Train every day

I do. I train every day.I do my pell work, push ups, and squats every day. As Crown gets closer I start to run daily (although this time round I've been doing it gingerly, since I injured my knee at Pennsic and it hasn't fully recovered). My squats, at the moment, double as part of my PT. Also, Ibuprofen and ice.

But fighting, that's where training really has to be concentrated. I'm practicing at once a week now, but it's going up to two a week. I've made it either to Nutley or to the local Brooklyn practice, or to hopewell, every week so far.

This week Nutley was wonderfully intense. I didn't fight a lot of fighters, but I got good quality ass whuppins. A Duke told me at Pennsic that, when you're getting ready for crown, you should stick to fighting people who are better than you. That's nice. As I was getting into armor on Wednesday, so was Stephan Von Dresden. He yelled "hey, Val!" So I jumped into the shark-infested deep end of the pool. That was fun. I did not have a thrusting tip on my sword, which makes it all the harder against Stephan. I did not lay stick on him, but with Stephan, sometimes the benchmark is how long it takes him to kill me, but which I did quite well. Then I fought Horic and did extremely well. I won six out of seven bouts. After that I fought Duke Brenan. He said he was impressed. I won several of our bouts. He said that he thought I was doing much better when I got a flow going to my blows than when I fought staccato (interesting, since Staccato was how I'd planned to fight on Wednesday, but I started throwing combinations out of habit. There was a pole-arm fighter visiting from Meridies, an unbelted fighter with Japanese armor. I took my poleax out against him and won three out of four bouts. To finish off, I got a set of great-sword bouts in with Cullyn, probably the top great weapon fighter in the kingdom ATM. He actually had his body armor off, but when he heard I was looking for some great-sword practice he put it back on. We had some good sets. He definitely bested me, but I won three bouts out of (I think) seven). Great stuff.

This Sunday was the Cloisters demo. I was pretty sure I was going to be the only knight there and, since I wanted more pole-arm work, and since I also wanted to handicap myself, but mostly becuase it was a subway ride from south brooklyn to the far north tip of Manhattan, I left my sword and shield at home. Taking just a bastard sword, or just a poleax, is so much easier than hauling around  a shield, which is sort of awkward. I fought in the noon session for about forty minutes. There were five other fighters in armor, including Gawaine, who is tough with anything, and Murdoch, who has good weapons depth. I had some great fights and some great wins, but Murdoch beat me twice with pole-arms and once with great-sword. I think I beat him once with my poleax vs. his glaive. He was a real test. He also won the provincial championship later that day.

But my favorite moment was against Alberecht, a tall lefty from Queens. Because he is left handed I used a left hand lead on my poleax, which I rarely do. I threw my best polearm shot--a feint thrust to the head, and a circle that looks at first like a leg shot, but then continues up into the face. It's my patented "best shot," and I've killed people with it using both glaive and bastard sword, but I don't think I'd even thrown that left handed before. As I saw that it had worked, and my point was getting in behind his shield, I stepped off line to give myself a better angle, and landed a face thrust.

It's 40 days until Crown Tourney. My next time in armor will be Wednesday at Nutley.

This summer was a bust

 Boy, has it really been since June that I’ve written in this blog?  I’ve gotten even worse at  it. 

 A good practice tonight. I fought Beatrix,  Jan, Arne,  Gawaine,  and a newer left-handed fighter who told me his name, but it completely escaped me.   This guy, by the way, had an incredible kit. 14th century helm with a giant nasal and aventail, great coat of plates, but the best thing of all was that he had Kydex plastic arms that you could not tell where Kydex plastic arms, because he had built them on a freaking last!  They had a  Great coke bottle shaped to them, and he had riveted them so it looks like they had splints. 

 Nothing really special to say about my fighting tonight. I avoided the thrust most of the night and worked on the edge. I only managed to kill Arne once, but he told me afterwards that he did not like what I was doing. I had him back on his heels the whole time, which was the idea. I try to fight Arne by channeling Joe Frazier.  Beatrix I did really well against, and I think Jan beat me three out of five.   Not too bad. 

 I had a very decent day at Ducal Challenge couple weeks ago.   Well, I kind of decent day. I barely made it out of my pool.  I was in the pool of death, which also had brick jams, Ionis, Hassan, and Arne.  I ended up in a three-way tie for fourth place, the last slot to advance, with Hassan and Brick, but I killed both of them.  Then I went to quarterfinals and got knocked out by Cullen, who eventually won. So that wasn’t bad. 

 I didn’t  report on Pennsic.  Here is my report: every days fighting was more fun than the day before.  I pulled a calf muscle, twisted my knee, and probably got a small blood clot in my calf, my doctor freaked out a bit, but the ultrasound showed nothing so I was cleared to fight again.  If I did get a blood clot, I’m pretty sure it came from  wrapping my knee too tightly on Friday. I could not fight for a month as a result. So Pennsic wrecked me. 

It’s 52 days until Crown Tourney. My next time in armor will be Tuesday at McCareen Park. 

After Roses

 So, it’s been along time since I posted on this blog. That’s mostly because I haven’t been fighting as much as I’d like, but also because I’ve been super super busy with the crowdfunding campaign. (www.igg.me/at/importantearnest)

 I’ve only been an armor four times: twice at Iron Bog practice (including today), once at Nutley practice, and once at the tournament of the Roses. And each one I fought approximately 25 fights (a few more today). That’s not very much, but it was about all I was up to between my foot injury, and my shoulder injury, and everything else. Crown is in two weeks, and I have not been training as much as I would’ve liked. Injury does that. However, I fought very well at roses, and I expect to have fun and do well.

 I’ve added a little yoga my daily workouts. My back really needs it. Still doing 50 push-ups, 50 squats, and 100 strikes on the pill every day.  While I’ve cycled bit, I am unable to run at the moment.

I’d like to talk about roses. We fought for Duchess Brenwyn The Fair. It was a blast. It is a great honor to champion as elegant and noble a lady as her. The format was like this: each lady of the rose entered a team of up to five heavy fighters, five rapier fighters, an archer and an artisan. My part was strictly in the heavy fighting. Whne one rose challenged another, fighter on each team would pair with another. The lowest order of precedence on one team challenged across and then it switched to the other team and back-and-forth. This meant  that, as the royal pier on my team, I never got to challenge anybody. Which was kind of awesome. It meant I never knew what I was going to get.  There were a total of 10 teams, and we only had four fighters so once I doubled up and fought two people on one team.  I only lost one round, and that was to Victor, who totally destroyed me.  The only knight I thought was Wilhelm von Ostenbruck who. I beat two to 1. Oh, did I mention that every round was best two out of three?  This was one of the most awesome  tournaments I’ve bought in since, well, since the William Marshall turning at Pennsic actually. I loved it. My day ended like this: Ten matches, 8 wins, one loss, one draw. I matched weapons, but all that meant was one great sword fight (the draw) and one two sword fight. I won most of my bouts 2-0.

Here’s us VS. Ethel Dreda's team. That's my squire Padraig fighting Ionis. At about 3 Minutes you can see Victor kicking my ass. By the way: I cannot heap enough praise on the three unbelted fighters on our team: Padraig, Dirk, and Ronan. They fought honorably and very well!

Videos are by Cat Woody. Here's some more:

Here’s me in my two sword fight. 

Me and Willie. 

There are 13 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Tiesday Now htt in Ostgardr.

Post Pennsic Post

Here we are on the left flank in the field battle. I'm the guy on the far right of the picture.

It's been a while since I've posted. Only part of that was due to Pennsic. There are many things to write, and a lot of ground to cover, so this post will not be formatted in the normal way. Nor will I organize things chronologically or spatially. It will be a bit free form.

It was a bad idea to camp at the back side of Mt. Aislin, fight in both woods battles, and walk Midnight Madness twice. I don't know how many steps it was because my fitibt wasn't charged. A lot. My feet still hurt.

Keeping with my plan, I fought spear or polearm in every battle. I dragged the shield down for pickups, and used it in the William Marshal tournament, but my edging blew up at one point.

There is so much great fighting at Pennsic it's hard to say what was "best," but fighting in the William Marshal tournament on Tuesday, and in the Crusaders vs. Saracens battle on Thursday, were certainly highlights.

In Gui Avec Chival's take on the William Marshal tournament, we each had to bring something to use to pay ransom. I thought I was really cool and original bringing a jar of smoked salt from Auntie Arwyn's,  but I discivered it was so obvious that four of us had done so. I also bought two penanualrs and a chain. Turned out I didn't need them. The only time I was captured I was rescued. I earned four ransoms in the process. I got a griffon head medallion, a bottle of mead (two actually), a really nice knife, and a pewter mug. Not a bad haul. Bryce also awarded me with an original 11th century buckle for rescuing him at one point. There were two teams. Each team had a banner/resurrection/reentry point. When you struck someone they were "captured," and then you had to walk them back to your banner and record your capture. Before you got off the field, your prisoner could be rescued. There were other rules, but that's the basics. William Marshal tournaments have always been a cool addition (I even mention them in my book--see sidebar).

I was late to the Crusaders battle, but got in at least three field mellees and a resurrection fight. This was up in the castle, and it was a lot of fun. However, for much of the battle, I walked in behind out line and, before I could hit anybody, their side had dissentigrated.

There are two great things about both these battles. Well, the combat is great, which would make three. Among the others, the first thing to note is how collegial these battle are. Stripped of the ego that comes along with tourney fighting or standing up for your kingdom (both noble endeavours), they are just more relaxed! The second thing worth noting is how good everyones kits are. People went out of their way to present good impressions in both events.

Here's some video of the William Marshal tournament:




And here is some video of the Crusader battles. Look at all those great 12th and 13th Century kits.



The first thing I did when I got to Pennsic was head over to By My Hand Designs and get one of their ax heads, so I could rebuild my polearm. I used the same, relatively thick six-foot pole, and turned it into a german halberd. It was a bit heavier and slower, which effected what I could do. I alternated between that and the spear for all the battles. I find that I can't use the elegant pointwork that used to define my polearm style if I'm using the heavier ax. A short polearm, ax, geatsword, etc, is not excellent as a font line weapon, except in a press. That's where it shines, in the scrum. It's best for following up a charge, or meeting one, when the lines begin to break apart. My best time with it was on the last day in the wall breech battle. I got in amongst some spear and, when you do that, you can take them out easilly (which the Swiss, obviously, knew quite well).

We were soundly defeated in the open fields, but did well in all the subsequent battles. I fought spear on the bridge and in the woods, pole in the wall and field battles, and I skipped the alied champions battle.

All my bruises are on my left side.

I believe we swept the rapier battles. That's what won us the war.

I fought pickups with sword and shield, and one set with buckler. I did not get enough. Due to tent failure in the storm, I was unable to make it into Aedult Swim. This was a bummer. I had some great fights on Sunday, the best one being agains Titus. I think I held my own. I got some good fights in late against Veniamin and the King of Lochac. I got him with Radnor's clssic molinee, which felt very good. The best thing was watching King Miles of the West and King Aighleanan of Atenveldt fighting. Both of them are tall (over 6'5") and very fast. Aighleanan was teaching Miles his techniques for controlling distance. The fights with a center grip oval and uses a sword made of shaved rattan, with a trigger and a plastic cup hilt. He's fast. He likes to fight at extreme range and use his length to win fights. He does three things to keep his opponents at range. One is footwork. Another is using the thrusting tip, popping it at his opponent's face to get them to avoid closing. The third is sticking his a-frame defense way out in front, like a common buckler defense. He has a simple philosophy: know what you are best at and do that. He spends a lot of time setting up what look like three blows. Most of his kills are with simple snaps from a high guard, but he works, as he calls it, "a lot of noise to the off side" in order to open that shot up. It was a real master class.

Did I mention hoe much my feet hurt from walking up and down Mt. Aislin?

I used Visivald's technique, thumbs opposed on the polearm (so "quarter staff grip" which is an erroneous description of how to use a quarter staff). This was at the end of the wall breech, when I was doing well. I ended up in single combat against a guy who'd been harassing us all battle.  I got him in the usual way, with short chops as he closed on me. That was satisfying.

My sword and shield fights were all satisfying. I slew mightily. But I didn't get in enough of them.

There are 81 Days until Crown Tourney. I need to retrieve my armor from the trailer, and so I don't know exactly when I will don it next.

Crusaders and Saracens posing. 

A lot has been going on

I've been in armor three times since my last post. I've been busy. Last week was finals week, with no time to write. Then I flew out to San Diego for Potrero War. No blogging then. This is the first chance I've gotten to write some stuff. In spite of the fact that I've got a lot of material, this will be a short post and formatted way differently.

VIKING  DAY DEMO
Really, there's nothing much to say. Three SCA heavy fighters showed up, plus four MSR fighters who had  a demo going right across the path. We combined forces. Nothing really to report.  In fact, it was so long ago I don't recall what I did, other than hit some people.

MEMORIAL TOURNEY
This memory is easy: I won.

It's always good to win a tourney, but winning Matt's memorial tourney was special.  The format was double elimination, best two out of three each round. I can't recall how many fighters there were, but not many.  I came out of the winner's list, and I don't think I lost a fight until semi finals. There were two other knights in the tourney, but I never crossed swords with either of them.

I got to fight Jonathan four times, twice as a first round bye, and twice in semi finals. He, not myself, was my pick to win the tourney, and so I'm surprised I was able to beat him. In the bye round, what stands out is that I threw Ron's On-side head/off-side body/on-side head combo and it worked like a charm. In the semifinal what I remember is him winning our first bout, then a double kill, then I picked him apart by taking his leg then his arm then killing him.

I fought Chiba, who was using a katana, and was able to rock him back on his heels just by firing snaps at his head and not letting up. Marc would have eaten me alive.

In the finals I fought Colin. I got him first with a hook-thrust, and then with a simple pump fake.

POTRERO WAR
Ah! Potrero! As I have written elsewhere, my last time on that site was 30 years ago. It was an awesome war then and it's more awesome now. I was out there to support Agrippa and Bridget, but I managed to get some fighting in.

In the battles I fought with a Corvus center-grip oval. The only problem was my wind, and that just in the first two battles. I killed at least one person every battle, mostly as they were trying to break our line.

I was using a shorter, heavier sword than normal. It was slow and really wore me out that first battle, but as the day went on I got some of my heavy-stick style back. It wasn't fast, but any time it landed people were going to take it.

Pickups were really fun. My most important sets were with Agrippa. He pushed me hard. He was trying to dance around and intimidate me, but I was having none of that. When he settled down and just fought he tended to do better. Then we did a training technique--two, actually--wherein his advantage (speed and endurance) was lost. We went literally toe-to-toe, Von Dresden's favorite game, touching the toes of our left feet, and if you moved your foot you lost. The other was standing square at Heidelberg distance (arms length) and going for it. I won most of those fights.

Later I switched to the bunny round and got in fights with a few more guys, including Trigger (who was offered the accolade that night) and Duke Dietrich. By then, everything was working. I got Trigger with two wicked off-side body shots, one using Jade's baiting technique. I also got the butterfly working. My fights with Dietrich were great. I one-shotted him with just a well timed snap. I also got him with Martin the Temperate's leg shot, which was truly awesome. He was really amused when I told him where that shot came from.  He won most of our bouts.

It is 58 days until Pennsic. I'm still on the West Coast, and my next time in armor will likely be Southern Region War Camp on July 10.

This is me last Saturday. See this Gambesson? At Potrero in 1987 it was new!

Nutley and Iron Bog, with Video!

Fight practice is a commitment, and training for Crown more so. For instance, the good practices around here are in Jersey. Being one of those New Yorkers who don't own a car, getting to practice is a real hassle. (when I first moved here, and for several years, there was an excellent practice in Union Square, but the City closed us down by renovating the park, turning where we fought and parked into an event space/market, and now the only good practices are on the other side of the Hudson).  For instance: to get to Iron Bog practice yesterday, I left the apartment at 9:00 AM. After a set back (I got to the subway and realized I'd left my wallet at home) I had to take a cab from Brooklyn to Penn Station ($40) in order to catch my train. There being no traffic on Sunday Morning, I got there with enough time to grab coffee and breakfast at Pret a Mangier. Catching the 10:07 to Rahway ($10) I started to Jersey. However, there was both a busted switch and some single-tracking due to maintenance between Secaucus and Newark, so we were 45 minutes late. Practice? Great! Dinner with my camp-mates afterword? Fun (and $22)! I caught the 8:42 back to Penn Station ($10) and made it home at 10:30 PM. So (and this was counting dinner) practice yesterday cost me 13.5 hours of my time and (counting dinner) and $82 (counting dinner). While I was there I picked up a set of Cet's leg splints, but that's $80 I was going to spend at some point anyway. Take out the dinner (yes, I would have eaten anyway, but I would have cooked for myself), and it's only $60. So, it's a commitment.

Oh: I had a great time, and a great practice.

WORKOUTS
I finished the century drill on the last day of Spring Break. I've kept up the same workout, save that on Thursday I did not run. But I *did* run after I got him from Nutley on Wednesday night, of which I'm kind of proud. Just now, I went down to the gym at school, did my workout, with 20 minutes of yoga, then ran (in my 5 fingers) a mile and a half.

TECHNIQUE
I have transitioned now into a modified A Frame/High Guard like Gregor uses. I can take that into a standard high-guard if need be (like against Arne, because it defends my off-side better). I have mostly but not completely abandoned the Bellatrix High-open form that I'm most comfortable with. I am using Gemeni's technique of being in high open form when I'm out of range or right at the edge of it, and closing up when I move into range.

FIGHTING

NUTLEY

At Nutley on Wednesday I could not get in enough fighting. It was a great practice once again, with about 20 people in armor. I only fought five people, and only three of those were with sword and shield.

For the most part, I stank.

I started out fighting Jan Janovich. My first fight against him was great. I worked him till I took his leg, then killed him. Then we more or less traded fights till he nailed me in the cup. And not one of those annoying little tip shots either. This was a full on cleave you in two shot. Thankfully, the cup worked.

Next I fought an unbelted fighter from ICOD named Michael. He nailed me. Then he nailed me again. I killed him three times, all with a hook/thrust. I was bad!

Then I fought Gregor. He said my defense was really good. Ha! I got him once with a hook thrust.

Wanting to get some training for Crown I fought Eric Hundeman with his preferred style, sword and "broken lance" with a thrusting tip on one end. Here's the thing. If I fight it like I'm fighting sword and short sword, or case, like my usual two weapon gig, I do well. If I fight it like he and Radnor do I'm doomed.

Then I fought James, a Tribal fighter from the West. We fought Sword and Buckler. That was fun.


IRON BOG
I fought Sir Harold. Sir Mord, Sir William, Arne, and a polearm fight with Dan. However, before getting into armor, I did my whole workout-- pushups, squats, yoga, and a run around that big fighting field (I did my pell work at home). I was beat! I wanted to be tired out. It worked. My targeting was awful! My power was weak!

Harold was SUPER Tough yesterday (he was knocking Arne around). We only made it through two fights, and we split them. He was bringing a lot of heat and I couldn't get near to hitting him.

Mord killed me once. I killed him more than once. My targetting sucked and it felt my blows were really slow.

Against Bill I had a great set of fights, but that light sword was starting to broom, so a couple of times my technique worked to get an opening but didn't kill him.

Against Arne I fought really really well.

I went against Dan with the pole arm because big choppy things is one of the forms for finals. I fought it like Diablu, with downward chops from a vertical guard and did ok. Then I fought my normal pole style and did much better.

So check it out, Video!

Here's me and Gregor. Note how the "tight defense" he mentioned. Especialy at about 1:12. It reminds me of the great Michael Pope's comment about my fight with Michael San in the Cynaguan Novice Tourney, AS 13 (the coronet where it snowed--you know....). "So Valgard here says to Michael San "here Mike! Use my shield as a coffee table?" Michael said "Thank you very much sucker, eat flaming rattan death!"



More of me and Gregor:




So here's me and Bill at Iron Bog. Check out how terrible my targetting is. I'm way way off! Note how I gracefully slip and nearly faceplant right in front of him!




And finally my first fight with Arne. This was a good one, but not my best fight of the day.



It's 12 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Wednesday at Nutley.

Southern Region Mellee Practice

So, I'm really done with the big greathelm. I will use it this Pennsic in one or two battles, just for fun, wearing a nice long crusader surcoat, so I'll have something of a Morgan Bible look to me. 

But I've got my new helmet!

Mine! Mine! Mine!!!

WORKOUTS:

Ha!! Did not make it to the gym all week. 70,000 steps this week and last. I completed the "walk to Pennsic" challenge (cover the distance between Eastern CT and Pennsic by Pennsic) a month early. Still making my push-ups 50 every day. 

TECHNIQUE

I ended up using a lot of weak high closed form (goofy foot) to great effect. 

FIGHTING

I did not go for the Mellee. I went to pick up my helmet. I wasn't very thrilled about fighting. My back still hurt. But, when Bill said he was only doing pickups that de used it for me. 

Only fought four guys. I fought two Knights--William McCrimmon and Mord, and two good unbelted fighters--Luther and Tallon. 

My fights with Mord are on video below. As you can see, I was freezing his shield through pumps and body dips. More of note, I fight the first fight in an AFrame, but switch thereafter to goofy foot. I'm particularly fond of that off-side leg shot. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUaTjE_Yf0c&feature=share

Bill: fought me much better than at SRWC. He landed that body slot shot that Mord couldn't stick, and almost took my hip with a juke right/left/cut move, which I use on Brenan sometimes. Bill just had the angle wrong. My best shot with him was a stutter wrap. 

LUTHER

I fought Luther much better than I had at McCarren Park last week. Goofy foot worked well against him, and his off-side leg was gettable. I did the Horic thing to him (toes to knees and keep throwing) and got a body shot under his shield as I stepped back out. When I took his leg and closed like that, however, unless I bent over to look down, offering him my head, he completely disappeared. 

Which why I'm done with this helmet. 

TALLON

For some reason, I had his number with a simple Snap/back handed slot shot (reverso fendente for those who like proper terminology). I killed him with it three times, once after taking his leg. This, by the way, is technique straight out of Fiore. 

So I've got this other technique I don't often use so I don't often talk about. It's similar to a technique used by Duke Stephen of Beckenham and count Glenn ap Rhodri, but it actually comes from Steven Hand's interpretations of George Silver. One of Silver's two wards is a high open form, with the feet close together at a 90 degree angle, left toe pointed forward, the arm extended straight up over head, and the sword pointed straight up in the air. He uses it mostly with broadsword by itself, but also buckler and dagger (nice, regular system, Silver). I use it single sword, but also with shield.  I change my too--I place the tip of my thumb at the back of the handle, to push the sword forward, like with modern saber. The cut is almost always a fendente, though you can strike a flat snap as well. There are lots of tricks from that position--elaborate molinees, disappearing behind the shield, etc., -- but silver mostly uses it by passing back on the left and dropping a fendente, usually onto the arm. 

So I used this as an offensive technique against William. Dropped it behind my shield for a hidden snap. It cost me my leg, and I lost that fight. But I used it defensively against Tallon and it was beautiful. He threw a leg shot and I moved off line to my left, blocking the leg and cutting fendente to his head. It was very satisfying. 

Not surprisingly, my back felt much better after fighting. 

It is 29 days until Pennsic. My next time in armor may not be till then, depending on the packing. And padding my helmet. I'm done with the greathelm. 

How to run a practice. Or two.

I've been to a couple of practices recently that I haven't written about. Frankly, I didn't do much at either one of them. Still nursing my wrist injury, And fighting only with my short pole arm, I didn't want to push anything too far.

I have harped on this before, but I'm going to ask the question again: what's the best way to run a practice? Our natural inclination is to get out there and fight. That's what we do. It's what we love. We love the adrenaline, we love the competition, we love the contact. Real hard-core fighters; they love hitting and they love being hit. So the tendency is just to pair up with people go out and fight between three and eight fights. That's how we practice. It's been that way forever. It was that way for me 35 years ago, and it's that way for me most of the time now. 

But I trained quite a bit with the Duke Paul. If you read his article in the known world handbook, you know that he advocates training based on that you will find in martial arts schools. He used to advocate a year of unarmored training for new fighters, working just on form and movement for that year before ever putting on armor. Nobody wants to do that, but the guys who actually worked with Paul and trained for a long time without strapping up were hell on wheels the first time they put armor on. 

Every time I have tried to run a series of unarmored classes, I've been met with great enthusiasm on the first night followed by a steep drop off on the second night. Most people want to just go out and fight. 

Paul also has some ideas on how to run an armored practice, and I try to use these as much as I can when I'm dealing with less experienced fighters. In the past two weeks I've had the opportunity to run or participate in practices that were geared more towards training then fighting. Both worked well. 

MCCAREN PARK

our first McCarren Park practice in a long time was quite a success. There were four unbolted fighters plus myself in armor. Ervsld was there wearing some of his armor to do polearm drills, and Sir Gui was there to help train.

While people got an armor, slowly, I spent time training a new person who wanted to learn about fighting. We worked on stance and blow delivery for about 20 minutes. Hardly enough time, but I had a lot of things to do.

Because we had two right-handed fighters and two left-handed fighters, I worked with the right-handers and Gui worked with the left-handers. While Gui discussed numerous blow combinations with his pair, I did situational work with the two fighters I was training, using some of Paul's training techniques. 

We started out just doing blow drills in armor. You block with the sword, throw the same blow as your opponent blocks, repeat. The blow from the standard hanging guard, saber parry number five, and the reverse hanging guard, saber parry number six. Then we took a break.

During this break, I thought a few fights with Samale using my pole arm against his sword and shield. I discovered that I still cannot use the thumb supposed grip.   Fights were fun. 

We used Paul's offense/defense drill, where in one fighter gets to attack nonstop while the other fighter has only three blows, and the fight ends with that third blow his thrown. We did this standing a few times, then with each defending fighter kneeling. Then we took another break.

During this break I worked with Ervald on Palarm drills. I have about five or six Palarm techniques that I use I showed them each one and how to drill with it on the pell. 

Next we ran a simple bear pit. Each of the fighters had to fight it to the others once. Then we took another break. 

Last, to finish up, we did melees, because that's a great way for people to get in a lot of fighting with slightly less risk of injury. Since there were four fighters we ran multiple melees where in each person teamed with each other person at least once.

I ended the night doing some Fiore-based long sword technique with Ervsld. 

I maintain that in this type of practice fighters learn much more than they would in the standard bashing. The trouble is, bashing is so much fun!

SOUTHERN ARMY SUNDAY

this past weekend's southern army Sunday was a pretty good practice as well. There weren't that many fighters in armor, perhaps 12 or 13, but we did a lot of good work.

The only single combat I did was when I warmed up with my pole arm against sir Mord fighting sword and shield. I won all three of our fights, and felt pretty good about what I was doing. But my wrist was already bothering me. The rest of the day I stepped in and out of the melees with either polearm or spear. Spear didn't bother my wrist at all. 

We started out with a shield wall drill. This drill is kind of not fair to the shields, and it bothers me. We worked out a way to make it more fair and I think it works better. We put all the shields on one side, and rotated the Spears in two at a time on the other side. In the first part of the drill the shield are just supposed to stay alive as long as they can. If they are killed they step out and then step back in as the resurrected. This cannot go on too long, because it's sort of the fish in the barrel thing. That's the part that's really unfair to the shields. We solve this problem by giving the marshals the ability to call a charge at any time. When the Spears we're getting cocky or lazy, or it had just gone on for a little while too long, the marshals with yell charge, and the shields would charge forward and cream us. The second form of this drill that we did was an advancing drill. We set up a line and the shields had to advance across it against two or three spears at a slow steady walk. By the time we were done with these two drills, the shields were almost impossible to kill with just two or three Spearman alone. They were working together very well overlapping their shields and staying alive.

Next we did some situational work. We started out just using triads, with a random teams of three. Then we mixed it up a bit by doing uneven sides. We would add a fourth and the fifth fighter to the first triad, and have three on four, then three on five, then four on five etc. A couple of times we would stop for instruction about the best way to attack a superior force. (The answer is to attack a flank say that you can stack them up, crossing their T like Nelson at Trafalgar). 

After that we ran a set of several resurrection bridge fights. This is another way to get a lot of combat in, so people really enjoy themselves, and works very well at the end of the day. 

The point of neither of these practices was to fight. The point of both of these practices was to train. We interspersed situational drills with instruction, and in both cases there was a marked improvement just over the course of the day among the unbolted fighters.

I received a clean bill of health from my doctor and permission to resume normal activities with my wrist. Just in time. It is seven days until crown tournament, and my next time in armor will be a crown.

Crown Tourney #91, East Kingdom, Spring, AS 50

Crown tourney #91

I’ve fought in 91 of these, and this was one of the best. It was certainly one of the toughest. It was also very symmetrical: counting a first round bye, I fought six fights, against three unbelted fighters and three knights, I won three and I lost three. The three unbelted fighters I fought were three of our top unbelted fighters. The three knights I fought were all contenders. I killed two of the knights—Sir Sicehlgaita von Halstern and Thomas of Ravenhill, the two fighters who had knocked me out of the last crown in the Southern Region. I also lost to one of the fighters I beat in that crown.

My first round bye was against Sterling De La Rosa. One of my big problems going in was that I had been moving my sword guard up in my A-Frame defense (instead of more of a boxer stance) to give me more offensive options, but that was hanging it out a bit. I’d lost it to Sterling at practice last Sunday.  He hit it again in our bye fight and I called that a loss for me. This was a good thing, as it served to remind me that my arm was vulnerable, and while a couple of my opponents targeted it later, nobody took it. Sterling went to quarter-finals, and knocked Gui out of the round of eight. This was a good warm up fight.

My second fight was against Sichel, who had knocked me out of two of the last four crown lists. We had a good long fight. Both she and Tommy have a great inside thrust, which was tough to guard against, so I was keeping my distance—if you see that thrust coming you can usually back out of it, which is what I did. I took her leg with the Martin the Temperate leg shot. I’ve got about eight or nine techniques specifically to use against people on their knees. The fifth one I tried worked—a top-edge hook.

My next fight was against the new knight Sir Ivan Ivanov (one of two left handed Sir Ivans in the kingdom).  Ivan was having an amazing day. He was running on that “new knight bump” and it was really paying off. He took my leg and then hit me in the ribs after a great fight. He went to semi-finals out of the winner’s bracket before losing to Brennan in two fights. (in the East, normally, a fighter out of the losers bracket must beat a fighter out of the winners bracket twice to advance to finals—in other words, the fighter out of the winner’s bracket come in clean while the fighter out of the losers bracket comes in with a loss).

(one of the most amusing things about fighting in both the East and the West is how lists are normally organized: one kingdom uses a single-bracket double elimination system taken from Judo competitions, the other uses a two bracket double elimination system common in sports like Volleyball. Both kingdoms sometimes combine this with round-robin pool play taken from soccer. Fighters, marshals, and especially lists-ministers in each kingdom HATE the system used by the other kingdom, and describe it in terms that range from “silly” to “dishonorable.” The best wine is from home…..)

My next fight was against Sir Thomas. Thomas has finaled in two of the previous four crowns. He is a tough, tough fight. After a hard long fight I killed him with an on-side but I can’t remember if it was wrap or a snap. I had hit him with one earlier that I had called flat, to it was probably a wrap. This was one of the most intense fights I’ve been in in a long time. It was as tough as any fight in a final round.

My next fight was against Ketil. I had beaten him in a crown not long ago. He’s a good unbelted fighter. I tried to take his leg and he was fighting sword-foot forward. I cupped him, which I was sorry for. But I felt lucky to get out of the fight. This was his second loss.

My last fight was against Dimitri, who had beaten me in Mudthaw. Once again—big, tall, with a long sword and a HUGE  kite shield. This is a really interesting fight. I thought that, until he took my leg, I was fighting really well, basically controlling the fight, my defense was strong, and my combinations were moving him around. Thomas said I looked tired and slow, certainly slower than in my fight with him.  My lady said I looked anxious and desperate, that I was not in control at all, that I was trying to use tricks to finish it. She has a point—I did use a back spin. It didn’t work. But the technique where I lost my leg was the foot-stomp. Thirty years of using that technique I think this is the first time I’ve lost my leg doing it. I might have done it a bit slowly, but he looked at that and just plowed my leg. Once that happened the fight was basically over. He stood at range and sniped at me till he could kill me.

Tally was good enough to post videos of the two fights that I lost. They are great. In both these videos I see things that I am doing well, things I am doing wrong. I see things that make me want to question my calibration, and things that make me think "damn! I should have seen that during the fight! I might have won!! 

The first one starts after Ivan has already taken my leg, so there’s not a lot to see. At 56 seconds and at 1:09 he throws the same combination, both of which I get a basket/sword block on. The second time it is so fast I can’t see it. I had to look at it frame-by-frame and at one point the sword just disappears. I don’t know how I got that sword block back there, because on video I can’t see the sword coming at all. He kills me using Radnor’s rule of three. He throws that same combination again, and I get the sword block up there again, but the third time he hits me in my ribs. Break that pattern the third time. Note how he steps a bit to the left each time before closing—he’s not circling, but he’s moving so he can get a better angle past my shield. I did not move with him and I probably should have.

The second video, my fight with Dimitri, shows more of the fight. I like it because I can see my thought process in all of it, and make out what I think is his. I still feel I was in good command of the fight until he takes me leg.  My back spin looks slow but it is well timed. He hits my shield as I do it, so I should be able to get him, but he recovers too quickly.  There’s a good angle on my throwing the foot-stomp, and you can see that he just triggers on it, disappears behind his shield (I had no chance of hitting him) and plows me. He is totally hunting my arm, especially after he takes my leg. The fist shot he throws looks pretty good, and I don’t know why I don’t take it (I hope it was light). The rest I pick up. He also triggers on me when I peek past the leading edge of my shield. He is precise and really on with his targeting. You can see what both of us are doing. He is staying back, sniping, controlling range and not letting me have any opportunity to hit him. I am trying to draw the arm shot again. At least once I almost get him with the snap when he sets up a bit too close, and once I draw the arm shot and I block it, but my counter is too slow and he gets out of the way. It is beat – beat – beat, when it should be beat-beat/BEAT—using Radnor’s dictum that all fights are won in between beats (or on the up-beat). If I time that better and throw the shot as I block instead of after the block, I probably win the fight. Thomas was right—I was tired. All the time he is giving me one and only one possible target—his off side leg. It’s the only thing that’s really in range. This is the Lucan style of fighting goofy foot with a long sword so you are always out of your opponent’s range while still being able to attack. I avoid going for the leg, knowing it’s a fool’s errand, but finally I give in and take the bait, and he thrusts me in the face quite beautifully.  He had very good reactions in this fight, and totally worked for this win.

This was an good list for me. It was great to have my lady there to watch me fight. I had lots of fun. I fought really really well. All of my opponents seemed to have fun fighting me. EVERYONE I fought was a really good fighter—there were no walk-overs. I had a blast.

I was SO tired afterward. I hit that “I just fought in Crown” wall later that night at the cheesecake factory. My shoulders are stiff and my legs are rubber. I slept all day yesterday. All of this means I had a great list!

It is 81 days until the Pennsic war. I will not be in armor this week.

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Bonus Post! October Crown, 1992!

BONUS POST

With Crown coming up in two days, and me winding down my training, I decided to post on some other things.

TRAINING:
I have done 15,000 steps a day for the last three days. That includes a run I took part in at school. It was supposed to be the BMCC 5K, but there was construction in Hudson Park where the run takes place, so it became the BMCC 3.8 K. I ran it in 22:20, which is a pace of 9:22, better than my usual. I also have done 50 push ups every day, and some yoga and indian clubs.

OLD TIMEY VIDEOS!

So I wanted to put these on YouTube so I cold embed them, but I couldn't' get them to convert properly. Michael Doyle, AKA Eirik Ulfson, has lately been posting some photos and even a couple of videos of the West Kingdom in the late 1980s and early 90s to FaceBook. Among them are these two gems.

This first:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sne1qdlclxa9p9n/1991-10%20October%20Crown%20Kylson%20vs.%20Valgard.mpg?dl=0

Is one of the most memorable fights I've ever had. This is me versus Vsc, Sir Kylson Skyefire at October Crown in 1991.

One of the things I remember most about this crown was in the line up before the lists. I was standing in the knight's line with Kylson, Radnor, and (I think it was) Michael Hugh Stuarts. At 6'3" I was the shortest one of us four. An unbelted fighter walked up to us, looked at the line, and said "man! You guys are huge! I wouldn't want to fight any of you!" I said to him "Oh, you don't need to worry about us. If I were you I'd worry about him," and I stepped aside to reveal Viscount Sir Edward of South Haven. Edward was fairly short--a full head shorter than any of us. He was also a knight before any of us. He had great big Popeye arms and one of the fastest off-side head shots I'd ever seen.  He sort of looked up at us, his hands folded in front of him, and smiled as if to say "who, me?" Radnor, who hadn't noticed that he was there, looked down to his right and said "What? Oh wow! Yeah!" then he leaned forward and said quietly with a little smile "he'll do stuff to you none of us even remember how to do." The poor unbelted fighter went away very confused.

Kylson was one of the fighters who truly intimidated me. He was huge--I'm 6'3" and he towered over me. He fought with two big heavy swords and I absolutely did NOT want to be hit by him.

Watching this video is mind bending for so many reasons. I remember a lot of things about this fight. I remember that I lost my leg. I remember him asking about the shot that hit me in the hip. I remember dying. I DON'T remember switching to a thrusting ax after we were both legged. I didn't even own a thrusting ax at that time. I hate thrusting axes. I know why I did it: impact weapons are often good against florentine fighters because they get indie their blocks. This is how I won crown a few years later. But against Kylson it was just plain stupid.  I was doing much better with the sword. The hip shot that I took, which he asked me about, looks from this angle like it hit me in the ribs, but in fact he was rolling it up and it hit my hip first. I do not at all remember that head shot that I don't take right at the end. In fact, I don't remember dying in this fight, though I remember that I lost. The head shot from Kylson's left hand hits me on the outside of the head. It looks like it could have been good. It was clean. If it was in the face I definitely should ahve taken it. It might be, I can't tell. We talk about it. It looks like it glanced. Regardless, 23 years later, I am looking at that and saying "should I have taken that?" The blow I die to doesn't look as good, but it definitely hits better, and it stops instead of glancing down.

This second video, however, it the prize.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qlg0dnd91gg6bpo/1991-10%20October%20Crown%20Finals.mpg?dl=0

This is the final round from that tournament. It is probably the most memorable SCA finals and series of fights hat I have seen in 36 years. It shows two of my favorite fighters--two of the best ever--at the absolute hight of their abilities. Kylson died about ten or eleven years ago. He was one of the best fighters I've ever known who never won crown. He lived up in Alaska and did not make it down to Crown tourneys in California more than three or four times. The first time he came down he ran into Jade in the finals. The second time (this one) he ran into Radnor in the finals. To travel all that way to fight the two best fighters in the kingdom, and arguably the SCA at that time, was probably pretty frustrating. That crown against Jade was the first tourney Kylson had ever fought in that he had not won. That's how good he was.  This fight is one that I think about and describe all the time. I've written about it in this blog. Although the video doesn't show the end (Radnor won) it shows the two biggest moments.

The first is that first fight where Radnor one-shots Kylson. Kylson had this habit of posing with his blades wide going into a fight. You can see it in his fight against me. It was dramatic and intimidating and it gets him killed. We all thought we could take advantage of it, but nobody could until Radnor drew him. He did not count on Radnor's timing or his reach. My memory of this fight has always been that Radnor passed on his right, took a lunging step forward, and hit Kylson in the face, but that's not what the video shows. It shows Radnor closing range, first with a passing step (radnor believes in Musashi's dictum of "attitude without attitude"), and a gathering step, and then throwing a shot as Kylson's swords get wide, right at theier widest point and right at end of Radnor's range, but the kicker is that he leans forward a bit by coming off his back foot as he throws the blow. This is why it lands. Radnor used to talk about transition windows, striking at that moment when a fighter's mine had shuffled off of defense and onto either movement or offense, and this is an example. He catches Kylson at that moment where is mind is on his swords and not Radnor's. It's also an example how perfect Radnor's range perception is. I feel like kow-towing and saying "We're not worthy!"

The second moment is when Kylson beats Radnor in the second fight. Radnor has a great record--he won every tournament he entered for a period of 20 years. He rarely ever lost a fight, so to see him go down was shocking. Jade turned to me and said that was the first time he'd seen it.  I can recall Radnor in that 20 year period losing once to Paul, once to Philip Harlech, once to Thomas the Incomplete, and this time to Kylson.

Watching these two videos is an interesting look at what Western fighting used to be in the 80s and 90s before big shields, sword-forward guards, and low-profile thrusting tips. I liked this style of fighting a lot. It was prettier, more fluid, and more fun in some ways than how we tend to fight now.

BIG TIME ENTREATY! We are producing a production of Arsenic and Old Lace this summer in NYC, and we are crowd funding it on Hatchfund. Please visit our site, watch the video, and donate. It's tax exempt, and you'll be supporting independent theatre in New York City! http://www.hatchfund.org/project/arsenic_and_old_lace

It is two days until Crown Tourney. The next time I will be in armor will be at Crown.

MUDTHAW AND NUTLEY, March 2015

Ever since I moved to the east kingdom, I've had a big Achilles' heel. Well it existed before, but it wasn't as big an issue. I never dealt well with really big shields. Here, I have to deal with shields that cover people from the bottom of their nose to the middle of their shins sometimes. I've come up with two good things to against them, a high wrap and a hook trust: but those really only work well on fighters who are shorter than me or about my height. Here in the East kingdom I occasionally run into Giants using really long kite shields. At Mud Thaw I got four of them in a row. Guess what? I got my ass kicked.

WORKOUTS
My workouts are picked up. It feels really good. This week I have some very intensive yoga classes, some good gym workouts, plus fighting at Nutley. And of course 50 push-ups every day, and an average of about 10,000 steps.

TECHNIQUE
At Nutley, I was into using a very basic training technique. For my first two sets of fights, I limited myself to only one shot. This was to improve my recognition/reaction and my timing. I've never been a  trigger fighter, and I don't have Wulf Sagan or Fabian here to train me, so I decided to just go for this one thing and see how it went.

FIGHTS
My first set of fights was against Arn, he's a really good fighter, as I've mentioned in the past. We thought seven or eight bouts, and all I threw was a straight headshot. Sometimes it was off the shoulder, sometimes it was from a closed high guard, but all I was throwing was basically a simple snap. With this, I managed to kill him three or four times. The last time was great because it included a top edge hook, a classic Bellatrix move. The whole point of the exercise was to work on timing and taking advantage of openings created when he moved or threw a shot. It's a good training exercise.

Next I Fought Avran, who was using sword and shield right-handed. The first bout I only threw the leg shot, and then when I took his leg I threw the straight on-side headshot until I landed it. The rest of our bouts I only through the headshot. He killed me once. For the last fight I went back to the leg shot, and he killed me again.

Then I fought a set against Aquillla, a really tall guy with a heater. Everything was working well, and I even got him with both a hook thrust and a butterfly. (that's an off-side body shot that starts as a rising snap then changes direction, based on Radnor's axiom that the third fake or direction change usually fakes them out).

I tried to get in fights with Stefan, I tried to get in fights with Gregor, I tried to get fights with Jibril, but their dance cards were full. The night was actually very bad for me, and I knew it at the time, because it was really good for my ego. Not a good thing going into a big tournament on Saturday. I needed to get hit a bit.


MUDTHAW
I never wake up until I've been hit a couple of times. That's why I love the pool format. Mudthaw is a traditional double elim tourney, and that was bad for me. I didn't get any warm up at all. Because we took Ivan off to Vigil, I had just finished getting into armor when they were calling the pairings. I was the first fight on my field. I walked out against an older two-sword fighter named Aethelhawk or Aethelred (something) and he came on guard in a fairly wide, square stance. I took my sword to my hip and, at the lay on, I thrust into his neck. Game over. I was still not even awake yet.

My second fight I drew Touri, a tall, strong fighter from VDK with one of those long peaked Lucan style kites. I seem to fight him every Mudthaw. This time we exchanged a couple of blows, then I used almost the same blow I used in the first round, a thrust from my hip, but it came in an arc instead of a straight line. It is essentially the lazy "flaoting punch" shot that Jade uses, and which I've had success with against Brennan. That ended the fight. Again I hadn't broken a sweat.

If you've been following my blog lately, you will have noted that I've been falling back into what I like to describe as my style, the modified high open form that dominated the SCA before lighter swords with low-profile thrusting tips came along. I've been enjoying that fight, and I've won a few times with it. Nonetheless it's been taking me out of my A-Frame defense, which is what I'd been working on last year and which had given me some success. In my third fight I drew Dimitry from Serpentius. He is a huge fighter with a huge peaked kite and a super-long sword with a thrusting tip. I could feel in that fight that my mind was totally gone. I was indecisive. I was trying too hard to stay alive. I was lazy and he almost took my arm as a result.  I was mostly using the A-Frame, but I wasn't committed to it. In the A Fram I adopt a slight crouch, where as normally I stand up tall. I don't like crouching against a taller fighter because I'm giving up more height to him. He fights shield leg forward, like Lucan or Darius, so I tried a couple of times to get his leg (which had gotten me killed against Cullyn last Crown). I tried a stutter wrap, but it landed wrong. I was mostly just trying to stay alive. My indecisiveness may have cost me that bout. I think there were at least two times when I could have struck him, but I was too tentative. In the end he threw a truly beautiful shot--a high wavy fake with a nice deep on-side body wrap that hit me right on my kidney belt and I fell over. No loss to cry over, as he went very deep in the tournament and killed a couple more chiv. But I felt very frustrated.

Next I fought Bric James. He is another big fighter with a big VDK kite, but he's not quite as tall as the first two. In the video of this fight you can see that I am still indecisive. I threw a helicopter fake head shot that got into his face but without enough power. I tried it again, which is odd because that's two molinee shots in a row, which I have tried to move away from. The second time he was ready for it. Finally, I manged to kill him with a stutter wrap. That was a fight I felt in control of.



(for some reason, videos imbedded into my blog never frame properly, but if you click the link at the top of the fram it will take you to YouTube and you can get a much better view).

Then I fought a fighter named Wee Collin. You can imagine how he is built. It was more or less the same thing, except he was using a huge center-grip kite. In that bout, once again, I am clearly indecisive. I felt I was fighting better, controlling range and tempo, but I was wrong. As you can see in the video, I was not committing to a stance. In the video you can see that I go from the high guard to the a frame and back, but when I go back into the High I DON'T PUT MY SHIELD BACK INTO THE HIGH-GUARD POSITION. I didn't realize that till the third time I watched the video. I thought I'd thrown that last blow from the a-frame, but I didn't. My left side was fighting A Frame but my right side was in a high open form. When I threw that snap (a pretty weak one, actually) I also blocked for an anticipated snap from him, but Collin had a good counter to it--more or less the same one Cullyn used against me at Crown in Canada. Taking advantage of the fact that I set up with my shield covering the left side of my head, he brought his sword straight down the slot and nailed me. This was TERRIBLE technique on my part. If I'd thrown a flatter snap and stayed in the high guard he'd have no blow. I'f I'd thrown the shot from the A frame I'd have likely been covered with my basket hilt. AWFUL!! Go to tape:




My poor performance can be attributed to a lot of things--me still getting used to the A Frame defense, the winter lay-off, meeting a type of guy that always gives me trouble, but mostly it was a head thing. I was trying too much to stay alive. I was indecisive. I was switching defenses. I was throwing pretty weak blows. Afterward, when I went and fought pick ups, I was fighting much better because I wasn't trying to stay alive. I killed somebody with that back-edge torque shot for the first time in my life. I fought Master Carl (long peaked kite but shorter than me) and I killed him with timing shots, a hook thrust, a butterfly, and a stutter wrap--pretty much my whole arsenal.  Really, I had a great time, it was as always a huge, fun list. I did not fight up to my usual standards, and there is no way I will contend in Crown if I fight like this in a month, but I had a bit of an epiphany regarding my fighting. I felt I'd found a good combination of offense and defense, and an aggression I was certainly lacking earlier in the day. I need to work it out at practice this week.

All told, I did not live up to my personal standards.

As a sage once said, half of this game is 50% mental.

And buy duct tape!

It is 34 days until Crown Tourney. My next time in armor will be this Wednesday at Nutley.

Iron bog fighter practice March 8, 2015

Okay, so two hours each way is a long time to drive just to fight four people. But I had a great time and Iron Bog today, and I got a lot done.  There was a great deal of teaching involved for me today. I taught a couple of guys how to properly throw a snap wrap, I gave a 20 minute lesson on footwork that really primed my own for the rest of the day, and we did a lot of work with Zack on how to throw a J-hook and a tight wrap. Plus, it was just a really nice day!

WORKOUTS

workouts amounted to the same thing for the last two weeks that they have amounted to for most of the last three months. There were a couple of yoga classes, an average of 11,000 steps today walking, and 50 push-ups every day. I do need to start doing more intense workouts.

TECHNIQUE

Doing a 20 minute footwork drill with one of the unbelted fighters prompted me to start thinking about footwork and some combined techniques and that I haven't used in a while. One of these was an off-line passing step to the right. This is accompanied by a brief shield press. The purpose of the press is not just to freeze the shield but also to provide resistance to the other fighter so that he keeps his momentum moving forward. This is a really strong technique.I decided to work on all of my passing shots and my off-line attacks and retreats this practice. It was pretty effective.

I conceive of footwork as an eight pointed star, not where the center of the star is at the center of mass of the fighter, but where the center of the star is under the toe of the fighters lead foot. Every point of the star is a place to step two and a different technique. Are you also use The Oldcastle technique of advancing using increasing steps, and then passing so that you intersect your opponents are going to tack on a tangent. And Bellatrix is circle in the box.look it up. The star conception allows me to move in every direction that I need to move with the set distance for each of my steps. I can pass or shuffle back-and-forth in a straight line right and left on a horizontal line I can increase and decrease on a diagonal line and I can pass forward or back on to the other points of the star. The goal as with all footwork, is threefold: first defense by waiting shots or moving to where you were shield or sword will intercept them; the second opening up angles of attack by moving off line; the third is, as Fiore do Liberia puts it, to gain the place so that you are squared to your opponent and can piss down his leg. Once you're there you have won the fight. I managed to gain the place several times today.

FIGHTING

I only fought four opponents, Gunar, Mord, Zack, and Stirling. Although I lost at least one fight to each of them, I pretty much dominated, controlled all of the fights, and was doing really good work. The toughest of my opponents was easily Zack but I had some advantages that I used.

Gunar normally uses a long center grip tight, but he had switched for his fight with me to a 32 inch heater shield. This is not too short for his body, as he's several inches shorter than myself. However, I was able to use misdirection to hit him. I used to the shield press and passing technique that I described above against him and it worked perfectly, I also usedLucky's passing step, where you throw a snap to the head and, assuming it is blocked, pass with your right foot off-line to the left so you're actually turning your shoulder towards your opponent but your sword is cocked up by your head to defend yourself then you stop around squaring up and throwing an offside headshot it works great against lefties good against righties. I took his leg with Martin the Temprate's Hidden leg shot, and with an upsilon, and with the double strike. I also got him with both Radnor's and Gendy's butterfly techniques.

Sir Mord was fighting really aggressively, but he was too focused on my leg. He did knowledged that and said it was what he was trying to do, but it made hitting him in the head too easy. I did use the slide to the left foot work technique to get over the top of his kite shield once. That was very useful.

Zack thinks I totally had his number, but that's just not true. He hits so hard and is so fast and has such interesting awkward moves, that it's really a chore to fight him. My biggest problem was that I am focusing too much I'm getting ready to fight John the breeder the next time I see him, and Zack and John are two very different fighters. They may both be strong fast lefties, but they fight totally different styles. I did concentrate on using my boxer/A-frame style, but I also went away from it. My worst problem was getting power into my offside head shots after he had taken my leg I think I landed at least three of those and they were clearly not good. His problem was that he was throwing long deep wrap shots, that were very easy to pick up just from his shoulder movements. I also made a total rookie mistake in our last fight I decided to jump in and press him really hard to begin with, then I backed out and was fighting a sore back kind of Western/Belatrix style. Problem was, my feet were in the wrong position to do that against a left-handed fighter and my shield was way off to my left side he took good advantage of this. 

Then I thought Sterling, who has a very frustrating habit of leaning out of the way when I throw my hook thrust shot. We only fought three fights. I killed him with that outside thrust that comes from the hip over the top of his shield -- the very sneaky one that Duke Jade is so good at. He killed me by taking my leg and then hitting me in the head, and then we had a nice long fighting which we both lost our legs and eventually I killed him with an off side head shot. That was my best kill of the day, because I used to really advanced Radnor of Guildemar technique to get it. I changed my interior timing, by changing the pattern of my breathing by holding my breath for a split second and then firing on the exhalation. I hit him in a transition window, just the way it's supposed to work. 

Hopefully there will be some video up soon.

There are 55 days until crown tournament. My next time in armor will hopefully be at Nutley this Wednesday.

MSR Practice 10/16/14

I totally hogged out at 7-11 after practice last night. This is a bad thing. Must maintain weight, 

It's important to have good equipment. I'm a generally sloppy, lazy person (just ask my lady). Like a lot of people who live in their heads (to borrow a phrase from my dissertation advisor), I'm always thinking about something: my next writing project, tomorrow's lecture, something stupid that I said on the internet --usually with such concentration that I will forget the thing I thought I should do this morning, or not notice the thing right in front of me (like that pile of laundry in the corner). Compounding this is the fact that my knight, though he taught me the value of looking good, it was only through covering up. Underneath a nice tunic, leather jerkin, and harem pants, his armor was a rat bag of gear put together from whatever bits of scrap metal, foam pads, and used sports gear he could lay his hands on. And to him, a sword was just a stick of rattan. It was not planed, it had no thrusting tip, and no basket hilt: just a bit of whittling to form a handle and a short rattan cross hilt. 

I am a bit more thoughtful about my gear, but I'm only handy when I think about it. I know what I like in a sword but I rarely put the effort into building it (the fact that I live in a Brooklyn apartment without a shop is also a factor). Usually, I don't put the effort into building my swords that they deserve, and I use my swords much past their useful life. I've also never found a basket hilt I really like that I can afford (I fought for ten years with a cross hilted sword, and I don't like them very much). Right now I'm using a Baldar cup hilt which, when combined with a fairly light stick, provides good results. The best baskets I've found for weight and balance are Iron Monger hilts, but I own half a dozen basket hilts right now, and whenever I'm at Pennsic I have better things to do with the $75 they would cost me. I just don't feel like buying one. So I stick with what I've got, and I can still kill with it. I'm kind of like Kevin Mitchel, the one-time Giants slugger, who could never find a bat he liked but he could hit home runs with anything. 

The stick I'm using right now is a broom held together with too much tape. It is way too tip heavy for the techniques I'm using these days, and it only lands a good blow one out of three times it lands. This is ok for practice, but probably explains why my arm is so tired this morning. 

WORKOUTS

This has been a good week: Push ups every day, two long hikes, and two good workouts: Wednesday was a good kettle bell workout, and yesterday I went to the gym for 20 minutes of yoga and 20 minutes on the treadmill. I did not have time to lift, but it was still effective.  

FIGHTING

I am so beat up from practice on Thursday. I went there mostly to work on my great sword techniques, tough I planned one or two sword no shield fights as well. The two people I knew I'd be fighting great sword against were Gui and Zack, both of whom are left handed, marking them odd fights. Since I was fighting without a shield I wore my kendo breastplate. Unfortunately, both my shoulder pauldrons are blown out, and so I was without them. I've mostly fought without pauldrons for the last 35 years, but you do pay a price. My main project was to go back to my roots and use Rolf's bastard sword style, the one where I hold it in front of me, diagonally up and back guarding my head, body, and both arms. Problem with that is that against left handers that opens half those targets up, of which my right shoulder was eventually reminded. As a result I also used a bit of Gui's horse stance technique. 

Gui likes to fight in close and I like to fight at range. Usually I try to beat Gui at his own game and I get crushed. I do, however, get to practice all those cool backedge techniques he uses, and I used them to take his leg and double kill with him. My one good kill was in our first bout, where I used that straight cut/thrust, which is becoming my go to shot. 

Against Zack that shot worked very well. I got him with it from both wards (mine and Gui's). I also got him with it from my knees, as he was stepping in after taking my leg, which was particularly satisfying. As long as I controlled the range I was doing well, but when we closed distance we were more or less even. 

I fought sword and shield against Tycho. I was told I circled too far behind him after taking his leg. I was using the "One step" convention, so that surprised me. I have a technique that I use with a legged opponent (no comments about how the answer is to get rid of fighting from our knees because I have no problems with that convention). I show him my thrusting tip, slide to one side and then take a step forward. Normally, I go to my right, but against Tycho, who is left handed, I've been experimenting by going to the left. I think he thought i was "behind him" because I had gone to his shield side, so his shoulders were turned away from me. As far as I can figure out the technique is legal, but both he and Gui thought it wasn't. 

I also fought Brad and then went through the field in a bear pit. 

It is two weeks to crown. My next time in armor will be this Wednesday at Nutley.

Grants Tomb October 5th

Gui had an interesting thing to say about my fighting yesterday. He says my problem is that I push myself in ways and places that I don't need to, that instead of finding my weaknesses and shoring those up I try to learn new techniques or develop new shots that I really don't need. I think that was more of a criticism eight years ago than it is today. That is when I made a conscious decision to switch from being primarily an offensive fighter to primarily a defensive fighter. I simplifed my style, abandoned nearly all of my offense, which was based on molinee's fakes, and combinations, and went to a very pared down simple style that was mostly counter punching: so I see what Gui is talking about, and I probably need to move further in that direction.

Sunday at Grant's Tomb was awesome. I got to practice several different things. There were three knights in armor--Myself, Gui, and Luis--as well as five unbelted fighters--Avran, Torvrikr (sp), Samale, Nikolai, and Tycho.  I manged to fight everybody, and Samale twice. Not only that but I got some good weapons practice in. I fought sword and shield against Luis, Samale, Tycho, Nikolai, and Gui, I fought polearm against Avran, long sword against Samale, and single-sword against Torvrikr.

WORKOUTS:
Just Yoga, walking, and push-ups.

TECHNIQUE
Building on what was working at Nutley on Wednesday Night, I wanted to work on aggression and movement in my sword and shield fights. In addition, I wanted to use two specific techniques in my longsword fights that  I had not used at Cloisters--a horse stance technique with the edges held outward and the first Bastard Sword style I learned from Rolf, which is cocked with hands about chest high. In my polearm and my single sword fights I wanted to run through every technique I have.

FIGHTING
Against Gui I won two fights and got creamed six or seven times. I had a real problem with my fights against Gui, which I discussed with him at length. I usually have pretty good footwork. Yesterday I was trying specifically to throw Gui's leg attack, which involves repeatedly throwing wraps and snaps at an opponent's leg while moving around their shield to their sword side in kind of a waddling movement (it's similar to the movement Belatrix uses when fighting agaisnt great weapons with sword and shield). I was doing it either without footwork, in which case he didn't have to move his shield to block, or I was doing it with lousy footwork, with the same result. Normally, even against left handed fighters, my footwork is good enough to win me fights. Against Gui it's terrible. I don't step into my shots enough if at all. Part of it is that he's defending it well because it's a technique he uses, but part of it is I'm not executing at all. I think I'm afraid to come out from behind my shield against Gui and so I'm not stepping out to get around his defense the way I need to. Against Tycho I had no problem with that.

Against Samale, Tycho, and Nikolai my offense and defense were both good. I was trying to be more aggressive--especially against Tycho, and that was working well. I am using a lot more movement and body fakes, so that my A frame is not as static as it has been in the past.

I like to say I have five tricks with a polearm. I used all of them against Avran. My favorite one is to hold the pole like a kayak oar and swim with it. If I can catch the fore of his pole between my hands I will usually kill him with a short chop. If he comes over to my off side and I can knock his attack down I'm on top and will kill him. This worked pretty well. All of my other techniques are more standard, with my thumbs in line not opposed. I also got him once where I just grabbed his pole, choked up and stabbed him in the belly.

My long sword fights against Sam were great. I adjusted my ward so that I was using the Bastard Sword style I first learned from Rolf 35 years ago, with the hands held at about chest level, the blade cocked back and at a slight diagonal toward my right shoulder to that the blade offers cover to both my forearms. I tried a couple of techniques against Samale--Zornhau Ort, Hanging Parry--at which he laughed and said "Ha! I read your blog!" which was pretty affirming. I got some good kills on him with countering shots--parrying and passing either under or over his blade and striking him. Then I fought three fights using Gui's technique, where he adopts a horse stance and holds the sword straight up and down in front with the quillions going parallel to his shoulders-side to side. The idea is that you can use either edge of the sword equally by turning the blade in your hand, I won all three of those fights: once with a thrust, once by blocking and countering to his right side helmet with the true edge, once by blocking and striking his leg with the false edge, then using a technique I'd forgotten about for a legged opponent, where I move my hand above the quillions, strike to the off side, wind, pass on the left, and pull back then short stick him.

Naturally, it was in single sword that I got hurt. This is because I was getting fancy, and the fancier you get the more risks you take. Single sword might be the pinacle of our art--it is certainly the hardest and riskiest thing we do. I have a very well developed single sword style based on techniques from Firoe di Liberi, George Silver, and Dukes Rolf, Paul, and Radnor. I use four wards normally, and I have been working on a 5th, and they all flow one into the other: Right foot forward, weight 70% on the left foot and sword at your left hip (Liberi); weight evenly distributed, sword in a hanging "saber parry" (Sliver); left foot forward, sword above your head (either straight up, as in Silver, or cocked for a snap as in Bellatrix/Radnor), sword cocked in front of you, held diagonally toward your left shoulder (Rolf--same has his bastard sword above), and the one I'm working on now, a fencing stance with the sword held at the right hip, point toward the opponent's face. I'll post some pictures of all of these later. The main goals are to either get above the opponent's sword to make a true edge cut; get a parry 6 (window parry) below your opponent's sword and get a back hand cut; or beat them on timing. You can also use the silver technique of, from the high guard, passing back and striking their arm when they strike at you ("This art is about the lopping off of hands, arms, legs, yea, and even heads."--G. Silver, Gentleman). I did all of this in my fights against Torvrikr. I got hurt when I ducked and he bashed me right on the crown of my helmet while I was bent over. Jammed my neck a  bit. I'm all better now.  Here is a picture on FaceBook of me just starting a technique I learned from Duke Radnor. It caught me in motion, as I've started to strike. I'm going to swing under his blade to draw his defense down, pass on the left and back hand him. If that doesn't work I just come back across his face with a forehand.

This was a great practice. I got in lots of good work. I limbered up my long sword and my polearm. I worked hard on my footwork vs. left handed fighters. I was strong and aggressive.

It is 26 days until Crown Tourney. My next time in armor will most likely be Thursday Night in Hawthorne.

Cloisters Demo

Sometimes you don't know why you are doing a thing. Demos are great fun but they are odd. You are often fighting for a different purpose--to please an audience and put on a good show--than you would normally fight for. I have tried recently to treat demos a bit more like a small tournament, one in which I may goof around with odd weapons or techniques I would not normally use, but in which I am still trying to best my opponents and not playing so much to the crowd, but that with varying results. Cloisters demo is one of my favorites. It takes place at the Ft. Tryon Medieval Festival every year in Manhattan. It's a one day ren-fair that, like every public festival in Manhattan, draws an unbelievable crowd of people--theofficial number has been 60,000 people the last five years, that's in a park that has only one main road coming and going, is served by only two subways stops and those on the same line, one of which requires walking down a steep stairs for several hundred feet and the other to take a big freight elevator down to the platform, and for which there is like all things in New York almost no parking. The whole  fair is laid out on either side of a road about 1 mile long that runs north from the park entrance and then loops around the Cloisters Museum (probably the Best Medieval museum outside of Europe). For most people (those who don't want to brave the stairs down to Dyckman Street) There is only one entrance to the park, so what you've got is 60,000 people milling about up and down one short stretch of road. But, like a midtown sidewalk at lunch time, it is kind of thrilling--the greatest sight in nature being man in all his infinite variety.

It also means we get a great audience. For years the SCA has shared a tourney space ont eh south lawn with other sword play groups while the big choreographed shows and mounted jousting go on at an arena. Fort he second year in a row that included our friends from the Armored Combat League. This is both frustrating (because, let's face it, they draw a bigger crowd than the SCA does) and relaxing (because, let's face it, it takes some of the pressure off of the SCA). There is, of course, a lot of cross over between the two groups, and a couple of our regulars were unavailable because they were fighting in the ACL tourney and were committed to that. Their show was excellent, by the way, and they had a team come down from Quebec and a few people come in from Russia for the event. I continue to believe that ACL represents an existential threat to the SCA because they put on a more violent and athletic competition than we do and are siphoning off many of our best fighters into their game while, at the same time, presenting an option more attractive to many who are interested in the sport combat activity that has long lain at the heart of the SCA structure. The thing is, I'm content with that. While I would like to fight ACL my main focus continues to be training for crown, and I only have so much time and so many knee ligaments to give to any one art. I don't believe in fighting progress and that is what the ACL is--the next logical step in medieval style combat. The ACL has the opportunity to grow the SCA a bit as well since they have nothing to offer but the fighting, and they currently have nothing like Pennsic. Many of the dukes who have been doing ACL have kept up their SCA participation. Lucan in particular is doing great things for the SCA with The Knight's Hall. On the whole I love the ACL,

In addition to the ACL and the Knights of Avalon (a kid show) we also shared the space with Sword Class NYC, a HEMA group. I was actually as impressed with their fighters as I was with ACLs.

Anyway, it was a really good day.

WORKOUTS:
It's only bee two days since my last post. I've done one Yoga class and my push ups.

TECHNIQUE
I went to Cloisters planning to work on my Long Sword and my pole arm technique. I wanted to use two of the German Longsword  seen in Ken Mondschein's video below in my longsword this weekend. Did not work one bit.



FIGHTING
I fought mace and shield, long sword and pole ax. I never use the rubber headed mace or ax heads in serious competition because, although they look good, I ahve trouble striking a telling blow with them. The just bounce off. But in Demo's i'm happy to use them. I hit a few people blows with the mace that they did not take, but I got a few kills with it. My mace technique comes from Rolf the Relentless, the best Mace fighter I know, and involves no only wraps but rising snaps, dropping face shots, and--especially--figure eights.

I also fought a few fights with the pole axe. When I do that I normally use a thumbs opposed grip (like a kayak paddle of a movie quarterstaff) and fight the technique employed by Duke Visivald of fighting in close and mostly chopping at the head with short almost punching strokes. It's pretty effective, and I even got one person to count that ax head with it. I also was victorious with my disengage thrust discussed in the last post. Mostly, however, it was an exercise in futility.

I was very unhappy with my longsword. Although I've worked the stuff I was doing on the pell I was not doing it properly in armor. I was also very indecisive. I was kind of in between using Vom Tag or Alber and using the high center version of Vom Tag common in the East (mostly thanks to Gregor). This is a totally bogus SCA technique, since it relies on the invulnerability of our hands. In it you hold the sword cocked with the hands basically in front of your face and use short chops mostly at the head and shoulders. I did not use any Bellatrix technique at all.

My two best kills were my first longsword fight, against Avran, and my last fight of the day, against Auzur. In the fight against Auzur I used a Zornhau Ort, probably the most common technique seen in  HEMA competition. In it you strike a diagonal downward strike and then thrust quickly at the face. It's the most basic technique in longsword because it works, but I don't think Azur had ever seen it. Of course, this being the SCA, there was really no footwork involved.

The other fight I was very happy with was against Avran. It's up as a video on Facebook here:

As I note in the comments, this fight started out terribly for me. I start out in long pint but leave that quickly. You can see that I want to fight in Alber or in Vom Tag and in both cases I wont commit to either, though mostly becasue they aren't drawing Avran in. Avran, meanwhile, is doing what I told him to do six years ago and using the classic Bellatrix technique. (Paul's stuff, although he developed it himself, is all found in the German manuals and it all begins either in the plow with a right foot lead or in Vom Tag). I end up in a stupid ward, fighting with the SCA version of Vom Tag but without my sword cocked the way it should be. I win this fight by going back to where I started in long point and just beating him on timing. The whole time I should have been taking a right foot lead and I didn't. The technique I won the fight with is probably my favorite cut, though, a simple downward timing strike.

It is 33 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be at Nutley practice on Wednesday.