I can no longer say that I am “better” than Seichel. This is
the second tourney in a row that she has knocked me out of. Our fight in the
pool was not in earnest, at least on my part, because I had already advanced
and I was messing around a bit. But we were in earnest in the third round, and
she beat me good.
In terms of numbers I fared much better in the last crown
that I fought in than in this one. I accomplished only one of my benchmark
goals, making it out of the pool. I am also keenly aware that I faced two
knights and lost to them both. However, in terms of how well I fought, I felt
much better than I did in October. Not only did I win a lot of fights but I
felt in control of every fight that I won and competitive in every fight that I
lost. I feel that this time, in spite of where I exited the list, that I was a
legitimate contender. I lost to only three people all day long: Seichelgaita
who went deep, Breeder, who went clean into semi-finals (and who has changed
his name to Ionis Serpentius) and Sir Thomas, who was the other finalist,
knocked Darius out of the list, and took finals to five fights. I fought all three of them well. The training
paid off, as I was in great shape throughout. My shield arm tired at the end
when I had been on my knees for a long time, but other than that I was strong.
I fought well and I think I fought honorably. I am happy.
TECHNIQUE
It’s crown. My technique was to hit them before they hit me.
Well, that’s not entirely true. There were two other things
worth noting. One, after my fight with Ivar I found myself using a tight a
frame, almost like Duke Brannos. As usual I had little offense from it, but I
was very active using it, which gave me a bit more. I went back to my regular
style once I got out of the round robin. The other thing is that I was very concerned
all day with my ass—in particular whether or not it was sticking out. I have a
naturally sway back and a bulging disc. So it kind of folds back with my hips
sometimes thrust forward a bit. I also always want to emulate Radnor, who
fought a leaning back style early in his career. I felt myself leaning back way
too much, with my back folding a bit and my ass tucked in. This reduces your
power. Throughout the day whenever I felt myself doing this, leaning back, I
would roll my hips and pelvis under, straighten up a bit, and then stick my ass
out a touch, taking a slight (very slight) forward lean. I wanted to be on the
balls of my feet, not on my heels, and this helped a lot.
I am also coming to the conclusion that the calibration
level for body thrusts has gone up recently. I am still throwing the
hook-thrust as my main kill shot. I landed it several times on several people
on Saturday. I had re-taped the tip going into the lists and many of those shots
jarred my hand, but nobody was counting them. It was exactly the same thrust
that I used to win 60% of my fights with over the past several years. It is
landing clean and it feels exactly as hard in my hand, but nobody is taking it.
I thought it might have been because my sword was shorter, but I put more than
an inch back onto my sword. If I put two more inches on and used a sword like
Darius/Omega uses, I could drive it home harder, but that would limit the rest
of my offense. When I fought without a thrusting tip, and used the Western
style, I liked a longer sword: but with a sword forward guard I need something
faster and a touch lighter, and just a bit shorter. That was a frustrating part
of my day.
WARMUPS
I warmed up with William McCrimmon, as I usually do for
Crown. Bill has perfect technique, so if you make a mistake he will make you
pay. He also fights like a Westerner so he is in my comfort zone. Ron watched
out warmups and had three big critiques: I was leaving my arm too exposed, I
was squaring up too much, and I needed to re-hang my shield. I certainly knew
the last one, but I kept the other two in mind the rest of the day.
ROUND ROBIN
The round robin started inauspiciously for me. We had a
really hard group (it was a top heavy list) with at least four fighters who
fight me really well: Seischel, Jibril,
William, and Brennan. I can’t remember everybody else I fought in the round
robin, or even the names of the people I do remember fighting, but there were
either ten or eleven fighters in each group. I started out fighting Sir Thomas,
whom I do not really know. I can’t recall ever having fought him before. He is
an Easterner who moved to the Midrealm and then moved back to the East. I don’t
know where he was knighted by his shield style is very Midrealm, with a big
wide heater that he holds with the point sticking almost forward, and then
rotate blocks to defend leg shots. We were both frustrated. He hit me low
several times and seemed to be getting angry with me. Perhaps he thought I was
blowing his shots off. After he hit my
low again (breaking my knee cop in the process) I paused and, as I was saying “low
again,” he hit me in the face with a thrust and said “that one wasn’t.” I
grinned and said “nope! I’m dead!” and walked off the field: my bad for
stopping in the middle of a fight.
I fought Brennan and we had a good time. Here is a video of
the end of that fight. I throw an off side head, step around to throw a wrap,
then a quick snap. You can’t really see it in the video but there is the
slightest little hook in there: (can't seem to embed it).
My fight with Jibril was awesome. He always gives me fits.
This time I was on. I worked on keeping my distance and moving to his shield
side, but after awhile I raised my aggression level, jumped in swinging, and
then threw a stutter wrap, which he fell
for. That was a great feeling!
At some point I fought William again and I took him apart. I
have been avoiding molinees, but I pulled out a weird one against him, a low J-hook
molinee that rolls into a leading-edge leg blow as I step off-line to the
right. Once I had him turned out of the sun I jumped him. I can’t recall what I
hit him with—it is really the leg shot that mattered.
I fought a good unbelted fighter named Ivan from
Pennsylvania. He is tight and aggressive and hits hard. I have fought him
before. After a time I took his leg (it might have been with the same shot I
hit William with—I know I through it) and then, on the second attempt, I got
him with a shield hook and snap as I moved to my right. Here is some video I
found of the end of that fight.
I fought a lefty
named Ivar. I took his arm then hit him in the belly.
I fought Seischel last, and she was my other loss.
I can’t’ recall the details of my other fights.
SECOND ROUND
My reward for getting out of my pool was a fight against
Breeder. I came out with a slightly different stance than I had been using against
him in practice, and tried simply to keep my shield covering my right side. I
knew that circling to my left, like you would do against most lefties, was not
a good plan against Breeder. After a few good exchanges I decided to try
something new. I was going to strike and come off my back foot, elevating for a
high wrap that I would drop into his left shoulder. Unfortunately, he was
thinking “oh know you won’t either.”
Afterward we talked about what happened. We were doing very
similar things. He is using a very sophisticated strategy, which he labels “defer/blind/confuse/strike.”
It is very much like my press/release/attack method. He defers to my weapon by
deflecting it, he blinds me with his shield, he confuses me by pressing against
my shield as though going another direction, and he strike either a leg or a
head based on my reaction. He could tell from my feet (big issue, if my
footwork is telegraphing my movement) that I was going to go wide, but he didn’t’
know which direction. When he blinded me I didn’t care, believing him to be
blind as well. We both pressed at the same time. I jumped forward throwing a
wrap and impaled my face on his thrusting tip. It was a great fight, even if it
didn’t end as I wanted it to.
My second fight with Seischel was intense. I finally
noticed, after I don’t know how long, the her new shield is a bit longer and
covers her knee when she’s on guard (I may have been missing this for a year or
more—I don’t know). I got a good look at that because she took my leg almost immediately.
After that she just worked me carefully, staying at the edge of her range and countering
my attacks until she could cut me. It took a long time and I almost got her with
a dropping slot shot, a la Houghton, but in the end I reached for a blow and she killed me. At that
moment it occurred to me that all three of the times I got hit (I can’t
remember how she won out first fight—probably a face thrust, which would make
four) I got hit as I squared up and came out from behind my shield, which I had
been battling against at Mudthaw (it was how Seischel and Jan both killed me there) and that Ron
had warned me against.
I am really happy about this list. I felt awesome, I had
fun, and I fought very well.
I will never again autocrat a Crown Tourney that I am also
fighting in.
I will now go out and have a beer.
I am switching to cardio, as I will begin training for the
Rugged Maniac mud race in a few days
It is 80 days until Pennsic. I am taking the next couple of
weeks off from fighting (mostly for travel).
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