3 positive things, December 11th

-Had a very instructional class with Vis
-Got to spend the day slacking off
-Managed to get a good workout in

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.

Learning to learn

Good practice on Wed, Frustrating class on Thus.

I've taken to calling leg shots good as kills. I hate knee fighting. So I will now no longer do it. It will be interesting.

I did not stick with my plan to fight only Axe or Polehammer on Wed. I started out with the axe, had some good fights but didn't really internalize anything. I spent most of the time trying to use the lessons from last week. When rushing inside, block the sword farther out if using the vertical pole block. Continue moving while throwing shots from different angle. Not sure how I did on either.

When working on the inside though I did start to figure out a few things on how to pin the weapon. I haven't fully conceptualized what I felt my body doing naturally so won't attempt to write it down till I know that I understand what I'm doing. Ravenhair did have a really useful piece of advice I didn't get to try though. I've been pushing and wresting inside, using the head end of the pole to pin the shield and the butt to pin the sword arm(not the sword, far too difficult). However, especially in this game, there is not real need to pin the shield. As such I can release and try to throw a shot with the, even without really controlling the shield. It would be best if I can control and push the shield, before pulling off and attempting to punch my opponent in the head with the axe blade, but it's not needed. I can simply throw shots with it, so long as that sword arm is pinned.

I am still struggling on the two simple shots that I really want to make my bread and butter; throwing a shot so that even when the haft is blocked, I can make contact with the blade by changing the angle and hooking a shield, waiting for them to pull back and use that as the momentum for a face thrust. I'm not sure what's going wrong on the first, most likely I'm not bringing my back hand far enough. I'm fairly certain I know what's going wrong on the hook-thrust though. I'm trying to bash to hard on the shield. I think I should throw a bit lighter of a shot towards the head or simply try and place the axe on the shield and rotate the blade into place. I will be focusing mostly on this as an opening move next week.

As I said earlier, Axe wasn't the only thing I worked on though and I no longer think I should play with one form. Ravenhair has encouraged me to play mainly pole, but grab at least one other form every night, so I don't get rusty on them. It seems like good advise and honestly I'm relieved to have someone tell me to keep playing shield. I think I'm just starting to put things together with the heater.

This week I fought Karl Meerstoffa(Spelling? apologies), Dunkin, and Dan. Karl is one of Lucan's and like many who fight the Feral/Lucan style is very patient, hiding behind a kite that covers almost his full body. Dan, still new, like me loves to get in and mix it up. His smaller more active shield, combined with both our almost frantic aggressive nature and our lack of experience, patience, and skill. Dunkin, as I believe I noted last time, is a very patient fighter, also using a heater, though his his wider and strapped better than mine. I will have to check his strapping again so I can fix my to be closer to it.

I had nothing in particular I was trying to work on, simply went out and fought. Karl, in particular, was vexing. I would manage to get inside and thought I had all possible angles blocked, when he would repeatedly hit me with the short stick punch. This happened at least 3 times. Somehow he was getting his basket inside my shield. I must have been only concentrating on his blade.

I don't think I won more than one fight against him. I was able to get in or around him enough to land a few wraps, but he would either move enough to bleed off power or catch part of it with his shield. I was never able to really find a hole in his guard. On defense though I did better. I started playing with transitioning through a series of guards whenever we would line up. A Frame to Old Castle(I think) to a hanging guard similar to Logans, to Lucan's guard modified for heater. It was enough to keep him guessing and I wasn't slotted once, which is unusual for me when fighting someone of his quality.


I don't remember my heater fights against Dan or Duncan. I believe I did well. I did take buckler out for one set of bouts and as usual did far better than I should have. I think I will make it a point to fight at least one set of buckler fights per practice, to keep up my advantage in that form.



Thusday we did Halbred 5 from Paulus Hector Mair's PoleArm Manual. I was very frustrated with it. There were a number of subtleties I was unable to grok. Where to place my weapon when trying to pull an opponents polehammer or axe. How a wind works. How to release from a bind where the head of my weapon is stuck. How to judge when force direction has changed.

I didn't armor up for class as my helmet was missing the aventail protecting my neck. I hope this will be my last time not in armor as I need to practice all these small details. I also need to strenghten my left forearm. My wrist and forearm began to hurt within 20 minutes of starting.

Hopefully next week I will have a camera set up to record and I will record my thoughts as commentary. For now I will leave it though, as I don't believe giving a recount of the lesson will help.

New shots, New Goal

The last two weeks have been good fighting for me. I learned a few new shots, really improved my guard, and managed to do alright against some really talented fighters. My shield work is getting much better and I'm able to be more offensively effected in the clinch(need a better term for this) than I have been in the past. However I'm going to be putting down the sword and shield for the foreseeable future and fight only Axe, Hammer, or Glaive, possibly till Pennsic. I haven't really formulated the goal into an actionable and testable result, but basically I want to be beating OTC level poles consistently before I switch back. The time table would normally be far too short, but with Duke Vis teaching me and the natural advantages I'll have using an axe or hammer over the straight glaive, I think it's doable.

That's the future though and I haven't really planned it out. Tonight will be my first time fighting just hammer. A few more weeks trying it plus some more work out of the Mair book and I think I'll have a plan of action and more concrete goals. Reviewing the past I'm really encourage by the past two weeks of fighting. The Knights hall had two great practices, partially thanks to Sir Mathew coming the past two weeks and bringing some folks, and thanks to Jaye's Fight Fit bringing more fighters to the hall for working out, which in turn brings them to practice. Sir Fedderock(whose name I have not idea how to spell) also showed up two weeks ago which was another boon.

As usual most of my fights have completely erased themselves from my memory and did so right after the swinging stopped. There were some highlights though that I have vague recollections of and are worth recording. I also got some interesting instruction from a Malegentian Laurel, I believe named Maguyver, though that might be a mundane name.

The only clear memory from Lastweeks ago was against Sir Matthew, who usually trounces me. He did that quite often that night as well, but during one fight I noticed he was leaving his sword hand very far out to his left. Usually he keeps it tucked closer to his head or shield, so that he's primed to throw his funky offside, where he brings the blade behind his head making it hard to track and therefore block. This time he didn't though. Usually when I try and snipe the hand he has it blocked by the shield, so I tried to throw the wrap shot where it looks like a snap till right before it lands. Got it off perfectly and it sailed past his guard to take the arm. Unfortunately the 5 times I've tried the shot since I've not been able to pull it off. It's either landed as a snap or started the wrap motion far to early.

There were some other lessons from Sir Fedderock and a dude who fought sword and axe, possibly his squire, but they were not retained in the 10% of things I manage to actually absorb from lessons. I think it boiled down to don't stand still, though there was more subtlety to it.


This week, I have a few memories. There were few exchanges where I got in the clinch with either Damon or Maguyver and I ended up being able to get my basket hilt over the edge of their shield. I was unable to capitalize, by not putting enough pressure on the shield when I pulled but I think I have the basics of technique and now I just need to get the power. I was able to get my sword free to throw a few wraps but didn't manage to get anything on them.

I also found that when some one closes, if I drop my weight and bend my knees, I can use the A frame defense to much greater effect. I'm still leaving my sword leg exposed a bit too much. Not sure how to fix that yet. Tried Lucans's lead offside to the arm pit another few times, still can't figure it out. Also discovered my sword was far too long and I'm not strong enough to move it well.

I learned two shots. One was one that I threw but immediately forgot how to throw it or what it was after I did. I managed to throw a low rising wrap, as if headed for the shield leg or right butt cheek, stepped in and brought the arm up, so the target was now the head, than kicked my elbow up and flicked my wrist down so that instead of landing with the point horizontal or slightly upwards facing, it was facing down. I have no idea if I can throw it a second time. Will need a lot of pell work to try.

 The other shot I learned came from Maguyver. The whole night I noticed he was able to throw a lead shot and then throw a second shot to the same side almost right after. The second shot was a half second faster than I would have thought possible based on normal body mechanics. Turns out he's not cocking his arm. The first shot is thrown fast, mostly arm, and left hanging where it lands instead returning to guard. As the shot is blocked, he would step in, so that his shoulder and hip are in the same position relative to his wrist as a normal guard. This allows him to throw the second shot without bringing his arm back, because he has brought his body into his arm.

I was able to pull off the quick shot and step, but couldn't execute the second shot. Will need alot of peel work for that one as well.

I also had class with Duke Vis this week with the newly made polehammers. They are quite effective. He showed us a few weaknesses, like your opponent being able to hook the hammer on a thrust, and turn aside the thrust as he throws his shot. I doubt I'll have to worry about that in SCA fighting for a while, though.

He also showed a neat trick where, if your opponent blocks a leg strike or sets aside a thrust low, you can push the hammer slightly past their leg, then use it to hook them at the knee and lift them off balance. We aren't sure of the legality, so for now that will remain a trick for use at the Hall.

Finally we did the a play from Mair Polearm book. Fairly certain it was either Halbred or Poleaxe 1 but I'm not sure as I didn't look before class. I'll have to start reviewing that book more often.

The basics of the play were, throw an overhand strike at your opponent(called the murder stroke). He will step back, placing himself out of the way, and strike your shaft as it comes in, to guarantee the block. Your opponent will then thrust for your face, which will cause you to push his pole aside. This motion will allow him to release your pole(from where the hammer head has gripped it) and come around to where he will drive the head to the hammer into your wrist, preventing you from striking him.

This wist pin was awkward at first but very effective once we figured it out. It was the key point of the lesson in my mind. I'm not sure how offensively useful it will be in singles, but in melees it will allow you to turn a shield, pole, or perhaps even a spear into a complete non threat.

Back to the play, as your wrist is now pinned, you need to step back, freeing yourself to thrust into your opponent. He will parry by simply lifting the pole, keeping his hammer head under your shaft, driving the pole harmlessly upwards. From there, you fire down into the middle of his shaft on the inside of his right arm and hook it with your hammer. Step backwards, while pulling backwards and down, twisting your wrists to put pressure with the back of your hammer on his wrist. This will prevent him from using your pulling as a force to drive his thrust into you. As he resists, use his force to pull your thrust into his face. At this point he will take a step back, clearing your thrust with his back point and trying to leave the threatened area.

Overall there was alot to take away. The use of the hammer head to pin arms, both pulling and twisting. The use of the head as hook, and using your opponents momentum to build your own shot. The use of the hammer head as a way to set aside thrusts or pin weapons. Not sure if I'll be able to transfer any of these concepts to tonight's practice with Dan. He'll be fighting sword and shield only most likely, so it will be an entirely different game