My rank test
THe format was as follows. Five minute bouts with no more than a 30 second pause in betweent against a fresh opponant each bout who could bring to the table any weapon style he/she wanted. All in all I fought 10 bouts over an hour ten minutes. they broke down as follows.
1) my instructor. we did the fancy ponce salute and then he proceeded to set an amazingly high energy level for the rest of the bouts. Using broadsword wasters (the single sticks) we wailed (whaled?) the crap out of each other. striking my leg many times more than i would have liked him to, and making sure this test would be nice and painful. tried something new, and ended up with a caning across my front ribs.
2) a gentleman from another school, faced me with the singlesticks using modern saber fighting. Small guy, light on his feet, but wide guards. i gave as well as i got, though touches were mostly light.
3) Longsword student. He faced me with a purpleheart waster, and i him with the singlestick. Poor man was out of shape and slow on the attack, but the longsword is still hard to get around. Forearms are a great target, btw. He wasnt used to being hit the way we practised, and almost faught me without a gambeson. At one point i did what you all would recognize as zweich houes (parden my horrible spelling) and hit both of his forearms with two different strikes as a response to a thrust out of distance. Feel kinda sorry for the guy. I did get to try the "grabbing the longsword and closing in attack" and it worked very well, if only i had gotten a good firm grasp on the sword.
4) was the only female combatant, a member of my own school. I admit i find it difficult to take the idea of fencing her seriously, because she is so short and cute. that kept me from hitting her alot, but she didnt really touch me.
5) oh jesus. this was a Philipino kali stick fighter. Two sticks to my one, and they HURT! he would charge in, take a strike to the leg, and then proceed to beat the crap out of me with four or five blows before i could say "ow". this happened twice. by the third time i was retreating out of distance and raining blows back, so we eventually reached a standstill, with him changing guards and me just siing him up. finall, when he was in a sort of "dual pflug" stance, covering both his inside and outside low lines, i got bold. I screamed bloody murder and circled around with an outside high attack and struck him hard on what turned out to be his funny bone. He dropped one of the sticks and couldnt make a fist to pick it up again. I won that round by default.
6) Instructor from the longsword group. This was rebated steel on rebated steel fighting. he got only one good touch on me, and i nicked his knuckles a few times. but most of the 5 minutes was spent traversing around each other and taking oposit guards. hanging versus alber actually works pretty well.
7) My instructor again. We faught as always, until a bit of poor swordsmanship. he turned to the spectators and said "we're not normally that sloppy" i began to agree, and got struck full force in the throat. Bout was called for that one, and after a minute and a little sip of water or two, i was back out.
8)Melian, the girl from my school, round two. I was pissed and exhausted, and probably hit her more than i would have liked, but i decidedly won that one. took a couple to the arm, i think. she ended up dropping her sword and bullrushed me, and kneed me in the groin.
9) saber guy again. we circled, a couple near misses, a few wrist hits, then i somehow turn up with a beat/cut that knocked his sword out of the way and hit him on the right shoulder/neck, and would have cut him in half. i was very tired by this point.
10) kail stick guy again, but this time with a rebated steel katana. He wanted to try this as a "halo" match... pulled cuts. He pulled a high vom tag and i simply extended and stabbed him in the chest. everyone laughed at that. He tried a "you're shoe is untied" i stepped out of distance and looked down, and he thrust at my stomache, only to have my parry and ripost to his wrist.
At the end, the four experienced swordsmen went off to discuss. The vote was unanimous.
I am now Free Scholar Justin Kirck of the Cateran Society.
And fucking bruised like you wouldnt believe.
Damn kali stick guy.
1) my instructor. we did the fancy ponce salute and then he proceeded to set an amazingly high energy level for the rest of the bouts. Using broadsword wasters (the single sticks) we wailed (whaled?) the crap out of each other. striking my leg many times more than i would have liked him to, and making sure this test would be nice and painful. tried something new, and ended up with a caning across my front ribs.
2) a gentleman from another school, faced me with the singlesticks using modern saber fighting. Small guy, light on his feet, but wide guards. i gave as well as i got, though touches were mostly light.
3) Longsword student. He faced me with a purpleheart waster, and i him with the singlestick. Poor man was out of shape and slow on the attack, but the longsword is still hard to get around. Forearms are a great target, btw. He wasnt used to being hit the way we practised, and almost faught me without a gambeson. At one point i did what you all would recognize as zweich houes (parden my horrible spelling) and hit both of his forearms with two different strikes as a response to a thrust out of distance. Feel kinda sorry for the guy. I did get to try the "grabbing the longsword and closing in attack" and it worked very well, if only i had gotten a good firm grasp on the sword.
4) was the only female combatant, a member of my own school. I admit i find it difficult to take the idea of fencing her seriously, because she is so short and cute. that kept me from hitting her alot, but she didnt really touch me.
5) oh jesus. this was a Philipino kali stick fighter. Two sticks to my one, and they HURT! he would charge in, take a strike to the leg, and then proceed to beat the crap out of me with four or five blows before i could say "ow". this happened twice. by the third time i was retreating out of distance and raining blows back, so we eventually reached a standstill, with him changing guards and me just siing him up. finall, when he was in a sort of "dual pflug" stance, covering both his inside and outside low lines, i got bold. I screamed bloody murder and circled around with an outside high attack and struck him hard on what turned out to be his funny bone. He dropped one of the sticks and couldnt make a fist to pick it up again. I won that round by default.
6) Instructor from the longsword group. This was rebated steel on rebated steel fighting. he got only one good touch on me, and i nicked his knuckles a few times. but most of the 5 minutes was spent traversing around each other and taking oposit guards. hanging versus alber actually works pretty well.
7) My instructor again. We faught as always, until a bit of poor swordsmanship. he turned to the spectators and said "we're not normally that sloppy" i began to agree, and got struck full force in the throat. Bout was called for that one, and after a minute and a little sip of water or two, i was back out.
8)Melian, the girl from my school, round two. I was pissed and exhausted, and probably hit her more than i would have liked, but i decidedly won that one. took a couple to the arm, i think. she ended up dropping her sword and bullrushed me, and kneed me in the groin.
9) saber guy again. we circled, a couple near misses, a few wrist hits, then i somehow turn up with a beat/cut that knocked his sword out of the way and hit him on the right shoulder/neck, and would have cut him in half. i was very tired by this point.
10) kail stick guy again, but this time with a rebated steel katana. He wanted to try this as a "halo" match... pulled cuts. He pulled a high vom tag and i simply extended and stabbed him in the chest. everyone laughed at that. He tried a "you're shoe is untied" i stepped out of distance and looked down, and he thrust at my stomache, only to have my parry and ripost to his wrist.
At the end, the four experienced swordsmen went off to discuss. The vote was unanimous.
I am now Free Scholar Justin Kirck of the Cateran Society.
And fucking bruised like you wouldnt believe.
Damn kali stick guy.