It's good to see some new faces, to teach, to train, but it is best to fight.
Don't lose sight of either of these things. We learn when we teach others. We foster the art. We advance the SCA. We pay it back for the great things it has given us. These are all good. But as knights what we do is fight. It is our duty and our great joy. It is what and who we are. We serve the king, our lady, and ourselves, in many ways--but first and foremost by fighting, because we are knights.
I had a great time teaching and training people tonight, but I was happiest for the helmet time.
WORKOUTS::
I've stepped it up a bit. My step count is down, but that's because I'm riding my bike. I've also started pell work again.
TECHNIQUE:
I'm fighting mostly with pole arm right now. It's fun because I am on a steeper learning curve. I mixed up thumb aligned and thumb opposed grips, right and left hand lead. I didn't use the butt spike at all. I did use a lot of thrust fakes.
FIGHTING:
Ervald is running a good practice at McCarren Park on Tuesday Nights. He does some good things. We started with just the two of us and the three new fighters. We began with a three lap run around the field. Then he led stretches and warmups (I went off and did my push ups and squats). Then I taught a brief class on Bellatrix's over-head return. Then we armored up. By that time four more fighters -- Murdoch, Ryo, Seamus, and Auzer -- showed up and made it a good practice.
As it's between Crown and Pennsic, I've mostly hung my shield up. I have a short pole arm that Brandr made. It's just under six feet, and, following Visivald's example, is what I prefer to learn with. I will use 7 foot pole arms as well, but short ones are just more fun.
I din't fight a lot at practice. I did a lot more coaching. But I did get to do some clobbering, and got clobbered a bit as well.
I jumped right out and fought Ervald. He was sword and shield and I was pole arm. I got him our first fight with a wavy rising snap--which you can indeed throw with a glaive. That was gravy. I won most of our fights. I even got him by switching grips int he middle of a flurry. I also switched grips (from a right hand to a left hand lead) to take his leg. This is one of the highest percentage shots with a pole arm, and with a longer pole is really deadly (timing the leg--from an up and down guard throw the leg shot as your opponent steps, and it will land as their foot lands). I don't think I killed him with a thrust at all.
Then I spent a lot of time coaching two of the new fighters, putting them through situations., calling out attacks, etc. They are trying to auth for the war, and are both in a good place. They are both female fighters with lots of martial arts training. One of them was naturally slipping into punching technique, so I gave her some instruction on center-mass fighting. Then I critiqued while the fought others.
Wanting some great weapon practice, I fought Seamus, who was using a spear. Our first couple of fights I just used the thrusting tip. He nailed me with his first blow but I was ok after that when I closed. When I started using the edge I was winning them all.
After that I did a lot of coaching melee. We did marching, closing ranks, convoluting ranks, etc. After that we ran charge and repulse drill. Line up. First two people in line step forward to repulse. Next person charges. Each person takes turns and we rotate through, so the person who just charged joins the repulse, and one of those two moves to the back of the line.
After that we just fought melee. We had eight in armor but three great weapons, so I borrowed a shield --a center grip with a weird angled handle, and a cross-hilt sword. That gave us three shields to a side. The first time we fought Seamus nailed me with a spear thrust at the lay on, then got the person on my flank, and we just collapsed. The second fight we charged, Ryo flanked and hit Zach, and they double killed. We killed them off quickly. The third fight we charged and it ended up with me and Zach in singles, which he won.
After that I did some more training.
I did not get in as many singles as I would have liked, but Paul always says to include melee in fight practice for just that reason--it satisfies the desire for combat. And the melee was far the most fun.
It is 30 days until Pennsic (!!!). My next time in armor will probably be at Southern Army Sunday.
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