In Cali now.

If you've been following my trip on facebook, you will know that I just drove from Brooklyn to Sacramento CA. The trip took me a week, but that was because I had some extra stops built in. I stayed an extra day and night in STL. and stayed with my mom last night in Fallon NV. Most of the driving days were LONG. First day was to Morgantown WV to visit relatives. Second day was to STL with a stop at Indy to visit my old sword brother Tor Tracier of the Grey Wastes. Third day was in STL being a tourist and hanging with a friend. Fourth day I drove from STL to Goodland Kansas. The next day I drove to Fillmore Utah, on I 15. Next day I drove to Fallon. So really, Fallon was the fourth day of driving, and since I got there at 3:00 I could have easily mad SFO by ten PM.

The point of the trip was to deliver a car to my friend Drew. I will also go to Western Crown (haven't decided if I am going to ask permission to fight yet).

Driving for fourteen hours a day is very sedentary, but I did manage to get some exercise in: walking around STL, a hike outside of Glenwood Springs CO; there are two par courses near my mom's house, and I went and ran the shorter oone (next time I will probably just do them both). Feeling good about that. But I havn't really fought since Eastern Crown, so we'll see how the sword moves on Saturday.

Par courses are one of my favorite ways to work out. They combine strength and conditioning in a boot-camp sort of way, but you can vary the intensity. I used to run the one in Lakeside Park in SFO all the time. There used to e one in prospect park, but there are only two stations left. grr. I always go away from them feeling like I've accomplished something.

Fallon has a huge military-style obstacle course at their town sports center (no big surprise when you remember that it's where Top Gun is located), and I'd love to run that one.

Doldrums

I'm feeling old, tired, and fat.

I haven't been in armor since Crown. Between Kalamazoo and finals May was a wash. I started working out again in June, and that's going well. In the past week I've been to the gym twice, I've run around the lake and up lookout hill, I've taken a spin class, I've done yoga and even an indian clubs workout (and I'm about to do both those again). But I miss the armor. I miss fighting.

My next time in armor will be at Western Crown. I'm driving cross country to deliver a friends car (I leave tomorrow) and I'll go to Crown. I am likely to break one of my primary rules: I may show up to crown and not fight in the list. At this point I am not sure I want to take that on. It's the first time I've ever felt like this.

So I might fight in the list (assuming the King lets me) or I might just fight in Roses. I will likely decide that day.

So in the meantime I am working on writing a fechtbuch. More on that later.

Spring Crown in Canada

Crown was excellent fun but it represented a step back for me. At the last crown and at Mudthaw I had fought hard and well, I’d killed some knights, and I’d been taken out by two of the contenders in the later rounds (sixth round both times, I think, maybe seventh). I lost to Wilhelm and Kenerick in Crown, Gregor and Griffyth at Mudthaw. This time I simply met my old benchmark: I killed a knight and I made it to the fifth round, winning more fights than I lost. Now fifth round in a 33 man crown is still kind of deep, and in an Eastern crown where nearly everybody is out to prove their metal (few people fight in Eastern crown just for fun) that is an accomplishment. I didn’t beat myself mentally, I just got beat. I did do one stupid thing that cost me a fight, but it wasn’t something I’ll kick myself over. I certainly was able to reach deep into my bag of tricks and pull something out when needed. I was healthy. My wind was good. My muscle endurance was good (workouts paying off). On the other hand, the list of things that were wrong would make a great list of excuses: my timing was off. I couldn’t throw a fast enough combo. Nobody was taking my blows (meaning it was definitely my technique). The mud, which saved me in one fight, prohibited my usual footwork. I fell on my ass several times. I drew the hardest possible fight in the first round. Allergies. I had to pee. Whine whine whine.

And something other than age (I say that only because I wasn’t suffering from it at Mudthaw a few weeks ago) was just slowing me down.

First round I got challenged by Daemon von Drachenklau. I always have fun hard fights with Daemon, and I usually lose. The only time I’ve beaten him in a list, to my recollection, was in the Kings Championship that I finaled in. We had a very long hard fight. He was in control part of the time but I wrenched it back from him at other times. It was really great. Only trouble was, I executed three techniques just the way I wanted to and couldn’t seal the deal. The first two were power and the second targeting. I threw a hook/thrust early in the fight and landed it on his camail in the throat, upper chest area, right where I was aiming for (I find it’s too easy to miss the face on that thrust). But he didn’t take it. He was the second person to shrug off a hook thrust from me that day, so I was obviously not driving it home hard enough. Later in the fight he threw the leg shot I wanted him to throw and I did the block/downward cut Hauoc uses to such good effect—my other finishing move these days—and he didn’t take that. Throughout the day I was not sticking that shot. It was very frustrating. The third technique I threw was when I was legged and he stepped in as I double faked him but I didn’t get the right angle on my shot and, even though he was wide open, I hit the top of his shield. Then he clubbed me like a baby harp seal. All those three problems were with me and my technique (not him—he was great).

My second round fight was against a leftie. I stepped in as he threw a wrap, closing the distance and robbing him of the proper arc for the shot. I took his leg in the process. Then I just waited for him to strike at my shield and thrust him in the body as a counter punch when he did.

My third round fight was against a roman guy with a big oval shield (or was it—I might have rounds three and four mixed up). I hit him once or twice with that same downward slot shot to no avail. He was using a red sword and I was somehow picking it up real early. (His attacks were also not coming in flat, which had a lot to do with it). For the life of me I can’t recall how I killed him.

I fought Sir Collin of Loch Leaven and it was fantastic. I am told that it looked beautiful from the crowd. He was using polearm and for the most part he had control of the fight. I slipped and fell on my ass three times as I charged him. At one point he had me dead to rights and threw a butt spike thrust at my chest. I felt it, I saw it, It had some impact but it felt more like he put his gauntlet in my chest and shoved than hitting me cleanly (he was choked all the way up on the butt spike). I fell flat on my ass. I realized later that the reason it was not a good shot was because my feet were going out from under me and my falling on my ass had robbed the blow of its impact. He totally should have killed me with that shot, and on a dry field it probably would have been good. So even though I won the fight I only did so by sheer luck, which occurred when he was pressing me toward the ropes, I was slipping and sliding and trying to maintain my balance, and in desperation I threw a William the Lucky spinning backhand. He obligingly did not take my head off. The crowd cheered.

Yes, it felt good to reach that far back and pull up something to win a fight with when pretty much I was toast.

My final fight was against a fighter named Marcus Blackeart. He was a really fast fighter with a big coffin lid shield. Nonetheless I felt in total control of the fight. At one point his sword exploded and he had to switch to a new one. I hit him three times with the downward slot shot to no avail. Eventually he took my arm, which like an idiot I had left out there for him to take for some stupid reason (I would love to see a video just of that part of the fight). So there I was left handed. I had a lot of fun at that moment. I probably should have belly bumped him and wrapped his head. It was about my only chance. My thrusting tip broke off, but I hadn’t planned to use it anyway. At one point he hit me cleanly in the leg and I dropped to my knees out of habit, but it was so light I stood back up again. I figured it was the fact that he knew I was hunting his arm and was pulling out coupled with the fact that he was using a lighter sword than he was used to. Randal told me later that his sword had wrapped itself up in my belt tip (Yes! I was actually saved from a shot by my white belt!!). Eventually he took my other arm and I bled to death valiantly.

I acquitted myself well. I didn’t do as well as I have recently, but I was able to draw on experience to counter whatever I wasn’t doing well. Randal said my fighting looked great, that I was on and that I looked really improved. Oscad, who fights me more often, said I looked off and out of synch. So there you have it.

As for the rest of the tourney, it was great. The final four was the one most people had predicted: Gregor, Wilhelm, Kenerick, and Griffith. Griffith and Kenerick advanced to the finals, which were three of five with greatsword, two weapon, hammer, polearm and finally sword and shield. They never made it that far. Griffith won the fight in four straight. Alethea pointed out that if the last crown could be viewed as the guy with the biggest shield winning, this one also played on equipment. Griffith was wearing athletic shoes while Kenerick was wearing period turned shoes. He might have had on hob nails, but regardless, he was obviously slipping and sliding more than his opponent (this also played into my fight with Sir Collin. I had on smooth soled Bohemond boots, he had on cleats, I slipped and fell on my ass four times). So this crown was won by the guy with the most traction.

On the way home I stopped off at Artos and Gwyn’s and had my swing worked on (she’s my form coach, he’s my swing doctor). After some testing they determined that I had a vector problem. I was pulling too far through my shots and robbing them of power. Gwyn decided that this was because I was pulling my left shoulder too far out (something we do in slow work but are supposed to tighten up at full speed). I think this might be because it’s better on my back. The downward slot was similar. I was aiming to the wrong point in both cases. On my snaps my follow through was too strong, as though I were aiming out to my left instead of just to the outside of my opponent’s helm. On the downward strokes it was as though I was aiming at my foot instead of at his hip. Both should be reparable with some pell work.

Great crown. I think I did myself and my lady proud. I certainly had fun.

Duke Henrik on Armor

A common complaint about the use of plastic and aluminum is that it does not accurately replicate the weight of armor in period. This complaint has become especially loud with regards to alluminum shields, which have become common and are much heavier than the shields used in the early days of the SCA (my knight used a shield that weight eighteen pounds, and I have used one that weighed more than 20 pounds). Aluminum, because it allows you to use a large shield without significantly greater weight, is seen as "cheating."

In a conversation on the Western Chivalry List Duke Henrik of Havn wrote the following. Henrik is the first first crowned king of the SCA and the person credited with having worn the first "real" suit of armor in SCA fighting (a mail haubrek and a norman helm with a nasal that he had fitted out with a catcher's mask). He is also a serious reenactor, who takes part on occasion in the Battle of Hastings reenactments in England:

******************

Now to clarify what I was trying to say about the weight of armor. Over the years I have learned that period armor was usually not as heavy as many immagine it to have been. As Alfred commented, early SCA armor was heavy. This often was due to over engineering and/or limited access to materials to make it from. My first mail hauberk ( made of wire I got free, from coat hangers - about 13 gage steel wound on a half inch diameter mandril) weighed 40 pounds. Others used 14 gage bailing wire wound onto 3/8 inch mandrils. Modern 18 gage, 9mm Indian or Pakistani mail replicates early period round wire mail much more accurately and is rivited to boot. The later period flat ring mail is also well represented by Indian and Pakistani rivited mail replicas, now available. I have a section of Turkish mail of the 14th century that is nearly a duplicate of the modern replicas, both in ring size and thickness. Wet=ight si also duplicateed. Such mail hauberks weigh in the 20 to 25 pound rang e, giving the same coverage.

Old freon tank helms weighed much more than some modern period duplicates, and were much larger and ungainly, making defending blows harder. some people wore little or no limb armor since mandates were less or non existant, depending on time and place. Period plate made of light gage spring tempered steel is now availabe to those who can afford the extra cost, but protect and weigh about the same as plastic body armor. Cuirboile and rawhide armors are also lightweight, when properly fashioned and they too offer as much protection as plastic at similar or even less weight.

My point here was simply that the difference between the weight of a period material armor and a modern plastic or titanium or aluminum armor is negligable, if done well. To chastize someone for using one over the other because of the weight advantage that was formerly presumed to exist, can now generally be shown to be based on misinfirmation of what period armors weighed compared to modern replicas using well engineered period materials.

In other words, if thin gage hardened spring steel armor of equivalent strength and protection to 14 gage mild steel can be made, and it weighs the same or less than Aluminum, Titanium or Plastic armor of identical size and protection, then why are the latter armors not just as acceptable to wear and fight in? Equally, if hardened leather or rawhide armors or those made of other forms of period materials , can be nmade to weigh much less than 14 gage mild steel, but still offer the same protection as 14 gage mild steel armor, why can't Aluminum , Titanium or Plastic armors that weigh AND PROTECT the same, not be just as acceptable?

Although I don't care for the asthetics of using modern materials that are significantly removed from period materials, I have to admit using them is no less an advantage than using the well engineered period armors. And as such, no stigma should attach to anyone doing so.

It may have been that the belief that people using aluminum ( titanium, plastic, etc.) shields or armor were in effect cheating, by not having to carry the weight of the steel standard. But now we know that standard was set at a time where access to a more period one was not inexpensively available to the great majority of fighters. Equally unknown then, was the lack of information about the properties of the other materials available and used in period, that we now have access to. Coupled with a desire to not only be overly cautious regarding individual safety, but also concerned about making changes to rules that have maintained that safety for decades, change to the requirements are unlikely to occurr any time soon, at the Corporate level.

So to address the White Elephant of "Cheating by using modern plastic or light weight metals for armor and shields" is really not the issue of great magnitude we used to think it was. Really it's a misunderstanding of just how light weight armor and shields sometimes really were. The simple example I gave was that a period Viking Round shield made of 8 mm thick linden wood and 28 inches in diameter, could weigh as little as 4 pounds or so ( I have a 13 mm thick by 28 inch diameter plywood disc that weighs 3 and 3/4 pounds, add a 5 and 1/2 inch diamerer hemispherical, 14 gage steel boss at 16 ounces and the shield made from these articles would excede the strength of the linden and yet weigh only 4 and 3/4 pounds) and yet offer the same protection as a 4 pound aluminum shield of the same diameter. The only effective difference between the two is the greater longevity the alluminum 's strength would provide. To say using one over the other is cheating, is rediculous, because it weighs the same as period materials.

I have linden wood boards to make an 8 mm thick shield 32 inches in diameter and they weigh about 6 pounds. Add the boss and the total is 7 pounds. The most recent find of a Viking shield was in Denmark in September 2008. Reports of analysis on it show it was 6 to 8mm thick and 32 inches in diameter. Likely, when assembled with it's boss, it weighed around 7 to 8 pounds, when new.

We usually select materials to make shields and armor last longer while being beaten uppon , Tourney after Tourney. They are mandated to offer extra protection, for safety reasons, not because period ones did. The Coppergate helmet was made of much thinner iron than 14 gage. I'd estimate it was closer to 18 to 20 gage. It is very small, offering very little clearance between the head and the metal. Hardly room for a thin leather liner, much less 1/2 inch closed cell foam. It's total weight is likely arround 5 pounds.

It is well known that in period, metals were valued much higher than today. Protective equipment was engineered, not to last through many Tornament seasons (consisting of being pounded upon in both practice and competition - as we use it today) but to last only long enough to preserve the wearer, much as today's plastic automobile bumpers are designed to absorb a single collision (or attack). If we permitted armor of that nature to be used, instead of the 14 gage standard , it would doubtless weigh no more that modern materials weigh - which do provide the equivalent protection and longivity of the heavier standards.

So, to sum up. Holding plastic and light weight metals or materials as forms of cheating, is an errer we should finally dispense with. There is no cheating where advantage is gained in this fashion, unless it is specifically legislated against.

The only remaining issue is, who can afford one material over another and is spending large sums to gain access that others can't afford, another issue we wish to address?

Henrik

I made it to Nutley

...and it was awesome. It was, in fact, so awesome I couldn't actually partake of all the awesomeness. I only got to fight half the knights there. Counting myself there were eight knights in armor including two dukes: me, Gregor, Kelson, Stephan, Max, Wilhelm, Douglas, and Manfred. There were probably more knights than unbelts.

I started the night in the deep end fighting Douglas. He is on fire right now, having won both Mudthaw and Birka. We traded about even. When I beat him it was with a planned attack that worked, and when he beat me it was often because I planned an attack that didn't work. I got him with a couple of good thrusts, including the foot-stomp thrust. He plowed me once in the ribs.

My second set of fights was against an unbelted fighter named Mike. I think he killed me twice and I killed him several times. I don't think he knew who I was, which was good. i wasn't wearing a white belt (I don't usually do so at practice) and he was jumping in my face as though he wanted to show the new guy that Nutley is a tough place--in a nice and chivalrous way, of course. And he seemed annoyed that I was beating him as much as I was at first. I got him with the hook/thrust twice.

My third set of fights was against Stephen. No, I didn't lay stick on him once. I almost got him with a thrust, close enough that he commented on it later, but that was as close as i got. However, my defense was very tight. I had a lot of patience, and it paid off. But I was also getting tired, and against Stephen I lose patience and attack simply because I want to try *something*, so that I was able to be as careful and as patient as i was was an accomplishment.

A brief digression. When I practice i usually go into my first one or two fights as though I'm in a tournament. I concentrate on defense, I use a careful and simple offense, i try to be patient, and I try to counter punch. After that I start experimenting. I work on new shots or combinations, I try different attacks and defenses, different footwork, and I pull out old stuff that I haven't used in awhile. I noticed last night that after my first two fights of any set, which I mostly won, I was easing from the tight, slightly crouched closed form with my sword leg forward--a variation on the techniques used by the VDKs--into the way I enjoy fighting most, a western high form with the sword back and standing up straight like Radnor (strive for height, as Musashi says).

Against Stephen there was none of that. I was in my tightest defense the whole time. He clobbered me (once really hard, *g*) but it took him awhile to do it, and I worked his defense hard the whole time. He said that my biggest problem was that sometimes I would stop moving and lean back, blocking high with my sword and shield together, and that when i did that he was able to kill me with a high snap. I thought my biggest problem was that i was holding my breath.

After that I fought.... I think it was Lucan's squire Cullen. He's a polearm fighter. I started out with the tip forward fencing style and killed him with a saber cut. then I moved in slowly and controlled his pole by jamming my boss above his hand and killed him with wraps. I changed things up a lot--open form, closed form, high guard, low guard, sword leg forward, shield leg forward, etc. A lot of the time we just stared at each other and tried to wait the other out. The time he got me best was when i tried to just charge his right shoulder and ran right into his cross shot attack. Look. Pretty pretty stars.

Then I fought Max. I always love fighting Max. Max is a lot of fun. I'm taller than him, he's faster than me. I tried something different at first. After my first bout with him i switched to closed form but with my shield foot forward. I have less offense out of that but tighter defense. It kept me alive for a time. I managed to kill him with thrusts a couple of times and with a wrap/snap combo a couple of times, but that was it. He probably was beating me three to one, though most of those were after I switched to the Western high form. Afterward he said what people often say, that my attacks develop slowly. I've been trying to avoid that, and it bothered me. It was then that i realized that with the exception of fighting Stephen I had been transitioning into high form during my sets all night. Hmmmm.

Finally, after a long rest, i fought Heinrich Brauer. What i didn't realize was that he would be using a buckler. As it happened I had brought mine, not because I intended to use it but because when I stick it in the bottom of my duffel bag it forms a nice stable surface for packing and makes it easier to strap to my little collapsible dolly. So I ran and got it. Yay! I used the Hauoc high closed form technique, the I:33 technique, and (mostly) old school Bellatrix. Oh, I had a blast. He killed me with a thrust and I think a body shot, but i killed him with old-school combos, a wavy/rising snap, hidden snaps (wow! remember hidden snaps?), dropping wraps and I think even a figure 8 attack. My foot work was really on.

But man, I was slow! I mean, I know I've put on a few pounds since Crown, but all year endurance has been my big thing. Max was right about my attacks being slow, especially out of the open high form. When using Hauoc's closed form, I couldn't even throw the downward molinee that is the bread and butter of that style fast enough to kill with it. All my blows were a half a beat behind. I was feeling pretty terrible, then Oscad reminded me that I was tired when the night started. I had done my kettle bell work out the day before, I gotten up at six am that morning, and I'd worked all day on my feet at the store. I was exhausted! No wonder I was doing odd things. I was distracted, I was slow, I was falling back on old habits (mostly old good habits). That's ok. I like practicing tired. It's good practice for long fights and late rounds. With that in mind it was a really good practice.

Ah, it's BAT again

My workouts this week were, well, not so good. I did dance at the wedding, and I did work out hard on Friday (20 minutes on the eliptical, 20 minutes yoga, 20 minutes on the kettle bells). Plus I've been on my feet A LOT. But between weddings, allergies, sickens (which could have been allergies combined with exhaustion) I was not as diligent as I would have liked.

But I did fight at BAT today.

Today was the Beau Geste, so I didn't get to do too much fighting (I was running the tournament). But I did get to go a few rounds with Johnathan, Oscad, and Jabril.

Johnathan kept me on my toes because he has such a fast hard counter punch. I won most of our fights, but I had to be super careful doing it.

Jabril and I had a really really long fight in which he eventually killed me. I wasn't using a thrusting tip, so I didn't have all my offense, and we both had good defenses and strong attacks. We worked it very hard.

Oscad was great. I beat him twice, he beat me twice. His fighting has gotten so much better, and it's mostly mental. He is simply more fierce than he used to be. His attacks are strong and measured. He is conserving energy and picking his shots. He is patient. He is doing all the things I am trying to do, and it's working really well for him. I killed him once with an interesting little thrust to the outside of his guard, and once with a simple cut that slipped into his timing pattern. Great fights.

Workout and fighting musings

A thought occurred to me while thinking about my fight with Gregor and some of the things that happened at Mudthaw. Word at Mudthaw was that I had "really picked up my game". Terik said that the thrust has really expanded my attack, which may be but I don't like to think of it that way. My fight with Gregor impressed a lot of people, but (a) I lost, and (b) I *always* fight Gregor well. It was my fight with Grifith that really felt good.

And that got me thinking.

Grifith said that my defense was a lot better, and it's not--according to him--because i went to a longer shield (he doesn't consider 38" to be long). He says my defense has gotten much tighter. Now that's probably true, but what i really did was start concentrating on defense instead of offense. Wanting to be Radnor, I've always concentrated on offense, and I've got a pretty good one. I was bothered by Terik's statement because it implied that my blade work was not so hot, and I've always been proud of my blade work. But I've always been an aggressive fighter. Now I stress patience. Griffith and I spent a lot of time staring at each other. So did Gregor and I. But against Grifith, patience was a good tactic.

The thing I came to realize today is that my past fights with Grifith (who, interestingly, was Gregor's squire) I've always had trouble with what to *do*. I had no real offense for a shield as big as his. It wasn't just that the shield was large it was a mental thing: my inability to fight his style was disproportionate to the size of his shield. I think I've killed him once, and that was in a pickup fight using an old-school molinee/onside cut. Gregor, on the other hand, the Duke in the occasion, I have no problem whatsoever fighting. I just go for it, sometimes I kill him, usually he kills me, but I *know what to do*. Gregor trained with Ron and he fights with what would be a standard sized Western heater. Against him i just go out and fight my usual fight, and I do well. The same is true when I fight Duke Tim, or Horic, or Ron: I know how to fight against that style because I've been doing it for thirty years. Up until recently I've looked at those big shields and something in my head has been psyched out. I've been flummoxed. Now it's different. Now, concentrating on fighting more like an Easterner, defensively motivated, and as Terik points out using the thrust effectively (which isn't hampered by the length of the shield) I have ways to attack the Eastern style.

And that's why my fight with Griffith meant more to me than my fight with Gregor. It meant that I've gotten rid of whatever mental block was hampering me when fighting one of those big kite shields.


Oh, the workout:

I didn't workout much over Spring Break last week. I did a dumbbell workout one day and then Indian clubs but I pulled a muscle in my scapula. It wasn't really painful, but I stopped working out for a couple of days. Of course, I picked up extra shifts at the store, which meant standing, walking,a nd climbing ladders all day long. That store has kept me in pretty good shape. And the two days i didn't work at the store I was doing the tourist thing in DC, walking my feet off. So i was not being a slug.

This week however has started well: yoga yesterday, 30 minutes on the treadmill and a kettle bell workout today (shoulders feel great in that tired post workout sort of way). Tomorrow hopefully I'll make it to Nutley.