McCaren Park practice had exactly four fighters: me, Ervald, Timur, and Lou. We mostly fought bear-pits and two and outs all night long, which was actually good practice.
Lou always gives me fits. I fancy myself a swordsman, but I can't get past that weird defense of his. I beat him good a few times, but he's a tough cookie. My body thrusts seem to be the only thing that reliably works on him. Two good ones were a belt level outside thrust I hit him with becuase he was guarding the shoulder level thrust well; and one that started out as a molinee/thust but which, before completing the molinee hit his blocking ax, and so I simply lunged nad thrust and it worked like a charm. Nice change on the fly. I'll have to remember it.
Ervald was a bit tougher than usual but I beat him most of the time. He was trying sword and dagger with the sword in his weak hand and it acutally worked a bit. He killed me witha good body thrust our last fight.
Timur is fighting excellently. I'm sure if he goes to Nutley they will tell him he's doing everything wrong, but what he's doing is he's figured out classic Belatrix style for that leather strapped center grip Mongolian round shiled he fights with. He looks awesome and his power and speed are good. and his leg defense is spot on. I had real toruble taking his leg, which a few weeks ago was a piece of cake. I had a couple of good kills on him, but I was very impressed.
I have a reprieve. I was beginning to think I might have fractured my leg looking at the incrfedible pooling bruise that developed on my right leg from the two low hits I took (one of which knocked me out for the rest of the day, and which damaged both my shin and my calf). Well got xrays today and nothing is broken. So Nutley next week, hopefully.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
11 Weeks till Crown
Joe pointed out that there are eleven weeks until Crown tourney. I've decided to train a little harder for this one. In the past my goals for Crown, whether Western or Eastern, have always been the same: win more fights than I lose (which means five rounds). My secondary goal is to kill a knight. My tertiary goal is to kill Rolf if he's in the list. I met my main two goals at Western Crown (I once again lost to Rolf), and found that I was frustrated, as you've probably read. So it's time for new goals. I may not meet them for awhile, but I've been meeting my 5th round goal consistently for awhile now, and goals are useless if they are met all the time.
So my new goal is to make the final four in crown, hopefully this next one.
To that end I'm going to train more. I will begin by going to McCarren Park practice tonight. I will document my progress here on this blog. My training will include pell work, some resistance training, yoga, aerobics (mostly bicycling and spin class, though I plan to run up Lookout Hill at least once a week) and of course fighting. I will set some training goals regarding weight, reps, miles, etc., but my first goal is to get in armor and fight fifteen times between now and Crown, five of those at Nutley. Since my last back injury and my nagging shoulder problems, I've been sticking to spin and yoga for my workouts, and it's worked well. But I'm feelign a bit stuck and need to shake things up a bit. I might find that running with my back just isn't going to work, or that lifting or pell work, which have damaged my shoulder in the past, might be too much. I don't like to lift during fightign season becuse my arms are usually too tired to fight for days afterward (and I do a light weight/high rep workout, not a high weight bulk building workout). I expect a few setbacks, but I will persevere.
Anyway, I'll let you all know how it goes.
So my new goal is to make the final four in crown, hopefully this next one.
To that end I'm going to train more. I will begin by going to McCarren Park practice tonight. I will document my progress here on this blog. My training will include pell work, some resistance training, yoga, aerobics (mostly bicycling and spin class, though I plan to run up Lookout Hill at least once a week) and of course fighting. I will set some training goals regarding weight, reps, miles, etc., but my first goal is to get in armor and fight fifteen times between now and Crown, five of those at Nutley. Since my last back injury and my nagging shoulder problems, I've been sticking to spin and yoga for my workouts, and it's worked well. But I'm feelign a bit stuck and need to shake things up a bit. I might find that running with my back just isn't going to work, or that lifting or pell work, which have damaged my shoulder in the past, might be too much. I don't like to lift during fightign season becuse my arms are usually too tired to fight for days afterward (and I do a light weight/high rep workout, not a high weight bulk building workout). I expect a few setbacks, but I will persevere.
Anyway, I'll let you all know how it goes.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Pennsic Wrap Up
The simple thing to say is that I fought every battle with spear and every pickup with bunny round and a new sword (right length, right balance). I am resisting the two big temptations right now, which are (a) to switch to a kite and (b) to switch back to my center-grip round, both of which would cover my leg a bit better.
In the battles I was mostly using a rattan spear because they are lighter, the tip is smaller, and I could put one together for $25 instead of $50. It was not a good experiment. I used a piece of shaved rattan that wasn't overly wigly but was a bit. By the end of the war it was drooping a bit. I got some good kills with it, but I was almost completely unable to kill anybody in the body with it. It flexed too much. Waste of time. Those days when Cian wasn't fighting and I fought with his fiberglass spear I did much better. Ironically, in both the town battle and the mountain pass battle (same day) I was killed multiple times by an outlands spearman using a rattan spear.
We were badlly outnumbered. So much so that, to prove the point that the battles should be one on the field and not by politicking for six months ahead of time, Konrad conceded the war at opening ceremonies. Lutr tried to talk him out of it but it was no go. Konrad was right: the wwar is too importnat to some people and it is way too political. I'm glad he stuck to his guns. IMHO Lutr didn't handle it as gracefully as he could have. He should have met Konrad on the field Monday morning, evened up the sides and went at it. He didn't For the first day he kept all his allies, and later when he started to send us some troops the Mid still had numbers. We did win a few of the battles anyway, which felt glorious:
The Gates of Rome was a tie. We had the upper gate and we held it most of the day, but at the very end the Midrealm charged, a hold was called, and their momentum carried them forward (we all stopped, they didn't for a sec). We were pushed all the way off the gate and then, two seconds later, it was over. That ended up deciding the battle as a draw. Had we held that gate we would have won.
The Woods: we lost (i heard we won, but apparently not). It was a long res battle with abig push at the end.
Town battle: we lost, but our group held the two gates we were assigned to. They never got into our courtyard to take the point, so we were happy. Great spear duels with a bunch of guys from Calontir and Outlands, and some good charges by CAID.
Mountain Pass: we lost. The took all the points. Since we were lined up against mostly the same buys, it seemed like a continuation of the town battle.
Bridge battle. This was probably our great moment of glory. There were five bridges, three battles of half an hour each. The first battle was a draw. I think our bridge was officially "contested," meaning that neither side controlled enough of it to witn the point. According to Lutr, we killed nearly three times our number, as they were comitting all their reserves to our bridge as the battle went on. The second battle we lined up on the second bridge from the south, facing the tuchux and a few others. They charged, we held, we fought and repulsed their charges. Once again, they sent their reserves onto our bridge. But this time we blew through them, wrapped around, and hit Dark Moon in the rear on the middle bridge. As our bridge crumbled the first bridge began to give way, and Atlantia broke through and headed up the hill. We swept all three bridges and won the battle. Then we lined up and did exactly the same thing again.
We fought five field battles. I had a blast in all five. we won the two that mattered.
We won the belted champions but lost the unbelted champions. Heroics was interesting. We won even though Darius, Lucan, and Andreas all lost (to Ranvaldr, Edmund, and Uther, respectively). Gregor was the only Eastern duke who won his fight, one shoting Morgan Sheridan in one of the most beautiful shots I've ever seen. Our allies and our unbelteds really saved our asses, particularly Ulf, who was awesome.
I was also assisting Manfred in commanding the SRA. That was fun, and I think I did what I was called upon to do. Most of my command duties came in the woods, wherein I was coordinating our left flank and keeping it in line with An Tir. I fought with Serpentius the whole time, and Joseph and Horace were doing great jobs commanding. Just like the rest of my war, my spear fighting got better and better, and I was having more and more fun, each progressive day. By Friday I was having a blast and slaying mightily. The field battles are always my favorites, and we had some great ones this year.
In pickups I did great but I didn't get a lot of work. Had some good fights with Thorsen on Sunday. He said that I was fighting better than he had ever seen me fight. I pointed out that he still beat me. The ony other top level fighter I fought all week was Sir Ian from CAID, who beat me two of three, though I did figure out the counters to his Dirk-like offense pretty quickly. My other fights were against a lot of unbelteds because there weren't that many knights doing pickups, or at least I didn't see them. I did see Flieg, beck and Reinmar out there, but I wanted to fight guys I didn't know like the back of my hand whom I'd been fighting for more than twenty years (in Beck's case since before I authorized). I learned three things worth noting:
1) the way I have my bunny round strapped, just a bit on the low side with a lot of shield above my hand, I can't hold it in my normal closed form position because the corner is too high (I knew that pare) by it is great for a medium-crouch open form a la Paul or early Jade, and I am now fast enough once more to make that work.
2) because I can't hold it in my normal closed from I can't quite take the goofy foot stance that I've been working on, using Hauoc's technique. But it all works out if I move push the shield just a bit to the right, which also covers my right leg a bit more (one of the thigns about the center grip was that it covered my leg fighting goofy foot better than the bunny round).
3) once again, my thrusts are arcing and micing instead of going straight out. This is a bad habit I fall into when I get out of practice even for a week. I struggled with it the whole war.
I killed lots of guys in pickups. Only two of the unbelteds I fought made me sweat, and I still won more than I lost off of them. I felt ok. But I didn't get my ten fights with Darius and I didn't get to really work with any big guns, so I feel unsatisfied.
Great war.
In the battles I was mostly using a rattan spear because they are lighter, the tip is smaller, and I could put one together for $25 instead of $50. It was not a good experiment. I used a piece of shaved rattan that wasn't overly wigly but was a bit. By the end of the war it was drooping a bit. I got some good kills with it, but I was almost completely unable to kill anybody in the body with it. It flexed too much. Waste of time. Those days when Cian wasn't fighting and I fought with his fiberglass spear I did much better. Ironically, in both the town battle and the mountain pass battle (same day) I was killed multiple times by an outlands spearman using a rattan spear.
We were badlly outnumbered. So much so that, to prove the point that the battles should be one on the field and not by politicking for six months ahead of time, Konrad conceded the war at opening ceremonies. Lutr tried to talk him out of it but it was no go. Konrad was right: the wwar is too importnat to some people and it is way too political. I'm glad he stuck to his guns. IMHO Lutr didn't handle it as gracefully as he could have. He should have met Konrad on the field Monday morning, evened up the sides and went at it. He didn't For the first day he kept all his allies, and later when he started to send us some troops the Mid still had numbers. We did win a few of the battles anyway, which felt glorious:
The Gates of Rome was a tie. We had the upper gate and we held it most of the day, but at the very end the Midrealm charged, a hold was called, and their momentum carried them forward (we all stopped, they didn't for a sec). We were pushed all the way off the gate and then, two seconds later, it was over. That ended up deciding the battle as a draw. Had we held that gate we would have won.
The Woods: we lost (i heard we won, but apparently not). It was a long res battle with abig push at the end.
Town battle: we lost, but our group held the two gates we were assigned to. They never got into our courtyard to take the point, so we were happy. Great spear duels with a bunch of guys from Calontir and Outlands, and some good charges by CAID.
Mountain Pass: we lost. The took all the points. Since we were lined up against mostly the same buys, it seemed like a continuation of the town battle.
Bridge battle. This was probably our great moment of glory. There were five bridges, three battles of half an hour each. The first battle was a draw. I think our bridge was officially "contested," meaning that neither side controlled enough of it to witn the point. According to Lutr, we killed nearly three times our number, as they were comitting all their reserves to our bridge as the battle went on. The second battle we lined up on the second bridge from the south, facing the tuchux and a few others. They charged, we held, we fought and repulsed their charges. Once again, they sent their reserves onto our bridge. But this time we blew through them, wrapped around, and hit Dark Moon in the rear on the middle bridge. As our bridge crumbled the first bridge began to give way, and Atlantia broke through and headed up the hill. We swept all three bridges and won the battle. Then we lined up and did exactly the same thing again.
We fought five field battles. I had a blast in all five. we won the two that mattered.
We won the belted champions but lost the unbelted champions. Heroics was interesting. We won even though Darius, Lucan, and Andreas all lost (to Ranvaldr, Edmund, and Uther, respectively). Gregor was the only Eastern duke who won his fight, one shoting Morgan Sheridan in one of the most beautiful shots I've ever seen. Our allies and our unbelteds really saved our asses, particularly Ulf, who was awesome.
I was also assisting Manfred in commanding the SRA. That was fun, and I think I did what I was called upon to do. Most of my command duties came in the woods, wherein I was coordinating our left flank and keeping it in line with An Tir. I fought with Serpentius the whole time, and Joseph and Horace were doing great jobs commanding. Just like the rest of my war, my spear fighting got better and better, and I was having more and more fun, each progressive day. By Friday I was having a blast and slaying mightily. The field battles are always my favorites, and we had some great ones this year.
In pickups I did great but I didn't get a lot of work. Had some good fights with Thorsen on Sunday. He said that I was fighting better than he had ever seen me fight. I pointed out that he still beat me. The ony other top level fighter I fought all week was Sir Ian from CAID, who beat me two of three, though I did figure out the counters to his Dirk-like offense pretty quickly. My other fights were against a lot of unbelteds because there weren't that many knights doing pickups, or at least I didn't see them. I did see Flieg, beck and Reinmar out there, but I wanted to fight guys I didn't know like the back of my hand whom I'd been fighting for more than twenty years (in Beck's case since before I authorized). I learned three things worth noting:
1) the way I have my bunny round strapped, just a bit on the low side with a lot of shield above my hand, I can't hold it in my normal closed form position because the corner is too high (I knew that pare) by it is great for a medium-crouch open form a la Paul or early Jade, and I am now fast enough once more to make that work.
2) because I can't hold it in my normal closed from I can't quite take the goofy foot stance that I've been working on, using Hauoc's technique. But it all works out if I move push the shield just a bit to the right, which also covers my right leg a bit more (one of the thigns about the center grip was that it covered my leg fighting goofy foot better than the bunny round).
3) once again, my thrusts are arcing and micing instead of going straight out. This is a bad habit I fall into when I get out of practice even for a week. I struggled with it the whole war.
I killed lots of guys in pickups. Only two of the unbelteds I fought made me sweat, and I still won more than I lost off of them. I felt ok. But I didn't get my ten fights with Darius and I didn't get to really work with any big guns, so I feel unsatisfied.
Great war.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Pennsic Pre Planning
Well, I'm off to Pennsic on Saturday. I have lots of plans and some of them involve fighting. My goals for this Pennsic are:
Fight in all the massed heavy points battles.
Fight pickups every day.
Ten fights with Darius.
Fight in one tourney.
Start getting in shape for crown.
I'll let you all know how it goes (of course, most of you will be there!).
Fight in all the massed heavy points battles.
Fight pickups every day.
Ten fights with Darius.
Fight in one tourney.
Start getting in shape for crown.
I'll let you all know how it goes (of course, most of you will be there!).
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
SRWC
I’m late getting this posted, again!!
Southern Region War Camp is one of my favorite Eastern Events. I think that’s because it is so much like a Western Crown event: camping, fighting, court, parties. This year it was incredibly small compared to years past, obviously a reflection of gas prices and its proximity to Pennsic under the new calendar (it used to be two weekends from Pennsic).
I understand pre-registration for Pennsic is off 16%, which if it trended that way would mean more than 2,000 fewer people than last year. Ouch!!
SWRC was also HOT! It was almost as hot as Western Crown was, but Western Crown was a crown, where you get a lot more rest, and it was a lot less humid. I was in really bad shape out there. But I fought in all the battles (other than the unbelted fights).
First battle I used sword and heater. Our side had Serpentius, Bloodguard, and a few smaller units. The other side had Von Halstern, ICOD (at nearly full strength) and numbers. We were on the left side. The first battle we angled in to hit Von Halstern along with Bloodguard, ignoring ICOD to our rather quick doom. The second battle we did the same but split a few guys out to keep ICOD off our rear. Didn’t really work. In the first battle I killed Rav and maybe somebody else. In the second battle I traded blows with Oscad but didn’t kill him. I got jumped by ICOD from behind both times. In the third battle we decided to just charge ICOD. This was more fun and much more effective. I ended up crashing into Gregor and falling when somebody rolled into my knees. I got up to my knees and ended up fighting Balin, whom I killed. The battle kind of drifted away from me at that point.
I think we lost all three of those but I’m not sure.
Somewhere in there the heater broke and I switched to my bunny round (which I was using when I fought Balin I’m sure).
Then we went to the bridge fights. I used bunny round for the first one and saw zero action. We were in the rear forming kill pockets that never got tested before time ran out. I might have gotten to throw one blow when they mounted a charge. In the second bridge fight I switched to ax and buckler, hoping to go wade into their spearmen, but also so that if any of our spears died I could take over, which I did. Got a lot of good spear action, and killed or maimed a few guys. But I find that spear is much more tiring than sword and shield, and it sapped a lot of my energy.
Then we had a resurrection wall battle. That was a lot of fun. I used buckler and ax and mostly fought people on breakthroughs. I can tell I was getting tired and cranky, because one guy got into our backfield and I ended up fighting him, and when I finally killed him I kind of turned on my heel and stomped off. It was a good kill, though. Then me and Joe charged into their line, my ax broke, and that was pretty much it for me.
Afterward a bunch of knights sat around in armor to fight pickups with the hungry unbelteds, but hardly anybody came out. I fought a couple of pickups and found that I still know how to fight singles. I killed one Florentine fighter in two nice ways: once with an offside body, a la Jade, and once after he’ legged me with a slot shot down the middle, sitting down like Papa Houghton taught me. I fought one of Darius’ squires and was able to get around his really big shield a couple of times. I killed him with a stutter wrap and with an offside face shot. I think he killed me once. I felt pretty relaxed in those fights. My sword and shield were working together pretty good, but it wasn’t enough to really work on anything.
It should be noted that Oscad was the last fighter our there looking for fights. Apparently he’s been the last fighter on the field for the last five events or so. He’s doing a good job.
Southern Region War Camp is one of my favorite Eastern Events. I think that’s because it is so much like a Western Crown event: camping, fighting, court, parties. This year it was incredibly small compared to years past, obviously a reflection of gas prices and its proximity to Pennsic under the new calendar (it used to be two weekends from Pennsic).
I understand pre-registration for Pennsic is off 16%, which if it trended that way would mean more than 2,000 fewer people than last year. Ouch!!
SWRC was also HOT! It was almost as hot as Western Crown was, but Western Crown was a crown, where you get a lot more rest, and it was a lot less humid. I was in really bad shape out there. But I fought in all the battles (other than the unbelted fights).
First battle I used sword and heater. Our side had Serpentius, Bloodguard, and a few smaller units. The other side had Von Halstern, ICOD (at nearly full strength) and numbers. We were on the left side. The first battle we angled in to hit Von Halstern along with Bloodguard, ignoring ICOD to our rather quick doom. The second battle we did the same but split a few guys out to keep ICOD off our rear. Didn’t really work. In the first battle I killed Rav and maybe somebody else. In the second battle I traded blows with Oscad but didn’t kill him. I got jumped by ICOD from behind both times. In the third battle we decided to just charge ICOD. This was more fun and much more effective. I ended up crashing into Gregor and falling when somebody rolled into my knees. I got up to my knees and ended up fighting Balin, whom I killed. The battle kind of drifted away from me at that point.
I think we lost all three of those but I’m not sure.
Somewhere in there the heater broke and I switched to my bunny round (which I was using when I fought Balin I’m sure).
Then we went to the bridge fights. I used bunny round for the first one and saw zero action. We were in the rear forming kill pockets that never got tested before time ran out. I might have gotten to throw one blow when they mounted a charge. In the second bridge fight I switched to ax and buckler, hoping to go wade into their spearmen, but also so that if any of our spears died I could take over, which I did. Got a lot of good spear action, and killed or maimed a few guys. But I find that spear is much more tiring than sword and shield, and it sapped a lot of my energy.
Then we had a resurrection wall battle. That was a lot of fun. I used buckler and ax and mostly fought people on breakthroughs. I can tell I was getting tired and cranky, because one guy got into our backfield and I ended up fighting him, and when I finally killed him I kind of turned on my heel and stomped off. It was a good kill, though. Then me and Joe charged into their line, my ax broke, and that was pretty much it for me.
Afterward a bunch of knights sat around in armor to fight pickups with the hungry unbelteds, but hardly anybody came out. I fought a couple of pickups and found that I still know how to fight singles. I killed one Florentine fighter in two nice ways: once with an offside body, a la Jade, and once after he’ legged me with a slot shot down the middle, sitting down like Papa Houghton taught me. I fought one of Darius’ squires and was able to get around his really big shield a couple of times. I killed him with a stutter wrap and with an offside face shot. I think he killed me once. I felt pretty relaxed in those fights. My sword and shield were working together pretty good, but it wasn’t enough to really work on anything.
It should be noted that Oscad was the last fighter our there looking for fights. Apparently he’s been the last fighter on the field for the last five events or so. He’s doing a good job.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Western Crown
As some of you know, I love to go out and fight in West Kingdom Crown. I didn't do quite as well as I have the last two years, but I acquitted myself fairly well. It was fun.
First off: the winner was Duke Uther, who defeated Viscount Brand in what I considered to be a truly awesome finals. It can be viewed at You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNW19Sc2L40&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y0F1CqDv8g
The third place finisher was Brand's sister Viscountess Bryn. She was awesome, and her fights with Guntehr in quarter finals and with Brand in the semi-finals were epic, and were the highlights of the day -- until the finals, which looked a lot like the Hector vs. Achilles fight from *Troy* with Brad Pitt and Eric Bana, (yes, it was that cool). Brand won the first fight, Uther won the second, then in the third Uther took Brand's leg and then his arm, at which point Brand said "now you're gonna get it!" Uther pounded him.
Apparently, Uther was catching some flak for not giving up his shield when he took Brand's arm in the final fight. A lot of people apparently didn't see it for what it was, a fight among guys who are best friends and fight each other all the time and don't give each other any quarter. I don't know where the flak was coming from, because all I heard was people saying what a great compliment it was to Brand that Uther wouldn't give up his shield. But this is, of course, the West, where there is an orthodox way to fight and way the way that everybody else fights--and while the Best fighters in the SCA were either Paul or Radnor or Jade, who could beat anybody else no matter *what* style they were using and they just happened to use the Western style, it was all ok. But now with so many great fighters fighting other styles and with other conventions of chivalry the Western way has lost some luster. And that's kind of the problem with Uther in some people's minds. He has now very publicly broken three hallowed Western conventions of combat: dropping your shield when taking an opponent's arm, shield size, and crowding your opponent with your shield (ok, Lucky used to do that back in the day, but he was the only one). Uther does not fight like a Western Duke is supposed to fight, and he makes it permissible for that biggest and oldest of lightbulbs to be changed: he makes it ok for other fighters to do the same.
And that's probably ok. I am a true believer in the Western Way, as everybody knows. I think that elegant, offensive style with a 24" shield is the absolute epitome of the SCA fighting art, which is why I pursue it even though I know I'd have a better shot at winning more tourneys if I went to a 2x3 heater or a 40" kite (which one of these days I will do). I will say this: if Uther had still been using his 24" delf (and he uses it so beautifully) I'm not sure he would have beaten Brand. But if Uther ends up dragging the West kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, well, so much the better. Variety is the spice of life. As long as Hauoc and Radnor are around the pure Western style will still flourish. It will just have a lot of competition.
On to my tourney. I one shotted my first opponent with a wavy rising snap and then, after a couple of ranging shots, I killed my second opponent with the same blow. I felt like a God at that point.
I drew Mari Alexander in the next round and we had a great fight. I eventually took her leg by double faking a thrust then hitting her onside leg. I killed her with a hidden thrust to the breast plate.
I drew Sir Vincenzo de Calabria in the fourth round. I took his leg (don't recall how) and then killed him with a hook/thrust to his left shoulder.
Fifth Round, as I knew i would have to eventually, I fought Rolf. After twenty eight years (I fought Rolf my very first day in armor) I still haven't beaten him. It's pretty obvious he is in my head. I fought him better this time than I ever had, and if I'd gotten a bit more body behind my thrusts (I figured out an opening on him) we'd at least have double killed. Back to the drawing board.
By last fight was against Vsc. Eric von Rousebeck. It was a good long fight. I almost had him a couple of times, and my defense was doing great. But then I kind of hit pause. I was doing a three blow combination, I blocked low, and my shield arm just kind of came half way up and paused, and he hit me in the slot. Good for him.
It was kind of frustrating. It was frustrating because I should have beaten Von Rousebeck and I could have beaten Rolf, but I didn't get the deal done on either. It was also frustrating because I felt I had gotten slighted by the people setting up the lists. You see, there were two Dukes and a count--me--in the list. That meant that I should have been the number one seed on one of the fields, not the two seed on a field with a Duke. I've never been a one seed, and I had been looking forward to it. It didn't even occur to me till people started pointing it out that I should ahve had my own field. But when I found out it was King Titus who had seeded the fields, and that he had seeded Brion of Belatrix and Brand over me, I didn't have as much problem with that. It's his list after all. But I've always wanted to be a one seed. Had I been a one seed, I wouldn't have had to fight Rolf in the 5th round like I seemingly always do. Yes Brion went farther, but I've been beating Brion lately--I beat him at Prova and I beat him last June Crown, and if I hadn't had to fight a duke in Round five I'd have gone farther too. Brand, well, that's another matter.
But that is all a bunch of whining. Whining is un-knightly and, after all, all I had to do to negate the whole things was to beat Rolf. And Brion lost to Gunther, who was on fire, in the fourth or fifth round himself. There are no easy routes to the crown.
I suffered a strange little injury early on. I was warming up against a great-sword fighter. After looking at the videos of me fighting Oscad, I noticed I wasn't extending into my leg blocks, so I had been working on that. Well, I extended all the way into an offside leg block against the greatsword and, when he hit the top edge of my shield, the force of the blow hyper-extended my elbow. It didn't bother me much though it might have affected my fight with Von Rousebeck.
But the real thing that affected my fight with Von Rousebeck was the heat. I have heard different reports from 105 degrees to 110 degrees. My armor is cloth and fairly heavy and pretty hot inside. I had to use every trick I know to keep cool--ice-packs under my gambesson, soaking my head-scarf in icewater, drinking drinking drinking. I don't think I peed all day. The only thing I didn't do was keep my helmet in an icechest (neat trick, that). At one point, I think after my fight with Vinnie, I was definitely feeling it: weakness, heart rate, the usual. I manged to cool myself down, but it was awful. I pity Bryn and Gunther, who had an extremely long fight somewhere around quarter finals.
It was a really fantastic tourney, in spite of the heat. Parties were good, fighting was awesome. Best of all, Ben, Kahmille, Titus and Mom were all royalty at the same time! That is why I flew out.
Oh yeah: the West has declared for the Midrealm. No surprise there.
First off: the winner was Duke Uther, who defeated Viscount Brand in what I considered to be a truly awesome finals. It can be viewed at You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNW19Sc2L40&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y0F1CqDv8g
The third place finisher was Brand's sister Viscountess Bryn. She was awesome, and her fights with Guntehr in quarter finals and with Brand in the semi-finals were epic, and were the highlights of the day -- until the finals, which looked a lot like the Hector vs. Achilles fight from *Troy* with Brad Pitt and Eric Bana, (yes, it was that cool). Brand won the first fight, Uther won the second, then in the third Uther took Brand's leg and then his arm, at which point Brand said "now you're gonna get it!" Uther pounded him.
Apparently, Uther was catching some flak for not giving up his shield when he took Brand's arm in the final fight. A lot of people apparently didn't see it for what it was, a fight among guys who are best friends and fight each other all the time and don't give each other any quarter. I don't know where the flak was coming from, because all I heard was people saying what a great compliment it was to Brand that Uther wouldn't give up his shield. But this is, of course, the West, where there is an orthodox way to fight and way the way that everybody else fights--and while the Best fighters in the SCA were either Paul or Radnor or Jade, who could beat anybody else no matter *what* style they were using and they just happened to use the Western style, it was all ok. But now with so many great fighters fighting other styles and with other conventions of chivalry the Western way has lost some luster. And that's kind of the problem with Uther in some people's minds. He has now very publicly broken three hallowed Western conventions of combat: dropping your shield when taking an opponent's arm, shield size, and crowding your opponent with your shield (ok, Lucky used to do that back in the day, but he was the only one). Uther does not fight like a Western Duke is supposed to fight, and he makes it permissible for that biggest and oldest of lightbulbs to be changed: he makes it ok for other fighters to do the same.
And that's probably ok. I am a true believer in the Western Way, as everybody knows. I think that elegant, offensive style with a 24" shield is the absolute epitome of the SCA fighting art, which is why I pursue it even though I know I'd have a better shot at winning more tourneys if I went to a 2x3 heater or a 40" kite (which one of these days I will do). I will say this: if Uther had still been using his 24" delf (and he uses it so beautifully) I'm not sure he would have beaten Brand. But if Uther ends up dragging the West kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, well, so much the better. Variety is the spice of life. As long as Hauoc and Radnor are around the pure Western style will still flourish. It will just have a lot of competition.
On to my tourney. I one shotted my first opponent with a wavy rising snap and then, after a couple of ranging shots, I killed my second opponent with the same blow. I felt like a God at that point.
I drew Mari Alexander in the next round and we had a great fight. I eventually took her leg by double faking a thrust then hitting her onside leg. I killed her with a hidden thrust to the breast plate.
I drew Sir Vincenzo de Calabria in the fourth round. I took his leg (don't recall how) and then killed him with a hook/thrust to his left shoulder.
Fifth Round, as I knew i would have to eventually, I fought Rolf. After twenty eight years (I fought Rolf my very first day in armor) I still haven't beaten him. It's pretty obvious he is in my head. I fought him better this time than I ever had, and if I'd gotten a bit more body behind my thrusts (I figured out an opening on him) we'd at least have double killed. Back to the drawing board.
By last fight was against Vsc. Eric von Rousebeck. It was a good long fight. I almost had him a couple of times, and my defense was doing great. But then I kind of hit pause. I was doing a three blow combination, I blocked low, and my shield arm just kind of came half way up and paused, and he hit me in the slot. Good for him.
It was kind of frustrating. It was frustrating because I should have beaten Von Rousebeck and I could have beaten Rolf, but I didn't get the deal done on either. It was also frustrating because I felt I had gotten slighted by the people setting up the lists. You see, there were two Dukes and a count--me--in the list. That meant that I should have been the number one seed on one of the fields, not the two seed on a field with a Duke. I've never been a one seed, and I had been looking forward to it. It didn't even occur to me till people started pointing it out that I should ahve had my own field. But when I found out it was King Titus who had seeded the fields, and that he had seeded Brion of Belatrix and Brand over me, I didn't have as much problem with that. It's his list after all. But I've always wanted to be a one seed. Had I been a one seed, I wouldn't have had to fight Rolf in the 5th round like I seemingly always do. Yes Brion went farther, but I've been beating Brion lately--I beat him at Prova and I beat him last June Crown, and if I hadn't had to fight a duke in Round five I'd have gone farther too. Brand, well, that's another matter.
But that is all a bunch of whining. Whining is un-knightly and, after all, all I had to do to negate the whole things was to beat Rolf. And Brion lost to Gunther, who was on fire, in the fourth or fifth round himself. There are no easy routes to the crown.
I suffered a strange little injury early on. I was warming up against a great-sword fighter. After looking at the videos of me fighting Oscad, I noticed I wasn't extending into my leg blocks, so I had been working on that. Well, I extended all the way into an offside leg block against the greatsword and, when he hit the top edge of my shield, the force of the blow hyper-extended my elbow. It didn't bother me much though it might have affected my fight with Von Rousebeck.
But the real thing that affected my fight with Von Rousebeck was the heat. I have heard different reports from 105 degrees to 110 degrees. My armor is cloth and fairly heavy and pretty hot inside. I had to use every trick I know to keep cool--ice-packs under my gambesson, soaking my head-scarf in icewater, drinking drinking drinking. I don't think I peed all day. The only thing I didn't do was keep my helmet in an icechest (neat trick, that). At one point, I think after my fight with Vinnie, I was definitely feeling it: weakness, heart rate, the usual. I manged to cool myself down, but it was awful. I pity Bryn and Gunther, who had an extremely long fight somewhere around quarter finals.
It was a really fantastic tourney, in spite of the heat. Parties were good, fighting was awesome. Best of all, Ben, Kahmille, Titus and Mom were all royalty at the same time! That is why I flew out.
Oh yeah: the West has declared for the Midrealm. No surprise there.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
BAT Practice
BAT practice was today but I was taking it easy. There were five fighters in armor, but I only fought Alain and Oscad. I am fighting in Western Crown the Saturday, and I don't like to fight a lot the week before a crown.
Slow work with Alain was good. I worked on agessiona nd completing my leg blocks. I won three of four fights agaisnt Oscad, which is tough to do. I'm feeling ok, but a little heavy (I've put on about five pounds since last crown).
Slow work with Alain was good. I worked on agessiona nd completing my leg blocks. I won three of four fights agaisnt Oscad, which is tough to do. I'm feeling ok, but a little heavy (I've put on about five pounds since last crown).
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