Ok, so the off season is about over and preseason is beginning, Asa indicated by the fact that we had a tournament yesterday. It was a reboot of our Beau Geste tournament, a monthly tournament inspired by the Crapaud tourney in the West. I picked up my sword and shield for the first time since crown. That I won was cool, but it was beastly hard, and I was the only knight in the list. We fought at Grant's Tomb, and it was a lot of fun.
REHAB
Ip have not been doing specific rehab exercises on my elbow or Achilles lately. They both seem to have healed.
WORKOUTS
my workouts are the same as last post. I have been concentrating on strength training lately doing a tradition free weights workout. Y weekly goal is to be in the gym three times a week lifting weights, doing arms and shoulders one day, chest and back another, and legs and abs a third. I have not missed an arm day, I have only missed couple of chest and back days. I have missed a few legs days, but I make up for that with all the walking I do. Other days I walk, run, ride, or take classes. I still post all of this on FaceBook and at www.mapmyfitness.com. My workouts have been good. I press and curl 80 pounds in my workouts, and I have hit personal records in squats, bench press, and deadlifts. Soon however I will change over to more of a fitness versus strength workout, with cross fit ( even though I can't do a single pull up) and aerobics classes dominating, plus Yoga class at least once a week. Feeling good. Definitely stronger.
FIGHTING
yesterday I won the Beau Geste tournament, which was a blast. I get a spiffy medallion to wear around for a month. There were seven fighters and the format was round robin, best two of three for each round. I advanced to finals without a loss, meaning I four twelve fights in the round robin. There were three lefties in the tourney and some really good unbelts. Because it was a tourney and I wanted some practice for Mudthaw, I fought with my regular sword and shield instead of buckler or greatsword.
I honestly can't remember exactly what I did in each fight. They all kind of ran together, but there were a few specific things I worked on that went well, and some at didn't, and there are some general observations. First, as I knew would be the case my blows are strong and my sword arm really didn't tire, but my shield arm did because nothing at the gym replicates holding and moving a shield. I definitely felt rusty and sloppy. Third, I still need to re hang shield, which I will do before I use it next. Fourth, although I am in good shape, I have been neglecting aerobics lately and need to get back to it.
Specifically, I worked on the technique I talked about in the last post, flashing the thrusting tip and then circling around it to close distance. It worked sometimes, not because people focused on it and not on me, but because people defended themselves and blinded themselves with their shield. Most of the time however they just backed away (a lot of people run away in this kingdom).
I had some trouble mentally staying in sword forward guard, which is how I had been wining tournaments the last few years. I kept going back to old school Bellatrix form reflexively. Need to stop that.
Need a lot more helmet time with sword and shield.
Twice I followed the fake thrust and hit took the leg.
There is a very good young filter named Zach who has a great counter to a face thrust or a snap. It just come behind at an angle, but he times it very well. He killed three people with it and it nearly worked on me. I caught a bit with my basket hilt and the angle changed as a result.
Tormundr is taller than me, and he throws that high off side and the high snap really well. He killed me with snap in warm ups. I should remember the thumb lead offside against lefties, like Duke Anton throws.
Even though I went through cleanly, the finals were a real chore. Agrippa/Landon, who is still the hardest hitter around here, made it to the finals against me and we had some drag out brawls. The first was a single sword fight where we double killed, and that one hurt (as did the two times he hit me in the leg but he is why I wear Kydex). Our second fight I won but I don't really know how. Our third fight I lost. After a long break for a single sword meat grinder, I had my best fight of the day. It took three, maybe it was four blows. I faked high and he tilted his shield out and I took his leg. I through an off side, sword blocked, and threw a molinee at his head that killed him. That was that.
It was a good day and I get a cool medallion, but I have a lot of work to do.
It is six days until Birka, but I will not be going.
2 comments:
V- Anton did not throw a Thumb-lead. He threw a Pendulum offside (found in the Oldcastle Manual where he learned it). Over time this morphed into what Paul talks about in his book under single hip returns (I think, been a while since I read it) as a more fluid version of the blow. The difference being however that the Pendulum is meant to hit with the leading edge of the sword and the Thumblead the back. Thumbleads can lead to a lot of tendon damage and Pendulum do not. This might seem nitpicky but it's important IMO for folks to practice blows that do no harm to their joints. ;-) And yes, it's very effective on lefties. :-)
Congrats for won the tournament Cramer, your schedule of exercise is great. It's likable by add of the Yoga session in your exercise routine. I never give a importance to the Exercise. for me it's waste of time. Whole time i spent on to earn money. But it was in past. Once Parking Near BMCC mob attached on me, stolen my laptop, i pad and car. At that time i am totally useless and i realize that, muscular strength is also very important in life. I started exercise in routine.
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