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.
Thursday, 30 May 2019
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.
Thursday, 2 May 2019
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.
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.
Saturday, 27 April 2019
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.
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.
Wednesday, 24 April 2019
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....
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....
Monday, 15 April 2019
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.
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.
Sunday, 31 March 2019
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.
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