Happy New Year

Greetings fellow travelers.

I've never been a big fan of the new year. I don't like retrospectives, and I don't like resolutions. They remind me of the things that I haven't been doing lately, and also make me think I'm old. But, reflection is not a bad thing, nor is being resolute, from which we get resolutions. It's good to take stock, and it's good to make plans.

My squire posted on our household list that he had a lot of goals to accomplish this year, and he expected to get his ass beaten a lot in the process. He is looking forward to the ass beating, the rest of us should name the time and the place for him to show up and that he would come and take his stripes. This is good. He and I had his annual review a couple weeks ago, and we laid out what his goals in fighting were to be for the year. It's a good idea to do this, not just with our students but also with ourselves.

In review, I did well in both Crown tournaments that I fought in. I went to semi-finals in on, quarter finals in the other. I also went to semi finals in Mudthaw and won a couple of other tournaments. I killed a number of high quality fighters, but still lost to Matthew, Randal, Avaldr, and Wilhelm (whom I had been beating). As usual, my biggest asset was perseverance.  I find that I'm fighting very well, I'm focusing well, but I'm pressing too much with the top level fighters.

I have not bee practicing as much as I'd like. I had the usual spate of injuries to deal with.  I did not make it to Birka.

Since I will not be making Birka again this year, I am unable to kick start the season the way I prefer.

Physically, I put on about 5 pounds, which I'm not too happy about, though some of that is muscle. I did not miss a single day of my push ups, squats, or pell work this year.

Goals for the coming year.

Win Crown.

Champions battle at Pennsic.

I will go to more events, but I plan to focus on one event a month this coming season. The events I'm aiming for right now are AEdult Swim in February, Mudthaw in March, Balfar's Chalenge in April, Crown in May, Les Beltaines in June, Pennsic in July and August, Ducal Challenge in Septamber, Roses Tournament in October, and Crown in November. December I'll leave up in the air. There's a slight chance I will be at Double Wars in May and Great Western in October. Counting events, I want to be in armor at least six times a month between February and November (which is a low bar). Ideally, I'd be in armor, at least for light practice, three times a week. I'm going to California for three weeks in January, and will fight in both the West and CAID.

In terms of workouts, I will continue with my daily routine. Once the semester begins, I will start running more. I also need to start taking yoga again.

It's 46 Days until AEdult Swim. My next time in armor will be this weekend in the West.

Iron Bog 12/16

I had not been in armor since Crown, which was a six week layoff. It was mostly for deer season.

There were five fighters at Iron Bog: myself, Sterling, Gui, Bran, and Mike. Good practice--two knights and three OTCs. Ron was there for a while, teaching. He says I'm throwing too many wasted shots.

Gui beat me 3 times out of 4, and really rocked me once. All of his wins on me were his short punch, once while I was on my knees. I was trying only one thing--to kill him with an off side thumb lead scorpion, mostly because it's a shot *he's* trying to learn right now. I've tried it a few times, but can't quite get the angle correct. The only people I know who do it well are Ionis and Duke Anton from Atlantia. I never did land it, though in our last fight I started to throw it, turned it into a for-edge shot, and it worked. My fights with Sterling were rough, as usual, but I won 4 of 5. Once I got him with one of Ron's shots--moving my hand in front of my face, as though to throw an off side, then hitting him in the head. It's more subtle than the way I've thrown it in the past. I felt best against Elglin. I was able to control the fight with snaps to the head and use that to set up everything else.

No video.

I'm not going to Birka at this point, because it's my birthday weekend, and Hanna got us show tickets. My next time in armor will be at Western 12th Night.

Crown Tournament #99

God! I've been doing this a long time!

So on Saturday I fought in my 99th Crown Tournament. This is a lot, I know. My record isn't that good--1 for 98. But I'm fighting as well now as I ever have, I think. I felt good going in, and I did not go in just to fight. I knew I was a contender and I was fighting to win. I only have a few more years where I have a legit chance at this, and I want my strawberry leaves, I want to make Hanna queen, and I always planned to do it three times.

This was a lovely crown up in Ellsworth, Maine. We flew. Gracia's family owns a very small island up there, off of Winter Harbor, which her grandparents bought in the 50s. I'd never seen it before, except in pictures, so we drove out to look at it. If we'd been earlier, we might have been able to go out to it. As it was it was fun climbing on the rocks, just a couple hundred yards away. We had a nice lobster dinner that night in Bar Harbor.

The crown was at a Boy Scout camp halfway between Ellsworth and Bangor. Thankfully, they had a barn with a concrete floor we could fight in, because the rain was fierce. It was great to be there with Harold, William, and Murdoch from our household. The three knights fought, while Murdoch fought pickups and squired for us. 

TRAINING
I trained pretty hard for this crown, but injuries got in my way. I hurt my Achilles tendon running, about three weeks out, and haven't run since. I've walked a lot, and hit the elliptical a couple of times, but that isn't really the same. I also had tennis elbow for awhile, which I had to rest, and my back is always a problem. The result was that I did not fight as often as I'd planned to in the weeks leading up to the tournament. As referenced earlier, I did fight in three tourneys as prep--the practice tourney in Rusted Woodlands, Falling Leaves, and the tourney at Coronation, which I won. I've not missed my daily workout--50 push ups, 50 squats, and 100 pell strikes.
But not this time. Not quite.

FIGHTING
So, I fought awfully my first fight, great my last, and got better each time. I never got gassed. The format was double tree double elimination. From the round of sixteen onward, it would be best two out of three each round. Deaths would be forgiven in semi-finals (a big change), and finals would be three out of five with matched weapons.

I think my fights were Embla Knutrsdotir, Harold, Thomas de Winterwarde, Duke Randal, Bill, Sir Rory, and Sir Matthew. That took me to the round of six. I lost to Randal, who went to semi finals, and Matthew, who went to finals. All I have really are impressions of the day.

I beat Harold with a body thrust. He opened up too much.

I beat Bill first with a downward counter to the off-side head, and second with a molinee-face cut (that was pretty).

Rory started out super aggressive, but I was able to block his stuff. Once he settled in I killed him the way I did last time, with two hook/thrusts (I actually threw 5).

I died to two shots--one from Matthew, one from Randal, that were pretty light, but both were in the face. Matthew's was a thrust, very pretty, first one he'd thrown. I almost got him at that same moment with a thrust to his armpit: Randal's was a backhand.  Matthew also killed me with a counter off-side, and Randal with a body thrust as I took his leg. I did beat Randal in our first fight. I did not beat Matthew at all.

I was definitely fighting well. I was a contender. I wish I'd fought Ozur, because I fight him better than most. He was a beast all day.

Afterward the household went to Texas Road House for rib-eyes. All three of us--me, Bill, Harold-- had reached the round of sixteen, and each of us had fought the other two.

Gracia had a really great time.

I've seen no video of my fights.

I didn't get tired, I didn't get hurt, and I didn't beat myself. I was in contention. Pretty good day. If I keep fighting like this I can definitely win. 

It's 78 days until Birka (on my birthday). I don't know when my next time in armor will be. 

Iron Bog and other joys

It takes me a long time to get to the Iron Bog practice in South Jersey, especially if I'm not driving. Sometimes, I rent a car, sometimes I catch a ride with Gui (even though we both live in Brooklyn, we consider the Iron Bog practice to be our "home practice," mostly because it's where most of our friends are). Otherwise, I have to go by train and link up with one of my household members traveling down there from Central Jersey, like William McCrimmon or Jonathan Bayles. So yesterday, it was like this: I left the house at 9:30 AM. I took the subway to 34th Street. I was a bit early (the train runs every hour) so I grabbed a quick breakfast. Then I took the New Jersey Transit train to Newark Penn Station. It seems the Raritan Valley line wasn't running into Newark because of a cancer walk, so they put us on a shuttle bus. That got me to another train station, where I boarded the train and for Somerville. Jonathan met me there (I was really late), and we drove down to practice together. We got there an hour late. We fought. We went and grabbed dinner with some of the other fighter. We drove up to New Brunswick, where he dropped me off. It was a 50 minute wait for the next train to NYC. Exhausted, I took a cab home ($46, counting toll and tip). I got hom at 11:30 PM. Granted, there was a lot fo down time in there, including a long meal. But it's still an exhausting trip.

I've done a few things since I blogged last. I won the tournament at Coronation, defeating Sir Victor in the finals. I've practiced at Nutley as well as at Iron Bog. Mostly I've been managing pain.

Pain is a constant companion when you're a fighter, and it increases with experience. This training cycle has been tough. I had two very slight injuries at Ducal Challenge that didn't seem like much at the time, but are still bugging me. I missed a shot and torqued my wrist, and, when fighting Duke Hanse, I strained my shoulder. I have shoulder pain fairly often. I've got bursitis that flares up. Amd tennis elbow. Pretty much my whole arm, really. My technique is pretty good, so I don't put a lot of strain on my shoulders, but it still comes in. Plus, I sleep on it wrong a lot. This isn't that. This is a pin-point pain in the front of my shoulder, that only hits when I move in one certain way. Then, I strained my Achilles while running. I rested a coupled of days and ran again, and it got worse.

So, you manage. First of all, you rest. To I haven't run for a couple of weeks. I skipped three practices. Then you rehab. I stretched a bit more. I've got some light Indian clubs I use for rehab, and I started a rehab routine with them. Push ups are good for rehab, so I kept doing those. I stuck to the wiffle ball bat for pell work. Tiger balm. CBD Oil. You get better. Rest is the most important thing.

Here's some video of me fighting Arne at practice two weeks ago.


(in which I twice ask Arne to use my shield as a coffee table).











Truly, in these, my targeting doth suck. My blow angle is way low. Also, I just seem slower than I've been lately. I fought better yesterday, but I'm still not where I was at Pennsic.

I wanted to tighten up my defense and simplify my offense, and I've don't a pretty good job of that. Yesterday I foguht two sets with Ronald, plus sets with Sir Bill, Sir Harold, Sir Jonathan, Sterling and Bran. They were all good, tough sets, and I was pretty sharp, especially my defense. Yesterday I also got my new sword from Bill (he's my sword gaffer). It's heavier but balanced more toward the hilt, witha  stainless steel Bedford basket, instead of the plastic one I've been using. It is what I wanted. It's really fast! But because it doesn't have as much of the mass at the tip, it's hitting lighter and bouncing back. This was to be expected, which is why I needed to get it two weeks ahead of time. Much pell work is called for.
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But it's time now set all the rest of that aside.  Crown Tournament is in 12 days from now. I will try to be in armor one more time this week.

Ducal Challenge and Roses

I've had a lot of good fighting recently, but I feel I've taken a step back. I'm not as crisp as I've felt recently. My endurance is ok, but I feel a bit sluggish.

Ducal Challenge was wonderful, mostly because Hanse flew out from the West to fight. He won, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was he was in my pool. I double killed with him, a really nice face thrust after taking his leg, but he got me with a nasty shot to my left nipple at the same time (ouch!). Later I fought him some pickups and killed him at least twice, both times with thrusts (the best was with the foot-stomp thrust I used in Crown). In my pool I won all my fights but Ionis and Hanse. That included beating Ryo. I lost knock out rounds to Lou and Douglas. Not bad, but not as good as I should have done.

Hanse also got me clobbered at Roses. I LOVE the Roses tourney. Teams of 5 match up. You fight three fights against one opponent (unless your team is short, in which case you can fight extras), then record them. Points are given for wins, losses, and double kills. By my count I fought 21 fights total. I lost two and won one against the prince, with bucklers. I was even--win, loss, double kill--with Kettle (this was when I got clobbered. I set up in Hanse's high/weak/open guard and Kettle counterpunched me hard, when I was wide open). I beat Sir Willem 2-1, which is pretty good, as he is a really tough lefty with a big kite shield. I also beat Baron Joseph, Euric, Durkin, and... and.... never got that last guys name. My off side body shot was really on. I got a killer ass bruise.

It's 44 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Sunday in Iron Bog.

Bonus: me fighting Bill at practice:

Rusted Woodlands Tourney

Last night was a small tournament in Rusted Woodlands. I went to the finals and lost to Quintus. It was a good night. I've also been to a couple of Brooklyn practices since Pennsic. I'm trying to increase my helmet time.

TECHNIQUE
I finished my new shield for Pennsic (though it's only painted black), and I've been using that. It's an inch shorter, but still hung with a lot of shield above my hand. I am losing my leg a bit more than I was with the old shield. However, I'm moving it much better, and I've been winning a lot with it.

I've been trying to use primarily a Bellatrix overhead return and counter hip technique. I've been working on improving my teardrop return as well. My speed is pretty good as a result, but I'm a bit wild on my defense.

I used my heavy sword a lot last night. Oddly, unlike at Crown, I had trouble getting a couple of people to take shots, whereas with my light sword it was no problem. That's opposite.

I also, on Paul's suggestion, used boxing wraps on my hands and wrists. This was designed to help strengthen my wrist and lock them into place (Paul uses a locked wrist, something I've always struggled with). This cost me about 30% of my usual offense.

FIGHTING
If you are on facebook, the tournament was live streamed by Mabel Fortune. (There's more than one video, so look around on her page). I fought eight fights last night. Tanaka dropped out before I got to him. I lost my first round fight to Lou (go figure, Lou and I would meet in the first round), but won all the rest of my round robin fights, including against Sir Eric Hundeman, the only other knight I fought. My toughest fight, not unsurprisingly, was against my squire Padraig. It got down to me, Lou, and Quintus, each with one loss (to one of the others--I beat Quintus, he beat Lou, Lou beat me). Lou and Qunitus fought, and Quintus won, but then Lou dropped out, leaving me and Quintus to fight the finals. Instead of a single fight, or two of three sword and shield mess, I suggested we mix it up. He chose greatsword. That's the only fight I'm disapointed in. He cought me thiking--a big transition window as I as changing my stance. Stabbed me right in the face. My choice was second, so I chose daggers, since we might not have gotten to it. I beat him in a great dagger fight. Last we used the big honking mauls, and he clobbered me. I mean Bam-Bam style. It was a really fun night, but boy do I have a long way to go!

My best takeaway was that, of the four knights in the list, I was the only one who didn't drop out (it was SO FREAKING HOT in there. I drank a Gallon of water. No, really: Padraig brought me an unopened gallon jug, and I finished it between my first fight and my last). My endurance is better than I thought.

There are 64 days until Crown. I've booked my flights. My next time in armor will likely be Sunday in Iron Bog.

Leaving Pennsic

Apparently, it’s not as easy to blog about the war as I thought.

I’m leaving Pennsic. We are on the PA turnpike heading toward Jersey. Some of our gear is wet. We are tired. Very tired. I wanted to blog the war every day, but Pennsic got in the way. It was a long war, but I still didn’t spend enough time with my friends who were there. Some I barely saw, some not at all. The only time I got to the bog I was working security, but I did make it to Bardici twice. 

I ate poorly. 

I drank beer. 

I spent time with King Agrippa and his king consort Davyd, who is funny and nice and one of the greatest clothes horses I’ve met. 

There was a blowup in Trimaris. Eilis said it was always the “A” kingdom’s that caused trouble—Ansteora, An Tir, A-Traris. Their king is an obnoxious troll. Before it all went down, I commented to someone that I thought he was trying to get R&D’d. This—elevating a known racist to a peerage order in a secret court over the objections of the entire order—managed to troll about two thirds of the SCA, of which I am sure he is proud. #istandwitdavius means I object to what the king has done. It will all be hashed out over the next few months. Expect fallout. Nuff said. 

FIGHTING

Saturday was Aedult Swim. The heat index was over 100. The small amount of fighting the day before has exhausted me. I fought ten fighters, including four knights: Sir Luis from the Middle, Duke Garrick Von Kopke, Ajax and Geoffrey Scott. I took 2 of 3 from Ajax and went even with Luis and Geoffrey. I was dead afterward. 

Sunday I was an alternate for the Belted Champions team but did not get in. Due to the heat there were almost no pickups. I got two sets in. 

Monday was my favorite battle, the open field. I took my six foot pole ax. The official count had us outnumbered by 300. We took two of five. Later that day was Gui’s William Marshal tournament. I took four ransoms, including ten Robert Macphearson sovereigns, worth a buck apiece at his booth. I got into good fights with Bryce and Donegal. In the last fight, I used my poleax again and slew mightily. 

Tuesday was the woods fight. I fought spear and ditched both my breastplate and surcotte. I got some wicked bruises, got to comand a bit, and did not collapse. 

Wednesday was the best day. It wasn’t quite as hot. I was on the field from 10:30 to five, with some time out to help Paul teach a class. I was fighting really well. I fought a lot more fights than I had on Saturday. I bested a lot of guys, including a couple of Dukes. Only one fighter, a count from Drachenwald, had taken more than me (3 of 5). Then I sought out humility. I wasn’t going to fight Rangvaldr. I was tired. Then I thought to myself “why would I duck Ramgvaldr?” I knew what he would do and how he would do it, but it was interesting being on the receiving end. I’d been working on his center mass boxing style a bit that day. Watching him do it was impressive. 

Thursday was the Bridge, and all I fought was spear. We faced the tuchux. It was a brawl. 

I didn’t fight on Friday. 

Last Pennsic I added 50 squats to my daily routine of 50 push-ups and 100 pell strikes. It has definitely helped. 

It’s 84 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Tuesday at McCxarren Park.