Southern Army Sunday

Last Sunday was the Southern Army practice in Iron Bog, and Gui, Tycho and I went down. A good time was had by all. This post will mostly be about how to run a war practice. Due to injury, the end of the semester, starting the play, and just plain fatigue, I hadn't been in armor since crown. I came out of crown with elbow pain in both elbows and shoulder pain at the back of my shoulders that was worse on my shield shoulder. I rested that, but the pain really didn't go away until I fought again. Fighting made everything better.

WORKOUTS
As I write this (Saturday 6/13/15) I am on day 27 of the #fighterchallenge, wherein you have to train every day for 30 days in a row, post your training to FB and challenge other fighters to do the same. If you miss a day you start over. This is kind of a cheat for me, since I already do at least one thing--50 push ups, every day and haven't missed a day in almost 18 months. But I have to do at least one other thing. You can see what I've been doing by following me at mapmyfitness.com or on FaceBook under the #. Wednesday for instance, I did 50 push ups, a dumbbell workout (hammer curls, shoulder presses, triceps presses, and bench rows), 20 minutes on an elliptical trainer and then that thing with the two ropes using a tabata timer.

TECHNIQUE
None to speak of.

PRACTICE
Manfred, who has been Warlord more times than Charleton Heston, and Harold Haakonson, who is the unbelt captain, ran the practice. There were three knights in armor for most of the day--me, Mord, and Cullyn. Manfred was in and out. Gui did not fight.  For the first few fights, Manfred put most of the experienced fighters on one side and gave numbers to the other side. Teams started out 8 vs 12 or 15 (not sure which). Since there were five shields and three pole arms on our side, I made two triads of two shields and a pole each, with me and Sir Cullyn in reserve for the orange team. We beat the green team for the first few fights, but after each time we discussed it, and soon they were beating us every time. That was rewarding.

We ran four or five fields, then some bridges, then some gate battles. after each set we stopped and de-briefed. We also ran two ressurection battles, where we worked on pulse charges. 

There was some dispute among the Chiv as to how best to charge and what constitutes a pulse charge. One way, which I learned as a new fighter, is to get low, hip/shoulder check your opposite aside, and penetrate as far into the back field as you can, not bothering to swing your weapon but just trying to push into the backfield. This is great in a gate scenario, but hard to execute due to the massed troops. It's also useful at the end of a bridge or to break up a unit in the open field. The other method is to go in hard and higher, push people back while attacking with your weapon, then retreat. A big difference is that in this is that shield men who are charging are trying to kill, and to push back but not to penetrate. This is what is commonly called a pulse charge because who do it, fall back, and do it again. It is the prefered method nowadays, mostly due to the tactic of having spears fight in the front ranks on a bridge, and because of how the Pennsic bridges are normally fought and scored. 

I did not fight in every scenario due to a helmet malfunction. I got that fixed and did s few one-on-ones. I fought Mord and Hassan, but I was not working on anything specific.  

It is 42 days until Pennsic. My next time in armor will be tomorrow at Riverfest in Ostgardr. Due to the play, this will be my last time in armor before Pennsic. 

And speaking of the play, it runs July 9-12. We are still fundraising via Hatchfund, and have a few more characters to be sponsored. Help us out! 

http://www.hatchfund.org/project/arsenic_and_old_lace