Great Swords hurt

Lot to process from last night.

It was a great practice. Got to fight my axe against some good sword and shields, spear duels with some very decent spear fighters, and great sword on great sword with most of the fighters. Laurie and Sir Mathew came out this week to add to the semi regular cast of myself, Corwin, Ravenhair, Ken, and Dan. We also had one of our newer fighters Paul show up. I don't know what to do with him. Every time we seem to get him to actually start using proper technique, the next week he shows up and it's all gone. It's so incredibly frustrating. I've spent the past few practices not working with him because of this frustration. That stops now. It does him no good for me to take out my frustration by stopping teaching. It does me no good to continue to let him sit where he is at. I need to turn around my attitude and get back to being the helpful teacher.

There is a problem though. I lack patience. Always have. I'm also very judgmental of others, another huge personal flaw. I know I need to use this as an opportunity to do better as an instructor. Paul has been coming on and off for a few months now, which shows greater dedication than many who've come to the hall since I started fighting there. I need to find a way to channel this dedication into improvement, but I feel stuck. For now I think it may be enough to re-dedicate myself to his instruction. We shall see.

On more positive notes, the fighting was excellent. I started the night with axe and actually did fairly well for myself. Most of my bouts have disappeared in the haze of a long night, but I do remember a few highlights. Against Sir Matt I was finally able to hook the shield and use his response to propel a thrust to the face. I hooked lower down, maybe midway, blade horizontal and put only a little pressure. Matt thinks it was the lack of pressure that was key, making it sneaky. I'll have to try that on the top of shield to see. My thought is it's the location, which will mean I'll have to use a left hand high grip to pull it off against most Sword and Shield fighters. It's a grip I know I need to practice so more reason the better.

My other ax highlights are less vivid. I fought matched axe against Ravenhair and did not do well. He beat me inside both times. The second fight I hit him with something I though was good, but was clearly not as he kept coming. I had stopped fighting for half a second during that. Need to remember not to do that in the future. I also had an excellent kill against Ken. As he approached I ducked, put the axe behind the shield and thrust up. Usually this results in my getting plastered as I don't time the duck right and present a completely open target. I also stop looking as I try to duck my head and the thrust is completely obscured by their shield. This time however I managed to avoid the blow and land the thrust. Unfortunately I'm not sure what went right this time so I can try to improve the shot.

Nothing else particularly of note with Axe. Ken wanted to get some spear practice before 100 minutes and since I've never had a chance to really practice spear duels outside of a melee, I decided to oblige him. I tried a number of tactics, trying to find the strong of my spear and place it on the weak of his, trying to step off line as I fired, trying to fire over his spear to prevent it from coming up and in. None were particularly effective. My targeting is still terrible, but I can hit center mass pretty well. My goal for next pennsic will be to reliably hit a basket ball sized area.


After spears, I managed to convince everyone but Dan and Paul to play Greatsword. For me it was longsword as I am using a stick modeled after the hand and half blades that seemed to be more common. What I lose in range I believe I make up for in speed and balance. I can also reliably deliver powerful shots at speed with it.

Lucan stepped in at one point to stop a rather pathetic bout between myself and Corwin to give some tips about keeping point control and stepping past. While I understood them, I was unable to internalize them. I gave up point control as with my shorter blade I could never thrust without getting Corwin's offline and I was unable to perform the maneuvers he displayed when trying to step past. Ravenhair informed me I was stepping far to wide and not deep enough. I will try to work on that with all forms Sunday and next week.

I don't remember anything discrete from my fights with Ken or Matt, besides Matt catching me in the elbow and ending my night. I don't know if I fought Ravenhair. I remember one 3 fight bout with Laurie quite well though. I started it off working through through a few of the Fiore guards, as I did against everyone. Just moving through them tended to keep my opponent enough off balance that I got to decide when we engaged. In this fight Laurie was standing point on, something between short and long guard. I didn't notice where her hilt was in position to her body or where her feet were. I'll have to pay attention to that in the future. I moved into short guard with my left foot forward and then passed forward switching sides the short guard was on. She didn't react much. I did this 2 or 3 more times, not moving forward much, just enough to inch my blade past hers. I leapt forward, either a thrust or a cut I don't remember, but she was unable to react in time and either way the blow landed completely unobstructed.

My next two bouts with her I did not fair so well. I remember the first one I was moving in as she threw a downward cut. I brought the blade up to block, assumed I caught, registered the blow on my helm with some other part of my brain, and threw a strike at her side. A second later I realized I had only assumed I would catch the block, I had not actually done so. The second fight was similar. I went to attack and either she blocked, or more likely she moved in such a way I knew my shot would be no good. I paused for a half second. She utilized it well, with a downward cut to the head and an immediate follow up to the belly. I saw neither, felt both. From the reactions of the onlookers both strikes were well done so even had I not paused I likely would have lost. Still I learn the lesson yet again. Never think in range.

I will practice one on one with Dan tomorrow Most likely shield on shield. Regionals on Sunday where I will fight Axe and sword and board. Next Wednesday I will fight Axe and Sword and buckler. If there is a practice at Karl's place on Monday I 'll be there fighting axe and longsword. I may attend Jaye's longsword and polearm seminar this weekend. I'm not sure yet.