Practice Report - Lochleven Special Edition

The Lochleven practice this year was particularly melee-tastic. I'm okay with this, because the practice is always certain to have a good number and temperament of people to keep melee fun for hours. The only downside is that I did not get a lot of one on one fighting in.

We did some fox and hound drills for warm ups. This is a simple drill with three people - one person (fox) against two (hounds). If a hound kills the fox, they become the fox and new people cycle in. When the fox kills a hound the hound is immediately replaced.

We started with practicing zippering an opposing line. On the melee field you are engaged with the entire line if you are engaged with one person in that line. This means that if you can kill the person on the end and take their place, you can continue to kill down the line quite a ways before someone notices you. But this is only worthwhile if you have your line backing you up.
For the drill we created two lines of people who would fight with intent, but not take any hits from those across from them. One person would be outside the lines. At some point they would choose either line and start the zipper action. It was up to the opposing line to notice this, and follow in. It was also up to the line getting killed to try and recover from the action.
Observations from zippering -
     - The offensive line would win more often the defensive line. It is hard to recover from a good zipper (which is, of course, the point.)
     - The main way that the defensive line could recover was angle back as a line, removing the end (the weak part of the line) from the most dangerous part of the zipper. This could generally only be successfully done if the attackers hesitated.
     - The attackers could get in their own way. The initial zipperer needs to stay at a pretty significant angle to allow their friends to help without just blocking their path. Also, as the defensive line dies and gets shorter, the offensive line will inevitably push some people out. Those people can still be useful by screening or by going all the way around behind the defensive line (in the event that there are no reinforcements coming for them).

Like all drills, it only partially covered the experience of zippering, but I think people were more comfortable with it when we were done.

Next came doors! Doors are often the bane of fencing melees. We can't charge in our game, which makes a well made kill pocket difficult to counter. We set up a 9 foot door (about average for Pennsic) and put 7 or so people inside. Everyone else was on the outside. No one got any rezes. The task, of course, was simple - kill everyone on the other side of the door.
There was a learning curve for this drill. Breaking a kill pocket requires a delicate balance. You must be willing to sacrifice yourself - but only at the right time, and when you have support. You must be willing to throw yourself on swords - but without charging or bodily contact. You must all pile into the door and overwhelm your opponents - without getting in each other's way. A delicate, vicious, bruising, balance.
A certain amount of success comes from comfort level with that balance. There are definitely small scale tactics than can be used - shields make a good first rank, long weapons are good in the kill pocket, etc. But none of it matters if the attackers don't have comfort and trust in each other.

Then came larger scale melees. We did a simple 10 minute rez with one flag (since there were about 10 people on a team) with an undisclosed flag check. My team held the flag most of the time, and sure enough, we won that one.

We ran a small scale version of the new Pennsic War Point three times. We had three flags that needs to be captured by the offense, and each time they captured a flag their resurrection point moved to that flag, allowing for fast resurrections on their end. The defense started at the first flag and had to run back to their far rez point each time. It was a timed battle, to see who could capture all three flags the quickest. We were play testing it and finding kinks in the rules just as much as we were trying to teach the fighters how it would work. Our field was too small to get the full idea, but it seemed like it will be an interesting battle with a lot of new tactics when it is scaled up.

Bonus Monday practice!
After fighting with my buckler all Sunday for melees I decided it was buckler day at practice, too. I think it went pretty well. The buckler fighting that was working so well for me back in the fall (Fabris type dagger stnaces...but with buckler!) isn't working anymore, and I'm not certain what changed. But other techniques - more upright, weight back ones - are working better. Also, some of the dagger stances that I had barely touched in the fall were working - with sword in second or first instead of third.
I was being more aggressive. I fought Donovan near the end of the night and the first half we was wrecking me. I took a step back and tried to switch on(off?) my brain, and the difference was very obvious to both of us. The last few fights trended much more in my favor. I also fought Will Deth, who is a skilled and unique case fighter who has swords for miles. Last time I fought him, a week or two ago, it was with dagger and I was destroyed. This time I took buckler, and not only did it give me a better case defense (which I already knew) but I think knowing that upped my confidence and therefore my aggression. And all of those things added up to much better fights.

Rapier Catchup

I have been remiss in my fencing posts. I promise that I have continued to stab things.

There was a delightful seminar taught by Devon Boorman of Academie Duello. I practiced many things that I have previously learned - body mechanics and opposition and the like - and learned new things that I'm trying to integrate - new dagger guards, transports.

I have had ups and downs in practices. My brain is full of things that I'm trying to work on all at once, and I'm finding it difficult to pare that down - and the off switch has disappeared again. I'll need to find it before I get back into tournament season.

Last night's practice was on the "eh" side. I was thinking, and the things I was thinking about were fine, but I wasn't being aggressive at all and that cost me a lot. I was also getting lazy about my defensive guard - I end up in a bastard between Capo Ferro and Fabris if I'm not careful. I try to move between the two fluidly, but sometimes get stuck somewhere in the middle. Usually in a kind of hunch backed Capo Ferro. It's not great.

My spring is super busy with non-SCA things and so I'm going to miss a lot of the early spring fencing events - I already missed Mudthaw, and will also not be at Balfar's Challenge. But I'll pick up again soon.

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.

Practice Report

This past Monday I tried to get back to my roots and remind myself that when I'm not Working On Things I am capable of murdering my foes. It's a thing I have to do every once in awhile to beat back the frustration. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this problem. It hangs out next to The Plateau at parties and taunts everyone who ever wanted to be good at anything.
So, it seemed to work! I didn't fight a lot of people, but I felt good about the ones I did fight. I barely Fabrised at all, and when I did it was a mixed bag of results, so I need to continue working that. Which is, of course, something I already knew.

I got complimented on how I move, which felt good. And then I realized that's been happening with some regularity, even on the days when I feel kind of crappy about my fighting. So hooray! The problem is, I don't really get what they mean, if that makes sense. I believe them. I believe that I am moving in a way that is worthy of comment - part of me says that after 20+ years of assorted martial arts I damn well better be able to move.

But believing is different from fully understanding. I want to grok what I'm doing so that can play with it, and so that I can maybe teach it to others. The most obvious way I can think of to do this is to start recording myself (which is useful on so many levels and I have never made happen).

So that is now on the list of things to do.

Practice Report

I did not feel on my game most of the night.

I started off well against Donovan, but was faltering by the end of our pickups and never managed to get back on the horse.  He said that my energy seemed down. And since I mostly fought very fast, high energy people the rest of the night...that probably didn't help.

I've been doing a lot of focusing on opposition and technique and expanding my horizons and the like, and I think the base fighting style that got me here - get inside their range, fast, and don't let up - may be suffering. Some days it's there. Some days it's not. And those days don't always coincide with the days when I want it to be there (rather than when I'm working on other things anyway.)

That said, all of the fights I had were a lot of fun, even if they were frustrating. We had a lot of people there who are not normally around.

Practice Report

For Monday and Thursday, because I am a slacker.

Monday I was not in a great space. For most of the night I felt like I was derping everywhere. Eventually I fought Kai, who was visiting us from the Midrealm, and that went much better and I think kicked everything into place. He does Destreza, so I tried to keep to Fabris, and it was a lot of fun.
I fought Liadan and we talked about having control of the blade before attacking. There was a pattern of counterpunching when I attacked, whether or not she had control, and at best that sort of thing results in a double kill. I think (Monday is far away and memories are hard) that I talked to her about knowing when to strike and when to get out of the way, but eventually this should progress into being able to regain control on the strike, so you can more often to the first and not the second.

Thursday I started out fighting Finn, and we talked about second intentions and redoubles.
I felt better than I did on Monday in my fighting, but still not as good as I'd like (are any of us ever as good as we'd like.) I fought a lot of people who like to Move - run away or circle endlessly. I need to get better at baiting the runners into attacks, because chasing them down rarely works for short little me. Of course, Lupold and I did some fights in very tiny list and suddenly the running dynamic shifts dramatically.

I also fought Thomas, who generally refused to let me get anywhere near his blade. Since so many people at practice have been focusing on opposition, a lot of us have gotten into styles where blade contact and such are the norm. It was interesting to fight someone who has not fallen into the habit. My opposition has been getting much better, but there's still only so much I can do about that sort of fight. I need to contemplate that some.

I need to do more drills. Fabris footwork. Voids.

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.

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.

Practice Report

Last night I just went out and fought people, for the most part.
Things were still feeling pretty good!

I still need to commit to things. I'm hanging out in The Bad Place more than I should. I overcame this with my shorter sword back in the day, but when I got the longer sword I discovered that I couldn't dive in quite as far and still maneuver (because, you know, physics). So maybe I'm overcompensating for that still?

We also talked about how to properly Fabris against a two handed sword, since my new guard (which continues to serve me well) is not made for that. Specifically, when the two hander is in a low guard, and can easily pop up under my weapons. In that case, Donovan suggested a ward with the sword pointed down and the dagger up near the hand. Generally this is more of a transition or response than an actual guard, but in this situation it could work quite well.

Now to hold on to this fighting for Saturday! Rose Tournament, here I come.

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.