Being sick sucks

For the second time this Lent I am sick. Stomach virus. Projectile vomit. This was Monday Night/Tuesday morning. I've been queasy all week. I've managed to do my push ups every day, but nothing else.

However, Sunday I got to fight in Iron Bog!

WORKOUTS

Obviously none. 

TECHNIQUE

In one of my fights I employed a number of techniques to test my opponent, but otherwise I was just working on counter punching out of the A Frame, or so I thought. 

FIGHTING

I fought Ron (twice),  a fighter I can't name, William McCrimmon, Omega, Harold Haakonson, Bardolf, and Bran. 

I warmed up against Ron and he basically slaughtered me. My feet were out of place, like I was not moving strongly enough. 

My next set of fights was against a heater shield fighter I cannot name. He was fast and precise, and I had trouble with his off side. My endurance was good enough that I outlasted him. 

Then things got serious. I fought Bill, who has taken a big leap in both speed and power, back close to where he was ten years ago. This to go along with his great targeting  and precision. He was a ll over me, and I was very happy to take his leg and then kill him with Ed's version of the butterfly (fake the off side, plant your right foot next to his hip, start a blow that looks like wrap but the step out with the left foot and turn the wrap into a blow going straight down into his face or body). After that I killed him again and he started running out of steam. He was forgetting to breathe. He lost his wind fast. 

At the end of my fights with Bill I broke the thrusting tip off my sword and so for my fights with Omega I took out one of Ragnar's swords. It was thin (possibly not legal), short by about three inches, and light. I managed to strike Omega with it three times but there was no power on any of them--so it turned into an exercise in defense, and my defense was pretty good. 

I rode down to practice with three of my nephews--Bill and his squire brothers Harold and Bardolph. They are three good unbelted fighters who are nearly as funny as the stooges when you get them together. I'd promised all three of them a fight. Since Harold is a pole arm fighter I picked up his spare Glaive and took him on with that. We were both using fairly short light glaives. I started with my thumbs opposed a la Visivald, which some people erroneously call quarter staff style. We are both fairly big guys, and we locked up in a pretty good core to core and wrestled a bit. It was pretty savage and we both loved it. He got me with a thrust in the throat and I hit him in the arm then the head. after that I changed my grip but he cut my head after a long exchange. Those were great fights. 

Next I fought Bardolph. He is a tricky left handed that Bill describes as "drunken Gumbie." I had never fought him before. I started out using Lucky's passing shot (snap/pass off line to the left, step around, strike), which worked. Then I took his leg with Martin the Temperate's hidden leg shot, which I'd never used against a lefttie. It worked, and I thrust him in the belly. Then I set up in Gui's old form, pushing the shield way across, so the point actually tails to cover the left leg and the shield is held at a diagonal in front of me and using a hanging guard to cover my off side. The best attack out of that is a punching off side, which I never manage to land with power, but this time it worked.

After that I fought Ron again. Hey look! Video!



This is some great video because it exposes a lot of my flaws. Ron and I are squire brothers, can you tell? We are both 50, we both started as teenagers, and we share William the Lucky, Radnor, Paul, and Houghton as early trainers. It's a really fun fight for me.

The first thing I see is that my A frame starts out fairly tight but kind of goes away. Ron, meanwhile, never loses his high closed form. The idea behind the A frame is that the front corner of the shield is held high enough to cover the on-side head shot. The shield guards the left side and the sword defends the right and the middle. As with my old eater style, wherein the shield is more central, it cocks forward and exposes my leg, which is how Ron got it in our first fight.

As I start moving around I start getting a little sloppy. It might be Radnor's old dictum that you should fight like you walk, but my feet start to come together. I loose that strong stance. He caught me with a really nice fake and that had a lot to do with it.

Our third fight I was moving more--right/left/in/out. He is actually taking that slot-shot to the shoulder, though it's hard to tell on the video. That's a shot I have been working on a lot.

I knew I was being more active than he was, but it really shows on video. I'm throwing four times the blows that he is. I thought I hit him with a stutter wrap, but I can't see the stutter, and I don't think I planned that shield press.

That fifth fight I was amazed at how wide my legs were when he hit me. I was SO out of position. I realized watching the video that I had moved to the left to change the angle on the slot shot I threw, and he triggered on that and killed me. Regardless, I need to be much more aware of my feet. I think the main reason I'm squaring up is because Ron squares up so much. It's something a lot of older fighters do, both to gain a bit of speed and power in that hammer blow, and also to help with balance.

The sixth fight I felt best about. I moved slightly left and adopted a weak side lead to take advantage of the fact that Ron had squared up and hit him with a nice hammer blow.

This was a good set of fights.

After that I fought Bran, a fighter using a medium size centergirp. This was a teaching moment for me, as he was holding it too close to his body.

Great practice!

It is 35 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be tomorrow at Grant's Tomb. 

Nutley and other things.

One problem with the way we train and practice is that there is no standard. For years the only two knights teaching in Ostgardr were me and Edward. Ed and I love each other, but we are opposites. Ed tells people that they should never do the things I teach. I'm a Bellatrix fighter. I generate power by moving my hips into a blow. Ed tells people that they should never move their hips, that if they work out their forearms with the exercises he gives them and use hilt heavy swords they can increase speed and ergo power. He and I can work with the same advanced fighters, but we cannot teach the same beginners, because we are telling them opposite things. This is very medieval. Training in the Middle Ages was not standardized in any way. There were no schools. As far as we can tell the fight masters of the 14th and 15th centuries gave people individual training as they needed it--usually when preparing for a formal duel (probably judicial). For the most part, the so-called masters had one or two tricks that they taught their students just to prepare them for one fight (see "the coup de Jarnac.") in the same way, Bellatrix, Gendy, Von Drachenklau, Baldar, Branos, etc all have different styles that they teach, and which are sometimes incompatible. It's not a bad thing. I like that variety: but it does sometimes make teaching hard. 

I had a bit of that at Nutley. 

WORKOUTS

Again I feel I slacked off thus week. I did push ups every day, ran 4 miles, took a yoga class, and fought at Nutley, but both Tuesday and Thursday I wanted to get out to an aerobics class and did not make it. 

TECHNIQUE

Sometimes, it's a good idea to limit yourself--to take something away. I was determined to fight in an A frame defense exclusively this week, but also to work strictly on blade work. My best kill shot is a thrust, and my current leg shot is off a fake thrust. By refusing to thrust I had to develop other things. I ended up throwing maybe three thrusts all night, and none against Gregor (and I think none against Brenan).  

FIGHTING

I only fought five opponents: Hartman, a young fighter from Bloodguard with a lot of speed and power; Jan Janovitch; Prince Brenan; Arn (the current champion of Rusted Woodlands and a guy who did much better than I at Mudthaw); and Duke Gregor. 

When I fight in the A frame, which is  a counter-punching, defensive style, my fights are long--one reason why I am so concerned with Aerobics. This was no exception. I had some long fights with Hartman. I was fighting well. The best thing I can say is that although young and in fair shape, he tired before I did. 

Against Jan I just had one really long fight. I kept fighting the urge to slip into a high closed form. Eventually I took his leg and killed him. 

I've killed Brenan the two times I fought him in tourneys recently, both times with a hook/thrust. This time their was no way I was going to throw that. I killed him a couple of times with wraps and once with a slit shot. He killed me at least three times as well. 

I had noticed watching Arn against Jan that he cocks his heater shield up, exposing his leg. This is a problem I had for years. I worked his leg and got it in almost every one of our fights. I even took it with Martin the Temperate's hider leg shot. I explained what I did and I know it won't be there next time (that kid is a spunge). 

I was going to stop but Gregor was suddenly available so I went one more set. That was great fun. Right off he took my arm, which I really though I'd had protected. He tried the whole time for my leg and didn't get it. I killed him twice, once with a slot. 

I was using a sword that was a bit heavy and was totally groomed by the end of the evening. I landed several shots over the course of the night that wrent good, buyi was very happy because my timing on them had been great. 

Now here's that thing: Brenan said to me "you fight much better when you are patient and counterpunch." Gregor said "you fight much better when you attack and press." Obviously that has a bit to do with their individual styles. Gregor can sit out at medium and long range and throw really fast shots that come in at weird angles and snipe you to death. He's a great offensive fighter, but like all offensive fighters (me) you can break his timing by attacking into his attack Brenan doesn't have that kind of offense. He is a patient, defensive fighter who either beats you on well timed counterpunches our waits for you to make a mistake. Essentially, they were both advising me to fight like they do.

I filed my letter of intent today. Used the new form. I lost my auth card (it might be ready to expire, I don't know), so I need to fix that ASAP. 

It is exactly six weeks till Crown. My next time in armor will be tomorrow at Iron Bog. 

Beau Geste, March 14

The Beau Geste tournament was this week, but I was sick most of the week. Also, during pickups, my shield had come apart (I just lost a bolt) and I had forgotten to fix it. This led to the inescapable conclusion that I needed to fight with my greatsword. It's far from my best form, but I've had some good success with it in the old old days. I felt great on thursday after having a cold early in the week, but that was an illusion. Exerting myself fighting on Thursday then only getting 5 hours of sleep that night and I felt really ill on Friday.

WORKOUTS
None. I did my pushups, but having a cold most of the week, I didn't do anything else--not even yoga on Monday (ever try to do an inversion with a head cold?). The cold mostly manifested itself in the form of a migraine headache, so I was really not too good for anything.

TECHNIQUE.
Lately, I've been trying to employ the Greatsword technique used by Duke Gregor, who is the top greatsword fighter in the East Kingdom. He fights a very simple but effective style, with his sword held with his top hand about shoulder or chin-high in front of him and using diagonal cuts, as can be seen in this champions battle against Duke Palymar from 2006:




It's n ot unlike Duke Rolf's bastard sword technique, which is the first thing I learned.

Much of my early training with two handed swords, beyond what I learned with Rolf, came from Duke Paul of Bellatrix. His techniques can be found here:

http://www.bellatrix.org/school/appendix_i/i02-stance.htm 


Lately, I've been trying to learn the techniques of Duke Marc d'Arundel, one of Paul's students and probably the best bastard sword fighter in the SCA right now. He has a very detailed manual describing his techniques here:

http://www.scabastardsword.com/.


Thursday night, I was trying to stay away from my opponents, use Marc's middle guard, try to step into a hanging parry, and cut to the off leg. That never worked, but I did take a couple of legs and won a few fights.


FIGHTING
I warmed up against Conrad and then Baldwin. I was running my ass off trying to keep them at range. It was working pretty well. I killed Conrad two out of three fights and Baldwin at least once. I was specifically not trying to close with them. I wanted to work on my outside game. I might have won one more fight if I'd closed and used some back-edge technique, a la Gui Avec Cheval.

There were six fighters in the Beau Geste: myself, Tycho, Zurr, Conrad, Baldwin, and Caithlin. Zurr and Tycho are both very good lefties.

I was challenged first round by Zurr, who killed me very quickly. I struck at him, he blocked, struck my sword, stepped in, and struck me in the body.

I next fought Tycho, whom I beat. I managed to keep him at range and block his attack till I took his leg. Then I struck at him, he missed me, his momentum carried him forward, and I hit him.

Baldwin killed me about as quickly as Zurr had. I struck at him once or twice, but he blocked and instead of countering with a cut threw a thrust that hit me in the throat.

Against Conrad I lasted a long time, but he took my leg and then killed me.

Caithil I beat kind of handilly. After a few exchanges I took her leg and then hit her in the head.

Zurr defeated Baldwin 2-0 in the finals. Vive la Beau Geste.

I'm still taking it easy this weekend. It is  49 days until Crown Tourney. My next time in armor will be this Wednesday at Nutley, and after that it will be next Sunday at Iron Bog.

MUDTHAW

I was sick for Mudthaw. I kind of realized the night before that I had a cold coming on. I kind of realized it all day when I couldn’t manage to wake up (I actually dozed off between first and second rounds—and I’m not *that* old!). I kind of realized it when I had so much trouble doing my push-ups that morning. But it didn’t really click until about half-way through court when, not only couldn’t I stay awake but I couldn’t breathe. After the lists (in which I fought pretty well but only went to fifth round) I was asking “what the hell happened?” It wasn’t’ until I was sitting at the Chinese buffet, scarfing down General Tso’s tofu and suddenly feeling a bit better that I realized how bad I’d felt all day. Oscad, who fought pickups with me afterward, said I wasn’t’ myself, that I didn’t have the normal flow to my offense that he’s used to. Breeder, who is one of the best around at breaking down people’s fighting, said I looked in my last fight like it was the end of Birka and I had been fighting for two hours straight. I was really down on myself after the tourney, because it was a pretty wide open Mudthaw (Omega and I were the only royal peers). When you are easily as good as the two guys in finals, you have to wonder why you aren’t one of them. However all my fights were good ones, all my fights were tough ones, and all my fights were fun. The two guys I lost to were guys who on my best day would be trouble, and the whole day was excellent, capped off by Luis de Castillo getting knighted—which is something I’ve wanted to see for years.

WORKOUTS

With Mudthaw coming up, I treated it like I would Crown. I fought on Sunday but not during the week. I did my pushups every day and two classes—Yoga on Monday and a wicked-hard step/core class on Wednesday (that included a really intense WOD with dumbbell squat-presses and row-pushups on the Tabata timer). I didn’t want to be injured or over-tired come Saturday.

TECHNIQUE

Here is the other problem: I said to myself I would not very from the A-frame defense and, for the most part, I didn’t—until my last fight, and that’s part of what got me killed.

FIGHTING

I warmed up with a couple of guys and felt really good but a bit slow. I was seeing openings and not getting to them, my second shot seemed to fall a bit behind in tempo.

My first fight I drew William Death, who is a really good pole-arm fighter. He is one of the East Kingdom fencing champions, and won the fencing tourney at Birka this year, so his point work is very good. I didn’t realize what he was doing to me till after the fight—he was thrusting at the back corner of my shield, disengaging, and then thrusting at my face. He almost got me twice with that. When I fight pole-arm fighters I don’t try to wrap and I rarely try to thrust—I wait till they commit, place my shield flat against their forward hand to control their pole, and then go for their legs. The second time I did this I missed and hit him in the body, winning the fight.

My second fight was against a righty who was taller than me and had very fast hands. I don’t recall how I won it.

My third fight was against one of those tall VDK guys. I fight them a lot and they are really trouble. This was my best fight of the day. I fought a very patient fight, kept to my A-frame defense, waited it out, and won. It is hard, because in that style of fight I don’t throw a lot of offense—which is what I’ve always been best at and enjoy the most. I have to wait things out. Eventually, after a very long time, I took his leg by changing my guard to the plow, faking a face thrust, and striking the leg. After that it didn’t take long. I noticed that he squared up on his knees, which with his kite opened his torso up. I switched to the plow again, waited for him to throw a shot, and stabbed him in the belly.

Then I fought Willem de Brock. He is a fast leftie with a Lucan-style kite and great feet. Since I’d been training with Zurr and Gui a lot, I felt pretty confident against fast lefties, but I could not crack his defense. Eventually he took my leg and then killed me.

My final fight was against Jan Janovitch. It was the second year in a row he’s taken me out of Mudthaw. I had realized recently that, although I am fighting my A-frame a lot, I do better against Jan when I’m using a more standard high-closed form. I started out in an A-frame, switched, and then switched back, which is probably how he got me. It was a straight shot down the middle to my faceplate during a flurry. I was clearly out of position in one way or another, which is likely due to my switching from one defense to another.

Afterward I fought pickups. A couple of people just toasted me! Oscad, in addition to thrusting me right in the cup and making me double over in agony, kicked the snot out of me. One of Tim Mayer’s sons (I don’t know which), whom I beat at Birka, just lit me up. He was so fast I couldn’t follow his attacks. He hit me in the off-side body three times (once right on the nipple—Ow!). I managed to kill him twice, once with a hook-thrust, but otherwise I had nothing for him. In the rest of them I dominated.

I swear— even though I only fought about 20 or 25 fights, including warm ups and pickups, I felt more beaten up and abused at the end of Mudthaw than I did at the end of Birka.

It is 54 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Thursday at the Beau Gest tournament out in Wantaugh, Long Island (unless I push myself out to Nutley on Wednesday). 

St Patrick's Day, 2014

As is often the case, I meant to post this earlier. I came up with the idea that Saturday Night was the best time to post to this blog, but I forgot an important principle: nobody wants to be sitting at a keyboard on a Saturday night.

 

Once again I am reeling sloppy. I fought at Nutley on Wednesday and at Acheron on Sunday, but, especially at Acheron, I felt all over the place.

 

WORKOUTS

I did twelve workouts last week, but I was slacking off. Seven of them were just 10 minutes doing 50 pushups a day. Mileage was terrible—just a 2.4 mile walk. However, that was with my armor in a back pack and carrying a shield, so it’s good practice for Pennsic. I also did a yoga class and the two fighter practices, but that was it. I need to log some more miles (and the temperature needs to stay above freezing!)

 

TECHNIQUE

At Nutley I had a simple plan: I would fight six fights with everyone I faced. Two of them would be with an A-Frame defense, two of them would be goofy foot with a high-closed form, and two of them would be strong (shield foot lead) high closed form. I would also get in a pole ax set. When I did, I worked mostly a thumbs opposed technique employing a swim move, which I learned from David Civet. It’s inspired by le Jeu de la Hache, but instead of breaking down specific techniques it relies on some basic principles: use the que to attack, push the opposing ax aside by swimming yours (like a breast stroke), control the opposing ax by catching it between your hands. Acheron was mostly a teaching practice for me. The only technique I worked on was a high closed defense. I also fought a few fights with an 18” center grip round, because I wanted some fun time.

 

FIGHTING

AT Nutley I fought four fighters: Jan Janovitch, and unbelted fighter named Demitrius, and two more unbelted fighters whose names I’ve forgotten (and I beg their apologies). All of them were right handed sword and shield fighters. My plan worked well, and even against Jan I won more fights than I lost. I found that I was effective out of all three styles. So long as I’m ready to void the right leg, the weak high closed form (goofy foot) is probably the safest, but that always has the least offense. I didn’t slip into Bellatrix at all this time. Against Jan I’m still convinced that high closed form is the best. I just need to remember how he hunts arms. I was able to read and pick apart everyone’s fight. Against Jan with Pole  Axes I had fun. He had the matched rubber headed axes, which sometimes don’t hit hard enough. I found that the thumbs opposed style was very good against him.

 

At Acheron I fought Ervald, Zack, Andrew and Samale, the usual four. Gui and I didn’t cross swords at all. This was where I was getting sloppy. Part of this was because it was training mode—I was intentionally sloppy in a couple of fights, presenting openings to see if they got hit, but then when I didn’t intend to be so I was still being sloppy. I did manage to get Ervald with a floating thrust from the hip, one of my favorite things to kill with, and nailed Samale with a hook thrust. Best part of the practice was fighting Sam and Zack using the 18” center grip. I lost more fights but had a lot of fun.

 

I was also more sore after that practice than I’ve been since Birka. I’m not sure why. Regardless, I’m taking a rest. The next time I’ll be in armor is Saturday at Mudthaw. There are sixty-one days until Crown.

Helmet time

It's all about helmet time, but I'm worried that helmet time is making me sloppy. I am doing a lot of training, which is good. I'm teaching others, which is also good. But I'm getting sloppy. The only knight I've fought since Birka has been Gui, who doesn't fight like anybody else. The rest of the time I am getting kind of goofy. My tendency to be a chameleon--the reason Jade says I'm not yet a duke--is once again making an appearance and getting in my way. 

WORKOUTS

I had eleven workouts last week. I did  a nice little 13 mile bike ride, I fought, I did 350 push ups. I took a yoga class. It was a good week. My weight is still 10 pounds heavier than I want it to be, but it's Lent, and my calorie count always goes up when I turn vegan for 40 days (why do I observe Lent? Because I'm a knight, silly). 

TECHNIQUE

At MSR practice on Thursday my main goal was to fight everyone who was in armor. My secondary goal was to try some off side leg shots. I did, and several of them worked. I also fought at Acheron on Sunday, which isn't really last week, but this blog is late. 

FIGHTING

At MSR practice there were five other people in armor: Caitlin, Servit, Baldwin, Bob, and Geofry the Younger. I had a good time, but this was where I was getting sloppy. I've been sticking to my A frame for a long time, but it was boring me and I started breaking out a more aggressive offense--the type of fighting I'm more comfortable with and have the most fun with. I fought a bit more old-school Bellatrix style, a high open form. It meant I presented a few more targets and lost a few more fights. My best exchanges were with Geofry. He has one of the most interesting thrusting games around. He takes a cue from the Talhoffer guys he knows and keeps his point on line no matter where he sets up. He has this stance with his hand way out to the right but his tip on target that nobody else uses, and it find it very effective.  

I also fought Sunday at Acheron. This was mostly a teaching practice. There were five of us in armor: me, Gui, Andrew, Zack, and Samale. I fought all of them. I found everything was working well, but this is where I was starting to get a bit outside myself. I fought a lot of different wards: high open form, goofy foot, A frame, my sword in plow. (Sword hand at hip level tip pointed toward the face). Most disconcerting at one point, after attacking Andrew with a really aggressive attack and losing,I tightened up and went on defense, but instead of using an A frame I went to a more standard high-closed form, standing as tall as I could and sword blocking everything coming to my head. It felt totally comfortable and he could not touch me, and my counters worked. I got him with some good shots, ncluding the offside leg fake/off side head blow and a butterfly. Trouble is, I'm supposed to be working on my A frame, not channeling Brion Taragon--even if that style does feel more natural. 

As I said, this was a teaching practice. Much of what we did was watch the three unbelted fighters fight, stop them critique them, correct their problems, then drill them in the corrections. Then Gui or I would fight them to see how they attacked. This was very productive. One problem with our fighting is how much everybody loves to fight. Nodoby wants to do drills at practice because helmet time is so valuable and the reason we put the helmet on is because we love fighting so much. But fighting is not the same thing as training. The two martial arts traditions that we employ have standard teaching methods. The Asian tradition uses repetition of unarmored drills, such as Kata, to ingrain techniques into muscle memory. This is often done in a class. It is how Belkatrix teaches. The other method is one-on-one instruction concentrating on situations and how to react to them with various techniques. The teacher launches an attack and teaches the student a counter. This is the European tradition. It is how Sagan teaches. Most of us do a little bit of the second and almost none of the first. Mostly we fight. But when you get good is not at practice. When you get good is the days in between practice, when you do pell work or mirror work or footwork drills. But most of us just want to fight. I tried to explain this to Andrew on Sunday. I hope he got it. 

It is 67 days until Crown Tourney. My next time in armor will be Wednesday at Nutley. 

MSR Practice on 2/27/14

What kind of goal do you set for yourself at fighter practice? Do you have a plan? I asked that of everyone I fought Thursday night. Most of them could not tell me. One person said "to press you and bring the fight to you." That person has a future. The others had nothing definite. One person said "I never plan my fights out, I just react," but that is not what I'm talking about.

I used to carefully plan my attacks. Following the traditions of Radnor and Paul, I would work on certain techniques and plan to use those in my fights: a wavy rising snap, a butterfly, a seven-blow combination. I never would have won crown if I didn't have a deliberate plan on how to deal with Alfred of Carlysle. Now a days I try not to plan my fights out. When dealing with defensive as opposed to offensive fighters, fancy offense doesn't do much either than get you killed. I throw just a few shots and pull out whatever technique seems like a good idea at the time. I don't plan most fights out--except with lefties.

But I still set goals for practice--techniques I want to use, limits on what I can do, wins versus losses (not a good one for practice), things I should try. If you don't do that you never advance in our game.

WORKOUTS
Last week was a good one. Counting push ups (50 every day) I did 14 workouts. A couple of those were doubles on the same day, and it includes fighter practice, but I'm happy because it also includes a nice 4 mile run, a really tough aerobics class, and some wicked lifting with the Tabata timer. Now I have to have a better plan for recovery!

TECHNIQUES
I put a lot of limitations on myself for this week's practice. This is partially because I was the only knight, so much of what I would be doing would be training but I still wanted to accomplish some stuff for myself, but also because drilling and focusing is good practice. My goals were to concentrate on my A Frame defense and just a few attacks-- a head/body combo (the figure 8 kind, where you pull your shot through and then back hand the body, not the pseudo butterfly, where you throw a looping shot from above into the arm pit), and thrusts off of cuts--snap, off side head, and wrap. As these things go, I did end up throwing a few leg shots as well, and I didn't always follow through with the thrusts because I was killing people with my straight snaps a lot, and with a few wraps as well. The goal was to tighten up my defense, counter punch, and work on a very simple and limited offense.

FIGHTING
There were four other fighters at practice: Servit, Conrad, Kaithlin, and Zach. Against the first three I had good timing shots working. I would kill them with straight snaps as they started their attacks, or perhaps with wraps. Kaithlin has a strong defense but no offense. She has a coffin lid shield, so once I got the angle down I was hitting her as soon as she moved. I explained the technique to her and gave her some defenses to use against it. Servit was not moving his body through his shot at all, and had his long shield strapped so that it exposed his leg too much when he tried to close it to block body shots,  We did pell work with him to fix that. Conrad still has a very tight defense. His one real technique is very silver like. With his short heavy sword, he tries to cut your arm whenever you throw a wrap. the key is, don't throw wraps.  Zach, of course, required me to throw all my plans out the window because he's fast and left handed. I just tried counter punching with him out of several different defenses. I won about half of our fights.

It is 77 days until Crown Tourney. My next time in armor will be Nutley on Wednesday (unless I can make the Monday practice in Haslet).