters, (forget his name). Anybody else? I'm not sure.

Fighting with Jabril I did well. His A-Frame defense was tough to crack, but i took his leg a few times and killed him with both thrusts and fore edge.

Gregor's man creamed my leg once, but I had good fights with him and won most of them.

Fighting Darius was the main reason I showed up. We had a couple of decent fights in which, while I didn't kill him he had trouble killing me. Gave me a good workout for my defense. But in our second or third fight my shield strap broke. Not wanting to quit I went and grabbed another broadsword and fought him two-stick. I'm a bit out of practice, but my defense was solid and he was not able to kill me easily, but part of that is because he worries about the left-hand attack from a two-sword fighter. When I fight two-sword, because I don't practice it a lot, I am something of a chameleon. There are two main florentine styles in the SCA, Bellatrix and Milwauki, but within those there are variations, so against Darius I fought classic Bellatrix, Classic Milwauki, Alfred's style, Bodwahn's, Radnor's, Balin's, and my normal broadsword/short sword stance. I basically know one or two techniques out of each stance/style and after trying them out I'd move on to another to see what I could do with that. Not the most effective way to fight against the top Duke in the kingdom. Anyway, he took my leg twice, killed me thrusts while standing twice and with the edge two or three more times. The one time I killed him was when he took my left arm and decided to be nice to me by giving up his shield. That's a game in which I am much closer to being matched with Darius. After doing a similar thing, going through various techniques of single sword--Radnor's, Brian's, some silver and the Fiore technique, I finally killed him with a technique I more or less developed myself: from a high guard strike at his sword with an onside, step in with a parry six, block if he attacks (he did) pass left and cut to his shoulder. Worked like a charm.

My fights with Jan were great. I think I beat him more than he beat me. We might ahve traded evenly. My best kill on him was using the off-side cut/face thrust. I had noticed that he was moving to his right about 80% of the time, so I threw that little cut that just lands on the top of his shield and then thrust to where I knew he would be moving to, and hit him square in the face.

John the Breeder kicked my ass. There is no other way to put it. He is good--a lefty with a great big kite shield strapped like Lucan's (which, like a center grip, gives him a big blocking advantage for offside attacks). He's fast and strong and very aggressive, and eh practices three times a week. He killed me five or six times, I killed him twice--once with an edge cut, once with a body thrust. He had fixed the problem I'd identified on him at Iron Bog three weeks ago. My big problem was that I had no idea yet how to block lefies with that rather oddly strapped heater. It didn't swing all the way over like a center grip, if I just moved it around it was too close to my body. If I fought like Gui in the cross block stance it was too awkward.I finally had success cocking the point out to my open side and maintaining distance. We'll see how it plays if I fight Gui this weekend (he will be happy I've gone back to the heater, the center-grip was frustrating him).

So it was a good tough practice and I got really banged up. it was mostly my legs that got smashed and that was mostly from Darius when I was fighting two sword and from John, although Gregor's man hit my leg hardest of all. It was good to get more helmet time and recall what it feels like once again to get hit hard. :-)

MUDTHAW 2011

2011-03-28T12:16:00.000-04:00

So this is the only video I've seen from this years Mudthaw. I'm not fighting but I do kind of wander into the background and watch. it's kind of funny.

The Mud has not yet thawed...

2011-03-28T11:47:00.003-04:00

And yet we still had a tourney. There was a blanket of snow on the fighting field, so they opted for the covered picnic area, which the Van Winkles would probably call a "hay barn". I don't know how many people were in the lists. I was number 68, but registration was open for at least an hour after I signed up.

Because of my elbow I have gone to a heater shield. I'm using the standard East Kingdom size of 24" by 36". That is two inches shorter than my kite but with corners. I miss the kite, because I thought it was a great looking shield and a fun way to fight, but I can't hold it up anymore. Too much torque on my elbow.

First round I drew Duke Gregor. I'm not sure how that happened, as I am the only knight who had to fight another knight first round, but I need to thank whoever set it up, because fighting Gregor is always a lot of fun. Yes he won, yes, I made him work, yes, I landed a thrust and an edge on him, neither of which were good because he's so good at slipping blows. But it was an awesome fight.

Second round I fought a guy from Rusted Woodlands whom I don't know but who had by far the nicest kit I've seen in years. It was an Italian harness,m early fifteenth century, including the mail shirt, with a gorgeous surcoat and center-grip heater. I knocked the plume off his helmet. He fought really well, took my leg, and almost killed me with a thrust before I got him with a nice edge shot, a sitting down slot like William of Houghton would have thrown. Old School.

Third fight I had a really long tough fight against Cedric of Amorica. I had seen his earlier fight when he beat Sir Balin, so I had some warning of how tough it was going to be and where to guard. He uses a short pole arm and has a tough defense. I never managed to get his leg and I chased him out of the list at least three times. Eventually i launched a body thrust on the outside and he took my arm but i killed him before he did.

My third fight was against a heater fighter whose first name was Eric, and I don't recall a thing about it save that I won.

My fifth fight was against Ivan from Seprentius. We had a nice long bout and I killed him. I took his arm and then killed him with a thrust.

My sixth fight was against Woolfhir of Stonemarch, whom I always seem to fight in all of these tourneys. He was not as aggressive as I am used to his being. He was ranging me and playing mind games, and the fight did not last long before I killed him with a body thrust.

My seventh fight was against Master Wulfgar of the Wood, who was having an awesome day. It was a long fun fight in which he took my leg and then killed me. I landed edge on him once or twice without any power, and a downward thrust that hit him on the forehead, which I had to tell him not to take. It was a fun fight.

Afterward I fought some pickups. Damon von Drakenklau killed me twice to my once on him. I fought Christian of Serpentius and killed him several times. Then my helmet broke and I had to quit. Cet fixed it yesterday.

That was my Mudthaw. it was fun, I went deep into the list fighting with a shield I'd had no practice with and which was trapped weirdly for me. I'm happy with where i ma right now considering the injuries I've had and the little practice I got over the winter.

Workout

2011-03-22T10:57:00.002-04:00

I have dumbells, yoga bands, and indian clubs at home, and last night I used them all.

Hammer Curls, two sets, to fatigue
Shoulder presses, two sets of twenty
Triceps extensions, two sets of twenty
Flies, two sets of twenty
Combo 1 (curl, press, extend, each arm) one set twenty
Combo 2 (fly to curl to triceps x and down) one set of twenty

Rubber band
Shoulder rotations, one set twenty
"Saber draw" one set twenty
Triceps extensions, one set ten

Indian clubs
swing combo
flat snaps (twenty)
Sabre cuts (twenty with each lead)
florentine set
block/strike/block drill

2011 March Crown Finals Roric vs Marc

2011-03-21T12:56:00.000-04:00

Video of Marc's final with Rorik has been uploaded! Check it out!

western Crown

2011-03-20T19:50:00.003-04:00

News flash!! Bastardswordsman wins Western Crown!!

Marc d'Arundel won crown over Viscount Rorik. Marc, as usual, was fighting with a two handed sword. Most call his a bastardsword. It is longer than a hand and a half, shorter than a zweihander. It's about the size of a claymore. The significance of this cannot be overstated. The only other fighters I know of who made any kind of run at Western Crown with a two handed sword are Elrin of Hrasfaelg, Branden d'Arundel (no relation), Elrik Skapvarger and Duke Paul. Of these, only Paul made it into the finals, using his nodachi. It was a common belief that if Paul couldn't do it nobody could.

So Marc's victory is especially noteworthy.

Also of note, two foreign knights, Duke Sean from Artimesia and Count Conrad from CAID went to semi finals.

Wish I had been there.

Congrats to their Royal Highnesses!

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Inuries

2011-03-16T11:12:00.002-04:00

So this year was supposed to be a good year for me, building on the improvements I made to my fighting last year. I made it to quarter-finals (the final six) in last Eastern Crown, and felt (feel still) that I could improve on that this year. But injuries are getting me down. Yes, time to practice is getting in my way too, but last weekend I did not practice specifically because of injury.

Right now I am dealing with the trevails of age: intermittent shoulder, back, and knee pain. It's not bad. Usually Yoga drives away the back pain and returning to the gym for some physical therapy exercises (leg extensions, shoulder rotations) gets rid of the knee and shoulder pain. I can do some of that at home with rubber bands, dumbbells, and squats.

However, my wrist and elbow injuries are different. I broke my right wrist about twenty five years ago and have sprained it a number of times. I usually wrap it when I fight, but not if it's feeling good. Well I didn't wrap it when I fought at Iron Bog last week and it was swolen by the end of the day. I don't remember missing any body or being hit, but it hurt bad. It now only hurts if I squeeze it or torque it (don't do that).

My elbow hurts, but for the first time ever it is my left elbow. It has hurt since December, and I am sure it is from being either hit, torqued, or both while using the center-grip kite. It is essentially tennis elbow. This is bad because the center-grip kite has been doing really well for me, and besides I like the style.

The solution for both has been rest. I need to get one of those elbow bands people wear for tennis elbow and don't fight without wrapping my wrist ever again. However, more needs to be done:

* I am switching from a 38" center-grip kite to a 24" x 36" heater shield, which I've ordered from Ice. The strapped heater will change my style slightly, but it will put a LOT less strain on my elbow.

* Alfred has suggested cortisone shots for my elbow and, while getting them, I should probably have them in my wrist as well.

* Gripping exercises effect both injuries, so are probably good for me.

* As I said, Yoga and rubber bands. I also use Indian Clubs, which strengthens the shoulders and stretches the elbows.

Any other ideas??

Speaking of weight, it's hard to stick to the low carb diet during Lent, so I've gained a couple pounds. But spring has sprung and the bicycle has already been puled out and tuned up (rode it to BAT on Sunday). Plus as long as I'm working retail I'm getting an awesome cardio workout.

Yes, getting old sucks physically, but I love everything else about it--making mroe money, having more status at work, dare I say a bit of wisdom (just a bit). I'm not the fighter physically that I was at 30. But I am actually better mentally than I was then. I crossed an interesting bridge mentally about two years ago, and my fighting has improved considerably (going to the kite and losing weight helped too). But our game is one wherein with a bit of added armor many injuries can be alleviated. I'm adding shoulder armor back onto my kit for that very reason. Yoga and pilates cure most of our other injuries. It's only the breaks and the blown tendons that really stop us.

I did 50 push ups today and my elbow and wrist didn't hurt at the time. I'm feeling them now but that could be the typing as much as anything.

ow

2011-03-12T19:31:00.001-05:00

Injury has been getting in the way of ky training this seWon so far. My back and hip have been giving me problems, my elbow has been inflamed since December, and Sunday I hurt my wrist pretty bad. I think it was when I missed a shot. Other than that practice was pretty good. I fought Bill and Heinrich, trained with Ron, and worked with a couple other folks. The best thing I did was against Heinrich, when I figured out that he was cocking and moving to his right before throwing. I slowed down by going old school, (behind the head returns change up timing) and killed him with wavy rising snap.

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12thNight2011EddyUther.mov

2011-02-20T14:29:00.002-05:00

Found a great video of me fighting Miles at Western 12th Night this year on the (awesome) Sigurgata You Tube page.

I should also say that I fought last Friday at the demo on Long Island. Since it was demo fighting it was really not good training, nor was it indicative f anything. But it was fun. I fought long sword against John the Bear. I used almost exclusively techniques out of Tobler and won. Then we had a short sword only fight, which was geat. I fought single short sword vs Gui's single long sword and got creamed (it was Gui's demo and, really, his night. When he came out and through chocolate to the boy scouts he had already won the field). I also fought a little two weapon, broadswrod and short sword, which was fun but would have gotten me killed in crown. Swrod and shield was as on as could be. Only gui killed me. But since nobody was fighting at eleven, nothing was learned from the evening. But it was a blast!!!

Today at BAT is a training day. Mostly teaching the new guys about thrusting with spear and pole arm.

On Martial Arts

2011-01-31T17:36:00.003-05:00

There is an ongoing debate (for 30 years now) as to whether or not SCA combat is a martial art. I argued in my book Medieval Fantasy as Performance: The Society for Creative Anachronism and the Current Middle Ages that when Duke Paul first developed the Belatrix snap, SCA combat stopped being a game men played hitting each other with sticks and became a martial art which could be practiced for its own sake. From that time on a major strain of what we do has been devoted to learning, practicing, and advancing fighting technique, much in the same way that others practice WMA or Kung Fu. Paul’s style was initially based on Judo, and other styles were developed based on Boxing, Kendo, and even WMA, and this is also a feature of Martial Arts—different schools promoting different styles and techniques as superior to the others.

Count Gemini Asante argues that what we do is not a martial art but a hobby. This might at first seem surprising, since he teaches SCA combat *as* a martial art, or at least a variety of it, in his salon in Turlock—mostly to local kids to whom it is more interesting than Karate lessons. He’s the only peron I know who fights and trains full time for a living. Gemini insists that what we have now is just a hobby, and that because we have no formal lexicon, no established techniques, and no agreed upon method, SCA combat is not a martial art.

In the same discussion in which Gemini made these assertions, Marc dArundel said that SCA combat is one of the most honest martial arts, because if you couldn't fight, you couldn't advance (to knighthood). He has collected a few black belts, and knows some gusy who have black belts who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag: but if you see an SCA guy with a white belt you know that guy knows how to fight.

So, taking these two positions together, we might as well ask ourselves if it matters if we are a martial art or not. If people can excel in real martial arts and not be able to fight, but in order to excel in what we do being able to fight is the only criteria, isn’t it a sort of “who cares” issue? We, after all, do kick ass.

Korwyn Ariannade insists that what we are is not a martial art but a sport. To him the WMA guys are the true martial artists. He points out that what prompts the WMA guys to do what they do is the very fact that the SCA is a sport. Most WMA practitioners, at least those who lead the movement, started out in the SCA but left because they were not satisfied with the ahistorical sport aspects of SCA combat. Hence WMA grew out of the SCA as a reaction against it. “we are the sport form, but because we exist the Western Martial Arts movement found fertile ground.”

What Gemini was arguing for was a uniformity of language which would, he hoped, lead to some uniformity of technique. He was not suggesting that we abandon styalistic differences. What he wanted was some consistency, so that when somebody came to him and discussed a “snap” they were both talking about the same thing. This project is now underway, and his Majesty Jade will be leading what promises to be an interesting discussion on the topic at March Crown. But while this is a great idea, Maythen warned, bringing it round to Marc’s point, that the point at which Asian martial arts became less practical is when they became more uniform and “teachable”. The movement of karate from the dojos of certain masters who each taught their own techniques, to “styles” that could be taught and judged by many, is the point where it became less martial and more “art”.

It seems to me that Maythen’s point is a good one. If the SCA is a martial art then it is at the stage that Kenjitsu was at the beginning of the Edo period Japan. It was somewhat sport-like because battle field conflicts had given way to duels, and these would give way to a stick combat very much like what the SCA practices, but that too would give way to the more stylaized kendo, with its linear attacks, right of way, and four specific targets, or to the non-combative forms or Iado. But Kendo and Iado are still rightly considered Martial Arts, and Kendo is far more styalized and rules bound than what we do.

Now the SCA has a number of styles that are more or less regional (we had a knight visiting from Atenveldt whom I did not know but I pegged his kingdom right away). Whether or not what we do is a martial art really depends on the approach of the person training the newer fighters. Some people still aproach SCA training by just putting somebody in armor and pushing them onto the field at "bashing practice". But we also have masters (small m), many of whom (but not all) were martial artists before joining the SCA, who have brought a martial arts philosophy to SCA combat. Paul is obviously first among them, and his techniques are probably the most highly developed, but Branos, Dirk, Uther, Gendy, Inman, Baldar, Brand, Mark, and Gemini himself all qualify. In fact, Gemini is doing more to advance the art than anybody right now with his deGrendelus school, and while that is no doubt what prompts him to insist we are not a martial art, it also undermines his position.

SCA combat is a martial art. Gemini himself is proof of that.

How to run a practice

2011-01-25T22:35:00.002-05:00

How to run a good practice.

It is accurately said that most SCA people don’t train. SCA fighter practices from time immemorial, since the days when folks gathered in Tilden Park to hit on each other, have nearly always been learning by doing. Somebody gets some armor, gets some basic instruction, and is thrown into the pond to sink or swim. Some people have brought training methods and discipline from asian martial arts, from boxing, from mma, even from football. As with most of this stuff, the most detailed and thought out ideas come from Duke Paul in his manual, which is available at www.bellatrix.org.

I like to do this kind of training. I was thrown into the deep end of the pool, and I swam, but I didn’t become a good swordsman I until I started working with Paul and using some of his training methods. My problem is that I am not at every practice to run them the way I like.

We’ve got a lot of new people at BAT and Sunday I lead practice with them for only the second time since this new wave showed up. Paul likes people to train without armor for a year before they start fighting in armor. Nobody wants to do that. I hold unarmored classes in conjunction with armored classes. It’s the most I can get people into. (I have seen Paul’s training methods work. Those few people who committed to his training, like his son Duke Stephen, are stone cold killers).

What we did not do was the work on technique that is most important. Pell work alone does not do it. Slow work and kata are essential for that, but not a lot of people want to do it. So we worked in armor. We started out with drills, and we only did a block/cut drill using a parry 5/cut to 5. Then we did Paul’s offense/defense drill, wherein one fighter gets three three blow combinations while the other launches a full on attack. Then we did the exercise wherein everyone fights everyone once and is critiqued. Then we broke up into free sparing and individual training.

This was a great pracitce. I lead practice and just demonstrated stuff. I didn't fight as part of the class. We had three knights--myself, Sir Edward, and Sir Teric. They were unarmored. We had lots of good criticism and lots of individual attention.

I got some good helmet time fighting Drew, Everet, and Nikolai. That was fun too.
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Babies....

2011-01-18T23:35:00.001-05:00

I got a fever, and the prescription is more kettle bell! (Blatantly copped from Finvar).

Yesterday I went to the gym and renewed my membership. Then I stretched and did my kettle bell workout. I in reader the number of reps on my one arm swings and added two arm swings with 35lbs. If course I didn't have actual kettle bells. I used plates with cut outs for handles. As usual, the Turkish lift was the most intense part.

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Sunday Workouts

2011-01-16T19:01:00.000-05:00

Workouts are proceeding, and I feels good!

Normally on days that I work retail I don’t work out. Standing around all day, climbing ladders in the stock room, etc., six to eight hours: that’s a workout. I’m shredded by the end of the day. Saturday, however, I was feeling inspired, so I woke up at 7 AM and went for a short run. I just ran around the parade grounds, because I didn’t want to tackle Lookout Hill with snow on the trails. It’s not a long run, but I kept up a good pace and it felt good. Today I went to BAT. Nobody fought heavy. They were all working on gear. I did pell work and drills until I ached. Good stuff. And tomorrow I’m *not* working retail. Gym time!

workouts

2011-01-10T15:44:00.001-05:00

So the pre-season has begun as usual, with some great fighting at 12th Night. Workouts have begun as well. Easing into it so as to avoid injury. Last week I did calesthenics, yoga, and hiked. Saturday I fought. They have a great gym for a hotel here at the Double Tree, including a set of medicine balls in 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 pounds, so I improvised a medicine ball workout with increasing resistance on Sunday. It felt great. Today I did some stretches then did a standing dumbell workout: press, curl, row, triceps x, 3x10, then one set of jerks from the floor like with a kettle bell. Then I ran (in my 5 Fingers) on the treadmill for twenty minutes. great!

I considered buying the P X 90 program.90 days would end about a week before crown, but I love what I do already so much, and it works pretty well.

Tomorrow I think I will use the medicine balls again. Wednesday I will be at work, so I may do Yoga. Will definitely fight on Sunday, though it might be in Jersey. Birka is coming up.

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WK 12th Night

2011-01-09T02:42:00.001-05:00

It's a good ache.

Apparently I was fighting pretty well. Ben said it was. The best he has week me fight in five years. According to him, I was always ahead of him and he could never catch up.

I only fought four opponents, Micha, Sig(Ben), Geofrey Scott, and Miles. I did well. All of them I killed more than they killed me. I killed everyone with q hook/thrust least once. I kill Geoffrey with some great thrusts. Miles was the toughest because he was taller than me. That is my bane. He is strong, fast, and precise. I was totally winded when I was done. Great fighting.

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happy new year

2011-01-03T10:24:00.001-05:00

The off season is over. Pre season has begun! It is 123 days until Crown. Time to get to work!,

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New Fighter blog

2010-12-23T21:37:00.001-05:00

Cheeck out this cool blog: http://az-rune.blogspot.com/

seasons beatings

2010-12-17T07:50:00.001-05:00

I actually fought at season's beatings last Sunday. I only fought two opponents, Louis and Alexander. Alexander has been fighting almost as long as I have but has just recently taken up sword and shield. I was showing him some basics. The tricky tricks were working well. Louis did jot give me as much trouble as he usually does. We spent most of the time dealing with variations of the off side body shot, because I killed him twice with one, once when he was trying to throw one. I used jade's simple shot from behind my head while he was trying to throes the Lucan variation. There are four basic techniques for throwing an off side body: Lucan's passing shot, the Gendy method (which starts in front of your head), the Radnor method (which either starts behind your head or passed to the right of your head), and the downward off side where the hand stays below the tip of the sword. Radnor normally uses his technique in his patented Butterfly shot, where a rising snap turns into an off side body, and its hard to differentiate from the Gendy shot in that case (it has to do with the path of the hand and torque of the hips). Jade simply throws it from an engarde position or as a counter punch to a snap. Lucan draws the snap or throws a low molinee and then passes offline to his left, under the blow, and strikes at the body (it is Lucky's two step without the first step because he starts goofy foot). The downward strike is used by itself or with a figure eight combo. Lou was trying to throw the Lucan shot when I hit him with the straight Jade shot. Then I did it again later. This turns out to be good again Lou because he triggers his defense off elbow movement and like a lot of two weapon fighters moves into a window parry defense, leaving his right side open. So I hit it. This is how Jade killed Alfred of Carlysle in crown finals back in the early 90s.

Pictures

2010-11-07T17:50:00.002-05:00

Here are some of the best SCA pictures I've seen recently. Some of them are really dynamic. They include this one of me, which is one of my favoirites:

Nutley 10/13/2010

2010-10-14T16:33:00.003-04:00

Well, I might have taken a step backward.

I needed to go to Nutley to pick up my new sword from Bill. And I wnated a bit more helmet time before Crown. But trying to work out the nuances of the new sword led me to be sloppy. I was all over the place.

I warmed up with and fought with McCrimmon, I fought that cool Acre knight with teh 14th Century rig, I fought Szeitchel, I fought Lucan's squire (Cullen?) with the polearm, and I fought Big Bill.

My new sword has a very small basket hilts (Bill was very specifically controlling the weight). I tried it with my usual demi, with a street hockey glove, and with my demi over the street hockey glove. They all changed the grip in various ways. The basket was really too small for just the demi--my fingers were getting knocked around. The demi plus the glove filled it, which made some shots easier but most harder. I prefer to hold the sword in my bare fingers.

So I was doing all sorts of weird stuff--very weird for the last practice before Crown. I was using the leg forward style I have been concentrating on, but also using a Western style, and a shield forward style. I was squaring up. I fought in that lean forward hunch over stance Uther uses. I tried all sorts of things.

I did get some great kills that I wouldn't have gotten with my other sword. a couple of times I just beat Szeitchel with speed shots, molinees high to the top of the head. I also got her the a hook thrust.

Big Bill was really throwing me off. He was wild and strong and aggressive, which is the best way to fight me because it doesn't allow me to setup and throws my defense wide, which throws it off. In those fights where I reverted to basics--maintaining distance, sword foot forward, tight defense and counter punch--the stuff I am trying to train myself into, I was fine and I killed him. But most of the time I was trying old school stuff or fancier movement, and I was leaving myself open.

I got at least three people, maybe four, with my current money shot, the low leg block counter punch. Worked well. I was not doing well with wraps, and I had trouble generating enough power sometimes. But what I really needed--patience--seeemd to be lacking. Plus I didn't' get to fight any dukes, which is the main reason I like to go to Nutley.

Helmet Time

2010-10-04T16:23:00.002-04:00

Any time int he helmet is good time. At Nutley i get to fight (and get beat about the ribs by) the heavy guns. Sunday was cloisters, which is always enjoyable.

The NY Medieval Faire is put on by the city in Fort Tryon Park. As with every event in NYC it is huge. A million people or so show up. It is laid out on the road through Ft. Tyron leading up to the Cloisters Museum, which is the best Medieval museum in the US. The SCA does a demo on the south law along with other re-creation or re-enactment groups like the Adrian Empire.

This year it was poorly attended by fighters--we're on a downswing in Ostgardr right now. It was only me, Viceroy Alexander, and Avran. I still had a lot of fun.

In the first show i challenged Alexander to a passage of arms. We fought three bouts each with sword and shield, two weapon, and great weapon. We played it like a true medieval combat a plaisance. We even had musicians playing a processional as we entered (thanks, John and Rufina!). The crowd liked it to.

Second show we just traded off fighting each other. i did get a couple more two weapon bouts in.

Good prep for crown? Well, I got to fight a competent fighter nine fights, and then do a meat grinder. Good for the wind. Alexander's main weapon forms--two weapon and great weapon--are things I am tyring to practice every week right now in case I make it to finals. I learned a couple of nice tricks. No, demo fighting is not like regular fighting. I throw fewer leg shots. I try to be a bit flashy and make some noise. But helmet time is always good, and I had a lot of fun.

I also made it to the gym on Saturday and had a good workout--spin plus weights. Feeling good about my conditioning at the moment.

Nutley 9/29

2010-09-30T17:57:00.002-04:00

I feel pretty good about Nutley.

I warmed up with Oscad. Slow work is kind of like watching poker on TV. It's really easy to know what to do when you can see the other guy's cards. When we went full speed for one fight he chewed me up and spit me out.

I fought Gregor and my fights were great. We felt each other out for a long time I was happy with my defense. working on what he said I saved the thrust. And then I saved it some more. Eventually he took my leg. He through a blow, I blocked it, hooked his shield and stabbed him in the throat. He said something like "excellent!" I was happy. I killed him twice more, both times by slipping into a gap in his defense. and hitting him onside as he was doing something. Once it was when I flashed my shield at him, paused and cut.

I fought Christian. That was also fun. i did really well. Was able to pick his attacks up pretty far back, which helped. I found that when he threw a snap he was dropping his shield, and I used that to my advantage a few times. I also moved right when i threw a snap, and so my sword was defending my head where his was not.

I also fought Doug. I fought with short sword and arming sword to his two arming swords. Naturally, he mostly ate my lunch, but i got a couple of good kills on him--one in particular by using my crossed arm technique. What I realized was that, corps to corps, I was not using my shortsword to pin his arm, which was the whole point of bringing it. My mind wasn't directing my hand to do what it was supposed to be doing. So my mind wasn't right. Got to work on that.

Nutley training

2010-09-23T13:17:00.002-04:00

No, I'm not training as much as I want to be. A wise philosopher once said "this game is 50% inspirationa nd 50% perspiration." Our ladies provide us with ample inspiration. Howver, another wise philosopher once said "women weaken legs!"

What really weakens is getting the snot beat out of you though.

After last weeks Nutley practice I did not go and work out on thursday. I was too bruised and tired to do so. Today I am typing instead of in the gym. I will try to work out after my 3PM class today. I'm not near so beat up as last week--I didn't fight Doug and I didn't have a great sword fight with Gregor.

I did get in one good workout this weekend. I was in Atlantic City but our time share had a good workout room. I did three sets on the Universal Gym and twenty minutes running barefoot on the treadmill.

Speaking of running barefoot I picked up a pair of five fingers on Monday, on the theory that having spent money on them I will want to use them and run at least once a week.

But back to practice. I only fought four guys: Bill Vicente, Gregor, Heinrich, and Jan Janovich.

My fights with Bill were good warm ups. I killed him most of the time using a variety of mostly cuts. I don't really remembeer details.

Gregor is using a new shield. It is lighter and larger than his old one. He's gone to semi-finals with his old shield in the last two crowns. You do the math. With his new shield his leg is harder to take and he doesn't react to fakes much (one of my best fighting moments was when I killed Gregor with a wavy-rising snap). The only good thing I can say about my fights with Gregor is that my offense was good enough to make him cautious and my defense was good enough to make him work. I tried a lot of stuff--hook/thrusts, back hands, the thrust fake followed by a leg shot. wraps, everything really. The only time I laid stick on him was in our last fight, when I went low with a double strike as he was moving and managed to take his leg. My plan was to cut to his offside, step in, hook and thrust. I cut to his offside, and he killed me. Drawing the sword back for the thrust leaves too much of my head opena nd I didn't compensate with the shield. He just took me with a straight fast (very fast) snap. Afterward he said I was leading with my thrust and telegraphing it. I told him it was candy I have trouble avoiding. I had mostly been doing it to set up the fake thrust/leg shot. He advised me if I was going to lead witha thrust to come from below with it--a shot I have a lot of success with but am avoiding right now because Darius pointed out how easy it is to loose my arm doing that.

Heinrich fights a lot like his knight Kelson and gives me fits some times. He was not following through on his shots so they weren't as hard as I am used to feeling from him. He had two shots on my that should have been kills but died. He was winnning msot of our early fights and I won our later fights after I tightened up. I killed him with the foot stomp/thrust (grin). and with some lateral movement to my left. I also got him with Hauoc's counter punch off the leg block.

Jan is a really tough fight for me becuase we have the same style--but altely I've been fighting a northern region style with the kite. He wasn't expecting that. I also borrowed Bill's sword. It is lighter than mine, better balanced, allows me to do a few Gendy techniques while still punching my cross shots, and is much faster. It also doesn't ahve a thrusting tip, and I decided that fighting without one ould be good practice after what Gregor said. It worked. I fought well. Jan played into my game by circling and sniping at range, and he left himself open to a lot of stuff. I was throwing two and three blows combos that were fast and precise. I took his leg a couple of times. I hoked and cut. I even got him once with the foot stomp. (BIG GRIN).

Unfortunately, no fighting for me at Coronation this weekend. I have to go to my uncles' funeral in West Virginia. My next time in aromr will be next Nutley.

If I am going to get into Crown Contender shape again I will have to start fighting twice a week at least. That means that I need to be able to recover faster. That means I will need to wear more armor, expecially on my shoulders. Time to get to work.

Workouts and all

2010-09-20T15:47:00.002-04:00

I didn't think I'd get a workout while in Atlantic City, but the time share we stayed in (31st floor, great view) had a gym and I got a good session in. Ran barefoot ont eh treadmill for 20 minutes and then lifted on the Universal Gym. Plus I went swimming in the ocean.

Will probably not make the gym tonight. Do get to go to Nutley though. One problem with going to Nutley is that fighting in the deep end of the pool, even when I'm doing well, I still end up with two or three good bruises and am exhausted, and it's hard to get back into the gym for a couple of days. But the fighting is so good!

Nutley 9/15/2010

2010-09-16T16:27:00.002-04:00

Practice last night. First of all we waited for an hour for Robert to show up at BAT so we could get in and get our armor. Then he didn't even come with us to Nutley. Then we were stuck in traffic in New Jersey. It took us an hour to get from the Medowlands to Nutley. We didn't get there till 9:20. Kelson, Jabril, Stephan and Chrsitian were all getting out of armor. I really wanted to fight those guys.

Thankfully Douglas and a few other guys stayed in armor to fight with us. I also got some great sword fights with Gregor, just in case.

Doug kicked my ass. Fighting him cold is never a good idea. By the last few passes I was doing fine.

I tried ltos of techniques agaisnt Gregor--Belatrix style, some Liechteneur technique, Gui's back edge techniques, some of the stuff I developed. What i discvered was that the best technique to use agaisnt Gregor is the Gregor technique. He fights with his sword high in front of his face and cuts down in arcs right and left. I did manage to take his leg with Gui's back edge technique. I think i killed him twice and he killed me eight or ten times.

Against Erick, who fights shourtswordin a dagger grip and broadsword, I always have trouble. I played witha few things to see what worked. Chasing after his leg actually worked, as did thrust on the center line.

Agaisnt Bill, whow as very tired, and against Seichal, I just tried to hunker downa dn fight a closed fight--mostly at range, closed defense, alternating thrusts and cuts--and it worked pretty good.

But I need to fight Stephan.

Videos of the fights at BAT Sunday are on facebook. i'll see if I can post them here.

BAT Correction

2010-09-13T11:40:00.002-04:00

My second fight with Bill i did not take his leg. i was setting him up with the thrust and then as I followed it up he adopted a hanging guard, so i turned my shot into a flat-wrap. I was happy with this because I changed what I had been doing on the fly.

Training and BAT Practice 9/11/2010

2010-09-12T17:11:00.004-04:00

At last! I get to fight!!!

Really, I've barely fought at all since May. Most of my fighting was in the West, at Crown and at West/An Tir war. Hardly fought at all since Pennsic.

However, September marks a kick into gear of my training for Crown. I've been working out three days a week--sometimes at the gym, sometimes just calesthenics, sometimes doing yoga and working with my indian clubs, sometimes just by riding my bike to work in Manhattan. For instance: last saturday was a lot of dancing at my cousin's wedding (counts), Calesthenics on Monday, Indian clubs and yoga on Tuesday, (skipped Nutley due to Hrosh Hoshona), kettle bell workout and eliptical on Friday.

And today I fought at BAT.

Now that the holidays are mostly over, I can fall into a normal schedule: fight Sunday, gym Monday, est tuesday, fight Wednesday, Gym either Thursday evening or Friday morning, some form of long aerobics (run, bike ride, class or fighting at an event) on Saturday. My hope is still to be in armor ten (now nine) times before Crown. That will include coronation and one or two other events.

Speaking of BAT, I got to run it and I ran it like a class. It was great. There were four of us--two OTC's (Gui and William McCrimmon), Oscad the King'd Champion, and me a knight. That's tallent. We warmed up and then we each fought each other. We'd stop after each fight and discuss it, point up what we saw, look for any flaws and discuss them, etc. This got people into the mode of analyzing fights while watching them, thinking about what their opponents were doing, and talking about it.

My own fights were good. I lost once to Gui and once to Oscad. Gui I lost to because I tried to execute the William the Lucky passing shot (much like the Lucan shot, but with a snap to set it up and targetting the head instead of the ribs). I hit him, but light, and he hit me in the ribs. Normally I wouldn't use that kind of technique against Gui, but I wanted to test it. I am actually happy that the technique worked even if my own form was off. He ahd ducked a bit out of my power range.

In my losing fight with Oscad we had taken each others legs and I just kind of got frustrated and started flailing, and he got inside my attack and killed me with a cross shot.

My victories were really good. I took Bill's leg and then thrust him to the face. Then the second time I fought him I took his leg and set up the thrust but, when he had that covered, I changed it up and cut, moving left. My win against oscad I took his leg and got him with a quick face thrust. My kill against Gui he went for his deep leg attack (turtling behind his shield and going for the leg) which with the center grip is easy to cover. I timed his attack and killed him with a wrap.

Then I did some training. With our new guy I taught him to salute, to walk, and to walk through the wards, then I taught him the pell drill (the first three lessons in the book I'm working on). Bill I ran thorough the basic DeGrendels techniques (three ranges and the three wards, 90 degree angle of the arm, and magic button press points).

Workouts

2010-08-26T16:12:00.003-04:00

Damn! No Nutley next weekend either! Grrrr!

Good workout today again, kettle bell workout, push ups, sit ups, and 20 min on the elliptical.

Pennsic and other follies

2010-08-25T18:03:00.002-04:00

So fighting wise here is what my Pennsic looked like:

I spent two hours in the woods and didn't swing a blow. (I want to thank the midrealm for basically handing us that one).

I was not called up for the champions battles on Wednesday so I didn't fight

I had some good spear work on the brdige but I can't honestly say I am sure I kiled anybody.

I had two sets of pickup fights.

The only really good fighting I got in was in the open field battles when I was following Rolf around. I was using the short polearm and I killed a lot of people with it. That was fun.

Truthfully, my head and heart were not in it. I got progressively worse at Pennsic mentally. Nothing really bad happened, I just wasn't into it.

Though I do want to say once again what a fantastic Queen Margurite is.

As for the other folly, that would be crown. There are currently sixty days until Crown tournament. I have kicked training up a gear: I've worked out four times since I got back from Pennsic. Tomorrow I will hit the gym at school for a kettle bell workout after class, and probably some aerobics. Friday I will run in the morning and use Indian clubs. Saturday will be a recovery day. Sunday is fight day but we'll have company from out of town so I might not get to practice. However, I will make Nutley next week. One of my goals is to be in armor ten times over the next eight weeks. Shouldn't be too hard considering there is a tournament at Coronation.

BAT practice

2010-07-18T15:38:00.002-04:00

So I got into armor at BAT today, first time I've actually practiced in about two months. Oscad, Gui and I were the only fighters there, and it was very hot. I was out of practice, Gui even more so, and Oscad was really burnt out having fought in the heat at SRWC the day before.

Whine whine whine!

Actually it was fun and a really good practice. Oscad is so on his game and good right now that he is a really tough fight, and Gui is always a challenge.

My first two fights with Oscad I was warming up. I didn't even swing a blow the first fight. I dont' recall who won the second. Then we got into it and I was fighting pretty well. the best thing I did to him was the second time I took his leg. I have this thrust I sometimes use where I lock my arm in what is basically an engarde position, either high or in the A-frame guard, move the tip forward and then lean in to complete the thrust. It is kind of hard to describe, but the important thing about it is that I don't move my arm once the point is locked on. I'ts basically a short lunge with my arm bent, but It's more of a roll forward than a lunge. So I through this at Oscad and he blocked it, but his whole helm disappeared behind the corner of his shield and I said "ah-ha!" I did the same thing and took his leg. I use a thrust/leg shot all the time, but normally when someone does that they are changing the direction of travel of their hand. In this case my arm is still locked in an engarde postion as the thrust travels forward, so the cut comes faster and harder.

Against Gui I had some good moments. He was using old school Belatrix offense starting behind his head, so I used an old school belatrix attack and hit him with a wavy rising snap. I got in right behind his shield. As usual I did best against him when I focused my offense forward and attacked out of time. I am mostly trying to be patient and defend right now, attacking when an opening appears. Against Gui that is a recipe for disaster, and he ate my lunch.

A good, if hot, day.

West An Tir War 2010

2010-07-11T15:45:00.002-04:00

I wasn't going to come to West/An Tir this year, but my dad died right after I got home from my car trip and I went back to Cali (I've now been here for a couple of weeks). As I was working on the memorial and getting his estate in order I was getting really depressed, so my sister insisted that I get up to the war.

This was the 20th anniversary of my knighting, so it was a big deal. It was also, by coincidence, being held in the town where I was born, Gold Beach, Oregon. As such I issued a challenge on Saturday morning to all comers throughout the day: I would fight twenty one single combats-- twenty for my years as a knight, and one for my dad.

I don't remember all of them specifically. I do know that the only person who totally owned me was the King of CAID, a mutant originally from An Tir who is just awesome on the field.

Graf Barak von Langenthal, who had lost his father a couple of years earlier, asked that he fight the challenge in honor of my dad. He's a really good leftie who's been around sine An Tir was a principality. I took his leg and then hid my sword behind my foot, and killed him with a belly thrust. I was really honored by his gesture.

I killed Geofry Scott with, of all things, a double pump wrap.

I won my first fight by patterning the guy, stepping off line to the right, and hitting him with a straight snap.

I killed several people with a hook/thrust.

I even killed one gut with Radnor's version of the butterfly, and another (who was on his knees) with Fast Eddie's version.

I probably won one or two more than I lost.

I was also fighting really well in the war. I certainly killed more people than I normally do when using sword and shield. I was using my bunny round the whole day, but I was in a lot of presses where my legs weren't really in danger anyway. The best thing was the pulse charge we were doing against the castle gate. I lead a couple of those and got pretty deep before dying, and killed guys too.

I also fought in the challenge the Bellatrixes were holding for Duchess Carol's memorial. Carol was someone I really liked, especially when she was living in Sacramento and I was hanging out with Steve. I fought all four of them and lost to the two dukes. Against steve we just traded shots, moving around, till he beat with a straight snap.

Paul was fighting florentine and I tried the A-Frame defense, even though it's not what I usually use against him and my shield was really too short. Big mistake. After one or two passes he faked with his left hand and threw a rising snap. Yes, that's right, Paul killed me with a rising snap.

Brion I killed on our first pass with a hook/thrust.

Christopher, Stephen's son, I killed with a wavy-rising snap. Paul said he appreciated the irony in that.

Western Crown June 2010

2010-06-24T11:32:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted on this yet because I had a death in the family and, as soon as I got home to New York had to get on a plane and fly right back to California. But I've got some down time.

Western Crown was a lot of fun for me. About half way across Nevada I decided that I was indeed going to fight and that I was going to do so using a glaive. This is NOT because I didn't want to win. On the contrary, I wanted to win. Yes, I would have done better if I had fought with my center grip kite and sword, but I didn't have it there. With the bunny round I probably would have won at least one of the fights I lost, and I fight most of the guys who were deep pretty evenly. Except Titus, who was *so* much the class of the field as the only duke fighting. But I hadn't been fighting with the bunny round back home, I'd been using my kite for the past year and a half, so I wasn't feeling too confident with it. And my shoulder had been hurting since I'd left Brooklyn, which prompted me to wonder if I wanted to fight sword and shield. Glaive solved all those problems. I didn't know how well I'd do with it--I don't use it often, but when I do I win some of my fights. I figured I'd do at least as well as I did sword and shield (turns out no, I wouldn't). It would be easier on mys shoulder and it would be a lot of fun.

My usual benchmark in Crown is how I did in my first one: make it to the fifth round and kill a knight. I did that. I've got maybe four techniques that I use with a glaive and during the day all of them worked at some point. Mostly I try to use Visivald's opposed thumb techniaue (nobody out West does that).

I warmed up with a couple of guys I didn't know. The first one I killed both with Vis' thrust/block/short chop (stand with a right hand lead, thumbs opposed, holding the glaive in the middle, let your opponent close with you, thrusting as he does to draw his shield up. Block whatever comes in and counter with short chops to the head. Simple and effective. I also killed someone by using a left hand lead and taking his leg on the step. This is a trigger shot I learned from John of Skye, and it is so effective that it should be illegal.

During the warm up mellee I killed Loy by thrusting at his face, passing offline to the left, and cutting his ribs with the back-edge. I lost my arm in the process. More on that later.

First round I fought Titus' man at arms, Edmund. I killed him quickly using Vis' technique.

Second round I fought a florentine fighter named Drogo. I feinted a thrust to his face, hit him in the leg, then dropped the head to ward his lunging shots as he went down. I didn't want to stand out and poke at him, so I choked up a bit and after a few cuts timed him right and hit him in the head.

Third fight I fought one of Uther's guys, Bjornhaven. He was using a center grip round. I tried Vis' technique and he had that blocked. I tried moving him around with thrusts, and even some of Balfar's choping style. He just pressed and crowded me, which I wanted, but I couldn't get around the center grip. He took my leg then killed me.

Third fight I fought Sir Connall. He used his glaive and we had a nice couple of passes. He went weak side on me, which threw me off. But he stuck his arm way out and I cut him on the forearm as he swung at my head. Then he went to his broadsword, in his strong hand. I was weary but I killed him with a cut to the head.

Fifth round I fought Loy. Last time I fought Loy sword and shield I was winning, and I'd killed him that morning with the glaive, but he was ready for that technique and had it covered. I tried a couple other things on him but he took my leg and then killed me good. He was the third place finisher, so he was doing really well.

I did do a bit of sword and shield fighting in Roses. I won all four of the passes I fought (they were all two out of three), including one with the first guy I lost to in the lists.

There were 54 fighters in the lists. Titus fought Sigifrith in the finals. Titus won without having taking a loss all day.

In Cali now.

2010-06-17T20:41:00.003-04:00

If you've been following my trip on facebook, you will know that I just drove from Brooklyn to Sacramento CA. The trip took me a week, but that was because I had some extra stops built in. I stayed an extra day and night in STL. and stayed with my mom last night in Fallon NV. Most of the driving days were LONG. First day was to Morgantown WV to visit relatives. Second day was to STL with a stop at Indy to visit my old sword brother Tor Tracier of the Grey Wastes. Third day was in STL being a tourist and hanging with a friend. Fourth day I drove from STL to Goodland Kansas. The next day I drove to Fillmore Utah, on I 15. Next day I drove to Fallon. So really, Fallon was the fourth day of driving, and since I got there at 3:00 I could have easily mad SFO by ten PM.

The point of the trip was to deliver a car to my friend Drew. I will also go to Western Crown (haven't decided if I am going to ask permission to fight yet).

Driving for fourteen hours a day is very sedentary, but I did manage to get some exercise in: walking around STL, a hike outside of Glenwood Springs CO; there are two par courses near my mom's house, and I went and ran the shorter oone (next time I will probably just do them both). Feeling good about that. But I havn't really fought since Eastern Crown, so we'll see how the sword moves on Saturday.

Par courses are one of my favorite ways to work out. They combine strength and conditioning in a boot-camp sort of way, but you can vary the intensity. I used to run the one in Lakeside Park in SFO all the time. There used to e one in prospect park, but there are only two stations left. grr. I always go away from them feeling like I've accomplished something.

Fallon has a huge military-style obstacle course at their town sports center (no big surprise when you remember that it's where Top Gun is located), and I'd love to run that one.

Doldrums

2010-06-10T08:38:00.002-04:00

I'm feeling old, tired, and fat.

I haven't been in armor since Crown. Between Kalamazoo and finals May was a wash. I started working out again in June, and that's going well. In the past week I've been to the gym twice, I've run around the lake and up lookout hill, I've taken a spin class, I've done yoga and even an indian clubs workout (and I'm about to do both those again). But I miss the armor. I miss fighting.

My next time in armor will be at Western Crown. I'm driving cross country to deliver a friends car (I leave tomorrow) and I'll go to Crown. I am likely to break one of my primary rules: I may show up to crown and not fight in the list. At this point I am not sure I want to take that on. It's the first time I've ever felt like this.

So I might fight in the list (assuming the King lets me) or I might just fight in Roses. I will likely decide that day.

So in the meantime I am working on writing a fechtbuch. More on that later.

Spring Crown in Canada

2010-05-11T14:52:00.000-04:00

Crown was excellent fun but it represented a step back for me. At the last crown and at Mudthaw I had fought hard and well, I’d killed some knights, and I’d been taken out by two of the contenders in the later rounds (sixth round both times, I think, maybe seventh). I lost to Wilhelm and Kenerick in Crown, Gregor and Griffyth at Mudthaw. This time I simply met my old benchmark: I killed a knight and I made it to the fifth round, winning more fights than I lost. Now fifth round in a 33 man crown is still kind of deep, and in an Eastern crown where nearly everybody is out to prove their metal (few people fight in Eastern crown just for fun) that is an accomplishment. I didn’t beat myself mentally, I just got beat. I did do one stupid thing that cost me a fight, but it wasn’t something I’ll kick myself over. I certainly was able to reach deep into my bag of tricks and pull something out when needed. I was healthy. My wind was good. My muscle endurance was good (workouts paying off). On the other hand, the list of things that were wrong would make a great list of excuses: my timing was off. I couldn’t throw a fast enough combo. Nobody was taking my blows (meaning it was definitely my technique). The mud, which saved me in one fight, prohibited my usual footwork. I fell on my ass several times. I drew the hardest possible fight in the first round. Allergies. I had to pee. Whine whine whine.

And something other than age (I say that only because I wasn’t suffering from it at Mudthaw a few weeks ago) was just slowing me down.

First round I got challenged by Daemon von Drachenklau. I always have fun hard fights with Daemon, and I usually lose. The only time I’ve beaten him in a list, to my recollection, was in the Kings Championship that I finaled in. We had a very long hard fight. He was in control part of the time but I wrenched it back from him at other times. It was really great. Only trouble was, I executed three techniques just the way I wanted to and couldn’t seal the deal. The first two were power and the second targeting. I threw a hook/thrust early in the fight and landed it on his camail in the throat, upper chest area, right where I was aiming for (I find it’s too easy to miss the face on that thrust). But he didn’t take it. He was the second person to shrug off a hook thrust from me that day, so I was obviously not driving it home hard enough. Later in the fight he threw the leg shot I wanted him to throw and I did the block/downward cut Hauoc uses to such good effect—my other finishing move these days—and he didn’t take that. Throughout the day I was not sticking that shot. It was very frustrating. The third technique I threw was when I was legged and he stepped in as I double faked him but I didn’t get the right angle on my shot and, even though he was wide open, I hit the top of his shield. Then he clubbed me like a baby harp seal. All those three problems were with me and my technique (not him—he was great).

My second round fight was against a leftie. I stepped in as he threw a wrap, closing the distance and robbing him of the proper arc for the shot. I took his leg in the process. Then I just waited for him to strike at my shield and thrust him in the body as a counter punch when he did.

My third round fight was against a roman guy with a big oval shield (or was it—I might have rounds three and four mixed up). I hit him once or twice with that same downward slot shot to no avail. He was using a red sword and I was somehow picking it up real early. (His attacks were also not coming in flat, which had a lot to do with it). For the life of me I can’t recall how I killed him.

I fought Sir Collin of Loch Leaven and it was fantastic. I am told that it looked beautiful from the crowd. He was using polearm and for the most part he had control of the fight. I slipped and fell on my ass three times as I charged him. At one point he had me dead to rights and threw a butt spike thrust at my chest. I felt it, I saw it, It had some impact but it felt more like he put his gauntlet in my chest and shoved than hitting me cleanly (he was choked all the way up on the butt spike). I fell flat on my ass. I realized later that the reason it was not a good shot was because my feet were going out from under me and my falling on my ass had robbed the blow of its impact. He totally should have killed me with that shot, and on a dry field it probably would have been good. So even though I won the fight I only did so by sheer luck, which occurred when he was pressing me toward the ropes, I was slipping and sliding and trying to maintain my balance, and in desperation I threw a William the Lucky spinning backhand. He obligingly did not take my head off. The crowd cheered.

Yes, it felt good to reach that far back and pull up something to win a fight with when pretty much I was toast.

My final fight was against a fighter named Marcus Blackeart. He was a really fast fighter with a big coffin lid shield. Nonetheless I felt in total control of the fight. At one point his sword exploded and he had to switch to a new one. I hit him three times with the downward slot shot to no avail. Eventually he took my arm, which like an idiot I had left out there for him to take for some stupid reason (I would love to see a video just of that part of the fight). So there I was left handed. I had a lot of fun at that moment. I probably should have belly bumped him and wrapped his head. It was about my only chance. My thrusting tip broke off, but I hadn’t planned to use it anyway. At one point he hit me cleanly in the leg and I dropped to my knees out of habit, but it was so light I stood back up again. I figured it was the fact that he knew I was hunting his arm and was pulling out coupled with the fact that he was using a lighter sword than he was used to. Randal told me later that his sword had wrapped itself up in my belt tip (Yes! I was actually saved from a shot by my white belt!!). Eventually he took my other arm and I bled to death valiantly.

I acquitted myself well. I didn’t do as well as I have recently, but I was able to draw on experience to counter whatever I wasn’t doing well. Randal said my fighting looked great, that I was on and that I looked really improved. Oscad, who fights me more often, said I looked off and out of synch. So there you have it.

As for the rest of the tourney, it was great. The final four was the one most people had predicted: Gregor, Wilhelm, Kenerick, and Griffith. Griffith and Kenerick advanced to the finals, which were three of five with greatsword, two weapon, hammer, polearm and finally sword and shield. They never made it that far. Griffith won the fight in four straight. Alethea pointed out that if the last crown could be viewed as the guy with the biggest shield winning, this one also played on equipment. Griffith was wearing athletic shoes while Kenerick was wearing period turned shoes. He might have had on hob nails, but regardless, he was obviously slipping and sliding more than his opponent (this also played into my fight with Sir Collin. I had on smooth soled Bohemond boots, he had on cleats, I slipped and fell on my ass four times). So this crown was won by the guy with the most traction.

On the way home I stopped off at Artos and Gwyn’s and had my swing worked on (she’s my form coach, he’s my swing doctor). After some testing they determined that I had a vector problem. I was pulling too far through my shots and robbing them of power. Gwyn decided that this was because I was pulling my left shoulder too far out (something we do in slow work but are supposed to tighten up at full speed). I think this might be because it’s better on my back. The downward slot was similar. I was aiming to the wrong point in both cases. On my snaps my follow through was too strong, as though I were aiming out to my left instead of just to the outside of my opponent’s helm. On the downward strokes it was as though I was aiming at my foot instead of at his hip. Both should be reparable with some pell work.

Great crown. I think I did myself and my lady proud. I certainly had fun.

Duke Henrik on Armor

2010-04-27T16:44:00.002-04:00

A common complaint about the use of plastic and aluminum is that it does not accurately replicate the weight of armor in period. This complaint has become especially loud with regards to alluminum shields, which have become common and are much heavier than the shields used in the early days of the SCA (my knight used a shield that weight eighteen pounds, and I have used one that weighed more than 20 pounds). Aluminum, because it allows you to use a large shield without significantly greater weight, is seen as "cheating."

In a conversation on the Western Chivalry List Duke Henrik of Havn wrote the following. Henrik is the first first crowned king of the SCA and the person credited with having worn the first "real" suit of armor in SCA fighting (a mail haubrek and a norman helm with a nasal that he had fitted out with a catcher's mask). He is also a serious reenactor, who takes part on occasion in the Battle of Hastings reenactments in England:

******************

Now to clarify what I was trying to say about the weight of armor. Over the years I have learned that period armor was usually not as heavy as many immagine it to have been. As Alfred commented, early SCA armor was heavy. This often was due to over engineering and/or limited access to materials to make it from. My first mail hauberk ( made of wire I got free, from coat hangers - about 13 gage steel wound on a half inch diameter mandril) weighed 40 pounds. Others used 14 gage bailing wire wound onto 3/8 inch mandrils. Modern 18 gage, 9mm Indian or Pakistani mail replicates early period round wire mail much more accurately and is rivited to boot. The later period flat ring mail is also well represented by Indian and Pakistani rivited mail replicas, now available. I have a section of Turkish mail of the 14th century that is nearly a duplicate of the modern replicas, both in ring size and thickness. Wet=ight si also duplicateed. Such mail hauberks weigh in the 20 to 25 pound rang e, giving the same coverage.

Old freon tank helms weighed much more than some modern period duplicates, and were much larger and ungainly, making defending blows harder. some people wore little or no limb armor since mandates were less or non existant, depending on time and place. Period plate made of light gage spring tempered steel is now availabe to those who can afford the extra cost, but protect and weigh about the same as plastic body armor. Cuirboile and rawhide armors are also lightweight, when properly fashioned and they too offer as much protection as plastic at similar or even less weight.

My point here was simply that the difference between the weight of a period material armor and a modern plastic or titanium or aluminum armor is negligable, if done well. To chastize someone for using one over the other because of the weight advantage that was formerly presumed to exist, can now generally be shown to be based on misinfirmation of what period armors weighed compared to modern replicas using well engineered period materials.

In other words, if thin gage hardened spring steel armor of equivalent strength and protection to 14 gage mild steel can be made, and it weighs the same or less than Aluminum, Titanium or Plastic armor of identical size and protection, then why are the latter armors not just as acceptable to wear and fight in? Equally, if hardened leather or rawhide armors or those made of other forms of period materials , can be nmade to weigh much less than 14 gage mild steel, but still offer the same protection as 14 gage mild steel armor, why can't Aluminum , Titanium or Plastic armors that weigh AND PROTECT the same, not be just as acceptable?

Although I don't care for the asthetics of using modern materials that are significantly removed from period materials, I have to admit using them is no less an advantage than using the well engineered period armors. And as such, no stigma should attach to anyone doing so.

It may have been that the belief that people using aluminum ( titanium, plastic, etc.) shields or armor were in effect cheating, by not having to carry the weight of the steel standard. But now we know that standard was set at a time where access to a more period one was not inexpensively available to the great majority of fighters. Equally unknown then, was the lack of information about the properties of the other materials available and used in period, that we now have access to. Coupled with a desire to not only be overly cautious regarding individual safety, but also concerned about making changes to rules that have maintained that safety for decades, change to the requirements are unlikely to occurr any time soon, at the Corporate level.

So to address the White Elephant of "Cheating by using modern plastic or light weight metals for armor and shields" is really not the issue of great magnitude we used to think it was. Really it's a misunderstanding of just how light weight armor and shields sometimes really were. The simple example I gave was that a period Viking Round shield made of 8 mm thick linden wood and 28 inches in diameter, could weigh as little as 4 pounds or so ( I have a 13 mm thick by 28 inch diameter plywood disc that weighs 3 and 3/4 pounds, add a 5 and 1/2 inch diamerer hemispherical, 14 gage steel boss at 16 ounces and the shield made from these articles would excede the strength of the linden and yet weigh only 4 and 3/4 pounds) and yet offer the same protection as a 4 pound aluminum shield of the same diameter. The only effective difference between the two is the greater longevity the alluminum 's strength would provide. To say using one over the other is cheating, is rediculous, because it weighs the same as period materials.

I have linden wood boards to make an 8 mm thick shield 32 inches in diameter and they weigh about 6 pounds. Add the boss and the total is 7 pounds. The most recent find of a Viking shield was in Denmark in September 2008. Reports of analysis on it show it was 6 to 8mm thick and 32 inches in diameter. Likely, when assembled with it's boss, it weighed around 7 to 8 pounds, when new.

We usually select materials to make shields and armor last longer while being beaten uppon , Tourney after Tourney. They are mandated to offer extra protection, for safety reasons, not because period ones did. The Coppergate helmet was made of much thinner iron than 14 gage. I'd estimate it was closer to 18 to 20 gage. It is very small, offering very little clearance between the head and the metal. Hardly room for a thin leather liner, much less 1/2 inch closed cell foam. It's total weight is likely arround 5 pounds.

It is well known that in period, metals were valued much higher than today. Protective equipment was engineered, not to last through many Tornament seasons (consisting of being pounded upon in both practice and competition - as we use it today) but to last only long enough to preserve the wearer, much as today's plastic automobile bumpers are designed to absorb a single collision (or attack). If we permitted armor of that nature to be used, instead of the 14 gage standard , it would doubtless weigh no more that modern materials weigh - which do provide the equivalent protection and longivity of the heavier standards.

So, to sum up. Holding plastic and light weight metals or materials as forms of cheating, is an errer we should finally dispense with. There is no cheating where advantage is gained in this fashion, unless it is specifically legislated against.

The only remaining issue is, who can afford one material over another and is spending large sums to gain access that others can't afford, another issue we wish to address?

Henrik

I made it to Nutley

2010-04-22T17:17:00.005-04:00

...and it was awesome. It was, in fact, so awesome I couldn't actually partake of all the awesomeness. I only got to fight half the knights there. Counting myself there were eight knights in armor including two dukes: me, Gregor, Kelson, Stephan, Max, Wilhelm, Douglas, and Manfred. There were probably more knights than unbelts.

I started the night in the deep end fighting Douglas. He is on fire right now, having won both Mudthaw and Birka. We traded about even. When I beat him it was with a planned attack that worked, and when he beat me it was often because I planned an attack that didn't work. I got him with a couple of good thrusts, including the foot-stomp thrust. He plowed me once in the ribs.

My second set of fights was against an unbelted fighter named Mike. I think he killed me twice and I killed him several times. I don't think he knew who I was, which was good. i wasn't wearing a white belt (I don't usually do so at practice) and he was jumping in my face as though he wanted to show the new guy that Nutley is a tough place--in a nice and chivalrous way, of course. And he seemed annoyed that I was beating him as much as I was at first. I got him with the hook/thrust twice.

My third set of fights was against Stephen. No, I didn't lay stick on him once. I almost got him with a thrust, close enough that he commented on it later, but that was as close as i got. However, my defense was very tight. I had a lot of patience, and it paid off. But I was also getting tired, and against Stephen I lose patience and attack simply because I want to try *something*, so that I was able to be as careful and as patient as i was was an accomplishment.

A brief digression. When I practice i usually go into my first one or two fights as though I'm in a tournament. I concentrate on defense, I use a careful and simple offense, i try to be patient, and I try to counter punch. After that I start experimenting. I work on new shots or combinations, I try different attacks and defenses, different footwork, and I pull out old stuff that I haven't used in awhile. I noticed last night that after my first two fights of any set, which I mostly won, I was easing from the tight, slightly crouched closed form with my sword leg forward--a variation on the techniques used by the VDKs--into the way I enjoy fighting most, a western high form with the sword back and standing up straight like Radnor (strive for height, as Musashi says).

Against Stephen there was none of that. I was in my tightest defense the whole time. He clobbered me (once really hard, *g*) but it took him awhile to do it, and I worked his defense hard the whole time. He said that my biggest problem was that sometimes I would stop moving and lean back, blocking high with my sword and shield together, and that when i did that he was able to kill me with a high snap. I thought my biggest problem was that i was holding my breath.

After that I fought.... I think it was Lucan's squire Cullen. He's a polearm fighter. I started out with the tip forward fencing style and killed him with a saber cut. then I moved in slowly and controlled his pole by jamming my boss above his hand and killed him with wraps. I changed things up a lot--open form, closed form, high guard, low guard, sword leg forward, shield leg forward, etc. A lot of the time we just stared at each other and tried to wait the other out. The time he got me best was when i tried to just charge his right shoulder and ran right into his cross shot attack. Look. Pretty pretty stars.

Then I fought Max. I always love fighting Max. Max is a lot of fun. I'm taller than him, he's faster than me. I tried something different at first. After my first bout with him i switched to closed form but with my shield foot forward. I have less offense out of that but tighter defense. It kept me alive for a time. I managed to kill him with thrusts a couple of times and with a wrap/snap combo a couple of times, but that was it. He probably was beating me three to one, though most of those were after I switched to the Western high form. Afterward he said what people often say, that my attacks develop slowly. I've been trying to avoid that, and it bothered me. It was then that i realized that with the exception of fighting Stephen I had been transitioning into high form during my sets all night. Hmmmm.

Finally, after a long rest, i fought Heinrich Brauer. What i didn't realize was that he would be using a buckler. As it happened I had brought mine, not because I intended to use it but because when I stick it in the bottom of my duffel bag it forms a nice stable surface for packing and makes it easier to strap to my little collapsible dolly. So I ran and got it. Yay! I used the Hauoc high closed form technique, the I:33 technique, and (mostly) old school Bellatrix. Oh, I had a blast. He killed me with a thrust and I think a body shot, but i killed him with old-school combos, a wavy/rising snap, hidden snaps (wow! remember hidden snaps?), dropping wraps and I think even a figure 8 attack. My foot work was really on.

But man, I was slow! I mean, I know I've put on a few pounds since Crown, but all year endurance has been my big thing. Max was right about my attacks being slow, especially out of the open high form. When using Hauoc's closed form, I couldn't even throw the downward molinee that is the bread and butter of that style fast enough to kill with it. All my blows were a half a beat behind. I was feeling pretty terrible, then Oscad reminded me that I was tired when the night started. I had done my kettle bell work out the day before, I gotten up at six am that morning, and I'd worked all day on my feet at the store. I was exhausted! No wonder I was doing odd things. I was distracted, I was slow, I was falling back on old habits (mostly old good habits). That's ok. I like practicing tired. It's good practice for long fights and late rounds. With that in mind it was a really good practice.

Ah, it's BAT again

2010-04-18T17:14:00.002-04:00

My workouts this week were, well, not so good. I did dance at the wedding, and I did work out hard on Friday (20 minutes on the eliptical, 20 minutes yoga, 20 minutes on the kettle bells). Plus I've been on my feet A LOT. But between weddings, allergies, sickens (which could have been allergies combined with exhaustion) I was not as diligent as I would have liked.

But I did fight at BAT today.

Today was the Beau Geste, so I didn't get to do too much fighting (I was running the tournament). But I did get to go a few rounds with Johnathan, Oscad, and Jabril.

Johnathan kept me on my toes because he has such a fast hard counter punch. I won most of our fights, but I had to be super careful doing it.

Jabril and I had a really really long fight in which he eventually killed me. I wasn't using a thrusting tip, so I didn't have all my offense, and we both had good defenses and strong attacks. We worked it very hard.

Oscad was great. I beat him twice, he beat me twice. His fighting has gotten so much better, and it's mostly mental. He is simply more fierce than he used to be. His attacks are strong and measured. He is conserving energy and picking his shots. He is patient. He is doing all the things I am trying to do, and it's working really well for him. I killed him once with an interesting little thrust to the outside of his guard, and once with a simple cut that slipped into his timing pattern. Great fights.

Workout and fighting musings

2010-04-06T19:04:00.002-04:00

A thought occurred to me while thinking about my fight with Gregor and some of the things that happened at Mudthaw. Word at Mudthaw was that I had "really picked up my game". Terik said that the thrust has really expanded my attack, which may be but I don't like to think of it that way. My fight with Gregor impressed a lot of people, but (a) I lost, and (b) I *always* fight Gregor well. It was my fight with Grifith that really felt good.

And that got me thinking.

Grifith said that my defense was a lot better, and it's not--according to him--because i went to a longer shield (he doesn't consider 38" to be long). He says my defense has gotten much tighter. Now that's probably true, but what i really did was start concentrating on defense instead of offense. Wanting to be Radnor, I've always concentrated on offense, and I've got a pretty good one. I was bothered by Terik's statement because it implied that my blade work was not so hot, and I've always been proud of my blade work. But I've always been an aggressive fighter. Now I stress patience. Griffith and I spent a lot of time staring at each other. So did Gregor and I. But against Grifith, patience was a good tactic.

The thing I came to realize today is that my past fights with Grifith (who, interestingly, was Gregor's squire) I've always had trouble with what to *do*. I had no real offense for a shield as big as his. It wasn't just that the shield was large it was a mental thing: my inability to fight his style was disproportionate to the size of his shield. I think I've killed him once, and that was in a pickup fight using an old-school molinee/onside cut. Gregor, on the other hand, the Duke in the occasion, I have no problem whatsoever fighting. I just go for it, sometimes I kill him, usually he kills me, but I *know what to do*. Gregor trained with Ron and he fights with what would be a standard sized Western heater. Against him i just go out and fight my usual fight, and I do well. The same is true when I fight Duke Tim, or Horic, or Ron: I know how to fight against that style because I've been doing it for thirty years. Up until recently I've looked at those big shields and something in my head has been psyched out. I've been flummoxed. Now it's different. Now, concentrating on fighting more like an Easterner, defensively motivated, and as Terik points out using the thrust effectively (which isn't hampered by the length of the shield) I have ways to attack the Eastern style.

And that's why my fight with Griffith meant more to me than my fight with Gregor. It meant that I've gotten rid of whatever mental block was hampering me when fighting one of those big kite shields.

Oh, the workout:

I didn't workout much over Spring Break last week. I did a dumbbell workout one day and then Indian clubs but I pulled a muscle in my scapula. It wasn't really painful, but I stopped working out for a couple of days. Of course, I picked up extra shifts at the store, which meant standing, walking,a nd climbing ladders all day long. That store has kept me in pretty good shape. And the two days i didn't work at the store I was doing the tourist thing in DC, walking my feet off. So i was not being a slug.

This week however has started well: yoga yesterday, 30 minutes on the treadmill and a kettle bell workout today (shoulders feel great in that tired post workout sort of way). Tomorrow hopefully I'll make it to Nutley.

Mudthaw

2010-03-28T19:55:00.003-04:00

The East Coast interpretation of the rules regarding shield to body contact is that you may use the shield to manipulate the body, but you may not punch with it. Ok, news to me. You may not only place the shield against the body but a light push is ok--at least that is how it was discussed at Mudthaw. some fighters were using their shields to really push their opponents around, and the Marshals had to stop and parlay over it.

I, by the way, had a fantastic Mudthaw. I went seven round, I killed a knight, I had great fights with two contenders, either of which I could have won.

My first round I fought somebody I don't know and one-shot him with a wavy-rising snap.

My second round I fought Lasier. I've always had a lot of respect for her as a fighter. She gave me a good hard fight. Her offence was sharp and she pur together good fast combinations. I took her leg and then killed her.... I think it was with a hook/thrust, but it might have been a wrap/cut combo. I am not sure any more.

My third fight was Griffith. We fought a long time. I had some good offence and defended most of what he through at me. He eventually killed me with a very nice, sneaky face thrust tha barely tugged my helmet but definitely moved it--right at the end of his range, which I had judged to be a bit shorter than it actually was. He said my defense had really improved and that I was fighting much better. :)

My fifth fight was Ivan Ivanovitch, a good leftie out of Serpentius. We had a nice tough fight. Both of us got cuts to the other's nasal that were way out on the tip and mushy. I eventually killed him with an off-side head cut.

My next fight was a long drawn out affair with a polearm fighter named Collin. It was tough. I managed eventually to get the shot I wanted, a parry five/saber cut. Nothing else was working.

My next fight was another long drawn out affair against Oskgar. I managed to contrull his cuts by trying to control the pole right above his hand, and eventually thrust him in the body.

My last fight was a really incredible fight against Gregor. We went round and round for a while, took each other's legs, and then just flung rattan hard and fast. I couldn't get him with the hook thrust and eventually he caught me with a good backhand.

Congrats to Douglas Henry, who beat Gregor in the finals.

The best compliment paid to me afterward was when changing for court, and Griffith asked me if I was going up to Canada for Crown. I guess I am in the conversation now.

(don't let it go to your head, V.).

Both Horace and Jabril asked me about directions to BAT practice, and Darius said he was going to try to get up there once in awhile this season. That bodes very well....

Beau Geste

2010-03-23T11:47:00.001-04:00

Yes, I won the Beau Geste tournament on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. Oscad ran it as he has before, with one fighter starting on his knees in the first fight, the other kneeling in the second fight, and then both standing in the third if necessary.

My first set of fights were with William. I don’t recall how I won the first fight, but in the second, when I was standing, I killed him by setting him up with two molinee body shots, which he blocked, followed by a third molinee that turned into an onside headshot (Radnor’s “rule of three”). He blocked that but it put me in position to wrap him to the back of the head.

My second fights were with Avran. In the first I charged him on my knees, yelled like a samurai, and hit him on the top of the helm after three cuts that he blocked. In the second I got to use the technique that had been used against me in the greatsword tourney at Estrella four years ago. I cut to his left side, wound my blade so it was behind his and pulled back, pulling him off balance. Then, instead of hitting him on the back as had been done to me I simple stepped in and short chopped him to the face.

My third set of fights was with Timur, my man at arms. He scored a win against me, so we ended up standing. I don’t recall how I won those fights (I need to go back to writing this stuff down right away).

My fourth set of fights was against Alexander. This was the round that I lost. My first fight against him when he was standing I lost pretty quickly. The second fight I won with a short cut to the head. The third fight we went back and forth till he started fencing me at the same time I got fancy. I did a wavy fake and stepped off line and he drove his tip right through my chest.

The last set of fights was against Visillis. That was a blast I won the round with a beautiful hook/thrust.

One cool thing was how I felt during the tourney. I had gone into it expecting to play around, use the buckler, fight two sword, etc., not really caring. But I wanted to fight William with my sword and shield because he’d come all the way from Jersey to train with me. Thing was, once I got into those fights, my brain clicked over into tourney mode and suddenly I wanted to win. I fought the two greatsword fights because I wanted a bit of practice with that form (I maybe should have fought Alexander Florentine). But I was totally on. My fights with Vasillis were, from my perspective, pretty awesome. I was in the zone and fighting with purpose and I wasn’t even having to think about it. My mind went right to where it needed to be.

But I still need dukes!

None of that, however, was the coolest thing about the day. The coolest thing about the day was Timur’s last fight against William, when they were both standing. He hadn’t been in armor for about a year. He was using his round shield against William’s classic heater style. He stepped in and punched William’s heater low and at the outside, right where I’d told him to punch over a year ago when I was teaching him the “magic button” technique I’d learned from Gemini. He did it perfectly and killed William with an excellent onside headshot. That was cool to watch.

Next stop: Mudthaw.

Training Report

2010-03-19T11:34:00.002-04:00

Am Exhausted!

Not a lot on the training front this week unfortunately. Nobody suited up at BAT this weekend. On top of that I've been both busy and exhausted. Had to literally drag myself tot he gym this AM. Feel better for it though. This weekend is the Beau Geste however (come out and play) and so I should get some good work in.

Sunday it was unarmored training with Avran at BAT.

Monday I rested (except for working on my feet all day).

Tuesday I did twenty minutes of Yoga, 25 minutes on the treadmill, and a really intense dumbell workout. It consisted of hammer curls (sets of 20 reps with 15/20/25 pounds) Side and front raises (sets of 15 with 10/15/20 pounds) shoulder presses (sets of 15 with 15/20/25 pounds) and some light fighting combo work.

Wednesday I rested.

Thursday once again I had to skip my workout to prep for class. Did some exercises with the Indian clubs before I went to bed.

Today (Friday) it was a fast intense workout at the gym: 20 minutes on the eliptical trainer and a cable workout doing every exercise to fatigue. "Pitching Presses" 20 reps each side. Cross curls, 20 reps each side. Pushdowns, thirty reps. "Draw the sword" fifteen reps each side. Front raises 15 reps each side. Simple Curls, 30 reps. Cable Crunches/Pulldowns, thirty reps. Over the head/over the shoulder extensions, 20 reps. I ended with 25 situps on the incline bench. I worked fast so I was in and out in an hour. Have to work tomorrow so no gym, but I might bike to work instead. And, as I said, Sunday is the Beau Geste.

Training is hard work

2010-03-14T12:24:00.002-04:00

Duh. And life gets in the way, but this week I'm doing pretty good on my regimen. In addition to standing for six hours a day and going up and dowh ladders three days a week at work, and walking and taking the stairs a lot, I've been able to keep to my workout goal this week--this in spite of the fact that I had to skip working out on Thursday and grade papers instead.

Sunday: was BAT practice. I warmed up with the Indian clubs and I fought.
MONDAY: I worked out with the Indian clubs and did Yoga.
Tuesday: went to the gym at school. I did ten-15 minutes of Yoga, ran for a half an hour on the treadmill, and did a kettle bell workout.
Wednesday: I rested.
Thursday: I just got to do Indian clubs when I had to skip the gym.
Friday: I went to the gym and got a good workout in in an hour. I did 55 pushups, 125 crunches, a kettle bell workout, and 15 mintues on the eliptical trainer.
Saturday: I went to the gym and did spin class, in which I usually ead the streatching afterwards. I didn't lift because I had done kettle bells on Friday and was planning to fight on Sunday, which is BAT once again.

BAT Practice 3/7

2010-03-09T12:52:00.002-05:00

Practice was pretty dead again this weekend. There seems to be a serious motivation sink somewhere, and after two years of increased attendance we've hit a drop off. Oscad was worn out from the long drive home from A&S, Gui is hurt, Nik is hurt, Alexander is hurt, Richard is poor, Gil moved, Rav is at boot camp, Dugal has family, I don't know what's up with Timur and Jarrod except that they have lives. That's pretty much the core of BAT right there. It left me, Bill and Avran in armor on Sunday, and frankly while I like those guys and teaching is fun it's not what I need right now. I need dukes.

Nutley practice this week might happen. It depends on Oscad (yes, that's part of the problem, relying on others for transportation, but when you live in NYC a car is a luxury, not a necessity. I don't like hauling my armor on the train to Jersey and I do enjoy being able to store it at BAT).

Anyway, Saturday I did Yoga and Indian clubs as a workout. Sunday I warmed up with the Indian clubs before practice and then fought. I did have some fun great sword fights with Avran. I have been training him in the Bellatrix style of greatsword for a few years now--which gets both him and me roundly ridiculed among southern Region knights, but he has certainly made progress. I never could get it to work well for me, but then I only play with greatsword on occasion. TO use Paul's great sword style you have to practice it constantly (Paul is so very Japanese in his approach) and since great sword is all Avran fights, he is learning to make it work. Unfortunately he needs new armor. The hanging guard, sometimes called the "king's guard" and "queen's guard" (wrists crossed), and which Paul calls the "tip down guard" is a foundational technique in Paul's style, and Avran's shoulder harness prevents him from crossing his arms properly. Since I trained with Paul and I was using Avran's very nice nodachi, I got all Japanese on him. My first kill was my best, when I did a double strike and passing shot and hit him in the head with a nice loud "kiai!" After that he tightened up and we were fighting mostly to a stand still. Then I fought him using sword and shield, which was fun. Then I fought Bill, who was fighting left handed (he switches back and fourth, fighting leftie at BAT and rightie at Nutley). He is very strong (right handed he usually hits harder than Darius, though that is partially because Darius doesn't try to hit as hard as he can), and he usually tries to simply bull me over. He's started being more precise and patient, waiting for me to attack and then attcking into whatever I do. It is allowing me to play my game a bit more, but it is also allowing him to launch much better attacks. It should improve his fighting greatly.

I did have fun, but I wish more people were coming out to BAT these days. Maybe after Mudthaw it will pick up. I hope so!

Workouts

2010-03-05T13:06:00.002-05:00

55 pushups
Superset of crunches (125)
15 minutes of yoga
brief kettlebell workout (includinging the "hold it over you head in a lying position then stand up" exercise)
More stretching. no time for aerobics, so I took the stairs there and back.

A brief word about exercise.

2010-03-05T10:25:00.003-05:00

On my Facebook page the other day I noted that I was doing some SCA specific exercises in my workout right now (I missed today’s workout, unfortunately, but I will make up for that by working out tomorrow morning after my 8 am class). Someone asked me to share what my SCA specific exercises are., so I decided to write about it here.

First a few principles of how I approach exercise for SCA fighting. I do not want to build bulk. I do not want to increase my upper body or arm strength, at least not significantly. I do not believe that upper body strength is necessary for success as an SCA fighter. I once had an Atlantian duke tell me that if you can put your thumb and forefinger around your wrist you’ll never be a knight. Since I could do that at the time and was both a knight and a count, I felt that was an erroneous statement. Using the Belatrix snap technique, which is the basis for most SCA fighting styles, all the strength comes from the legs. The hand merely guides the sword into place. Radnor once said that any blow that requires strength to throw it and land it is part of a bogus technique. In the Gendy style and some of the center-mass styles based on boxing, upper body strength is more important. What is important in all the styles, however, is core strength. The reason I work out is to build muscle endurance, flexibility, speed and, most importantly, core strength. That being said, any exercise program you can stick to is going to benefit you and benefit your fighting. Circuit training, for instances, works every major muscle group. If you do high rep, low weight sets, you will be building the kind of long, lean muscles and the kind of endurance that is good for SCA fighting. What I don’t like about circuit training is that it isolates muscle groups. A lot of dukes I know are using Pilates these days because it focuses on the core. The best full body workout you will ever encounter is rock climbing. For the past several years, until recently, I have concentrated on two exercises almost exclusively: bicycling (including spin class, which I love) and yoga. During that time I’ve been on a low carb regimen, I’ve lost more than fifty pounds, and I am back to about 80% if the fighting ability I had fifteen years ago when I won crown.

But here are the exercises I use now. As always, check with a doctor before you begin any exercise program:

• Dumbbells: I do a pretty simple dumbbell combo with relatively light weight (I’ve got ten pound bells at home, but I use fifteen to twenty five pound bells at work). My I do hammer curls with each dumbbell, then press each one over head, then bring each one alternately to the opposite shoulder, then do side raises, then front raises. That is one rep. Repeat that ten times and your arms will want to fall off. That’s one set. I do all of this standing.
• Barbells: I actually prefer barbells to dumbbells. My barbell exercise is even simpler. I do military presses, curls, standing rows and overhead triceps presses, three sets of ten reps each. That is all. The key to this and to the dumbbell exercises is that I do them standing. All of them. The fact that I have to engage my core muscles is much more important than the fact that I am lifting.
• Calisthenics: They say that if you do calisthenics you have to do them every day in order for it to work, and indeed, if you do 200 pushups every day you will be cut. I simply mix them in from time to time. I usually do fifty pushups a day and either 125 or 250 crunches. A good way to do the pushups is a build down. Start with a set of ten, then do a set of nine, and so on until you have done one. This will be 55 pushups, which in a day is not bad.
• Cable work: I love the cable machine. There are a few things that you can do with it that you can’t really do any other way. The three best natural fighters I have ever known were Duke Radnor, his brother Manu, and his friend Wolfshawl. All three of them were from Hawaii. Sagan once suggested that the reason they were all so good was because they surfed and they raced outrigger canoes. There are few better core exercises than rowing outrigger canoes. It is the pulling down while tightening the core as much as pulling back that does it. You can simulate that on a cable machine. Attach a push-down rope to a high pulley. Sit down facing the machine and pull the rope all the way down to your hips, tightening your gut as you do so. Do three sets of ten to twelve, or two sets of twenty. Then kneel looking the other way and pull the cable over head, pushing away from you, alternating with pulling it over each shoulder. Same number of sets. The other great exercise is a one handed push. Start with you feet spread far apart facing away from the machine in a fighting stance. Reach back to grasp the pulley with one hand. Pull it toward you. Turn your hips to drive the shoulder forward, then push the handle out in front of you. All of this to simulate the action of a blow. Mix these exercises in with chest flies, curls, and rows.
• Explosion exercises: Really there are only two of these. The first involves rubber bands, which you can make out a bicycle inner tube by splitting it lengthwise, or buy them at a sports store. Link them to a post so you can put them over your shoulders (wrap one around the post and put the other one through the two closed ends). Face away from the post and Lunge forward, fifty times on each foot. Then fall forward into a push up and push yourself back up with your hands. The second one is simply the clean and jerk. Do no more than five up to the max weight you can do (for me it’s 115 pounds, though I keep trying to do 135).
• Indian Clubs and Kettle Bells: If you do nothing else, use Indian clubs and kettle bells. These are the best combination of strength, core, and flexibility you can do. You can get most of the exercises off of youtube:
.

There are so many exercises to do with kettlebells and Indian clubs n youtube that you will never run out of things to try. This one is a basic drill that is pretty good:

.
• Feats of strength: kettlebells and Indian clubs are old school strongman stuff, the type of thing that went out of fashion as isolation and body building came into fashion. Swinging the two handed mace, one handed presses, and especially standing up holding a weight over your head are great ways to test your strength and work out your core. As MMA has become popular all of these exercise that combined upperbody strength, core strength, and flexibility have become more popular. They are all over youtube. I'm not particularly strong, but these are really good things to toughen you up. These maniacs at Gym Jones are probably the most intense. I found them through Gemeni's page.

The main idea of all these things is to build core strength. I like to mix and match these workouts. This week my workouts looked like this: spin class and cable work on Saturday, Indian clubs on Sunday (because fight practice was cancelled), rest on Monday, yoga, half hour running on the treadmill, kettlebells, and crunches on Tuesday, Indian clubs on Wednesday and Thursday, calisthenics on Friday. Rinse and repeat.

Administrativa

2010-02-01T20:25:00.002-05:00

Hi guys.

I've started to get a lot of spam comments on this blog, so I've started moderating them. It means they may not get posted as quickly. Sorry, but I'm tired of all the spam.

On greatness

2010-02-01T09:47:00.002-05:00

The greatest SCA fighter in my book is Radnor. Not only is he still the most beautiful and amazing fighter to watch but his 20 year unbeaten streak will probably never be equaled (for a twenty year period Radnor won every tournament he entered, from small local champion ship tourneys to big open tourneys at war, to Silver Dollar, to crowns). Radnor is also the only person to have won crowns in four different decades.

Others insist it's Jade, who has won crown sixteen times. When celebrating Titus ducal at twelfth night, the three dukes in his line, Uther (Titus' knight), Jade (Uther's knight) and Greyhelm (Jade's knight), performed a little ceremony. Greyhelm, who won crown eight times, presented himself as the past presented himself as the past, Uther (who was about to be crowned for the eighth time) was the present, and Jade presented himself as the future--which I guess means he's going to win March Crown. Jade doesn't always do well in other tourneys because frankly he doesn't get up mentally for them--he just doesn't care. But he does great in Crown.

Or it could be Paul, who is the Grand Master of our art, who won western crown with four different weapon styles, and who once took on twenty fighters at once and beat them in a demonstration of how good he really was.

Or it could be Brion, who only has ten crown victories, but that is fighting in kingdoms with six month reigns and so has fewer opportunities.

Or it could be Stephan Von Dresden, who wins everything he enters but has never entered crown.

And once upon a time there was Torgul...

After that you get into expanded list of dukes, the Lucans and Baldars and Daks and Darius' and Edmunds and all the others.

But maybe it's time to talk about Rolf in this discussion. Rolf didn't win lots and lots of crowns, but that was in part because in his prime, in the 80s, he was content with the two. But he has won eight royal tourneys, four Western Crowns and four Cynagua coronets, including this last one. This was the 30th anniversary of the first Cynaguan coronet, in which he finaled, and he won the second. That means that he will be Prince for the 30th anniversary of the first royal tourney he won. That is an accomplishment nobody has yet matched (though give Jade a chance and he probably will).

And one more thing: at one time or another I've killed every fighter on this list--except Rolf. Not even in practice, and I've been practicing with him for thirty years, from the very first day I put on armor.

BAT Practice and Birka

2010-01-31T22:41:00.000-05:00

Wow.

Market Day at Birka was yesterday. It is the greatest fighting event in the SCA. No kidding. Prova is the most spectacular event, and I love the pageantry, but Birka does away with all of that and strips down to the essence of fighting. Lots and lots of fighting. There are over 3000 fights at Birka among roughly 150 fighters.

And I missed it. Life sucks.

But they do publish the results on the Norther Army site. Douglas Henry won after years of flirting with the top spot. He fought 123 fitghts and won 94. He didn't have the best winning percentage, but that's not what it takes to win Birka. You have to win the most number of fights. Vivat Douglas.

(my best rank at Birka was 24, and I peter out after a bit over 50 fights).

But the big news from our standpoint is that Oscad placed tied for fourth. (!!!) He won 82 out of 100 fights. Good Job Oscad!

It also meant that most everybody was at Birka. I went to BAT, fenced with Alexandre and Llewellyn (they both beat me soundly, but it was fun) and then I trained Nik, the only other heavy fighter there. It was a lot of fun.

I ended up using some Bellatrix techniques. We did slow work for awhile, then we fought, then we did drills. I wanted him to work on movement and striking. I taught him the double-strike to the leg with a lateral step to the right on the second strike. Then I taught him the onside head, offside leg with a lateral slide to the left. He used those two plus a simple one-two onside, offside head combo. We did the three combo drill, where he defends and has only the three combos he's allowed to throw, and the drill wins when he's thrown them. We did it twice. He said that it forced him to pay better attention to what I was doing and to look for an opening. He only killed me with them once, but his fight became much tighter.