Action shot

Here, from June Crown, is what is probably the best action fighting shot I've ever seen. It is located at www.esmereldaofthelakes.com, one of the best SCA picture sites I've found. Check it out and buy some prints off her.

some thoughts on Western Crown

First of all let me say that Obadiah the Obstreporous is a God! Ob defeated both Jade and Radnor in the same crown tournament. I think I can name everyone who's beaten Radnor in a crown (there are about eight). Fewer than ten people have beaten Jade in a crown. I'm pretty sure Fabian has beaten them both, but not in the same crown. Nobody has ever done what Ob did! Wow! All my life I've wanted to beat Radnor in a tourney, and Jade for a long time as well. I am impressed!

To business:

At western Crown, as I have heard, Titus attained the final round gainst Duke Jade, who is his grand-sire, Titus having been squired to King Uther (so this was all in the family). As the litany was announced, Titus reportedly doffed his helm, embraced Jade, and then spoke. He said that recently a number of people had been suggesting that people who use large shields do so only because they want to win, and that to prove that this wasn't his motivation he was yielding the crown. People were shocked and some were angry. They announced the "huzahs" for Jade and people went away. Jade, naturally, didn't want to win crown by concession, and he and Uther talked Titus into fighitng it out. Jade won, but by that time everyone had left. I just spoke to someone, who was there and who spoke to Jade in between the concession and when he and Titus actually fought the final round, who still did not know that they had actually fought it out.

First of all, having been part of the whole discussion regarding shield sizes, much of it originating on this blog, I'm very understanding or Titus' motivation. I also understand Jade's reaction. I would have tried to talk him out of it too. AOC has suggested that talking Titus out of his gesture was the wrong move, as it cheapens the gesture and elevates victory to a more important status than expressing one's honor through defeat. I'm not sure I agree.

Secondly, it is any one's right to yield a fight at any time for any reason.

Thirdly, Titus was defending his honor. Some people say that Crown finals was not the place to make the statement Titus made. I can see their point. But if you wanted to make a dramatic gesture, there is no better moment than crown finals.

There has been a lot of concession going on this year. Dag conceded Midrealm crown finals. Krysta conceded a tournament fight last week. Konrad conceded Pennsic, for crying out loud. All for different reasons (Konrad's might be the closest to Titus' gesture), but it is curious.

Titus does not seem to be somebody who uses a big kite because he wants to win more fights. He has one of the most perfect period kits I've seen. If you've never seen him fight, Titus wears a very accurate Crusader era kit, for which the big kite is the apropriate shield. He usually wears a lot of mail, which slows him down (I don't know if he was wearing mail on Saturday). He does not style his kit, as some people certainly do, to gain advantage win more fights: people like Radnor, who started the trend of just using a Gambeson for body armor in the West after saying "The best armor for SCA fighting is carpet armor because it protects you without weighing you down,": or Jade, who used to fight in a gambesson as well: or Guy of Castle Kirk, who always wears sneakers when he fights to give him speed and traction; or me, who uses as light a kit as possible (though people seem to think my bunny round is very heavy, which I don't get). So the suggestion that he might be trying to gain an advantage was particularly grating to Titus.

I do think a better gesture would have been to throw the sheild aside and fight with just a broadsword against Jade. It would have said the same thing, if somewhat less dramatically. But I won't gainsay his decision. He's a good knight, and although I would not have done what he did, he made his point.

BAT practice

BAT practice was fun today. I was kind of tired and worn out. I’d lifted and ran on the treadmill on Friday and gone to spin class on Saturday, so I was pretty stiff and sore. But it was fun. Oscad, Roderick, Everet (I think that’s Rav’s name), Gil, Bill, and I were in armor.

At Bill’s request we started with some stick drills. We did the hanging guard drill and the double strike drill out of the Asgard school, the training system used by Dukes Gaston and balder in Trimaris. After Bellatrix, this is probably the most highly developed training system I’ve come across. Some of their videos are on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0623pJjtx6s&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF3fDo60fs4&feature=related

I like them. I’d developed some of the same sword drills back in the 80s, but there’s are much more advanced.

After that I fought Gil. He was using Sword and Buckler, as usual, and presenting his tip, which was new. He really didn’t have an offence against me, and for some reason blows I normally don’t land on Gil, like a right cross, were landing.

Next I fought Oscad, who was using a bastard sword “Christian style” for his defense. He did it mostly to work on his lateral movement, but that movement opened him up to my face thrusts to the outside of his stick. He moved right into them twice. I also killed him with a hook thrust. But the one time he took my leg I was dog meat. He stands right on top of me. I thought using Houghton’s sitting shot would work since he only had a stick for a shield, but he punched all the way over with it as a guard. Deep raps didn’t work either. I was doomed.

Next I fought Bill. That was a good fight. He is tough as a lefty. I managed to kill him with a double strike off side and with a straight counter. My best kill against him was after he took my arm and he kept his shield. I got him with a downward thrust to his belly after a pump fake.

I fought Rav using Jarrod’s kite. What I have discovered about the kite it this: it is so EASY. Jarrod thinks the kite he’s using, which he got from Gui, is heavy. It is kind of, more than I like, but it’s not too bad. I think it’s 38” long. I can go goofy foot, square, or sword foot forward, all in a closed high form, and it is natural as can be. I dn’t have as much offense as usual (natch) but I get to use a lot more patience. I’m not sure it’s as much fun. But then Effie Calvin LaRouche wisely said: “I like winning. It’s, uh….better than loosing.” I found that when I hooked and cut I hit my wrist with the shield. Same problem with a centergrip round. Duh! But it was fun. Gil should have video of it.

Last I fought Jarrod. He was using the kite and I was using the bunny round. I got a great hook thrust on him.

Time to go

One month to Crown (there abouts) That's only a few practices.

Monday was a long bike ride and some slow form work, working mostly on engaging my abs and my hip fighting goofy foot.

Last night was McCaren park practice. Once agian there were four fighters: Me, Jarrod (now Roderick), TImur and Ervald.

Once again I had good patience. Warmed up with Timur then fought him full speed. He was blocking me well and backing out whenever I advanced. I Worked him mostly by taking his leg and then either hooking and cutting to his head or stepping left and hitting him in the body. Timur is considerably shorter than me but he's good at defending against my wrap.

I fought Ervald next. I won all but one of those fights. I finally got my hook thrust placement working again.

My fights with Jarrod were fun. He is much taller than I am. He has switched to a center-boss kite shield and was using it really well to control distance. Had a very hard time reaching him but once I did I hit him.

Then I fought Ervald using Jarrod's center grip kite. That was fun. I got some great shots in. It is a bit heavier then a lot of center-grip kites and a bit short for what it is supposed to be (I think it's 36"). I got a couple of great shots in with it. I managed to use Lucan's passing shot and hit Ervald in the arm. I never land that shot, but with the kit it kind of fell into place. I also managed to get my hook thrust in. I was pretty sure I could, since I can do it with the center grip round, but it was nice. My arm got tired pretty fast though, and I've no idea how I would fare against the dukes. Plas I really do love fighting the bunny round style. As close as it is to crown I doubt I'll be putting on together between now and then, but I think it would work well for next year.

But like Jade said, I switch things up too often. I guess I just get bored. Patience. That's the key.

BAT Practice training

Boy, it’s a good tired.

Yes, I have returned to my fighting blog. While I was out of commission I didn’t work out much. I was hurt a bit more than I though. I recuperated the first week. Got on the treadmill all of once the second week, but I did a lot of walking. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I rode my bicycle around and got good workouts.

Today, the theme from Rocky echoing in my head, I got up at seven am and went running in the park. It was the first time I’ve run since our rear-end auto accident exactly three years ago today (I know it was exactly three years because we were on our way home from the fall NASCAR race at Dover, and the Dover race is on right now (three of Jack Rouch’s drivers, Biffle, Edwards, and Kenseth, are all racing for the lead with 23 laps to go). Running hurt my back a lot after that, and I started concentrating on spin class, which is as good a workout with lower impact. But I wanted to run. I did my usual run, around the lake and then up to the top of Lookout Hill. I actually took the last set of stairs two at a time. When I get to the top of lookout hill I am always sure that that is it, I am about to die. But so far I haven’t.

Then I came home, worked a bit, and went to BAT practice.

There were only three other fighters there, Louis, Gil, and Bill. That meant two solid unbelted fighters and an OTC (Order of the Tiger’s Combatant). It also meant a right handed fighter, a left handed fighter, and a two weapon fighter.

Fighting Gil I had some kind of epiphany. I found that place in between too relaxed and too pumped up. Usually when I feel that feeling I am all tensed up and jumpy, just on the edge of pushing too hard. Today it was more like I was just very focused. I felt more relaxed than I normally do. I have felt that way before, and usually it is a good thing. I went through closed form, open form, high and low, and goofy foot, and in all of them I was relaxed but very focused.

I won nearly all my fights. I fought Gil, then Louis, then Bill, then we did a meat grinder where we each fought the other three then the next guy fought the other three, so we each got six fights. I was pacing myself and not fighting to fatigue. Gil beat me twice, Bill beat me twice, Louis beat me twice, maybe three times. In the meat grinder, which I approached like a tournament, I only lost my very last fight, to Bill when he was holding the field. That fight is instructive, because I threw a fake that I thought I was throwing small and Gil told me it was very broad. That was fatigue.

I was most proud of my fights against Louis. I always have trouble with him, but today I was winning pretty handily. I had two great fights. In the first I planned a leg shot (I’d been planning it for about a half an hour at that point). I threw a blow at his leg, which he blocked with the ax, I stepped in an threw a dropping wrap to the same leg. It worked really well. In our last fight I was getting a bit tired and trying to figure out what to do. I never kill Louis with off-side body shots (in fact I rarely kill him with the edge at all), but I decided, what the hell, I’ll throw a butterfly on him. I used to never be able to get anybody to count my butterfly. But I threw this one with my wrist locked, something I picked up watching Radnor last year. It worked like a charm.

BAT usually has a lot more fighters than that. I think it was light because of the Queens Farm demo. Next weekend is Fort Tryon, and if I’m in town that is where I’ll be.

OOps

Well, my training schedule is shot to hell.

First of all McCaren Park. Only three people showed up, Me, Gui, and Ervald, and Ervald wasn't fighting so Gui and I took off. Too bad. it was a nice night. BAT is simply a much better practice.

Secondly, my training schedule just got shot all to hell. I have a gaping hole in my back. I had surgery today to remove a sebaceous cyst from my shoulderblade. It had been there for years but recently started draining and I didn't want it to get infected. So, no fighting for two weeks. No pell work for two weeks. No weight lifting for two weeks. No bicycling for two weeks. No spin class for two weeks. No running for one week. No lifting anything heavier than a beer can till at least Monday. That's four practices out of my schedule shot. At this point there is little chance of reaching my goal of fifteen days of helmet time between labor day and crown. Grrrr.

BAT Practice training

So I have this habit. When I'm working with a new fighter, I mean brand new, first time in armor new, I like to borrow somebody's big shield and use that. It's not because I want to beat the guy. I don't swing much in that situation. It's mostly becuase I dont trust brand new fighters not to hit me in the knee, and because brand new fighters might not have much control. I did that on Sunday, and I also learned that I have no offense when I'm using a 36" heater, at least not one strapped with the hand way up in the corner.

BAT practice was good this weekend. It was mostly a teaching day for me, which is good and bad. It's good because concentrating on somebody else's fundamentals forces me to concentrate on my own. It's bad because if I start out an evening in training mode, lots of slow work, letting my student dictate the temp much of the time, etc., I am always a hlaf a beat slow the rest of the night.

There were at east ten people in armor at BAT this week: myself, Gui, Jarrod, Avran, Gil, Alexandre, Timur, Bill, Rav, Oscad. I think I'm forgetting a couple.

I started by working with Rav, doing slow work with him, and concentrating on his en garde position and returnign to it. He's got real potential. He has good mechanics and hits with power. Teaching mode. Lots of slow work. Just a few full speed fights.

Then I did slow work with Timur. He's more advanced than Rav, but it was the same thing. Did more full speed fights with him, which were good. He was moving his arm too far forward in his rest position. I was totally unable to get my thrusts going.

Then I fought Gil sword and buckler. Exactly what I needed for a good fun fight. But I found that I was reacting too much to him, not forcing him to react to me. I won most of the fights (though he did cream my ribs in one fight), but not like I should have.

Then I fought Oscad. This was the fight I really needed. He is doing about 30% better from what he was doing before Pennsic. It was pretty awesome. I was not able to control the fight at all. When fighting goofy foot, trying to use the Hauoc technique, he not only refused to make the attacks I wanted him to make but he had developed a really good leg shot for creaming my sword side leg, and it worked two or three times. As usual his defense is deceptively tight. I need to work more on face thrusts against him, as they seem to be more open, and they used to work well. I killed him three times, he killed me three times. Very good fights. Twice I hit myself in the shield arm with the flat of my blade. It still hurts. Ouch.

The I worked with Bill. He was crowding me a bit too much for his own safety. I did a lot of leg, kill trades, which won fights but put me in a lot of pain. Between that and the arm I quit after those fights.

After that I worked with Gui's nephew Josh, his first time in armor. Good aggression, decent power. He's got potential.

I find two things. One, I need to get back to my bread and butter, the hook thrust. I have been doing better and better with edge work, especially fakes, but my thrusts may be suffering.