Training women, Pt 3: Recruitment and communication

If you want to diversify your fighter base, you may want to have a look at how you're advertising and marketing your practices, as well as how you communicate about them with interested people. It's easy to fall into thinking that all you need to do is to present the facts: when and where your practices take place. Maybe you will remember to add "Welcome!" in your sign-off if you're a people person.

For a moment, put yourself in the head of someone who may not have done any martial arts in their life, or may have done martial arts in a more typical male-heavy environment and perhaps had some unpleasant experiences through it. Let's assume that the notion of a rumble session, where a group of people turn up and muck around with bats/hockey sticks/branches/stones/swords is not something that they have ever engaged in. Imagine turning up for a craft lesson, where you're presented with a piece of wood or a lump of metal, and told to make something with it, with you not having a slightest idea of how to start or what tools you need for it. (That has happened to me, by the way.)

Most regular fitness classes that women tend to be familiar with are very highly structured weekly sessions, typically group classes where everyone is expected to do the same thing as demonstrated by an instructor, with possibly some variation in different movements according to individual ability level. There is typically very little physical contact between individuals (except of course in martial arts or team sports). Generally the participants need to provide little in the way of their own equipment; they might bring their own mats to yoga and pilates classes. In martial arts, participants will eventually acquire their own (usually fabric) suits or equipment necessary for sports like Kendo, which is fairly widely available. Typically, class advertisements will briefly describe what is involved and specify if participants need to bring anything.

Further, up until the past couple of years literally ALL of fitness oriented towards women has been focused on their looks, and that is still the situation to a very large extent. Just have a look at ads for gyms and fitness classes: get the beach body for the summer, get the body you've always dreamed of, with added pictures of beautiful young white ladies. Thankfully, lately women's fitness has become more orientated also towards strength and health - but still, particularly in terms of weightlifting, it is presented as a common concern among women that they might become "bulky". I have no idea whether this is a real thing that women worry about or not.

Unless women have done competitive sports in the past, they may feel uncomfortable with the notion of a situation where there is a "loser" and a "winner." Women are traditionally socialised towards working for a community, whether it be family, work community, social community, or society at large, and discouraged from striving for personal victories or things that they might do solely for themselves. (There is a twisted paradox relating to this that I call rivalry between women, but I will return to this in a subsequent post.)

Taking into account all of the above, why on earth would any woman want to take up heavy fighting?

Because despite all of it, there are women who dream about being able to be strong, to be able to fight, to be able to compete, to be able to win against others, to have crazy-ass rough fun, to feel the rush of battles, and to be a knight. Sometimes they don't know how to express it, and sometimes they don't realise that that's what they dream of until they try it out. The trick is to get them in to try it out, and doing it in a way that provides them with the least barrier possible.

I am going to use as example my shire's website, since we had had good success in recruiting women fighters.

1. Use pictures of female fighters. On our front page, the link to the "Armoured Fighting" section contains a photo of two women in armour grinning from ear to ear.

2. Explain what it's about. On our armoured fighting page, we include the following things:

• Description of the activity written for people who know nothing about it
• Emphasis on the safety: equipment, supervision, training, strict rules, safety test (=authorisation)
• Specifically mention "all genders and we welcome everyone" - this shows that we are aware of genders beyond the usual two and that we are prepared to make all of them welcome
• Mention that we train and compete together
• Offer an immediate encouragement for all those who might not be thinking that this is not for them by mentioning technique is more important than size or strength
• Different weapon forms and fighting formats available to whet their appetite
• What happens at practices 
• Practice times and details of a contact person
• Emphasise that training is suited to all levels and complete beginners are always welcome

3. Diverse contact persons. We have a female name listed as the contact person, which may have helped with recruitment.

4. Enthusiastic initial contact coded in female language.
Here is my more-or-less standard response to an initial query about fighting practices, with commentary for the current purposes added in:

You will be very very welcome. We are always delighted to get new people joining us. (emphasis on welcoming the newcomer) Armoured fighting is great fun, very safe due to our regulations, a good way to keep fit, and our group is very supportive. (these are the great reasons why you should come along!) Aside from weekly practices, we organise weekend events now and again, and those who wish to, can compete. (Here's what we offer. You don't have to compete if you don't want to) Men and women train together and compete together, and women are not seen as lesser or weaker than men in the sport. (We not only believe but also practice the notion of equality - reassurance)

The venue is xxxx, and the practice runs from 7 pm. If you're driving, there is a small carpark behind the school. Park in the fenced off area right behind the primary school building, as they don't like us using the bigger carpark. Come to the main door at the top of the stairs in the front of the building and ring the doorbell, and someone will come let you in. (Clear instructions how to find us)

My phone number is xxx if you have any problems. 

If you have any questions, just let me know. (Making myself available to show willing and enthusiasm to welcome a new person in.)

As a trainer, never forget that you are there for your students. Your students' job is to turn up, to listen to you, to do the exercises to the best of their ability, and to make your job worthwhile by striving to improve themselves. But you need to enable that by building an open, trusting, comfortable relationship from the beginning, and you will need to go the extra way at first. Whether you want it or not, as your students' first trainer, you will become Mr or Ms or Mx Heavy Fighting for them until they get exposure to other fighters and other trainers, and start forming their own concepts of what fighting means for them. What you do is what they will associate with heavy fighting. If you are grumpy, unsupportive, sarcastic or sexist, they will link those qualities with fighting and the fighting community. If you are open, welcoming, available, and take interest in their comfort and wellbeing, they will form a positive image of our beloved art and are that bit more willing to keep turning up for practices. 

5. Ongoing communication. Your preferred form of communication will depend on the individuals in your group. You may want to use FB, Whatsapp, email, or something else. If you know practice will not happen at the usual time, communicate this as early as you can - this is particularly important for those women who may have childcare issues. If one of the group announces that they can't make it a particular week, never ever respond with snark, sarcasm, annoyance or anything similar. They are under no obligation to turn up. They may have work or family stuff going on, or a physical or mental issue may have raised its head. You will acknowledge their message and welcome them again the following week.      

Training women, Pt 2: The body

Physiology

You may be familiar with alleged differences between the male and female skeletal structures, finger length, centre of gravity, and so on. My understanding is that a lot of that is exaggerated in terms of significance, but I have little knowledge of anatomy beyond the basics, so I'm going to reserve judgement of such claims.

I know tall and short, fat and slim, male and female fighters, with a mix of all of these characteristics. Duke Drachenwald is not much taller than I am, and I am 164 cm/5'4. As we all know, good technique is superior to physical strength.

There are four features in terms of female physiology that make a difference in terms of training:

1. Females generally have a larger chest circumference in relation to the rest of the body than males, and the tissue is distributed in such a way, that unless the breasts are flattened through binding, the woman may have difficulty with certain movements involving bringing the arm across the upper body. Some women may have difficulty fighting with their head held up and their chest out, rather than curling their head and shoulders over their chest, because they have been told they shouldn't be having "their tits out". 

2. Females have wider hips than men. In the fighting system I use/am learning and developing, this makes little difference in terms of power generation. However, both the presence of more mass here, as well as the wider chest, may affect the woman's spatial perception regarding their position in an engagement. The shape of the female hip also means that the length of the female upper torso from the nape of the neck to the navel is considerably shorter than that male equivalent length. These kind of features have much more relevance in terms of armour construction (I will come back to this at a later stage) but they may have a relevance to the particular style you teach. 

3. As a rule, women have smaller hands than men. Again, an immediate relevance is armour, of which more later. However, another immediate significance is the grip of the sword and of the shield. If a woman is not quite able to close her fingers around a sword hilt, her sword mobility will be affected and she will be clumsier than a man with larger hands grasping the same sword - through no fault of her own but because of her physiology. Similarly, if she has difficulty grasping a shield, some of the energy she should be using to control the fight will be re-directed to managing the equipment.

4. Most women between the ages of 13 and 50 have monthly periods. An egg is released from the woman's ovaries around halfway through the menstrual cycle, which is called the ovulation. Her uterus will have been developing a thick lining, in case the egg gets successfully fertilised and needs to attach itself to the lining. If a fertilisation doesn't happen, this uterine lining is released from the body as menstrual blood (and yes, it can be lumpy). Women experience their periods and the lead-up to their periods in different ways. Some women barely notice it. Others suffer a great deal of pain. Symptoms include: low/aggressive mood, headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, sometimes a feeling of weakness. Most women have their heaviest flow in the first two days of their cycle, during which they may feel the worst.

Women athletes have only started to talk about their periods in the last year or so. Here is another link. And Here is a link to a recent study in Sweden concerning female athletic performance and the menstrual cycle. Some women can perform better in particular points of their cycle. Others can feel ill and are able to perform less well. It is possible that an important tourney co-incides with a bad day of the cycle. Or it may be that your female student is suddenly performing far less well in practice than she normally would.

Ideally, try to create your practice into a space where your female student can say, "Dude, I got my period, I feel shit," without anyone feeling embarrassed. They may choose not to. You may choose to not bring it up. That's fine. But if they feel they can, you're winning. How can you achieve this? Do not joke about annoying people being on the rag. Never challenge female fighters accusing them of being on their period. Talk about the experiences your female fighter friends have had, or other sporty female friends, in a neutral, informative way. If you want, you can put together a care bag for the practice, which includes pain killers, plasters, stomach medicine, tissues, nose spray - and pads and tampons, so that they are present there with the rest of the equipment as perfectly normal items. They will also thank you for the pain killers.

Conduct

Yes, yes, not all men, and yes, you are not one of those men. But the number of those men is so great in the world that literally every single women has grown up in an environment, where they consider it normal to have to moderate their behaviour and movements under a constant threat of predators. Even the strongest, the most confident take-no-shit women are subject to this. If you truly want to make your practice and other fighting environments comfortable for women, so that they can feel themselves safe no matter what, you need to respect this. Some women may have had bad experiences with men and they may be particularly sensitive to male behaviour, presence and ways of speaking. If you follow the below advice, you are not doing so because you are personally suspect or because you're kowtowing to the PC-brigade: you are, in fact, demonstrating to the female fighter that you embody the virtues for which we strive: chivalry, courtesy, and respect - and you are in every way a sound chap.

1. When inspecting the armour for safety, inform the fighter what you are doing at all times, and ask them for permission before you touch them. "I am going to put my hand on your back to check for kidney protection, is that ok?" and RESPECT the answer. Get into the habit of asking even when you're inspecting your friends, who you know will not mind, in order to avoid forgetting the ask when you inspect someone you don't know.

2. If you have legged your female opponent and are fighting them from upright position, please don't shove your crotch in their face. That would be poor behaviour at the best of times, but it is particularly pronounced in a situation where a relatively new female fighter has to smell her opponent's box in a situation that mimics an intimate contact. And in any case if you know what you're doing you don't need to do that.

3. Do not make any comments about her body or her looks, no matter how positive. That is not relevant to the situation in which you are training together.

4. NEVER, EVER employ any kind of innuendo until you are 120% certain that the female fighter in the situation will not mind it. Yes, there are women who enjoy dirty jokes. But you need to identify them first.

5. As with #1, in case of drills and demonstrations, always ask the other person first, if you need to touch them. You can get a blanket permission in the beginning of the class, if it makes things easier, as long as you remind the attendees that they can refuse at any point. If you need to figure out another way to demonstrate your point, well - you are the trainer, that is your job, to think of a way to teach your student in a way that makes sense to them (and that includes keeping them comfortable).

6. If anyone else in the practice makes any of the mistakes listed above, you need to step in without hesitation and say, "Dude, that is not cool." If you as the trainer, the authority, don't call out bad behaviour straight away, you have effectively given it your blessing.

The above, of course, don't just apply to women - they are pretty decent guidelines for interaction with any gender.

Training women, Pt 1: Introduction

I feel very conflicted about addressing this topic that I'm occasionally asked to talk about, but recently I gave a class about this at a weekend practice and the reception was positive enough for me to expand on it here.

Disclaimers:

1. I strongly dislike the idea that "women", "men", "gays", "whatevers" are a homogenous blob who can justifiably be generalised under any topic. There is a vast amount of individual variation under any grouping, and what applies to example A does not necessarily apply to example H even if both examples are taken from the same group.

2. I have a female body, and I have largely no problem with that, but mentally I identify as what can best described as agender. I pay very little attention to gender in the day to day life, and I have little interest in typically "feminine" activities or aesthetics. I was brought up in a country with a strong tradition of equality, and I often have difficulty relating to the experience of women brought up elsewhere.

3. Rather than just focusing on training women and women's experience of fighting, I think we should consider the experience of anyone who is not what I call a standard fighter: a young to middle age white heterosexual cis man. However, that is a lot all in one go, and, the only aspect of this I am qualified to talk about is the experience of fighting and training as a woman. So that is what I'm going to do, based on my own experiences, those of my friends, those I have read about, and what I know and have experienced of female culture and socialisation outside the fighting area, in the mundane society. 

There is enough material in this topic that I am going to write it up under several posts, as a series. 

Why is this important? Whatever about other kingdoms, in Drachenwald the numbers of fighters have decreased, and much of fighting activities is focused on a few particular tourneys over the year, rather than the kingdom sustaining a balanced and active fighting community across the board. In Insulae Draconis, our participant numbers in the Coronet tourney have doubled over the past few years largely due to more and more women getting involved in fighting on a serious basis. If we want to keep armoured fighting as an important and inspiring element of the Society, we cannot afford to turn potential fighters away or neglect nurturing them just because they differ from the standard.

In my experience, Drachenwald is a very good kingdom in which to be a female fighter. I have experienced no (evident) prejudice due to my gender from other fighters, and I have heard of little such happening, at least in the recent years. I have no doubt that there are also other perspectives.

What I have encountered is, on the one hand, a strong willingness to include non-standard fighters in practices and tourneys but a certain degree of a lack of knowledge of how to best do so, and, on the other hand, practices developing into spaces that, inavoidably, follow the "masculine" paradigm in terms of social interaction and training practices. Such practices can be hard to break into, even with the best will in the world. It is particularly difficult to be more inclusive, if you're not doing anything wrong, but you have no concept that your particular practice mode doesn't necessarily suit everyone, and you cannot even imagine other possibilities.

The purpose of this post series is to ask you to consider how you run your practices and tourneys, how you treat your students and fellow fighters, and whether there are things you could be doing differently.   

Training with Depression: 10 things to do

I know many fighters who have issues with their mental health: I am one of them. I started taking a low dose of antidepressants in August, and while they have had an absolutely fantastic effect in allowing me to feel calmer, mentally stronger, generally more positive, able to set boundaries, and slow down to analyse how my mind works, they have also meant that I need far more sleep and rest, and consequently have not been training at my usual intensity since then. I have, however, been training, and I have been thinking about how hard it can be to get yourself out to your pell, to practice, to the gym, or out to run, when your own mind and the associated processes can weigh heavier on you than any iron. So today I want to talk a little bit about how to keep up training in such circumstances.

First and foremost: I'm not a professional. Please, talk to your doctor and try to formulate a plan. If you are prescribed medicine, please keep taking them. If you think you would find therapy useful, please seek out a therapist and work with them. Reach out to your friends and family: hopefully you have a supportive partner who is prepared to walk this journey with you. If you are friends and family, don't wait to be reached out to: ask how your fighter is doing, take time with them, don't shy away if they open up - and keep their confidence.

That out of the way, you, as a fighter, be confident that this experience will, in fact, enable you to emerge as a better fighter. On the one hand, yes, you are bearing an injury, which will slow you down, as any physical issue would. But at the same time, like a physical issue, your mental health issue will force you to step back, slow down, analyse yourself and how you do things, including how you can best adjust to working with your issue and improve from it. You will need to figure out what works for you, and what doesn't, rather than just barging onwards through sheer stubborness, and exhausting yourself along the way. Sound familiar?

1. Prioritise sleep and recovery. Things are tiring. Work is tiring. Social life is tiring. Training is tired. Struggling with your own mind is tiring. Allow yourself to be tired. Sleep will help you in all number of ways, so make sure you get as much sleep as you can. Downtime will also help. I have had to learn to take naps, but they are now an essential part of my self care.

2. A few minutes is better than none at all. If you're not able to do a full set or a full run, how much can you do? Often it's easy to fall into the false thinking that there is only two modes of doing things: (1) exactly "right"; and (2) not at all. But there are stages in between, and often our thinking can be overfocused on our perception of what right is. Every step you take, and every raise of a weight you do, is more than nothing at all. Everything counts.

3. Actions influence emotions. Just as you don't do a thing because you feel crap, doing things can also influence how you feel. Sometimes you are too drained to do anything at all, but if you have a bit more energy and can nudge yourself, you are likely to find that even a short period of activity will rejig things in your head and make you feel better.

4. Set small, manageable targets. Get a notebook, or an app, or a whiteboard on the wall. Write targets for yourself where you can easily see them, but keep them deliberately small and easily doable. When you're carrying a mental injury, you are not able to push yourself to the max. Do what works for you: a daily target, or a weekly one. Shorter target periods give you experiences of success more often than longer ones, which will contribute to your mental health. Try 10 minutes on the pell. If that's too much, do 5. Maybe 50 shots is the maximum you can manage? Set a target of 20. Run for 2 km. Run for 15 minutes.

5. Track your targets. When you're done with your targets, tick them off, again where you can see them, or give yourself a sticker, and this way you have a constant reminder that you're still getting things done. And, crucially, if you don't achieve the target, don't blame yourself. Think about it like each fight in an important tourney. When you face a new opponent, it doesn't matter if you won or lost against the previous one. Each fight is its own thing. Each training target is its own thing.

6. Why do you really want to train? Actually sit down with yourself, and analyse why you're training. Because I want to win Crown/Coronet/become a Knight. Okay, why do I want to do that? Because I like winning. Why do I like winning? Because I enjoy being good at something. Why is that? Because it makes me feel powerful. Why? Because my body feels strong and agile. Why? Because my body is doing things smoothly and the movements feel good. Ok, so I'm training in order to feel good about my body. Boring down to your actual motivations can help you get up and keep training even when you feel that your goals remain forever out of reach - or when you have already reached your goals and you may feel there's no longer anything to gain.

7. Try out new things. Try out new combos or techniques on the pell. Try out a new weapon form at practice. Choose a new running route, or try out a whole different form of cardio or a different sport.

8. Go back to basics. Maybe trying out a new thing feels completely beyond your reach. Work on the very basics that will always prove useful. Throw basic shots on the pell. Do footwork up and down the house or the garden. Practice shifting your weight.

9. Moderate your resources. You only have a certain amount of resources available during a day. It is likely that this amount has decreased since your mental injury kicked in. Accept and allow this. You will need to do a certain degree of prioritising. If you want to go for a run, you may not have the energy to work on that A&S project. Explain to your family that training will help you with your mental health and ask for support in enabling this. This may mean someone else cooking dinner, someone else dealing with school runs, or walking the dog, or many other similar chores. 

10. Be flexible. Consider a pool of different training activities that you can vary based on your energy levels. If you're not able to go for a run in the rain, can you practice footwork at home? If you're too tired to go to the gym, can you do yoga, pilates, or generic core exercises at home?     

Bonus

11. Talk. As worn as this advice is, it does work for a reason. Talk to your Knight, your squires, your consort, your friends and family, anyone you know well and whom you trust. You may feel that you're a burden and that nobody wants to listen, but this is your depression lying to you. If people don't want to listen, or are not in a position to do so, they will make their excuses and remove themselves. If people stay, or check in with you, don't be afraid to talk about what you're going through.

If you feel like you have nobody else around who understands what you're going through, you can always reach out to me, and I will try to listen the best I can, or arrange a time to do so.

What you are going through is normal and common, and your awareness of it makes you better and stronger.

Raglan Fair 2: the training

At Raglan, my Knight and I continued certain ongoing projects we had more or less started at another event in the early summer. He has been concentrating on really deconstructing elements of fighting and how to train it to logical parts of a functioning system, and I have been leading on efforts to incorporate mental wellbeing and mental training into the sphere of the practice of fighting. There's a lot to be said about that, and I will most likely write several posts about it in the future. Enough to note for now that so far we have run two discussion classes at events, one at Raglan, and they have been well received.

In terms of physical training, we met on four mornings during the event, with me running a short pilates-style core workout, followed by my Knight spending some time talking about the principles of training. We had a couple of people who turned up to every session, but mostly the participants varied. Essentially, this set of sessions was a short series of linked classes on how to train smart in the context of deconstructed fighting. We hope that at some point a version of this series will make its way online in video format.

My endurance and strength have increased considerably over the past year. Not uncoincidentally, I suspect, a little over a year ago my Knight started me on a systematic training programme, which moves on in c. 6 week periods. As mentioned in the previous post, my power generation has also gone up in the past couple of months, although it's not yet consistent enough to my liking.

Main principles of training: cardio & strength

I don't do crossfit or powerlifting (despite the fact that I like lifting very much). Our principle is moderation: doing a moderate amount of training means that you're less likely to be sore the following day, and thus you're able and willing to do another training session. This leads to you training on most days of the week.

For endurance and cardio fitness, I run. I have gone through several 6-week cycles with differing emphases, but as a rule a week's programme includes one short run, one session of sprints, and one long or two longish runs. I am not fast by any manner of means, but I can do 10K in reasonable comfort. We focus on consistency, rather than speed.

For strength, rather than working with an Olympic bar (which I otherwise am very fond of), I do one session a week with dumbbells at the gym, and, if I have time and the relevant machines are free, some further upper body -focused exercises. Because I'm working on gaining strength, I alternate between a heavy set and a light set of weights. At my most recent session I used 2 x 9kg and 2 x 3 kg weights. I do three exercises, 3 reps of heavy weights and 20 reps of light weights each, 3 sets of each.

I also have a set of TRX straps, which I use for bodyweight exercises once a week.

Main principles of training: core

The first thing everyone starting SCA armoured combat is that power comes from the hips, but it seems to me that we should be actually talking about our core: the area of deep muscles around your lower abdomen, and, yes, hips. Engaging the core, activating the muscles of that area as though you were zipping up jeans that are slightly too small, substantially aids with strength and balance. When you engage your core, your hips will tilt slightly forward. Apparently Musashi mentions something very similar. I have found that engaging my core while training & fighting leads to much better footwork and better striking power. A strong core also protects from back and hip injuries.

I do at least one core workout a week. Pilates is fantastic, but due to their cost I don't attend classes at the moment. I strongly recommend it to any fighter, all the same.

Raglan Fair 1: the fighting

Raglan Fair took place at Raglan Castle in the shire of Mynydd Gwyn (Wales) in the beginning of August. It is the Principality's major event with ten days of camping around a ruined castle, which is our playground for the event. Unfortunately, this time, on the last Friday the event steward made an informed and likely correct call to close the event early and advise those who could to leave due to some very bad weather rolling in. I, in the meantime, had allocated the first part of the event for non-fighting activities I enjoy: cooking, sewing, and camp life, and had intended to devote the second half of the event to fighting. As it was, I got only two days of actual fighting and four pretty intensive sessions of unarmoured training in.

Wednesday: I sponsored several tourneys during this Raglan. One of them I called the Path of Chivalry, which was adapted from the concept of Tournament of Chivalry from Double Wars in the Principality of Nordmark, which is less of a tournament and more of a large practice with knights. In the end, only two knights out of our very small chivalric population were available on the day, so the King, who was ill, was substituted by two of his squires, me and my brother. The tenans were arranged in different spots of the castle, where challengers could come fight them for feedback, circling between the locations on the evolving Path.

In the afternoon, I participated in small melees to amuse Her Highness the Princess, which was great fun. 

Thursday: In the morning, I took part in the Principality Protectors Tournament, which is an hour-long bearpit and one of my favourite tourneys. There's always a great, relaxed atmosphere, despite the victory of the tourney being prestigious. In the late evening, my very favourite tournament took place: torchlight Pas d'Armes, where tenans with closed face helms fight challengers in the castle courtyard lit by (gas) torches. This time, the misfortune that was the second weekend's bad weather already started on Thursday evening, so we all got soaked to the bone and eventually the King ended the tournament early. Usually I have fought this tourney as a tenans, but during the past year I sold my closed face helm due to being broke, so this year I was fighting as one of the challengers. As the conditions deteriorated, my invisible marshal hat sank deeper and deeper in my head, and I found it difficult to simply enjoy the fighting without being distracted by safety conditions. 

Analysis: I am reasonably happy with how I fought overall, although realistically I was only just about getting warmed up. The Protectors went the best of the lot - I think I got six points out of it. I had spent the two months previously basically practicing footwork out of armour, with very little else, and it seems to have borne fruit in that my footwork was better, even if still not great, and my power generation had improved considerably. As an important progress and success marker, I killed someone on their knees exactly the way Duke Gerhardt taught me at Double Wars. However, I need to keep working further on the footwork and start properly applying weight shifts to change angles and keep adding power. I also wasn't paying attention to range sufficiently well, ending up too close a lot, and failing to take much advantage of sideways and diagonal movement. I think what is happening at the moment is that I hold myself back too much, in an attempt to retain control of myself, my equipment and the fight, but by doing that I'm blocking my own natural flow. For much of the summer, I have felt like I have been right on the threshold of cracking the next level of movement and controlling the space of the fight, and I had had hopes that I could actually crack it Raglan. It was not yet to be.

I do seem to have got over the idea that I still need to desperately prove myself to other fighters, though. I felt much less need to fight on every single opportunity to demonstrate keenness, as I would have had in the past, even when there was something else on at the same time that I very much wanted to do. It seems that I am now pretty confident that other fighters know where I'm at, and I am comfortable with that. 

Curriculum: Class 5

(The class happened before Double Wars; I'm writing it up after Double Wars - some memory loss will have occurred.)

I had been reminded of the importance of warm-up, so we went through a few warm-up exercises as a group: First some gentle running across the length of the covered yard, followed by some sideways canter. The ground at our practice place is artificial lawn, so it's not something that particularly encourages burpees, bear walk or similar. We did squats and lunges instead.

1. Revision: footwork and the Compass Drill

We spent a few minutes revising footwork. I introduced the Compass Drill, as learned from Duke Sean - stepping in all the directions of the compass without crossing your feet, in both directions. I had the learners go through the drill first as it was, and then had them repeat the drill stepping around a person standing in the middle, so that they could see how the exercise worked in practice. 

2. Revision: Minimum blocking

We took another few minutes to remind ourselves of the basics of shield work in terms of moving it the minimum amount necessary to block the incoming shot.

3. Three states of shieldwork

I introduced the notion that your shield has three different states.

1) If you have not engaged, or are not in an active situation (for instance, during breaks between bouts), you shield is at rest. A strapped heater wearer like myself is likely to have their arm resting, pointing down, with the shield just hanging on as an attachment. The shield provides no protection. As it is important to conserve energy, you want to make sure your shield is at rest whenever possible.

2) As you prepare to engage, you bring your shield to its guard position, but, for the moment, the protection the shield provides is passive. Your opponent may be able to strike you over the shield's top edge, or around its sides. Your shield is on standby.

3) On engagement, you activate the shield. For me, due to the way my shield is strapped, this means pulling the straps my left hand is grasping more strongly, effectively towards me, so that the point of the shield is raised. You are now fully protected and your shield should be ready to react at the shortest possible notice. Your shield is now active.

These states may be different for centre grip users, but I do not feel fully qualified to discuss those kind of shields.Transitions from 1 to 2 and 2 to 3, obviously, depend on the situation.

4. Range

We spent the rest of the class discussing and practicing concepts of range. My thinking of it is strongly influenced by Count Wlfric and his classes on the subject I took a few years ago.

"A" range - You are up close and personal with your opponent. For most people, it is very difficult to conduct any reasonable actions from here as you are blocked by the opponent's body as much as their weapon and shield.

"B" range - You are at a comfortable range regarding your opponent. You have enough space between yourself and them to operate, and you are able to hit your opponent without reaching or having to take an extra step.

"C" range - In order to reach your opponent with a good blow, you need to take a step.

"D" range - You are fully out of range of your opponent, but the engagement has started.

"F" range - The engagement has not yet started.

I pointed out that in a fight, ranges of different people may be different becauses of differences in height and positioning. I invited the learners to consider and practice how they could position themselves best in order to gain advantage over their opponent. How does the positioning change, when the main intention is to strike, and how does it change, when the main intention is to block?

We will be working on range much more in future practices. The learners have now learned how to use the sword and how to use the shield - the next stage is learning how to use them together.


The curriculum will be disrupted for the summer, as one of the new fighters has travelled to Calontir to work there until early autumn, and another has decided that fighting is not for them at this point. We have a further new learner, who started several weeks after the others, so I intend to be primarily working with them until they catch up, at which point we can proceed with two people at roughly at the same point of their learning.     

To make a mistake

At Double Wars I spoke briefly with a young female squire, who is fairly fresh at fighting, and she mentioned an issue that has plagued me as well: that in melee scenarios, she finds herself hanging back, afraid that she might do something wrong.

It hasn't really left me since, and I wonder whether this is an inherent issue in minority fighters, or whether it is more widespread but doesn't get acknowledged. Further, I wonder whether this translates into one-to-one fighting, as well, and whether it is a factor in holding us back.

I suspect that this issue becomes more sensitive with people who have been socialised to avoid making any kind of fuss, to strive for perfectionism in all areas of life. Some people say "Sorry" excessively, apologising for any minor real and imagined trespass. Many people are socialised to feel accountable to (patriarchal) authority figures. SCA fighting is full of patriarchal authority figures, and those who are not but feel that they ought to be. Many people are also socialised to be afraid of male anger and its unpredictable consequences. I can see a situation where a less experienced fighter makes a mistake, and some others on the same side lose it a bit in the heat of the moment and adrenaline and say things they don't necessarily mean in tones and volume they don't necessarily mean at all.

They're your mates. But you've accidentally made them angry. You did that. Holy shit.

And you've disappointed them.

And they're going to go away thinking, wow, Agnes is such a noobass, never going to want to play with her again.

And what if they're not going to like you again?

My best fights have happened when I have not been emotionally invested in the outcome, or I have been in the very fine zone just before exhaustion, when I move in what to me feels like exaggerated patterns. I get into the flow when I let go. Imagine if you could just let go in all your fights, one to one and melee alike. Not be afraid to throw yourself into it, go full on Leeroy Jenkins with the knowledge that even if it doesn't work out, at least it'll be awesome, in some direction.

I don't know how to address this issue. Some of it seems to get a bit better simply with experience. Maybe we should all talk about our fuckups more. Maybe the commanders of melee teams need to explicitly say in the beginning of a melee tourney that making mistakes is okay (and if it was me, I'd say they'll be welcome, because a mistake means that something was done, so at least there was activity). And maybe those of us who are affected by this issue need to have a deep extended look at ourselves, and see what we can do for ourselves. Listen to the usual encouragement in the beginning of any tourney to have fun, and be aware that those words in themselves contain the permission to make mistakes. And each fighter everywhere can keep an eye out for others. Don't let anyone get away with losing their temper in the field. If someone makes a mistake, let them know that it's okay - because it has to be okay. 

Double Wars

Drachenwald's premier fighting event is the ten-day long Double Wars, which takes place in the Principality of Nordmark (Sweden) every May during the week Ascension Day falls on. The main war concerns the lasting debate of which side a slice of crispbread (knackebrod) should be buttered on: the flat side or the hol(e)y side. Otherwise, the event includes plenty of tourneys and training opportunities, as well as other usual SCA activities. For me, it is the year's best opportunity to get training from the top fighters of the kingdom and to connect with fighters outside Insulae Draconis. It is also the base of the extended household I belong to: the lineage of Duke Matthew Blackleaf.

This year, work has been inconvenient, and I had not planned to go at all, but the aspects of fighting and family weighed on me so much that only a few weeks ago I made the decision to go for the first half of the event, as it would interfere with work less.

I had three full days available, so I wanted to get in as much fighting and training as possible. In practice, I was forced to conclude once more that especially in the case of training, when you are actively working with your head as well as your body, you can only keep going so long.

1. Rose Tourney

I wasn't sure to begin with whether to fight in the tourney or to just do pickups, but I'm glad I went. The tourney was great fun. You issued a challenge and queued up to the list field with your partner, and the loser would retrieve a rose from the Queen and bring it to the winner's consort, or whoever they wished. Towards the end of the tourney, the marshal set up a few last man standing scenarios, which awarded more than one rose to the winner or winners. I fought for my friend Jasper and brought him six roses, for which he was very proud for the rest of the time I spent at the event.

2. Tournament of Chivalry

This is more of a three-hour high-level fighter practice with members of the Order of Chivalry. You invite a Knight to fight you, and possibly another one to observe, and you can ask for guidance in a particular element or just get general feedback. I had a list of things to get out of this one, which were:
1) Get time with my Uncle Knight George
2) Get time with Duke Gerhardt
3) Find every belted two-stick fighter and make them train me how to fight against them until I couldn't train no more.
I proceeded to do exactly this. I got some very useful pointers on fighting against two-stickers from Sirs Morales, Gilliam, Rok, and King William, but I feel that I need to put in a lot of further work towards figuring that one out properly.

Afterwards, my Knight invited me to do some pickups with him, but soon enough he sent me off to get out of armour, observing that I was too tired to do anything useful. The intensity of learning from the Knights and fighting them had creeped up without me noticing, and I held off from attending the fun pirate melee in the afternoon I had greatly enjoyed in previous years.

3. Training

On my third full day, I had offered to help marshal a new fighters tournament, but there were only two participants, so I wasn't needed. I got into armour nonetheless around noon hoping for pickups and training (although the previous night had been very late and involved a great deal of gin with other squires). I ended up spending most of the afternoon with Duke Gerhardt, who's one of my favourite trainers, working on how to control the fight in various ways. It was intense, but we took breaks and talked about what we had worked on, then put our hats back on and trained some more. Other people came and went, but we must have been working for about three hours. Afterwards I did a few pickups with Sir Wlfric and my own Knight.

More analysis and thoughts forthcoming, now that I have introduced the event.

Curriculum: Class 4

Spring is far enough in Ireland that we were able to move our practice outside, to the schoolyard, where we like to train during the brighter part of the year. We have lots and lots more space there, part of which is covered, so it's possible for us to train with extra space even when it rains.

1. Revision

Each class starts with a quick revision of what we have covered so far. Even if it's just a mention of the concept, it helps to bring it to mind.

2. Different types of shield

While the learners have been handling shields in previous classes, tonight we moved from talking about the basics of handling the sword to the basics of handling the shield. As my experience is, to a large extent, with heaters, I had Aodh talk about round and oval centre-grip shields and how they mechanically differ from strapped heaters in terms of range of movement and blocking. With a heater, you catch the incoming blows with the corners as much as possible; with a centre-grip, you track the opponent's sword hilt with your shield boss, and punch the incoming blow out of the way. These days, we have many different kinds of shields available at our practice, which has not always been the case, so we encouraged the learners to try out different shields to see which one they liked best.

We also briefly talked about other weapon forms that are available, and the benefits and disadvantages of the sword & shield against them.

3. What you can and cannot do with a shield

As I cover mechanics of topics, I try to do that in conjunction with the relevant rules and accepted customs of the list. It's no use to know how to use the shield if you are taken by surprise by a shield hook you didn't expect because you didn't know it could be done. So we talked about how you are not allowed to slam your shield against the body of your opponent, but you can use the shield to manipulate your opponent's shield and weapon. I demonstrated the shield hook (opening a tin can is how I like to think about it) and how to lock your opponent's defence in place by exerting pressure on their shield. 

4. Efficient blocking: the concept of minimum movement

Next was the time for the concept of the minimum movement: how to move your shield the minimum necessary distance to block the incoming blow, in order to preserve your energy, and in order to be able to return the shield quickly to your basic guard. The concept is the same as with the sword: a shot is not complete until you have recovered your sword to where you are comfortable and able to strike again with ease; and a block is not complete until you have returned your shield home.

Which led us to....

5. Finding your guard and keeping it while in motion

I talked about how you need to make sure after each block and each blow you need to return "home", to your basic stance where you are protected and ready to attack as well as defend yourself. People have different preferred positions for their shields and their swords, which can really only be discovered through practice, so I invited them to adopt a guard in which they felt comfortable. The trick is to maintain this guard in motion, particularly in the fast movements of a fight. 

 6. Drill: Keeping your shield in place while you strike

We practiced the above by adapting the previous week's exercise of connecting footwork with blows. So we proceeded across the shorter side of the yard, now with quite a few different elements to keep in mind: footwork, for sure, but also ensuring that the shield didn't leave its safe spot while blows were being struck in the air and returned. As we know, this one is tricky.... and an exercise I will be getting back to many times.

7. Drill: Minimum movement

One of my favourite drills involves learning the practical aspect of the minimum movement concept. I learned it from Master Cernac. This exercise involves working in pairs. Person A observes Person B, who adopts their guard. Having identified a gap, Person A gently and very slowly directs a blow into that gap. Person B takes careful notice of this. Person A recovers, and repeats exactly the same thing, but this time, Person B moves their shield as little as necessary to block/deflect/take out (assumed) power of the incoming blow. Roles are switched over, and repeated several times. 

8. Slow work

After all of the above, it was time for slow work once more to try to make use of the things learned during the class.

Curriculum: Class 3

By the time of writing this, Class 3 of the Curriculum was two weeks ago, and annoyingly I'm struggling a bit to remember what we did. I was pleased that all three newbies were still present, and displayed every sign of being keen to continue. One of them is ambidexterous, with a preference for using her left hand, so I was very pleased that our resident leftie Mícheál was present as well.

Once more, we started by quickly revising what we had done so far in order to keep the flow of new information untangled. I outsourced this to Aodh while I was getting into armour.

1. Third shot: The Wrap

I remember having fierce trouble with the wrap shot. I don't feel that I properly "got" it until late last year, in fact. Many other people have also reported difficulty with this shot, so I wanted to spend some extra time with it. Annoyingly, we don't have a pell at the practice, but we did have three spare people, so (as very often) we used those people and swords held upright by them as pells. I explained my method, and then had them practice the shot, reviewing it for each one at a time.

I started out by talking about targeting, and how many people forget that the legal target areas extend to the back of the body as well as the front. The wrap is a way to access those hard to reach target areas.

My disclaimer is always that I can only teach as I have been taught. With the wrap, this is particularly pronounced, as my Knight teaches it in a very specific way. The shot starts the same way as the two others. From your basic guard, your hip moves forward, letting its force to extend your arm, in a throwing motion, so that the sword moves forward, pommel first, in a straight line, as though you are planning to throw an onside shot. Instead of keeping your palm facing upright for the entire shot, at the point where the momentum has pushed the sword to its halfway point, you turn your elbow outward so that the point of your elbow faces out. This turns your hand so that when the strike lands, your palm is facing downwards.

I demonstrated the arm movement without a stick - it's like clasping someone around the neck or back with your stick - and asked them to do it to each other. Then we moved on to practicing it with swords, and I was pleased to see that the learners picked up the shot reasonably well.

2. Connecting shots and footwork

I warned the learners that I was about to introduce them to a very tedious exercise, which resembled the previous week's Statues game but was nowhere near as fun. I found that it was a very useful exercise, though, as it forces you to think about connecting your feet and your sword from early on.

You assume your basic stance, and then proceed a distance using the basic footwork. With each step, you strike against an invisible opponent, or, alternatively, recover your sword. The step and the strike must be in sync. You can strike using any of the three blows you have learned, but each must be fully recovered before you strike another one. You repeat the distance a few times, including backwards.

3. Active spectating and commentary

While I have deliberately - partly because of their own request, and partly because of my own judgement - not put the newbies in armour yet, I have wanted them to get a good idea of what they're getting into. Each time a new person appeared, we started out by doing a quick introduction to the concept of the fighting and the gear we use, and then I demonstrated with someone else what the fighting was actually like.

In subsequent cases where the newbies have had to be idle while fighting has taken place, due to space restrictions, for instance, I have used what I call the method of active spectating. That simply means that they have a more experienced fighter watching with them, providing commentary of what is actually taking place - and why. The commentator points out things like, "Did you see that wrap?" or "Do you see how she's moving her shield, only a little bit" or "Look at how he's using his height and longer range to get at her". The commentator attempts to show that any fight consists of elements that the learners already know, it is simply matter of being able to isolate them from the overall whole - just as when you're learning a new language.

4. Power and movement

To end this session, which contained a lot of things to take in, I wanted to give the learners the experience of putting the lessons in use and to get the experience of hitting something for real, without having to be nervous of being hit in return. Mícheál and I, in armour, went on full defence, and got each of the learners to practice trying to hit us with power, while keeping moving at all times. I was pleased with the results - there is, of course, a lot to be done, but the very solid base was definitely there.

Cruinniú - Lough Devnaree Fight Camp

Some time the year before last I got sick of the lack of dedicated fighting events in the Isles, and decided to have my own. Thus was born Cruinniú - which in Irish means gathering, meeting, assembly, the participants on a sports field. In January last year, I harassed, cajoled, encouraged and threatened people in Ireland and the UK until we had about twenty people in attendance, as well as a small group from Nordmark accompanying Sir Torbjorn whom I persuaded to come over to teach. We did a lot of melee training, which we don't normally get to do much, and it seemed people really liked it.

Coming up to this year, I had been up to a lot of stuff and wasn't really intending to run another fighting event, until my Knight noted that it would be a really good idea and he would like to see me do it. I had made acquaintances at previous Estrella War, and Sir Donngal and Mistress Iona from Atenveldt figured they would enjoy a holiday in Ireland and respectively teach fighting and Middle Eastern dancing at this event.

You'll note that I talk about importing knights - we don't have any knights on the island of Lough Devnaree, so a few years ago I started talking my high level fighter friends to come over every once in a while to give lessons, and some others have used their contacts as well. Since they usually go to some effort to teach a bunch of provincials (among whom I include myself) I try to make a bit of a fuss of them at the same time.

Unfortunately, just before the event, Sir Donngal hurt his back and was unable to travel. Happily, his friend Sir Sly and Sly's lady Josephine still made it to Ireland, and Sly very generously dropped over on the Saturday to give people some pointers and to teach a class on the spear. Master Alexandre d'Avigne and Crown Prince Vitus provided individual and pair coaching, and the latter gave a class on efficient pellwork.  Master Robert spent much of the weekend with complete newbies, running through his curriculum. All in all, we were quite well served in terms of teachers, in the end.

I was very happy that we had about three people who were complete beginners, as well as others who had recently started and were able to avail of the classes. Altogether we had about 18 people in armour, as well as others doing A&S or cooking, so that the full event was about 30 people.

I felt that the morning slot was a bit slow, although we suffered a little from bad weather. People mostly stuck to the paved areas near the main building, which caused a little crowding and I felt it didn't lift the spirits. After Master Alexandre's class on fighting poleweapons was over, there seemed to be a little drifting among the fighters, so at a future event I might need to think of a way to warm people up, get them going, and possibly provide a little bit more directed programming, although I dislike very strict timetables at events. At this one, we had scheduled the meals, and otherwise we had "the morning slot", "the afternoon slot" and "the evening slot".

After lunch, weather was better, and we were able to spread out into a large green walled off area. I felt the afternoon slot went better - two classes took place, and people did pickups and ad hoc training without being prompted. At one point I looked up from my own training, and saw pairs of fighters everywhere around me, with other people talking and watching, and felt very very happy that such a thing was taking place in Lough Devnaree, where fighting had been pretty quiet for some time.

I had wanted to do something special during the evening slot, after dinner, and had asked permission of my Knight to organise a torchlight tourney. In a torchlit Pas d'Armes, a wide path is formed of torches stuck to the ground. This passage is held by a number of tenants, whom the entering venants must fight in order to pass through and to circle back to the end of the line. Typically, this tourney lasts for an hour. There is no winner: this tournament is about chivalry and the joy of fighting: a deed of arms, which is my favourite kind of tourney. I introduced the format to the spectators, and had all the tenants and venants to introduce themselves. Here, the pool of tenants consisted of the Crown Prince, Master Alexandre, Lord John and myself. Of us four, two held the passage at any given time. Our venants numbered approximately six. An hour was quite a long time of fighting in this format after already being in armour for the entire day, and for the last three fights I ran on a less than empty tank. I had the honour to finish the tournament with Master Cernac, during which I learned to tap into negative energy reserves.

Apparently we are running another such event next year - a household member has offered to steward it for me, as long as I organise the fighting. Now I just have to find someone to come over to teach....

Curriculum: Class 2

I am having the luxury problem that there is too much heavy stuff happening for me to actually keep up with it here. I will have to condense the Curriculum classes 2 and 3 somewhat.

We had a third new person start at my Class 2.  It was relatively straightforward to integrate her along the other two, as I wanted to do substantial revision of the first class in the beginning of the second one anyway. Revision is something I want to keep carrying on through the curriculum, as I want to keep working on the structured framework of building new lessons on the previous ones, so that everything works together and makes sense together as much as possible.

1. Recovery - the concept

Having finished revision, I pointed out that a shot is not finished until you have recovered it to a position where you are able to strike again. For a beginner, this will mean returning to your base stance. We practiced striking with the hip, and using the hip to recover the arm back into the starting position. I asked them to keep the concept in mind as we moved on, since we'd need to come back to it in a bit.

2. Second shot: the off-side

Time to introduce the second basic shot of the three: the off-side. Start exactly as you would your on-side shot. Hip brings the sword forward, pommel-first, until the momentum forces the rest of the sword to move. Turn your wrist to a backhand so that the sword edge hits your opponent's right side (your left side) and your palm ends up pointing downward.

Once you have got the hang of this shot, practice completing the shot by recovering from the off-side to the basic stance.

3. Introduction to transitions

So we have worked out two different shots, and talked about the concept of recovery, so we are now ready to think about how we might move from one shot to another. Efficient recovery is the key here. A minimal recovery can be performed by allowing the sword tip to fall back, while your hand and arm still stay out front. Practicing the very simple on-side/off-side transition/combo allows you to instinctively get a better grasp of the mechanics of the two shots, pay attention to how your hips move to enable the exercise, and likewise intuitively let you perform the transition.

4. Game: Statues

I strongly believe in incorporating an element of fun and a bit of lightheartedness into training. Last week we played tag using footwork, this time we did another footwork exercise in the guise of another children's game. With a sword and shield, the players line up at one end of the hall, while one person takes their place at the far end, without any equipment, facing away from them. The players must proceed through the hall, but the person at the other end - the watcher - will periodically turn around, and if they see anyone move, they will send that person back to the end of the hall. Kind of like Doctor Who's Weeping Angels. The object is to touch the watcher GENTLY with a sword tip, and take the watcher's place. We played a few rounds of this.

5. Slow work

The concept of slow work was introduced to the new person, and the learners were set at each other under a careful eye.



 
  

Ostara: the other kind of first lesson

Visited a neighbouring shire's College's 10th anniversary celebrations yesterday. Two of my usual fighting buddies were going, so I fancied getting into armour and getting in some casual fun for the afternoon. I figured that there might be some potentially interested people present, and failing that, we could show good example at the very least and enrich the event.

I ended up somewhat distracted by the (to me) unexpected news that my Knight had won his fourth Crown, but counter-distraction was provided by the fact that there were no less that three people present who wanted to have a go at getting into armour.

Acquisition and retention of fighters are a big issue where we are. In a few years, we have evolved from having a number of fighters calculatable by the fingers of one hand, to a fairly healthy number, at least in our peripheral terms. So if any interest shows itself, I'm always going to prioritise that above my own armour time.

Gytha, Mícheál and I did a quick warm-up followed by a ten-minute bearpit between the three of us. I have an untested formed-before-going-to-sleep last night hypothesis is allowing three minutes per fighter and rounding up to a convenient number is a useful metric for a casual bearpit. (So, for four fighters, 12 minutes, round up to 15, for 5, ok, you get 15, but you can bring that up to 20 - so maybe it should be three and a half minutes... science to be done.)

Between the loaner gear that I had brought just in case (just as well), and pieces cannibalised from Mícheál and myself, we were able to get the three gents in full kit. Here, I took a different approach from teaching the newcomers in my own shire: they had approached us, were prepared to take things slowly, step by step, and understood the preference for a curriculum stretching over several weeks. In this case, I was mindful that, instead, we had, essentially, approached them, and had to provide a hook to get and keep them interested. That hook had to be the actual wearing of armour, keeping talking to the minimum (which was still quite a lot), and letting them have a go at Gytha: our moving pell, and each other.

One of the gents had done some training before, so after the introductory talk and instructions I paired him with Gytha for a beginners plus lesson. I pointed Mícheál to look after the other two, who were working on a very basic level. This arrangement had a few advantages: 1) We had the energy of two training pairs going on at all times; 2) all the newbies had the personal attention of someone more experienced; 3) Gytha and Mícheál had a chance to begin teaching.

We did two sessions with a break in between, and switched pairings so that the three had a chance to practice with everyone. It seemed to go well - when I had called time, two asked if they could keep going for a while longer.

We talked about the prospect of setting up a practice in their area, but it remains to be seen whether that would be actually viable or not. I suspect that a couple of weekend practices nearby to test the waters would be the way to go.






 

Curriculum: Class 1

In the SCA, we typically teach fighting in a fairly haphazard way: here are the three shots, here's your armour, go fight people, figure the rest of it out yourself. As far as I know - and would be very happy to be corrected in this - in Drachenwald, only Master Robert of Canterbury has put together a structured curriculum in order to teach complete newcomers. I am very keen to explore the curriculum approach, as I think a solid 6-8 week step-by-step curriculum would substantially help new fighters, improve retention rate, and avoid the development of many bad habits that will later have to be unlearned. 

In Dun In Mara, we have had the good fortune of two newcomers starting within a space of a week, so I'm using them as my guinea pigs, and recording the "class notes" here. 

Introduction to Heavy Fighting: Class One 

1. Concept - what are you getting yourself into? 

A form of full contact martial art c.50 years old, derived from boxing, American military and how people thought Medieval tournament fighting ought to be. Rigorous safety regulations in terms of protective gear, gear inspections and marshalling. 

No one true correct way to do things. 

Victories decided by honour system: you never win, your opponent always grants you victory. Conceptual difference between light and good blows. 

Gender - women and men train together and fight together, no segregation of genders in tournaments. My experiences as a gender minority fighter in Drachenwald have been 100% positive (but not necessarily the case everywhere). 

2. Fighting demo with commentary of what's happening from a third person - do you still want to stay after seeing what it's like? 

3. Introduction to footwork

Importance of body parts regarding effective fighting decreases as you move upwards on your body.
Feet - the most important
Hips - the second important
Arms - not really all that important 

Start by familiarisation with the fighting stance: feet roughly hip width apart, shield foot in front of the sword foot, both sets of toes pointing forward. Knees very gently bent to allow for maximum movement and reaction. Back and head straight. Core engaged.

Footwork exercises individually and in pairs, forward and backwards: tap-and-step to train testing the step before committing, never cross your legs. Retain the position of the feet - even as you step, keep the sword foot behind the shield foot.

Footwork tag: We played a game of tag in a group of unarmoured fighters, using the footwork, in order to train not only the footwork itself but how to employ it in a quick, dynamic situation involving many other people. 

4. Using the hip  

Assume the fighting stance and engage your core. Now pretend you're carrying a full tray in your hands and you need to close an open drawer in front of you. Close the imaginary drawer with your dominant side hip. That is the motion that you are looking for. Your heel may come up off the ground, that is fine. 

Ragdoll exercise: With your core engaged, move your hips back and forth, side to side, but completely relax your upper body. Pay attention to how your hips move your arms. Now repeat with a sword. The arms should be totally relaxed, and the sword movement powered by the movement alone. 

Demonstrate the differences between an arm-powered and a hip-powered shot. 

5. Introduction to flatsnap

There are three basic shots, but we will focus on each individually. Handily, they are all more or less the same shot, with the wrist movement at the end determining which shot the blow lands at. 

Flatsnap/on-side shot moves in a straight line from the starting point to the target. Hip moves forward, simultaneously bringing the hand holding the sword hilt with it. The tip of the sword follows behind the hand/hilt but remains on the same straight line. Using the power provided by the hip, extend your arm in a strong forward-moving motion as though throwing a tennis ball. When the sword connects with the target, your palm should be facing upwards.

Learners practice on the pell until it looks like their focus is suffering - and bear in mind they have had a lot of new things already to take in.   

Ideally, finish off with some very controlled slow work to combine the elements of the class.

Plan for next time: Revision of footwork and the snap, completing your shots through recovery, introduction to the off-side shot, introduction to transition from one shot to the next.