Pennsic 46 - Rapier Champions

This year was first time fighting on the singles team for Rapier Champs. In the past I've fought on the melee team several times, but that's infinitely different for my brain space. The entire experience was a great one, and I am honored to have been chosen to represent the East and the Rapier Community.

Picture by Cecily O'Donell

I was paired with Master Davius of Trimaris, previously of the East. I knew that he was left handed, tended to use case, and of course, is a skilled fighter. We happened to fight the day before, not yet knowing that we would be paired up. I think this was somewhat helpful for me - it allowed me to remember some of his go-to moves, for example. But I think it may have been more helpful for him. My entire fighting style has changed in the last couple years since we fought, whereas he has stayed in the same general vicinity of his. If he had come up against me without more recent knowledge, I may have managed to surprise him.

But of course, that's just speculation, and we'll never really know.

I fought warm ups specifically against Master Antonio, who was kind enough to make sure he was there to be a left handed warm up for me. I felt very good after those warm ups. But then I had to wait. And wait. Going last is hard. Duke Kenric offered to renew the warm ups partway through the boughts, but I felt rude to be fencing off to the side so I declined. (I wonder if there's a better way for people late in the list to stay warm? It's not rude if everyone agrees to a fighting area a bit away beforehand.)
I did spend most of the intervening time ignoring the other fights and doing forms off to the side to keep my body warm and my brain focused. This part worked quite well.

Davius was even more aggressive than I expected. This was smart of him - it did catch me off guard at the very beginning. I've heard it said that he doesn't like to fight the same person the same way twice, and this showed. Once it was apparent what his plan was, From then on I was kiting him, because I didn't want him to be the one who decided when we clashed. We had a few such clashes with no touches landed.

In the end it was a move that I associate strongly with him that finally got me - a cut to the calf. Even once I was on the ground, I did have a buckler, and so it was a near thing.

I need to get better about moving between upright and bent over stances, as well as moving from circling to attacking, smoothly. I knew this, but it was particularly clear during this fight. Had I felt more comfortable with those transitions than I could have caught him from an angle, or moved into the Fabris stance that he has less familiarity with without pausing my movement and giving him a tempo against me.

Also, no matter how much I know that I need to be aggressive, when the fight matters I always end up more cautious, especially if I can't enter the fight already amped up. I think if I can move into aggression more smoothly - primarily using the transitions I noted above - that that will help.

On a more general note....
There were some interesting observations that are sparking the beginnings of a post in my head. Many people, including Davius, were certain the Davius was in complete control of the fight. I felt as though I was kiting him - and thus, despite his aggression, that was not always true. I do think that when viewing the fight, it's easy to assume that the aggressive person is in control. But I also wonder if we have some internalized biases affecting us - that the larger person, or the male person, is assumed to be in control. I've spoken to a few people, and the women were much more likely to be told that they need to control the fight better. Anecdote doesn't mean data, but I'm interested in pursuing this further.

King's and Queen's Rapier Champs

Lupold, Caine, Remy, and Malocchio receive words from their Majesties before the Final Four

I am not going to have as many words as several of my friends do, but I think it's important for me to have some.

Remy and Thomas in the final 8. 

I went into this tournament with a lot of good feelings. I haven't been posting about practices, but I've been fighting well at them, and making a lot of good progress. I was optimistic that, for once, my brain would match my skill and I wouldn't think myself out of the tournament.
And it turns out, my optimism was correct!

Lupold and Remy in the final 4, in the longest legged battle.

Mind you, I also worked for that brain. I warmed up in a real way, not just some practice bouts. I ran around the parking lot a bit, did eastern martial arts forms (which will get my blood moving and calm my mind), stretched a lot, and made sure to keep all of that up right until the very last moment. And then once the pools started, I tried to never stop moving. I resisted the urge to watch my brother or my cadet, who were both in neighboring pools. I had a sort of soft focus going on, and managed to have adrenaline, but (mostly) not get the shaky come down parts it.
I ended up winning 7 of 11 matches in my pool, and none of the losses were easy ones. I felt like the others in my pool were worried about me as an opponent. And more importantly, I felt like they should be.
I learned a variety of things from my losses, and will work all of that into my game. And although I was not able to get out of my pool, I was very happy with my performance.

And that was just the beginning of an astoundingly good day. The sweet sixteen was filled with people I care about, all doing wonderful things with swords, all being great people. I watched my brother, Malocchio, climb the ranks, alongside two good friends. I watched them ferociously fight each other, and love every second of it.

Malocchio and Lupold were in the finals together, and I couldn't help thinking about the years it took to get to this place, and watching the newer generation really come into its own. And Lupold won. And then, Malocchio was chosen as Queen's Champion. I'm told, with enthusiasm.

Malocchio and Remy fight in the final 8

And all throughout watching Malocchio win fight after fight I knew that he was going to be receiving a writ for the Order of Defense at the end of the day. And he definitely showed how much he deserved that.

In addition to all the expected tournament and court related goodness, I watched several moving ceremonies in which fencers I respect took on dependents. I'm certain that all of those pairings are going to go great places, and I can't wait to see what those places are.

Lupold defeats Caine in the final 8

I'm already looking forward to next year. Thanks to the rapier community for being awesome.

Fencing Catchup

I went down to the Southern Region Fencing Practice and much melee was had, as well as a qualifying tournament for champs.

In the tournament I was out in three, but my two losses were the first and second placers. I fought Antonio first, and didn't get as warmed up as I might have wanted to. I was using buckler, which may or may not have been a good choice. He got me under my right arm, which as we'll see is a pattern that I need to work on.
We fought again later (I kept buckler, because I wanted to experiment some) and things went ok.
I did other pickups that were also a lot of fun.
Melee was mostly me, Sorcha, and Urraka working together on the far edge. We did a couple of really good things, and a couple of times where we pushed too hard or not enough.

All in all, it was a great time and even though it was very far away, I'm glad we made the trip. Thanks for hosting, Southern Region!

I had a good practice the next Monday. I fought case with a dagger, which I usually try to avoid, and I actually did quite well. I always knew that buckler vs case was a crutch, I just wasn't too worried about getting rid of it. But I won't argue if I've managed to by accident.

Then Roses happened. I showed up very briefly (it was a busy weekend!) but I got to fight in the champs qualifier again, as well as the melee tryouts. This time I fought four fights before I was out, but both of my losses were again under my right arm - and only one of those was a lefty. I again fought the first and second place finishers. This time while I lost to the first place, I won against the second, and I am very excited about that. I had surprise on my side, but I made use of it.

Melees this time we were split up based on our units, so I was with Urraka and Katsu (for the event was very Handsome Boy light, and out Southern folks are going to fight with the South this year). The teams seemed pretty evenly matched - we would go back and forth on who won. We started near an end, and the other side steamrolled everyone during the first fight. They were extremely aggressive and we weren't remotely ready for it. After that we were in the middle, and had to make choices about whether to push or not. There was one time we should have pushed but instead did the stop and fence thing that is always awful, but we fixed that in future times. All in all, I was quite happy with how things went.

One thing that I noticed between the two tournaments was that my between fights time was very different. At the regional practice I tried to be all calm and not be distracted by anyone around me - which was helped by the fact that most of the people who might distract me were running the tournament. And by the third fight I was shaky and having adrenaline problems. At Roses there were a whole bunch of people that I was talking to and we would communally rest between the bouts. And even though it was ridiculously hot out, I didn't end up shaky or anything. Although I was definitely tired by the fourth fight.
I'm not entirely certain there's a causal relationship here. I also had much longer fights at the regional. But it's something I want to keep an eye on.

Yule and Practice Report

Bergental/BBM Yule happened! I went there instead of to the Northern Academy of Rapier because there were awards happening I wanted to be there to see.
It was a small group, but the average fencing level was quite high. My cadet, Liaden, was the MiC and ran two tournaments. The first one was the first rapier champion tournament that Bergental has had in years. She has been working on getting the position back since she joined us in fencing, and it was very good to watch. And congratulations to Urraka for being the champion!
The second tournament was a simple bear pit. I fought with my buckler, which I haven't really picked up since K&Q, and it showed.
I don't think my head got away from me in the tournament, was I was also not in kill them all mode. I was having fun and trying some things and that's ok.

I went into practice on Monday feeling like I wanted to Stab All The Things, which is good. It is not uncommon for Monday practice to have me dragging my feet until I get adrenaline going.

Fighting Lilias went way better for me than it usually does - and it was with single, which I generally expect her to trounce me on. I changed my game on her. It felt a little like I was playing *her* game - the patient distance game - but it worked a lot better than trying to get all up in her space like I generally. She's just too good at getting around my dagger when I do that.

I discovered when fighting Donovan and Kenrick that my current level of Fabris is not really prepared to fight more Fabris, or lefties. I realize that I just need to find different guards and in general expand what I know.
It also makes me think that if Caoilfhionn is planning on pursuing Fabris, I should figure out this "fighting lefties" problem so I can pass it on to her - since she is a lefty, and fighting righties is rather more common.

I was trying a lot of invitations and blade opposition, which got me killed more than I'd like. BUT I did get a plate perfect invitation based kill.

King's and Queen's Rapier Tournament

This past Saturday was The Rapier Tournament in the East.
The site was determined rather late in the game, at a place none of us had been before. I don't think I was the only one a little worried about what the day would bring and how the tournament would go.

But! It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day out, and the site was beautiful. We were right on the sea shore, by an old fort, with relatively flat ground (only slightly muddy).

63 fencers entered the tournament. There were eight pools, and the top two from each pool went on to a double elimination sweet 16. The finals were best three of five, matched, rotating forms.

Fencers were out in both quantity and quality, which was wonderful to see. I've heard almost entirely good things about the fighting - clean, courteous, etc. I am hoping that the exceptions are being taken care of appropriately - but they were not enough to mar the day.

My pool was definitely clean. Our marshal and MoL were wonderful, efficient, and active when needed.

There will eight people in the pool, and I lost three fights, tying for third with several people. I'm not HAPPY about that showing, although I'm not kicking myself about it either.

One loss was to an OGR who I practice with regularly. I nearly had him a couple times, which honestly is better than  most of our fights.  He has always had my number.
One loss was to an OSR from the south who uses curved swords, which I really to practice against more (which is hard, since no on in my area uses them). We had a messy exchange where there was a question about whether he daggered my head - we were in close enough, and there was enough stuff hitting my mask at weird angles (quillions and the like) that I couldn't tell. I appreciated that the marshal stepped in to tell us that he didn't think it was good. So we refought, and this time he got in my shorts and made a cut at my belly that succeeded. I feel like it could have gone the other way, but I'm not upset at how I did.
The last loss if the one that I am saddest about. I was fighting an OGR who I haven't fought much, besides him being in my pool at my second K&Q. I am certain that I should have won that fight, but I didn't commit to my Fabris guard - and additionally, he is a short guy. The combination mean that I was really in a "stab me in the belly please" guard, which he proceeded to do. He mentioned afterwards that my buckler had floated up too far. Which is he doesn't know what I'm intending is a reasonable assumption to make. But the buckler was fine - I just wasn't bent over near far enough. In hindsight, against someone that short, I really shouldn't have gone for that particular guard at all.
Also, I didn't properly warm up that guard. I was worried about getting tired too early, and didn't have a lot of time to get my blood flowing, so I didn't concentrate on it at all. I feel like I should have, to at least remind myself what it feels like.

My pick ups later on were fantastic and fun. I fought a northern OGR that I've never managed to pin down before, and he was a blast to fight. I fought another person who is into Fabris (way more into Fabris than I am, really) and he was super excited when I fell into that stance, and we talked about Fabris for awhile. I did pickups with some of the people from my pool.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME.

People I care about did amazing things all day, and were recognized for things, and it was great.
Marguerite was inducted into the Order of the Silver Crescent for her many "bad" ideas.
Natalliia was given a writ to answer to the question of whether she would join the Order of Defense.
Jean Michele was inducted into the Order of the Golden Rapier.
The Carolingian Calivers were made the King's Calivers for the duration of the reign due to their prowess at Pennsic.
Malocchio was recognized for his great service as Rapier General this past Pennsic. I am beyond happy that someone did.
Scrooby and Marielle were given their AoAs.
Donovan won his third K&Q.
Llewellyn, who I have known for pretty much ever, had a great day in the lists and was chosen as Queen's Champion.
I heard innumerable good things about my cadet all day long - about her fighting and her attitude. I am very proud of how she came back from her injury a better fencer than she was before, and how she's finding her place in the SCA. Initially is was weird to have people come up to report to me about her, but then it was just awesome.

So yeah. It was a good day.

Practice Report

I worked with Finn for a little while. I hope he remembers the sorts of things I told him, because I can't for the life of me think of them right now. This is why practice reports shouldn't wait several days (I blame work).

I didn't fight poorly in the tournament by any means, and I think I managed to keep my head mostly in the game. But Marguerite and I Just. Kept. Doubling. And that is never good for anyone. And I was too busy with "Must Kill" to really pick apart why that kept happening.

I do think I need to be more patient when fighting her (when I said this to Donovan he gave me That Look and told me to remove those last three words. He is, of course, not wrong.)

This also tired me out like whoa for the rest of the tournament. I ended up in the final three and then lost to Lupold, whose distance I just couldn't get. And who was purposefully getting me on the defensive before making ridiculously long lunges. So I need to work on that. He would also sneak up over my buckler and stab me in the forehead. So I need to pick that up, just a titch.

After I was out of the tournament Rodrigo asked for some fights so he could figure out more about what I've been doing with my guard. We fought a little bit. It was very obvious that I was tired. I would normally have reverted to my normal guard, but he made a specific learning based request. And I guess my thighs could use the workout.

He did manage to stab me essentially in the back of the head, from the front, once. Which was interesting. He makes a lot of very big motions, which are usually his downfall. But in that case the angle was just right.

Donovan then spent some time trying to fix up the Fabris guard. Need to keep my blade in three instead of letting it rotate outward, and keep the sword and dagger closer together. I also have reading to do and plates to look at. I need to figure out how to transition between guards while still in the Fabris stance. Just having one guard is somewhat limiting - even if it is quite effective.

Rose Tourney Report

The tournament was an absolutely beautiful day. I was worried at the beginning because it seemed very disorganized, and that tends to screw with my brain space. But turns out that I could mostly just let things happen and fight whomever I was paired against, and that was that.

Presenting myself to my rose, Duchess Katherine Stanhope
Photo by Sitt al-Gharb ha-niqret Khazariyya

I won 5 of my 11 fights. I was not upset about any of them, though. I generally fought well and was able to stay focused. And I didn't get paired up against any slouches!
And one of my opponents tried to sing at me, and I didn't let it phase me. I still lost that one, but that was because he was a good fencer, not because I was distracted.

Other things that stuck out for the day:
   - JP had to do a lot of thinking about the new guard to figure out what to do with it. I was amused by this, and didn't take proper advantage at the time. I should never have let him think. Afterwards he suggested taking my sword in a little bit, because the only real hole in the guard is my belly below my left hand.
   - I had a glorious back and forth with Owen, and eventually killed him, but in doing so I thugged him. So I need to keep an eye on my calibration when things get really intense. It is rare for there to be as much constant motion as there was in this particular bout, and I think that amped me up more than I'm used to.
   - We need to be more careful in authorizations about making sure people understand that a bit down the arm or inside the leg is still a kill. There was a potential kerfuffle that occurred.
   - I need to fight LT more. He does weird things and new guard did not work at all in that fight.
  - Fighting Jean Xavier, I managed a beautiful kill right off the bat. And heard from a bystander "She was using Fabris, that's like cheating!". This amused me, and also made me happy that people were recognizing where the guard came from.

I don't know what place we ended up getting (although I would love to), but our team had a lot of good fights, and it was a pleasure to fight beside them.

Practice Report

I have been lax in my fencing practice. Other things happen on Mondays and Thursdays, and so I don't always make it (Broadsword! Responsibilities!). And before Pennsic I was revving up for melee far more than I was for singles.

But now K&Q looms on the horizon, and I've been trying to get myself in gear.

Things started out roughly. I was not happy with any of my fighting. Last Wednesday Donovan told me that my guards were all extra lazy, and that I was trying a new guard by not committing to it enough. Turns out it was a demi-Fabris guard. I've since been alternating between my normal guard (no longer lazy!) and a true Fabris guard with my dagger, and things are going much better.

Last night was the first time that I've felt good about my fencing in awhile. There was a bit of a ramp up, but by the time we got to our weekly tournament, I was There. My brain was there, my fighting was there. 

It's still hard for me to sustain the adrenaline for long enough to truly get through a tournament. I was lucky this time in that there wasn't much of a break. I one shotted two people from my new guard off the bat, which definitely set me on a good path. It was difficult to not let their dismay (and in one case, sudden realization that they were injured more than they thought) bring me out of my head, but I think I succeeded ok, without going too far.

I then fought Malocchio. The first fight was long, and that's when I started to feel kind of shaky and had a tough time with my focus. We ended up doubling twice, which wasn't ideal, but generally Malocchio will murder me in a tournament, so I'll take that.

I then fought Will Deth. I took buckler against his giant case, and tried to be Fabrisy here as well, despite not having tried it with a buckler yet. It almost worked - I managed to get inside his two swords twice, but I never committed enough to just run him down. And I have to commit a LOT to run people like him down. 

Donovan is trying to get me to use crossing steps more than redoubles. I have a tendency to either redouble or walk normally and neither of those are the fastest way to charge at someone. Crossing steps without raising up from Fabris adds another level of difficulty.

In the end he killed me. 

Malocchio and I had to fight a tie breaker for our pool. At this point my focus was trying to run, and I was being impatient. He ended up killing me with a shot he said he never expected to connect - he was just trying to get me to back up.

Then I drilled with my cadet. Since she's injured I've had to be creative. She's finally at the point where she can stand, which is exciting, but I need to make sure that none of the drills we do make her want to move her feet yet.

I've been trying to spend this immobile time concentrating on blade work - point control, opposition. You'd think that would be easy enough, but almost every drill I'm used to involves some bit of forward movement. Hand shot drills have become only extensions, with a focus on reaction time. Opposition drills are either much closer than they should be (extension distance) or involve me testing her opposition by walking toward her.

She's also done parrying drills. That, at least, is straightforward enough.