after-action report: Courtin' on the River 2-29-20

[marielaf]

Nine fencers: Maire, Ix, Alexander de Seton, Alexander of Dark River, Tyberious, Zachary, Stephanie, Ulfr of Calontir

Warmup: S&D vs AdS with S&Buckler - Not bad for warmup passes. One strong block with dagger triggered the right-wrist tendinitis; switched to fighting sword-right (weight was less painful than bending the joint) for a few passes. Made him work for what he got.

Auth partner for Stephanie's dagger auth: S&D sword-right. She's fast and aggressive. Good fights.

Rapier Melee 101 class: case in 4-on-5 lines. First few engagements were purely and not successfully defensive, then found my mental footing and gave as good as I got. Class was truly fundamentals - needed for some of us, good review for the rest. Combined with the offensive and defensive melee classes from MKAOD I feel a good bit more confident about stepping out onto the field.

Round robin tourney, best 2 of 3 passes, double kills not re-fought: S&D all bouts, almost entirely sword-left except after losing the arm on occasion.

• Ulfr with sword-left S&B: Please, please, PLEASE let me face more lefty S&B! Dagger to block the blade out, sword in over the board. Won 2/0
• Stephanie with S&D: Very fast-moving, lots of near misses, lots of laughter. A fun fight. Lost 1/2
• Maire with S&B: She wasn't on top of her form - I should not have been able to take her so easily. Unfortunate hard shot to her right shoulder when she didn't move as far as I thought she did. (I still feel bad about it.) Both wins were upper right torso close to shoulder. Won 2/0
• Ix with case: Mental win of the day - I fared much better against him than the win/loss numbers say. Made him work for at least one of his wins. Very happy with my performance in the bout. Lost 1/2
• AdS with S&B: Back to sword-left against him, dagger was working well. Ran into problems when he took the dagger hand out. Lost 1/2
• Alexander of Dark River with S&D: This one could have gone either way - came down to slight errors of coverage or movement. He took the first two but we fought the third for the joy of it. Lost 1/2
• Tyberious with S&B: Looks slow and moves fast; got the only one-shot of the day in on me. Second pass was better, but probably my weakest bout of the day (one of the last ones, shoulders and wrist were all complaining pretty loudly). Lost 0/2
• Zachary with case: Hilarious. I kept binding both his blades out to either side - not exactly a winning tactic, but certainly a survival one. Also could have gone either way, all wins were chance shots that slid through. Great way to end the day. Lost 1/2

Most of my losses were high centerline shots, often after losing one arm. Legged a couple of times, one head shot (AdS, I think). Really, really need to work on singlesword (either/both hands) against S&D.

Great day. Glad I went, glad I fought.
Tourney record: