Fight Practice
I can't come all the way to Vancouver and not get to a Heavy Practice.
So here are some of my thoughts on how things went. I headed into the practice with something ya_inga said a while back about defense and keeping square to the line of attack - or something like that. None the less I went in hoping to key on my D so that I would not be an easy kill. Overall I think this worked well.
There were far too many people there to remember all the names and I am crappy with names any way.
So the first fight was with a guy who looked newish and was a righty with a centre boss round shield. Had some good passes, he was taking my leg often, but beyond that was having trouble finishing me off. So I need to work on protecting my leg and getting my own shots in.
Second fight, tall squire guy (possibly one of Marc's), righty, heater, thrusty. Here I did okay, D was still good and he was relying on his thrusty way too much. I am a fencer you are not going to thrust me in the face. I got one or two kills on him when his D opened up a bit so I was happy with that. Still though work on leg D.
Third fight, some Don guy (Guido), Righty, centre boss round. Again leg D. Guido was taking my leg (left) at will. Though when I was on my knees he had to work very hard to finish me off. It was usually a battle of who would run out of steam first. Unfortunately it was usually him, though not by much. So I need to work on my leg D and my stamina some more. We had a chat later and it seems that I am standing to upright and so maybe by bending my knees more and lowering my centre of gravity I might be able to take away those leg shots. Must find a mirror and work on my stance and my coverage.
Fourth fight, Yarl Hwolfe, righty, flat heater. This was a good lesson. Took a look at my shots and suggested playing with how my sword was weighted so to make it a bit more tip heavy. Note get a longer bit of ratan to balance the weight. He also made some suggestions for stance - see comments about mirror above. We had a good chat afterward and talked about blow combinations and training strategies for my pell pole workouts. Need to work on slow stuff and get some combos to throw, then work on stamina. Said my D was good, but that I needed to ramp up the aggression and throw more combo's.
Last fight, His Highness Ulfgar, righty, centre boss round. I didn't know who he was until the end of the fight - so that was probably good. Again leg D (the chats about how to fix it happened after this fight). Other than that D was good except when he opened me up with some off body stuff. I can't remember too much about this fight, but my lingering impressions are that the D was still good, but I needed to fight back more and not let him bring it too me as much. I realized who he was when we were talking about the heavy tourney at Danescombe this weekend - then the penny dropped.
All in all not a bad practice, though it makes me a bit sad that I had not got my act together and started with this heavy stuff before I moved away from the Vancouver area.
So here are some of my thoughts on how things went. I headed into the practice with something ya_inga said a while back about defense and keeping square to the line of attack - or something like that. None the less I went in hoping to key on my D so that I would not be an easy kill. Overall I think this worked well.
There were far too many people there to remember all the names and I am crappy with names any way.
So the first fight was with a guy who looked newish and was a righty with a centre boss round shield. Had some good passes, he was taking my leg often, but beyond that was having trouble finishing me off. So I need to work on protecting my leg and getting my own shots in.
Second fight, tall squire guy (possibly one of Marc's), righty, heater, thrusty. Here I did okay, D was still good and he was relying on his thrusty way too much. I am a fencer you are not going to thrust me in the face. I got one or two kills on him when his D opened up a bit so I was happy with that. Still though work on leg D.
Third fight, some Don guy (Guido), Righty, centre boss round. Again leg D. Guido was taking my leg (left) at will. Though when I was on my knees he had to work very hard to finish me off. It was usually a battle of who would run out of steam first. Unfortunately it was usually him, though not by much. So I need to work on my leg D and my stamina some more. We had a chat later and it seems that I am standing to upright and so maybe by bending my knees more and lowering my centre of gravity I might be able to take away those leg shots. Must find a mirror and work on my stance and my coverage.
Fourth fight, Yarl Hwolfe, righty, flat heater. This was a good lesson. Took a look at my shots and suggested playing with how my sword was weighted so to make it a bit more tip heavy. Note get a longer bit of ratan to balance the weight. He also made some suggestions for stance - see comments about mirror above. We had a good chat afterward and talked about blow combinations and training strategies for my pell pole workouts. Need to work on slow stuff and get some combos to throw, then work on stamina. Said my D was good, but that I needed to ramp up the aggression and throw more combo's.
Last fight, His Highness Ulfgar, righty, centre boss round. I didn't know who he was until the end of the fight - so that was probably good. Again leg D (the chats about how to fix it happened after this fight). Other than that D was good except when he opened me up with some off body stuff. I can't remember too much about this fight, but my lingering impressions are that the D was still good, but I needed to fight back more and not let him bring it too me as much. I realized who he was when we were talking about the heavy tourney at Danescombe this weekend - then the penny dropped.
All in all not a bad practice, though it makes me a bit sad that I had not got my act together and started with this heavy stuff before I moved away from the Vancouver area.