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.
