BAT Practice

So here it is Friday and I haven't yet written about Sunday's BAT practice.

I took it pretty easy. I had not yet build a new shield. I actually strapped on my bunny round, but remembered that I had promised myself I wasnt' going to use it this year except when I was in the West. This left me with a dilemma. Finally I decided that I wold fight witht he buckler that day. A painful choice, but a fun one.

Especially difficult since my first opponent was Gui. Gui is a force of nature. He hits hard and he fights like he really is fighting for his life. He's a tough street brawler from NYC. And he's left handed. And I'm using a buckler. I was happy he didn't hit me in the ribs.

Actually it was quite interesting. Normally when I fight buckler I either use the high closed form with the sword foot forward that Hauoc uses or a high open form ala Jade. Fighting Gui I just naturally fell into a high closed form like old style Bellatrix, with the sword tight behind my head. It was a good place to work from. I did have some defense from there. I killed him once and took his sword arm once, and both times were when I crowded him and pressed him high and threw high wraps. My ribs were wide open when I did it but I must have surprised him. That sort of thing usually doesn't work on Gui, and he was on.

I've developed a good defense trigger on Oscad. He's got a great off-side leg shot that he likes to use on me but he didn't land it at all, even though I was using the buckler. Every time his hand crfossed in front of his eyes I blocked to the offside. He'll read this and figure out not that if he does that and then swings for my head he'll kill me.

I'm going to start leading drills before every class. Usually I can't get enough people interested in it, but I've got a lot of young fighters who want to drill in addition to just smashing people. I've got a great drill regimen that we'll start employing this week.

ONE WEEK TILL BIRKA!!!!

More on armor

Egon Brauer just posted to let me know that Alail Horsefriend has a website up: Horsefriend Armory.

Beau Geste

Oscad won this month's Beau Geste tournament. More info here: http://www.beaugestetournament.blogspot.com/

Vive le Beau Geste!

The Slow Season

Well, it is winter. The only thing to report on is that midnight fighting at Western 12th Night took place as usual. Since it followed the jello shot party I'm not sure how wise that was. I was not going back to EPA afterward so I didn't take my armor with me. It was cold and crisp. There were six or seven fighters, three of whom were knights. Naturally, King Jade was winning the most. The nice thing was that, since we had the whole hotel all to ourselves, we could go ahead and fight in the courtyard and the balcony made a good viewing gallery. Plus it was right outside the jello shot party, so you could pop in for a beer or a shot and come back out and watch some more.

Wish I'd had my armor though.