Iron Bog 12/16

I had not been in armor since Crown, which was a six week layoff. It was mostly for deer season.

There were five fighters at Iron Bog: myself, Sterling, Gui, Bran, and Mike. Good practice--two knights and three OTCs. Ron was there for a while, teaching. He says I'm throwing too many wasted shots.

Gui beat me 3 times out of 4, and really rocked me once. All of his wins on me were his short punch, once while I was on my knees. I was trying only one thing--to kill him with an off side thumb lead scorpion, mostly because it's a shot *he's* trying to learn right now. I've tried it a few times, but can't quite get the angle correct. The only people I know who do it well are Ionis and Duke Anton from Atlantia. I never did land it, though in our last fight I started to throw it, turned it into a for-edge shot, and it worked. My fights with Sterling were rough, as usual, but I won 4 of 5. Once I got him with one of Ron's shots--moving my hand in front of my face, as though to throw an off side, then hitting him in the head. It's more subtle than the way I've thrown it in the past. I felt best against Elglin. I was able to control the fight with snaps to the head and use that to set up everything else.

No video.

I'm not going to Birka at this point, because it's my birthday weekend, and Hanna got us show tickets. My next time in armor will be at Western 12th Night.

Crown Tournament #99

God! I've been doing this a long time!

So on Saturday I fought in my 99th Crown Tournament. This is a lot, I know. My record isn't that good--1 for 98. But I'm fighting as well now as I ever have, I think. I felt good going in, and I did not go in just to fight. I knew I was a contender and I was fighting to win. I only have a few more years where I have a legit chance at this, and I want my strawberry leaves, I want to make Hanna queen, and I always planned to do it three times.

This was a lovely crown up in Ellsworth, Maine. We flew. Gracia's family owns a very small island up there, off of Winter Harbor, which her grandparents bought in the 50s. I'd never seen it before, except in pictures, so we drove out to look at it. If we'd been earlier, we might have been able to go out to it. As it was it was fun climbing on the rocks, just a couple hundred yards away. We had a nice lobster dinner that night in Bar Harbor.

The crown was at a Boy Scout camp halfway between Ellsworth and Bangor. Thankfully, they had a barn with a concrete floor we could fight in, because the rain was fierce. It was great to be there with Harold, William, and Murdoch from our household. The three knights fought, while Murdoch fought pickups and squired for us. 

TRAINING
I trained pretty hard for this crown, but injuries got in my way. I hurt my Achilles tendon running, about three weeks out, and haven't run since. I've walked a lot, and hit the elliptical a couple of times, but that isn't really the same. I also had tennis elbow for awhile, which I had to rest, and my back is always a problem. The result was that I did not fight as often as I'd planned to in the weeks leading up to the tournament. As referenced earlier, I did fight in three tourneys as prep--the practice tourney in Rusted Woodlands, Falling Leaves, and the tourney at Coronation, which I won. I've not missed my daily workout--50 push ups, 50 squats, and 100 pell strikes.
But not this time. Not quite.

FIGHTING
So, I fought awfully my first fight, great my last, and got better each time. I never got gassed. The format was double tree double elimination. From the round of sixteen onward, it would be best two out of three each round. Deaths would be forgiven in semi-finals (a big change), and finals would be three out of five with matched weapons.

I think my fights were Embla Knutrsdotir, Harold, Thomas de Winterwarde, Duke Randal, Bill, Sir Rory, and Sir Matthew. That took me to the round of six. I lost to Randal, who went to semi finals, and Matthew, who went to finals. All I have really are impressions of the day.

I beat Harold with a body thrust. He opened up too much.

I beat Bill first with a downward counter to the off-side head, and second with a molinee-face cut (that was pretty).

Rory started out super aggressive, but I was able to block his stuff. Once he settled in I killed him the way I did last time, with two hook/thrusts (I actually threw 5).

I died to two shots--one from Matthew, one from Randal, that were pretty light, but both were in the face. Matthew's was a thrust, very pretty, first one he'd thrown. I almost got him at that same moment with a thrust to his armpit: Randal's was a backhand.  Matthew also killed me with a counter off-side, and Randal with a body thrust as I took his leg. I did beat Randal in our first fight. I did not beat Matthew at all.

I was definitely fighting well. I was a contender. I wish I'd fought Ozur, because I fight him better than most. He was a beast all day.

Afterward the household went to Texas Road House for rib-eyes. All three of us--me, Bill, Harold-- had reached the round of sixteen, and each of us had fought the other two.

Gracia had a really great time.

I've seen no video of my fights.

I didn't get tired, I didn't get hurt, and I didn't beat myself. I was in contention. Pretty good day. If I keep fighting like this I can definitely win. 

It's 78 days until Birka (on my birthday). I don't know when my next time in armor will be. 

Iron Bog and other joys

It takes me a long time to get to the Iron Bog practice in South Jersey, especially if I'm not driving. Sometimes, I rent a car, sometimes I catch a ride with Gui (even though we both live in Brooklyn, we consider the Iron Bog practice to be our "home practice," mostly because it's where most of our friends are). Otherwise, I have to go by train and link up with one of my household members traveling down there from Central Jersey, like William McCrimmon or Jonathan Bayles. So yesterday, it was like this: I left the house at 9:30 AM. I took the subway to 34th Street. I was a bit early (the train runs every hour) so I grabbed a quick breakfast. Then I took the New Jersey Transit train to Newark Penn Station. It seems the Raritan Valley line wasn't running into Newark because of a cancer walk, so they put us on a shuttle bus. That got me to another train station, where I boarded the train and for Somerville. Jonathan met me there (I was really late), and we drove down to practice together. We got there an hour late. We fought. We went and grabbed dinner with some of the other fighter. We drove up to New Brunswick, where he dropped me off. It was a 50 minute wait for the next train to NYC. Exhausted, I took a cab home ($46, counting toll and tip). I got hom at 11:30 PM. Granted, there was a lot fo down time in there, including a long meal. But it's still an exhausting trip.

I've done a few things since I blogged last. I won the tournament at Coronation, defeating Sir Victor in the finals. I've practiced at Nutley as well as at Iron Bog. Mostly I've been managing pain.

Pain is a constant companion when you're a fighter, and it increases with experience. This training cycle has been tough. I had two very slight injuries at Ducal Challenge that didn't seem like much at the time, but are still bugging me. I missed a shot and torqued my wrist, and, when fighting Duke Hanse, I strained my shoulder. I have shoulder pain fairly often. I've got bursitis that flares up. Amd tennis elbow. Pretty much my whole arm, really. My technique is pretty good, so I don't put a lot of strain on my shoulders, but it still comes in. Plus, I sleep on it wrong a lot. This isn't that. This is a pin-point pain in the front of my shoulder, that only hits when I move in one certain way. Then, I strained my Achilles while running. I rested a coupled of days and ran again, and it got worse.

So, you manage. First of all, you rest. To I haven't run for a couple of weeks. I skipped three practices. Then you rehab. I stretched a bit more. I've got some light Indian clubs I use for rehab, and I started a rehab routine with them. Push ups are good for rehab, so I kept doing those. I stuck to the wiffle ball bat for pell work. Tiger balm. CBD Oil. You get better. Rest is the most important thing.

Here's some video of me fighting Arne at practice two weeks ago.


(in which I twice ask Arne to use my shield as a coffee table).











Truly, in these, my targeting doth suck. My blow angle is way low. Also, I just seem slower than I've been lately. I fought better yesterday, but I'm still not where I was at Pennsic.

I wanted to tighten up my defense and simplify my offense, and I've don't a pretty good job of that. Yesterday I foguht two sets with Ronald, plus sets with Sir Bill, Sir Harold, Sir Jonathan, Sterling and Bran. They were all good, tough sets, and I was pretty sharp, especially my defense. Yesterday I also got my new sword from Bill (he's my sword gaffer). It's heavier but balanced more toward the hilt, witha  stainless steel Bedford basket, instead of the plastic one I've been using. It is what I wanted. It's really fast! But because it doesn't have as much of the mass at the tip, it's hitting lighter and bouncing back. This was to be expected, which is why I needed to get it two weeks ahead of time. Much pell work is called for.
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But it's time now set all the rest of that aside.  Crown Tournament is in 12 days from now. I will try to be in armor one more time this week.

Ducal Challenge and Roses

I've had a lot of good fighting recently, but I feel I've taken a step back. I'm not as crisp as I've felt recently. My endurance is ok, but I feel a bit sluggish.

Ducal Challenge was wonderful, mostly because Hanse flew out from the West to fight. He won, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was he was in my pool. I double killed with him, a really nice face thrust after taking his leg, but he got me with a nasty shot to my left nipple at the same time (ouch!). Later I fought him some pickups and killed him at least twice, both times with thrusts (the best was with the foot-stomp thrust I used in Crown). In my pool I won all my fights but Ionis and Hanse. That included beating Ryo. I lost knock out rounds to Lou and Douglas. Not bad, but not as good as I should have done.

Hanse also got me clobbered at Roses. I LOVE the Roses tourney. Teams of 5 match up. You fight three fights against one opponent (unless your team is short, in which case you can fight extras), then record them. Points are given for wins, losses, and double kills. By my count I fought 21 fights total. I lost two and won one against the prince, with bucklers. I was even--win, loss, double kill--with Kettle (this was when I got clobbered. I set up in Hanse's high/weak/open guard and Kettle counterpunched me hard, when I was wide open). I beat Sir Willem 2-1, which is pretty good, as he is a really tough lefty with a big kite shield. I also beat Baron Joseph, Euric, Durkin, and... and.... never got that last guys name. My off side body shot was really on. I got a killer ass bruise.

It's 44 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Sunday in Iron Bog.

Bonus: me fighting Bill at practice:

Rusted Woodlands Tourney

Last night was a small tournament in Rusted Woodlands. I went to the finals and lost to Quintus. It was a good night. I've also been to a couple of Brooklyn practices since Pennsic. I'm trying to increase my helmet time.

TECHNIQUE
I finished my new shield for Pennsic (though it's only painted black), and I've been using that. It's an inch shorter, but still hung with a lot of shield above my hand. I am losing my leg a bit more than I was with the old shield. However, I'm moving it much better, and I've been winning a lot with it.

I've been trying to use primarily a Bellatrix overhead return and counter hip technique. I've been working on improving my teardrop return as well. My speed is pretty good as a result, but I'm a bit wild on my defense.

I used my heavy sword a lot last night. Oddly, unlike at Crown, I had trouble getting a couple of people to take shots, whereas with my light sword it was no problem. That's opposite.

I also, on Paul's suggestion, used boxing wraps on my hands and wrists. This was designed to help strengthen my wrist and lock them into place (Paul uses a locked wrist, something I've always struggled with). This cost me about 30% of my usual offense.

FIGHTING
If you are on facebook, the tournament was live streamed by Mabel Fortune. (There's more than one video, so look around on her page). I fought eight fights last night. Tanaka dropped out before I got to him. I lost my first round fight to Lou (go figure, Lou and I would meet in the first round), but won all the rest of my round robin fights, including against Sir Eric Hundeman, the only other knight I fought. My toughest fight, not unsurprisingly, was against my squire Padraig. It got down to me, Lou, and Quintus, each with one loss (to one of the others--I beat Quintus, he beat Lou, Lou beat me). Lou and Qunitus fought, and Quintus won, but then Lou dropped out, leaving me and Quintus to fight the finals. Instead of a single fight, or two of three sword and shield mess, I suggested we mix it up. He chose greatsword. That's the only fight I'm disapointed in. He cought me thiking--a big transition window as I as changing my stance. Stabbed me right in the face. My choice was second, so I chose daggers, since we might not have gotten to it. I beat him in a great dagger fight. Last we used the big honking mauls, and he clobbered me. I mean Bam-Bam style. It was a really fun night, but boy do I have a long way to go!

My best takeaway was that, of the four knights in the list, I was the only one who didn't drop out (it was SO FREAKING HOT in there. I drank a Gallon of water. No, really: Padraig brought me an unopened gallon jug, and I finished it between my first fight and my last). My endurance is better than I thought.

There are 64 days until Crown. I've booked my flights. My next time in armor will likely be Sunday in Iron Bog.

Leaving Pennsic

Apparently, it’s not as easy to blog about the war as I thought.

I’m leaving Pennsic. We are on the PA turnpike heading toward Jersey. Some of our gear is wet. We are tired. Very tired. I wanted to blog the war every day, but Pennsic got in the way. It was a long war, but I still didn’t spend enough time with my friends who were there. Some I barely saw, some not at all. The only time I got to the bog I was working security, but I did make it to Bardici twice. 

I ate poorly. 

I drank beer. 

I spent time with King Agrippa and his king consort Davyd, who is funny and nice and one of the greatest clothes horses I’ve met. 

There was a blowup in Trimaris. Eilis said it was always the “A” kingdom’s that caused trouble—Ansteora, An Tir, A-Traris. Their king is an obnoxious troll. Before it all went down, I commented to someone that I thought he was trying to get R&D’d. This—elevating a known racist to a peerage order in a secret court over the objections of the entire order—managed to troll about two thirds of the SCA, of which I am sure he is proud. #istandwitdavius means I object to what the king has done. It will all be hashed out over the next few months. Expect fallout. Nuff said. 

FIGHTING

Saturday was Aedult Swim. The heat index was over 100. The small amount of fighting the day before has exhausted me. I fought ten fighters, including four knights: Sir Luis from the Middle, Duke Garrick Von Kopke, Ajax and Geoffrey Scott. I took 2 of 3 from Ajax and went even with Luis and Geoffrey. I was dead afterward. 

Sunday I was an alternate for the Belted Champions team but did not get in. Due to the heat there were almost no pickups. I got two sets in. 

Monday was my favorite battle, the open field. I took my six foot pole ax. The official count had us outnumbered by 300. We took two of five. Later that day was Gui’s William Marshal tournament. I took four ransoms, including ten Robert Macphearson sovereigns, worth a buck apiece at his booth. I got into good fights with Bryce and Donegal. In the last fight, I used my poleax again and slew mightily. 

Tuesday was the woods fight. I fought spear and ditched both my breastplate and surcotte. I got some wicked bruises, got to comand a bit, and did not collapse. 

Wednesday was the best day. It wasn’t quite as hot. I was on the field from 10:30 to five, with some time out to help Paul teach a class. I was fighting really well. I fought a lot more fights than I had on Saturday. I bested a lot of guys, including a couple of Dukes. Only one fighter, a count from Drachenwald, had taken more than me (3 of 5). Then I sought out humility. I wasn’t going to fight Rangvaldr. I was tired. Then I thought to myself “why would I duck Ramgvaldr?” I knew what he would do and how he would do it, but it was interesting being on the receiving end. I’d been working on his center mass boxing style a bit that day. Watching him do it was impressive. 

Thursday was the Bridge, and all I fought was spear. We faced the tuchux. It was a brawl. 

I didn’t fight on Friday. 

Last Pennsic I added 50 squats to my daily routine of 50 push-ups and 100 pell strikes. It has definitely helped. 

It’s 84 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Tuesday at McCxarren Park. 

Pennsic chronicles 8/4

So I making an effort beginning with Pennsic to go back to writing this blog. But it’s easy to blog about the war.

Friday at peace week. Time to get inspected. Some marshals failed my sword because, and I’m not kidding, it was perfect. It fit exactly with an air marshal engage and they said, “can’t use this one. Put a single layer of duct tape along each side and it will pass. By the way, the gauge he was using was not designed to be a negative gauge, meaning that it was supposed to fit perfectly. Actually, I just acquiesced and smiled.

There was almost nobody out there. I was shocked to see how few people were fighting pick ups on Friday. Not only that, but against my very first opponent, a Roman name Valerian, my new shield broke. The palm strap snapped. So I got in one set of sword and shield fights. I thought a night, I don’t know his name, using my sword and Buckler. My booklet is really heavy. It’s made of marine grade plywood with channel edging and heater hose. It doesn’t move very fast, and I’m behind on my blocks a lot, but you cannot blow through it. When you hit it it stops your sword. He was kind of shocked that I killed him as many times as I did. I thought a fairly new fighter named off using my broadsword and short sword combination. I find that when I’m finding weapons form that I don’t use very often, it’s difficult for me to hold back against a new fighter. I’m working I’m just making my form work and I’m kind of extra focused on my blocks. The result was that I beat them a lot, and was unable to do a lot of training until we got off the field and I could tell him what I thought he was doing. Keeping with this use all the stuff you brought to the field theme, I went out pull her next. And the guy who came out towards me was in a perfect Norman kit with a short pole arm and he was taller than me and he had a white belt on and I knew just from the way he walked he was good.  I said out loud to myself “this will be humbling.”  Turns out he was duke Edward of the red, a pole arm God from up in Canada. Oh my God! Was he good. My polar and has an ex head on it. It’s a bit heavy and a bit slow. He was just whipping all around minute. I acquitted myself fairly well. I had a lot of good blocks, and I made him work, but I only came close with one thrust that died before it got to him. I even saw a thing that he was doing, blocking the outside of my pulled in countering with a headshot, but I kept giving it to him anyway. I thought oh this will beat it. Ha ha ha. He’s the tall guy in mail in the background. The skinny one with the coif. Who looks like trouble.

Saturday is Aedult Swim. 

EK50, plus some other stuff

EK50 was amazingly hot, but I loved it. My favorite events of all time were SCA 20 year and SCA 30 year. I was extremely sorry I missed SCA and WK 50 years. I wasn't going to miss this one.

To me, these anniversary events are really magical. They are relaxed, but full of importance at the same time. They mix SCA history (which I love more than I love medieval history) with SCA now. THey celebrate us for no other reason than what we do is so much fun. And we get to pretend, for a minute or two, that the game really matters. I mean, in the great scheme of things, who cares about the history of the King's and Queens of the East? At an event like EK50, more than anywhere else, we get to care.

My favorite part was getting the herald for Ken Mondschein in the joust. It was excellent, but it was so hot that they had to end it early. I'd worked competitive jousts before, back in the old days at Ren Faire, using balsa-tipped lances. I always thought the SCA foam-tipped lances were a dorky idea by comparison: but watching them side by side, I have to admit that the foam lances are cool, because they EXPLODE when broken.

Oh: fighting.

I did ok. Not great, but ok. We started the grand tournament with 4 double elimination lists. I went into the losers list courtesy or Arne (although we had a great fight) and it got down to four of us for three spots--me, Arne, Horic, and I don't know who else. I lost to Horic, but won the third spot by beating that fourth guy. I was again using my light sword, and my double strike technique landed on Arne but I couldn't kill him. I hit Horic too, but same thing. That's the problem with light shaved rattan swords. For my third fight, I grabbed my crown sword. I through an Upsilon leg shot, and then threw a hard shot that I think caught some shield but was good anyway.

I the pulled an Aethelmarc knight named Flossen.  He was really tough. He ducked a lot. I took his leg killed him. Then I drew Duke Tindel, who took of both my arms. My last fight was against Ricahrd Crow. I took out my polearm, and we had a good fight but he creamed me. Did I mention the heat index of 110 degrees? Can you say "Hydrate?" I got the shakes pretty bad once the adrenalin went away. Had a headache till the sun went down. Pounded water, but that didn't matter much.

Went to the shop and did my Pre-pensic armor overhaul. FINALLY cut down my Bauzebauds. Now they fit. Fixed the broken straps too. Hung my new shield, Altered my C belt so it will hold up my current leg armor. Ready to go.

Last night I went to practice, still using my old shield. I got one fight in, then a loose zip-tie poked me in the eye and I decided that, in memory of Merlin, I was quitting for the night.

It's 17 days until Pennsic. My next time in armor will be next Tuesday at McCarren Park.

Quest!

So, I won a tournament yesterday, and that was kind of awesome.

Training:

I’m still in my post crown well, and have not kicked it up again. Just push-ups, tell work, squats, and walking every day. 

Fighting:

Quest was a nice little tournament. It was a counted blows at the barrier tournament, which is always a lot of fun. We started out by just issuing challenges at the barrier. I pulled a totally medieval Chivalry move, and challenged the person holding the field to give and receive a single blow without attempting to block it. I let him go first, and he just reached out and tapped me on the shoulder. So I just reached out and tapped him on the head. I was totally prepared to light him up, but he was nice. That sort of thing is a test of courage. You read about things like that all the time in the chronicles.

I had a few good single sword at the barrier fights. Then we got underway.

The tournament was counted blows at the barrier. You had to defeat someone best two rounds of three, but each round was to three good blows struck. It was a single elimination format and it was an even tree with only eight fighters, but four of us were knights. I got to fight two knights, and an OTC, so my day was pretty intense.

My first fight was against Gavin. We chose to go out  with swords and bucklers at the barrier. This was an awesome flight. I noticed that he was creating a slot. He was fighting in a high closed form, sort of an East Kingdom a frame, but with the buckler. I do this a lot too. It’s my favorite way to fight with sorting buckler. But he was holding his buckler a little low and every time he moved his sword to throw blow it would open a really big slot for a straight snap. I threw a few other things, but mostly I waited on this and got him with it. I also hit him with one of those dropping leg wraps to the back of the leg. That really shocked him. 

Next I had a polearm fight against Manfred. This was just a lot of work and very exhausting. It took us forever. I’m pretty sure I beat him 3-2 then 3-1, or something like that. Most of my pole arm technique won’t work at the barrier, so I was basically just doing downward diagonal strikes to the quarters. And maybe a straight snap or two to the head.  I’m very very very proud of that fight.

Finals was me versus Tanaka, so you knew two things. First it was going to be a show. Second, it was going to be knocked down drag out fun. He gave me first choice, so I chose single swords. He moves so well, and has such a tight defense, that it was really really tough to break him down. We traded a couple of taps, and then for the last blow, and I am really proud of this, I threw into his sword and then as he countered I jumped into his shot, crashed the barrier and threw a wrap. It caught him off guard and won the fight. When it was his choice, he said “we are going to do a real hard-core New Jersey beat down.” This meant  maces with left hands clutching the barrier. I blocked his first shot and then saw a beautiful slot open right on his chin. I just started punching him in the face with the head of my mace. One, two, three. 

There are 61 days until Pennsic. My next time in armor will be Tuesday at McCarren Park.

Please visit our sponsor, duct tape: 

Crown Tourney #98

I'm getting close to that 100th Crown. 

 To those of you who read this blog a lot, I'm sorry I haven't been writing in it much. At first it was because I was not fighting as much, taking time off to play Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. After that it was because I did not feel like writing about my training. 

I trained for this crown in much the same way I had the last two. My daily routine includes walking between 8,000 and 12,000 steps most days (my fit bit broke. I use my phone to track steps, which under counts), plus 100 strikes on the pell, 50 push ups and 50 squats. Since I added the pell work last august, I have not missed a day. Once again, I added running to my routine as Crown approached. I ran five times a week in the 6 weeks approaching Crown, except the last one. I did not fight nearly as much as I would like (I never do), but I made practices at Nutley, Iron Bog, Midland Vale and Aedult Swim, plus events in Tourney of the Daffodils, Mudthaw, and Balfar's Challenge. I went to semis in Mudthaw and I won Daffodils, so I was doing ok. 

 Crown was in Halifax. Every time I've gone to a crown in Halifax, I've had a good time. It's a fantastic city! I highly recommend it. We stayed at the Hearthstone Inn in Hamilton, which was nice, with a Victorian theme and a good pub. 

 This Crown was great, but I really need to win another of these things. Randal, who's 5 years older than I am, was only one blow away from winning, which is encouraging. I ended up fighting nearly everyone I prepared for: Avaldr, Marcus, Zippy, and Wilhelm. I also fought Mathew McGuyver, Reinhardt, and one other (I cannot remember the name of my second round opponent). There were 22 participants in total. The list was double elimination and rounds were being fought best two out of three. This included the semi-final round, which meant that the fighter out of the winner's list could win fighting only two fights, but the fighter out of the losers list had to win four, and could end up fighting six fights. Yikes! 

I thought the format would be hard on me. Most of my rounds went three fights but my endurance was good enough that I really never felt that tired, and certainly no more so than my opponents. Well, maybe I did against Reinhardt. I lost to Avaldr in the third round, and to Prince Wilhelm in the semi-finals. The format actually helped me out, since I lost my first fight twice while going on to win the round. I was particularly proud of three things. The first was my one win over Avaldr, even though he won the round. He'd beaten me in our first fight, but I killed him with a hook-thrust in the second. Next was my third fight against Reinhardt. He is really good. He fights with a fairly small center grip scutum, and he blocks his legs with a window parry. I killed him with a foot stomp and thrust. I didn't sell it really big. I shrugged my right shoulder, took a half step, stomped my foot and dipped my shoulder, then thrust him in the face. Third was my final fight against Marcus. I had been working on King Brennan's off-side leg shot a lot lately. I threw it at Marcus in our second fight and noticed he picked it up early and cocked the point of his kite over to cover his off-side leg, so in our third fight I faked it by throwing the setup (a cock that resembles a snap to draw the shield up and to the on-side) took a slight step off line to my left, then stepped back to my right and threw a leg wrap. 

All my fights were excellent. I had really hard rounds the further I progressed. I never lost my focus. I did not kill myself by getting lazy or silly or playing with my food. I Went to semi finals and lost two straight to Wilhelm. Those were both great fights, a lot of fun. I had been beating Wilhelm in most of our encounters the past three years, and it was interesting to see what he'd done to respond. First, he's lost about 50 pounds. Second, he seemed much more focused and precise. When I tried the set up for the leg stomp it was obvious he was ready, so I never threw it. He got me with a straight body shot in our first fight. After he'd taken my leg in our second fight, I threw the same thing I'd killed him with at Roses in November, coming up high on my knees and then, as he stepped in, sitting down and throwing a body shot--an old William of Houghton technique. He obviously remembered it, because he this time as he stepped in and I threw the shot, he brought his sword forward in a guard to block mine, then he killed me the way I would have, with a top-edge hook and a snap. 

 If you are on FaceBook, you can see the semi-finals HERE. 

So here was the funniest thing coming out of crown. At Balfar's Challenge two weeks before I had spent a lot of time watching Zippy and Avaldr, as they were obviously training very hard. They were the last two knights to leave the field from pickups. I left after somebody hit me in the calf and I decided not pushing the injury was smart. I was fighting with my Crusader pot helm because Cet was doing a repair to my conical. My pot helm is heavy, not very comfortable, is super tall, and has lousy visibility, so I only get so much out of using it (mostly aesthetic pride). Avaldr was using a center grip kite, the first time I'd ever seen him use one. It closed off his biggest window, but was obviously a bit easier to move around. At Crown, Avaldr was back to using his regular strapped kite. Afterward I ran into him and Nomi leaving, and they were carrying his center grip kite shield. I said to him "I spent the last two weeks preparing to fight your center grip because I saw you training with it at Balfar's." He said, "Yeah, that's why I was using it. I figured you were doing the same thing with your other helm." I replied, "I wasn't, but thank's for the compliment!" It's really funny to know that we were indeed scouting each other. 

There are 72 days until Pennsic War. My next time in armor will be Sunday at Viking Day in Brooklyn. 

MONETIZATION 

In an effort to monetize this blog, I'm including this link to a riveted mail shirt:

(click here) 

Aedult Swim III

It's kind of hard for me to write about Aedult Swim this year, because it's all a blur.  I hadn't fought much this year (I'd taken time off to do a play). I was in good physical shape, but not good fighting shape. Did I mention the blizzard we drove through on the way home? (eight wrecks, including a car that spun out right in front of us on 287--I looked up from my phone and there were headlights facing us, not what you want to see on a freeway: but I digress).

WORKOUT
I've picked up my workouts a bit. In addition to the daily push ups, pell work, and squats (still haven't missed a day), I ran three times last week. There are some Indian Clubs and yoga involved as well.

TECHNIQUE
I used absolutely every technique I know, and they all worked.

FIGHTING
Ok: like all knights, I had a target on my back at Aedult Swim. I'd put my helmet on, and before the chin strap was tightened, I had an unbelted fighter challenging me. I didn't get to fight as many chivalry as I wanted to. I wasn't keeping track this year. I fought either 6 or 7. Since I fought at least two unbelted fighters for every one chiv I fought, that would be somewhere between 18 and 21 opponents total, and right around 100 fights. That's spread out over 4 hours (and it's nothing to brag about. My squire Padraig fought more than 40 opponents, and 220 fights).

Like I said: I used every technique I knew. Against one fighter I'd use a the Bellatrix technique. That would work fine. Against one fighter I used an A-Frame defense and a pure Gendy offense (thumb and forefinger grip, minimal body mechanics, different grips for each shot--pink for snaps, ring finger for leg shots, middle finger for off-side shots, index finger for wraps). That worked great the one time I used it, then the next guy I fought it got me nowhere, so I switched to a high guard with more of a classic technique, and it I was slaying mightily. Only one knight totally had my number, a guy named Thorin (or Torin, or... I don't know, there were so many!). He was one of those squirrelly guys, you know, ducked and jumped. He was shorter than me, and crouched down, but then jumped so high he hit me with a scorpion wrap. I tried to throw into the zone he was moving into, but by that time in the day I was really tired.

My fighting muscles were really out of shape. I was strong and had decent wind, but I ached so much afterward!! OMG, I was tired. Good fighting, though. Every SCA fighter should make the trip.

It's 68 days until Crown Tourney. My next time in armor will be this thursday at Hawthorne.

A New Year, Same Old Quest

The new year has broken! I've not written in this blog since Crown, but I hope to post more often this year. I've only been in armor three times since Crown, it being first hunting season, and then the holidays. I will not fight much in January because I'm rehearsing a play, and don't want to risk injury.

TRAINING
The 1-6 drill is the core of my training. I don't do it every day--although I do do pell work every day--but I do do it at least three times a week. The rest of the time I work on other pell drills. I have not missed a day of push ups since my surgery, or squats since I added them to my workout over the summer. I've also been doing indian club drills a couple of times a week (this dovetails into my pell work--on those days I use the Indian Clubs for my pell drills, and work on two-stick drills).

FIGHTING
I fought at Nutley right before Xmas, but only against three or four opponents. I was mostly their to train my squire Padriag, and he took upmost of my time. But I did get fights in with Arn and Jan as well, and was fighting pretty good. When I train Padraig we have settled into a system. First we warm up using the saber drill (the hanging guard/cut drill, where we alternate quickly, like its a schlager fight). Then we do some slow work. Then we do Sagan's trigger drill. This is where we both come on guard, and I make a move of some kind--take a step, move my shield, shift my weight--and he is supposed to recognize what opening this creates and tap it lightly. The advanced version of this is to throw a combination and have him recognize the opening after two or three blows, incorporating his own blocks). Then we work on one or two specific techniques. Then we do Paul's offense/defense drill. Usually, not always, in that order. At some point we will fight one or two passes. This seems to be working for him. He's got a lot of years into Karate, and he still competes, so drills and Kata he responds well to.

I went up to Middle Town for their holiday tourney. Gui and I took a day and drove up early, had dinner, hung out till practice. Padraig wasn't there, but they were having a silly tourney with santa-hat crest fights and so on. I did not have a shield with me, so I mostly fought sword and buckler. There was no real training involved. Here's me doing some sword and buckler. I'm really slow.



part two:



Here's Hassan kickingmy ass:



Me and Matt:



and, finally the silliness:



You don't practice that much.

I don't know if I will be attending Birka or not. My next time in armor will hopefully be Saturday Night at West Kingdom 12th Night.