Ducal Challenge and Roses

I've had a lot of good fighting recently, but I feel I've taken a step back. I'm not as crisp as I've felt recently. My endurance is ok, but I feel a bit sluggish.

Ducal Challenge was wonderful, mostly because Hanse flew out from the West to fight. He won, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was he was in my pool. I double killed with him, a really nice face thrust after taking his leg, but he got me with a nasty shot to my left nipple at the same time (ouch!). Later I fought him some pickups and killed him at least twice, both times with thrusts (the best was with the foot-stomp thrust I used in Crown). In my pool I won all my fights but Ionis and Hanse. That included beating Ryo. I lost knock out rounds to Lou and Douglas. Not bad, but not as good as I should have done.

Hanse also got me clobbered at Roses. I LOVE the Roses tourney. Teams of 5 match up. You fight three fights against one opponent (unless your team is short, in which case you can fight extras), then record them. Points are given for wins, losses, and double kills. By my count I fought 21 fights total. I lost two and won one against the prince, with bucklers. I was even--win, loss, double kill--with Kettle (this was when I got clobbered. I set up in Hanse's high/weak/open guard and Kettle counterpunched me hard, when I was wide open). I beat Sir Willem 2-1, which is pretty good, as he is a really tough lefty with a big kite shield. I also beat Baron Joseph, Euric, Durkin, and... and.... never got that last guys name. My off side body shot was really on. I got a killer ass bruise.

It's 44 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Sunday in Iron Bog.

Bonus: me fighting Bill at practice:

Rusted Woodlands Tourney

Last night was a small tournament in Rusted Woodlands. I went to the finals and lost to Quintus. It was a good night. I've also been to a couple of Brooklyn practices since Pennsic. I'm trying to increase my helmet time.

TECHNIQUE
I finished my new shield for Pennsic (though it's only painted black), and I've been using that. It's an inch shorter, but still hung with a lot of shield above my hand. I am losing my leg a bit more than I was with the old shield. However, I'm moving it much better, and I've been winning a lot with it.

I've been trying to use primarily a Bellatrix overhead return and counter hip technique. I've been working on improving my teardrop return as well. My speed is pretty good as a result, but I'm a bit wild on my defense.

I used my heavy sword a lot last night. Oddly, unlike at Crown, I had trouble getting a couple of people to take shots, whereas with my light sword it was no problem. That's opposite.

I also, on Paul's suggestion, used boxing wraps on my hands and wrists. This was designed to help strengthen my wrist and lock them into place (Paul uses a locked wrist, something I've always struggled with). This cost me about 30% of my usual offense.

FIGHTING
If you are on facebook, the tournament was live streamed by Mabel Fortune. (There's more than one video, so look around on her page). I fought eight fights last night. Tanaka dropped out before I got to him. I lost my first round fight to Lou (go figure, Lou and I would meet in the first round), but won all the rest of my round robin fights, including against Sir Eric Hundeman, the only other knight I fought. My toughest fight, not unsurprisingly, was against my squire Padraig. It got down to me, Lou, and Quintus, each with one loss (to one of the others--I beat Quintus, he beat Lou, Lou beat me). Lou and Qunitus fought, and Quintus won, but then Lou dropped out, leaving me and Quintus to fight the finals. Instead of a single fight, or two of three sword and shield mess, I suggested we mix it up. He chose greatsword. That's the only fight I'm disapointed in. He cought me thiking--a big transition window as I as changing my stance. Stabbed me right in the face. My choice was second, so I chose daggers, since we might not have gotten to it. I beat him in a great dagger fight. Last we used the big honking mauls, and he clobbered me. I mean Bam-Bam style. It was a really fun night, but boy do I have a long way to go!

My best takeaway was that, of the four knights in the list, I was the only one who didn't drop out (it was SO FREAKING HOT in there. I drank a Gallon of water. No, really: Padraig brought me an unopened gallon jug, and I finished it between my first fight and my last). My endurance is better than I thought.

There are 64 days until Crown. I've booked my flights. My next time in armor will likely be Sunday in Iron Bog.

Leaving Pennsic

Apparently, it’s not as easy to blog about the war as I thought.

I’m leaving Pennsic. We are on the PA turnpike heading toward Jersey. Some of our gear is wet. We are tired. Very tired. I wanted to blog the war every day, but Pennsic got in the way. It was a long war, but I still didn’t spend enough time with my friends who were there. Some I barely saw, some not at all. The only time I got to the bog I was working security, but I did make it to Bardici twice. 

I ate poorly. 

I drank beer. 

I spent time with King Agrippa and his king consort Davyd, who is funny and nice and one of the greatest clothes horses I’ve met. 

There was a blowup in Trimaris. Eilis said it was always the “A” kingdom’s that caused trouble—Ansteora, An Tir, A-Traris. Their king is an obnoxious troll. Before it all went down, I commented to someone that I thought he was trying to get R&D’d. This—elevating a known racist to a peerage order in a secret court over the objections of the entire order—managed to troll about two thirds of the SCA, of which I am sure he is proud. #istandwitdavius means I object to what the king has done. It will all be hashed out over the next few months. Expect fallout. Nuff said. 

FIGHTING

Saturday was Aedult Swim. The heat index was over 100. The small amount of fighting the day before has exhausted me. I fought ten fighters, including four knights: Sir Luis from the Middle, Duke Garrick Von Kopke, Ajax and Geoffrey Scott. I took 2 of 3 from Ajax and went even with Luis and Geoffrey. I was dead afterward. 

Sunday I was an alternate for the Belted Champions team but did not get in. Due to the heat there were almost no pickups. I got two sets in. 

Monday was my favorite battle, the open field. I took my six foot pole ax. The official count had us outnumbered by 300. We took two of five. Later that day was Gui’s William Marshal tournament. I took four ransoms, including ten Robert Macphearson sovereigns, worth a buck apiece at his booth. I got into good fights with Bryce and Donegal. In the last fight, I used my poleax again and slew mightily. 

Tuesday was the woods fight. I fought spear and ditched both my breastplate and surcotte. I got some wicked bruises, got to comand a bit, and did not collapse. 

Wednesday was the best day. It wasn’t quite as hot. I was on the field from 10:30 to five, with some time out to help Paul teach a class. I was fighting really well. I fought a lot more fights than I had on Saturday. I bested a lot of guys, including a couple of Dukes. Only one fighter, a count from Drachenwald, had taken more than me (3 of 5). Then I sought out humility. I wasn’t going to fight Rangvaldr. I was tired. Then I thought to myself “why would I duck Ramgvaldr?” I knew what he would do and how he would do it, but it was interesting being on the receiving end. I’d been working on his center mass boxing style a bit that day. Watching him do it was impressive. 

Thursday was the Bridge, and all I fought was spear. We faced the tuchux. It was a brawl. 

I didn’t fight on Friday. 

Last Pennsic I added 50 squats to my daily routine of 50 push-ups and 100 pell strikes. It has definitely helped. 

It’s 84 days until Crown. My next time in armor will be Tuesday at McCxarren Park. 

Pennsic chronicles 8/4

So I making an effort beginning with Pennsic to go back to writing this blog. But it’s easy to blog about the war.

Friday at peace week. Time to get inspected. Some marshals failed my sword because, and I’m not kidding, it was perfect. It fit exactly with an air marshal engage and they said, “can’t use this one. Put a single layer of duct tape along each side and it will pass. By the way, the gauge he was using was not designed to be a negative gauge, meaning that it was supposed to fit perfectly. Actually, I just acquiesced and smiled.

There was almost nobody out there. I was shocked to see how few people were fighting pick ups on Friday. Not only that, but against my very first opponent, a Roman name Valerian, my new shield broke. The palm strap snapped. So I got in one set of sword and shield fights. I thought a night, I don’t know his name, using my sword and Buckler. My booklet is really heavy. It’s made of marine grade plywood with channel edging and heater hose. It doesn’t move very fast, and I’m behind on my blocks a lot, but you cannot blow through it. When you hit it it stops your sword. He was kind of shocked that I killed him as many times as I did. I thought a fairly new fighter named off using my broadsword and short sword combination. I find that when I’m finding weapons form that I don’t use very often, it’s difficult for me to hold back against a new fighter. I’m working I’m just making my form work and I’m kind of extra focused on my blocks. The result was that I beat them a lot, and was unable to do a lot of training until we got off the field and I could tell him what I thought he was doing. Keeping with this use all the stuff you brought to the field theme, I went out pull her next. And the guy who came out towards me was in a perfect Norman kit with a short pole arm and he was taller than me and he had a white belt on and I knew just from the way he walked he was good.  I said out loud to myself “this will be humbling.”  Turns out he was duke Edward of the red, a pole arm God from up in Canada. Oh my God! Was he good. My polar and has an ex head on it. It’s a bit heavy and a bit slow. He was just whipping all around minute. I acquitted myself fairly well. I had a lot of good blocks, and I made him work, but I only came close with one thrust that died before it got to him. I even saw a thing that he was doing, blocking the outside of my pulled in countering with a headshot, but I kept giving it to him anyway. I thought oh this will beat it. Ha ha ha. He’s the tall guy in mail in the background. The skinny one with the coif. Who looks like trouble.

Saturday is Aedult Swim. 

EK50, plus some other stuff

EK50 was amazingly hot, but I loved it. My favorite events of all time were SCA 20 year and SCA 30 year. I was extremely sorry I missed SCA and WK 50 years. I wasn't going to miss this one.

To me, these anniversary events are really magical. They are relaxed, but full of importance at the same time. They mix SCA history (which I love more than I love medieval history) with SCA now. THey celebrate us for no other reason than what we do is so much fun. And we get to pretend, for a minute or two, that the game really matters. I mean, in the great scheme of things, who cares about the history of the King's and Queens of the East? At an event like EK50, more than anywhere else, we get to care.

My favorite part was getting the herald for Ken Mondschein in the joust. It was excellent, but it was so hot that they had to end it early. I'd worked competitive jousts before, back in the old days at Ren Faire, using balsa-tipped lances. I always thought the SCA foam-tipped lances were a dorky idea by comparison: but watching them side by side, I have to admit that the foam lances are cool, because they EXPLODE when broken.

Oh: fighting.

I did ok. Not great, but ok. We started the grand tournament with 4 double elimination lists. I went into the losers list courtesy or Arne (although we had a great fight) and it got down to four of us for three spots--me, Arne, Horic, and I don't know who else. I lost to Horic, but won the third spot by beating that fourth guy. I was again using my light sword, and my double strike technique landed on Arne but I couldn't kill him. I hit Horic too, but same thing. That's the problem with light shaved rattan swords. For my third fight, I grabbed my crown sword. I through an Upsilon leg shot, and then threw a hard shot that I think caught some shield but was good anyway.

I the pulled an Aethelmarc knight named Flossen.  He was really tough. He ducked a lot. I took his leg killed him. Then I drew Duke Tindel, who took of both my arms. My last fight was against Ricahrd Crow. I took out my polearm, and we had a good fight but he creamed me. Did I mention the heat index of 110 degrees? Can you say "Hydrate?" I got the shakes pretty bad once the adrenalin went away. Had a headache till the sun went down. Pounded water, but that didn't matter much.

Went to the shop and did my Pre-pensic armor overhaul. FINALLY cut down my Bauzebauds. Now they fit. Fixed the broken straps too. Hung my new shield, Altered my C belt so it will hold up my current leg armor. Ready to go.

Last night I went to practice, still using my old shield. I got one fight in, then a loose zip-tie poked me in the eye and I decided that, in memory of Merlin, I was quitting for the night.

It's 17 days until Pennsic. My next time in armor will be next Tuesday at McCarren Park.

Quest!

So, I won a tournament yesterday, and that was kind of awesome.

Training:

I’m still in my post crown well, and have not kicked it up again. Just push-ups, tell work, squats, and walking every day. 

Fighting:

Quest was a nice little tournament. It was a counted blows at the barrier tournament, which is always a lot of fun. We started out by just issuing challenges at the barrier. I pulled a totally medieval Chivalry move, and challenged the person holding the field to give and receive a single blow without attempting to block it. I let him go first, and he just reached out and tapped me on the shoulder. So I just reached out and tapped him on the head. I was totally prepared to light him up, but he was nice. That sort of thing is a test of courage. You read about things like that all the time in the chronicles.

I had a few good single sword at the barrier fights. Then we got underway.

The tournament was counted blows at the barrier. You had to defeat someone best two rounds of three, but each round was to three good blows struck. It was a single elimination format and it was an even tree with only eight fighters, but four of us were knights. I got to fight two knights, and an OTC, so my day was pretty intense.

My first fight was against Gavin. We chose to go out  with swords and bucklers at the barrier. This was an awesome flight. I noticed that he was creating a slot. He was fighting in a high closed form, sort of an East Kingdom a frame, but with the buckler. I do this a lot too. It’s my favorite way to fight with sorting buckler. But he was holding his buckler a little low and every time he moved his sword to throw blow it would open a really big slot for a straight snap. I threw a few other things, but mostly I waited on this and got him with it. I also hit him with one of those dropping leg wraps to the back of the leg. That really shocked him. 

Next I had a polearm fight against Manfred. This was just a lot of work and very exhausting. It took us forever. I’m pretty sure I beat him 3-2 then 3-1, or something like that. Most of my pole arm technique won’t work at the barrier, so I was basically just doing downward diagonal strikes to the quarters. And maybe a straight snap or two to the head.  I’m very very very proud of that fight.

Finals was me versus Tanaka, so you knew two things. First it was going to be a show. Second, it was going to be knocked down drag out fun. He gave me first choice, so I chose single swords. He moves so well, and has such a tight defense, that it was really really tough to break him down. We traded a couple of taps, and then for the last blow, and I am really proud of this, I threw into his sword and then as he countered I jumped into his shot, crashed the barrier and threw a wrap. It caught him off guard and won the fight. When it was his choice, he said “we are going to do a real hard-core New Jersey beat down.” This meant  maces with left hands clutching the barrier. I blocked his first shot and then saw a beautiful slot open right on his chin. I just started punching him in the face with the head of my mace. One, two, three. 

There are 61 days until Pennsic. My next time in armor will be Tuesday at McCarren Park.

Please visit our sponsor, duct tape: 

Crown Tourney #98

I'm getting close to that 100th Crown. 

 To those of you who read this blog a lot, I'm sorry I haven't been writing in it much. At first it was because I was not fighting as much, taking time off to play Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. After that it was because I did not feel like writing about my training. 

I trained for this crown in much the same way I had the last two. My daily routine includes walking between 8,000 and 12,000 steps most days (my fit bit broke. I use my phone to track steps, which under counts), plus 100 strikes on the pell, 50 push ups and 50 squats. Since I added the pell work last august, I have not missed a day. Once again, I added running to my routine as Crown approached. I ran five times a week in the 6 weeks approaching Crown, except the last one. I did not fight nearly as much as I would like (I never do), but I made practices at Nutley, Iron Bog, Midland Vale and Aedult Swim, plus events in Tourney of the Daffodils, Mudthaw, and Balfar's Challenge. I went to semis in Mudthaw and I won Daffodils, so I was doing ok. 

 Crown was in Halifax. Every time I've gone to a crown in Halifax, I've had a good time. It's a fantastic city! I highly recommend it. We stayed at the Hearthstone Inn in Hamilton, which was nice, with a Victorian theme and a good pub. 

 This Crown was great, but I really need to win another of these things. Randal, who's 5 years older than I am, was only one blow away from winning, which is encouraging. I ended up fighting nearly everyone I prepared for: Avaldr, Marcus, Zippy, and Wilhelm. I also fought Mathew McGuyver, Reinhardt, and one other (I cannot remember the name of my second round opponent). There were 22 participants in total. The list was double elimination and rounds were being fought best two out of three. This included the semi-final round, which meant that the fighter out of the winner's list could win fighting only two fights, but the fighter out of the losers list had to win four, and could end up fighting six fights. Yikes! 

I thought the format would be hard on me. Most of my rounds went three fights but my endurance was good enough that I really never felt that tired, and certainly no more so than my opponents. Well, maybe I did against Reinhardt. I lost to Avaldr in the third round, and to Prince Wilhelm in the semi-finals. The format actually helped me out, since I lost my first fight twice while going on to win the round. I was particularly proud of three things. The first was my one win over Avaldr, even though he won the round. He'd beaten me in our first fight, but I killed him with a hook-thrust in the second. Next was my third fight against Reinhardt. He is really good. He fights with a fairly small center grip scutum, and he blocks his legs with a window parry. I killed him with a foot stomp and thrust. I didn't sell it really big. I shrugged my right shoulder, took a half step, stomped my foot and dipped my shoulder, then thrust him in the face. Third was my final fight against Marcus. I had been working on King Brennan's off-side leg shot a lot lately. I threw it at Marcus in our second fight and noticed he picked it up early and cocked the point of his kite over to cover his off-side leg, so in our third fight I faked it by throwing the setup (a cock that resembles a snap to draw the shield up and to the on-side) took a slight step off line to my left, then stepped back to my right and threw a leg wrap. 

All my fights were excellent. I had really hard rounds the further I progressed. I never lost my focus. I did not kill myself by getting lazy or silly or playing with my food. I Went to semi finals and lost two straight to Wilhelm. Those were both great fights, a lot of fun. I had been beating Wilhelm in most of our encounters the past three years, and it was interesting to see what he'd done to respond. First, he's lost about 50 pounds. Second, he seemed much more focused and precise. When I tried the set up for the leg stomp it was obvious he was ready, so I never threw it. He got me with a straight body shot in our first fight. After he'd taken my leg in our second fight, I threw the same thing I'd killed him with at Roses in November, coming up high on my knees and then, as he stepped in, sitting down and throwing a body shot--an old William of Houghton technique. He obviously remembered it, because he this time as he stepped in and I threw the shot, he brought his sword forward in a guard to block mine, then he killed me the way I would have, with a top-edge hook and a snap. 

 If you are on FaceBook, you can see the semi-finals HERE. 

So here was the funniest thing coming out of crown. At Balfar's Challenge two weeks before I had spent a lot of time watching Zippy and Avaldr, as they were obviously training very hard. They were the last two knights to leave the field from pickups. I left after somebody hit me in the calf and I decided not pushing the injury was smart. I was fighting with my Crusader pot helm because Cet was doing a repair to my conical. My pot helm is heavy, not very comfortable, is super tall, and has lousy visibility, so I only get so much out of using it (mostly aesthetic pride). Avaldr was using a center grip kite, the first time I'd ever seen him use one. It closed off his biggest window, but was obviously a bit easier to move around. At Crown, Avaldr was back to using his regular strapped kite. Afterward I ran into him and Nomi leaving, and they were carrying his center grip kite shield. I said to him "I spent the last two weeks preparing to fight your center grip because I saw you training with it at Balfar's." He said, "Yeah, that's why I was using it. I figured you were doing the same thing with your other helm." I replied, "I wasn't, but thank's for the compliment!" It's really funny to know that we were indeed scouting each other. 

There are 72 days until Pennsic War. My next time in armor will be Sunday at Viking Day in Brooklyn. 

MONETIZATION 

In an effort to monetize this blog, I'm including this link to a riveted mail shirt:

(click here)