Two Practices and a Rapier Academy

Fencing catchup!

Last weekend I made the long trek to New Jersey for the first (I think?) Rapier Academy! It was a gorgeous day, and the classes were varied and informative.

I started in a Fabris class that Firebow was teaching. For the most part it wasn't new information for me, so I played TA with some of the other fencers. I was a bit worried about stepping on the teacher's toes, but he seemed thankful for it, and I think it helped those fencers get something out of the class. Someday we will sit down and really talk about Fabris-y things, but Saturday was not that day. Too much else to do!

I fought a variety of people - one specifically asked me to Fabris it up, and that went fairly well. Particularly considering it was my warmup, I was surprised at how little my body complained.
I was later told by another opponent that my aggression was great. Which is good, because I have been specifically trying to put that back in my game after so much time spent on Fabris and blade work and etc etc. My other fights were very good, although I did nothing memorably good or bad during them.

There were many command based classes happening, so I spent a lot of my afternoon doing Eastern Army things. I have no aspirations to climb any higher in the ranks than leading the Handsome Boys - but since the Handsome Boys have grown to be a very significant part of the army I want to be on top of what's going on there. Not to mention that my co headmaster/cadet brother is the General. So we talked a lot about getting more people involved and comfortable in melee, and then went over the war points.

Alys had a story time (and I also got to fight her, which was a lot of fun), which I thought was a great way to close out an event like this. Everyone loves to revel in nostalgia, and the newer folks got to learn SO MUCH. The rocking chair was a particularly nice touch.

There was no court, and there was a service at the church at 5, so we got out quite early and had a delicious dinner. It was worth a long day trip, definitely. Although I did tweak my elbow and have had to baby it for the last week.

On to the practices!
Monday!
I used my short blade the whole time (see aforementioned arm babying). I still love that thing, but definitely had distance issues. I worked with Liadan on dagger stuff, and am interested in dagger parrying drills that people have found useful!
Despite my issues, I felt like I fought well.

Thursday!
Arm was still just a little twingy. I wore my elbow band and alternated my swords. I worked with Finn, specifically trying to get him back to using his offhand. On my side I was trying to morph between upright and bent stances smoothly. And only doing so when I intended to - I have a habit of lunging while in the low Fabris stance, and standing upright as I do so. Which makes a hole big enough that even Finn noticed it (and stabbed me in it.)
I fought Remy and felt really good about it. I don't have specifics, it just seemed to go better than normal.
I fought Xavier, and probably worked my arm harder than I should have. I had a spiral of not being able to control my blade as well as I'd like, and so working harder at it, which made me less able to. But other than that I felt pretty good. During the last fight when I realized that my arm was going to fall off/hurt itself, I managed to flip a switch to "murder quickly". I need to find that switch more often.
I also did a very little bit of drilling with Donovan doing single tempo dagger parries. This is an old hat drill, but this was the first time I tried to do it from a Fabris stance and OH GOD EVERYTHING WAS AWFUL. Nothing went where I wanted it to go. In upright stance it was fine. So, I suppose this means I know something I need to work on.

Birka

A slightly belated Birka report, because the plague this year was particularly awful. But now I am recovered! Mostly!

I didn't fence in the tournament at all this year. Waiting in line is not worth it to me compared to all the pickups that I can get.

I felt pretty good about how I was doing. I managed to Fabris for most of the the three hours - and my back didn't even complain. I also managed to work in the new guards I was talking about in the last post, and they worked quite well. I used the guard in second against a case fighter, felt very good about the outcome. Generally I use buckler against case fighters, but in this case I stuck with dagger and was still generally coming out on top. Now to pick the buckler up again and see if I can combine my powers.

I also fought against a buckler (with dagger) and managed to have a textbook shot to his forehead from prime. That was pretty great. It's so nice when historical things just work.

I admit that a lot of my fighting is a little fuzzy. Time and plague have that effect. But it was good.

In addition to fighting things, two cadets and a protege were taken, all involving people who are great. I can't wait to see what happens from the new relationships.

In non fencing news, I fiddled with someone, and in sort of public, and that was a lot of fun. Then I tried to jam with Tim and just utterly failed at playing. I think partially because our setup was poor - no music stand, not good chairs - but also didn't really warm up correctly. So I'll have to work on that if I want to play in public in the future.

It was a wonderful weekend, all in all. I hope everyone feels better soon.

Practice Report

I got to work directly with my cadet for the first time in awhile (schedules just haven't lined up).
Her ankle continues to be a problem, so we did some low intensity drilling. Handshots and opposition. She had brought someone from the Bergental practice to get authorized, so I watched the two of the drill for a little bit. It is very interesting to see the student of your student fight for the first time.

My first fight was a derp fest, but I manged to pull myself together. I tried to stick with Fabris for the most part - and my back is not upset at me, so I call that a win. My feet were not as under me as I would have liked, but that's just footwork drills.
I fought a left hander and tried to stick to Fabris, and he did find it challenging. I finally tried expanding my guard range in that fight, and I think it worked well.
Normally I hang in something like Fabris's plate 60.

Dagger out, sword low. Tips together.
Because I was fighting a lefty, my dagger was over much further than it would normally be - starting pre crossed instead of with the tips together. This was working ok, but was far from ideal (open left side, tangling my weapons). So I tried changing up the angle of my sword.

I realize that the guard I tried is losing in this plate. 

I lifted my sword into prima, keeping the tips together., which made me feel much more confident should my opponent attempt to go wide around my right side. It also naturally shifted the connection of my weapons a little bit to the left. I think it also helped that my opponent didn't really know what to do with it - who hangs out in prima, after all?
I will have to experiment more, of course.
The downside of the new guard is that I lose a lot of fine motion.

I also fought a relatively new fencer who has recently started into Destreza, and last time we fought he wrecked me in a number of ways that should not have happened. I have been practicing against Destreza, and also working on my patience (which fades pretty much the moment I stop thinking about it). Things went better this time, although the narrowing/transporting motion that I am trying to pick up is still not working in combat.

Practice Report

Post holidays and sickness! What is even a sword?

 I actually felt ok. My Fabris footwork is the main thing that suffered from my lack of practice over the last couple weeks. I did a lot of forcing myself to stick to Fabris (or opposition) even when it wasn't working. Only once did I slip into all my old ways to kill someone, just to remind myself that I can (and I admit that was satisfying).

I really need to do my homework and expand my Fabris guard horizons.

 I had to remind myself to cross instead of lunge a lot. Crossing gives me greater distance than just a lunge and allows me to maintain opposition more effectively. But lunges and redoubles still reign supreme in my muscle memory.

My biggest problem of the night was Destreza. Specifically, Destreza from someone much taller than me while we both have single. If he attacked first, I was fine, but I had a lot of trouble initiating anything in a safe way. I was trying to do opposition (often in Prima, occasionally by going all the way over the top of his sword) but even when I managed to gain his blade he was often able to angle or disengage out of it, and I didn't have as fast a response because of how high I was.
If I had a dagger I would have just grabbed his sword with that and it would have been over, but I feel far less comfortable doing that with my hand for a variety of reasons.
I know the theory of a lot of things I could have been doing - I just need to throw myself at the tall Destreza fighters in my area over the next couple practices and work things out.

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.

KWAR!

I have been lax. I swear there are projects and fencing, but you know how it goes.
But then - KWAR!

Known World Academy of Rapier was in Chicago this weekend.

I went to the last one, 3? years ago, when I still considered myself a baby fencer. I learned a lot then, and that has no changed this time around. This is going to be a kind of general synopsis of my weekend. More detailed posts will hopefully follow, after some time spent unpacking my brain.

Fabris 101, taught by Phaedra.
I know enough about Fabris by this point that nothing truly surprised me, but I have been given some methods to my thigh killing madness. It was a huge class so I didn't get any specific one on one time, but now I know someone new to hunt down with questions.
What we did that really stuck in my brain was invitations with the dagger. There were 5 standard invitations and responses - upper and lower inside, upper and lower outside, and the middle, which is the same high and low. I hope to get these into my muscle memory. Convincing my opponent to do what I want to to do has always been difficult for me and I think having these set invitations will help.
I also learned that I do so many crossover steps when in my Fabris stance (because short!) that I am really quite bad at basic advances and retreats in that stance.

17th Century Italian Pedegogy, taught by Prospero (aka, Devon from Duello).
This class was all about how to effectively teach Italian fencing. We did some drills, but were focusing on how to do them correctly and how to make sure that your partner got the most out of it. It was not the class I was expecting, but it was definitely a class I needed.
In general the style of the class was that we would go over a basic drill and then go off with our partners. But instead of the class instructors going around correcting the mechanics of the drill, they would correct how the "teacher" partner was correcting the drill.
Primary takeaways -
   - A good combative drill will have a stimulus, response, and consequence. There will be a consequence for both success and failure (generally, but not always, one or the other person being hit).
   - Don't tell students what *not* to do. Positive statements are best. Say "Raise your sword" not "Don't keep your sword so low." It is human nature to internalize "Keep your sword so low" and leave out that important "Don't".
   - There was a glove slapping distance game that I think will be fun to bring back to practice.
   - My interest in doing a "How To Drill" class has been reinvigorated. I just need to find a place to do it.

Pickups
I didn't do as many as I might have wanted, but the ones I did get were great. I managed to hunt down some of the Midrealmers that I saw so much last year but have never crossed swords with. I felt good about the fights - they were fun, I didn't do anything stupid. I did not really put into practice any of the things I'd learned that day, but I know that will take time.

Mini Lesson with Devon
Devon had said that anyone who wanted some time with him should feel free to ask, so Donovan got him, me, and Malocchio a slot. It was great and we all learned a lot.
We focused on opposition and gaining the blade. Not all of it was new, but reinforcement never hurt anybody - and knowing something in your brain and making your body do it are two very different things.
 - When finding the blade use the forearm and not just the wrist, especially toward the inside.
 - When gaining the blade go in a straight line. Let the tip lead, but the guard should also be moving in a straight line toward your target. Natural reaction to pressure is to respond in kind, but moving laterally to pressure will work much better.
 - When you are the opponent in an opposition drill the best way to give pressure if to try to push through their sword and stab them in the opposite eye.
 - As a short person I was strongly encouraged to use cross steps . Going into a lunge will lower everything, which makes opposition more difficult. Cross steps will also cover more ground
 - When doing cross steps into opposition, step forward with left foot, but keep the toes pointed left. When opposing to the inside you will want to make yourself push your whole body towards their sword - but keep shoulders sideways and make sure you don't poke a hip out. The position is essentially the same on the outside. Turning your body toward the sword then will get your offhand in play, which is nice, but will completely lose all the lines that give you opposition.
         - I find this whole concept difficult to put into words, but I'm happy to try and clarify. Maybe with stick figures.

So that's what I remember without notes. Tonight there will be drilling and so hopefully some of this will get clearer.

There was also a lot of socializing and shenanigans and general good times. A++, will KWAR again.

Practice Report

For three practices at once. Blogger is very finicky at work, so I typed most of this up in an email and then it wallowed...

What I didn't know on Monday was that over the next few hours I was going to start feeling like death.

There were no real epiphanies - I fought some people. I did ..fine. I fought in the tournament, and got out of my pool. But it's always the same people that I have problems with in the next round. 

The details of the practice are a little fuzzy. Silly being sick.

Thursday practice I was recovering, so I didn't push myself too hard. I fought Ted when he had case, because tall people with case will always be a problem. The kills I got on him were all clean and precise, but there were not as many as I might have wanted. My buckler game was not strong, and my body was not interested in being properly Fabris for very long.

I fought Donovan, and we had some very good fights. I've been working on changing my guards to better match what my opponent gives. It's still sometimes hit or miss. Donovan gave me a couple more guards to add to my repertoire, although they felt particularly awkward. We also talked about feints and invitations. Mine are not convincing enough. And we rehashed the conversation I have had many times with many about how if someone ignores a feint then you should be able to follow up on it and kill them.

It was a low key night with more braining than fighting. Which is good, because I still feel slightly worse than I did yesterday.

Then Monday happened again. I was coughing some, but mostly fully recovered (and I wasn't at Coronation...poor everyone who was.) Gabe and Lupold are my problems, and once K&Q is over I really need to pick some fights with them and try things and be willing to die. I had another Fabris session with Donovan. We talked about how when the guard is extended - with a straight arm, all up in their face - you can't let anyone get anything on your blade, because there's nothing you can do. Luckily, a very small movement at that distance will generally be all you need. This moved to remembering that when you make that small movement, your should capitalize on it. And that that small movement is different from faffing around with relatively pointless motions, which I tend to do no matter what guard I'm using.

I continued working on trying to change my guard to match what my opponent is giving me. I think it went better, but that will be an ongoing process.

Now to not hurt myself or get sick before K&Q this weekend.

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.