(no subject)
Last time I posted (two and a half months ago) I mentioned starting my SCA fighting journal to document how practice is going and what I need to work on. I've got two entries in it including tonight's. :P I'm going to just start posting it here, since I'm not really doing anything else with this thing.
April 22, 2008
This is my third time fighting in chainmail. I should probably carry a repair kit featuring extra rings and pliers, since part of the brass inlay popped. I finished my right sleeve, which had the unexpected side effect of pulling down my strap over my shoulder. I think I need to lessen my head hole, but I’ll ask around and see what people think. Protection wise, I don’t think this is what I want to use forever. I took one or two body shots and they didn’t hurt, but I saw the potential for pain in the future, especially if I take a stab to the solar plexus. Oy.
I spent some one on one time with Marek tonight. I was concentrating on blocking three shots before retaliating, and I feel that this helped me some. Unfortunately, I was throwing out some reflexive wristy type shots that landed, but without any kind of power. He suggested pell work. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a pell or a tree right now. Although I could possibly go out in the alleyway and thump on a telephone pole.
My main problems right now that I’m seeing is that I have no inner-range game, I’m throwing reflexive shots, and I’m not putting enough power into my shots. I think pell work would help out all of this, especially if I belly up to the pole for my inside game.
I think I might need to play around with a punch shield. The strap shield isn’t mobile enough, and I’m weighed down with armor to the point where I can’t use body speed like in Amtgard.
August 19
Wow. I’ve not fought heavy since April. That sucks. My skills haven’t suffered from this, but they’ve surely not improved.
No other heavies showed up with gear today until late. Gunnar had me gear up anyway and used my sword to work on my shield work. My reactions are too slow. Part of it is that I’m unfamiliar with the types of shots that go to the head, still am not used to blocking the head, and it’s a heavier shield than the corrugated plastic one I use in Amtgard. These aren’t excuses, just comments. I figure I’ll do okay once I learn the various ways a shot to the head can come in, and then I’ll need to work on reading an opponent’s intentions better. This is something that will have to come with time and experience. I could do some practice on reading intentions, however. MHOG’s published notes on Tourney Fu has a section on reading opponents, if I remember right. I’ll have to look at it later.
After shield work, I did some pell work. I worked on only one shot. It’s an offside snap. Gunnar had me work on that one since my onside shots are fairly good, but my offside tends to lack power. I concentrated mostly on putting my hips into it, and did some fiddling around to find the range of it.
Another heavy showed up around 7:45 or 8. I think his name is Caedelus or something like that. My ears were still ringing from a headshot Gunnar gave me earlier, so I’m not positive what he said. Apparently he’s from Morgantown and has moved into the area, after having fought for a few years. He armored up and we went at it for about half an hour. I did better than I probably should have. I don’t know if he’s inexperienced, or if it was because I had warmed up and he hadn’t, or what, but I won about 9 out of every 10 bouts. I noticed that my main combination is throwing onside leg, and then offside to the helm. Most of the time I killed him before his knees hit the ground. On the occasions that I didn’t, I was most successful with a direct stab to the grill. I was also successful with the face stab when standing; I pulled it off about three times. My defense was fairly solid during this. The work I had done with Gunnar earlier paid off. The only solid shots he ended up landing were two to the helm and a shot to the arm, but that one was after I had already killed him. My blocks weren’t really complete, however. Instead, I was mostly just jamming the shots. They still got through, but with greatly reduced power. While that’s not bad, I’m going to try to concentrate on my blocking so that I don’t have to worry at all about whether or not a shot had enough on it to be good or not.
I’ve opted against the chainmail for now. Really, it’s too heavy and doesn’t actually protect enough against what I’m getting hit with. This has me down to elbow cops, helm, gorget, kidney belt, gauntlets, knees, thighs, and a gambeson. In other words, barely above minimum. Doug’s started work on making me a coat of plates, so that will be a little more protective. Right now, thought, it’s actually going pretty well with what I’m using. But I haven’t taken any body shots, really, so that might be part of it.
April 22, 2008
This is my third time fighting in chainmail. I should probably carry a repair kit featuring extra rings and pliers, since part of the brass inlay popped. I finished my right sleeve, which had the unexpected side effect of pulling down my strap over my shoulder. I think I need to lessen my head hole, but I’ll ask around and see what people think. Protection wise, I don’t think this is what I want to use forever. I took one or two body shots and they didn’t hurt, but I saw the potential for pain in the future, especially if I take a stab to the solar plexus. Oy.
I spent some one on one time with Marek tonight. I was concentrating on blocking three shots before retaliating, and I feel that this helped me some. Unfortunately, I was throwing out some reflexive wristy type shots that landed, but without any kind of power. He suggested pell work. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a pell or a tree right now. Although I could possibly go out in the alleyway and thump on a telephone pole.
My main problems right now that I’m seeing is that I have no inner-range game, I’m throwing reflexive shots, and I’m not putting enough power into my shots. I think pell work would help out all of this, especially if I belly up to the pole for my inside game.
I think I might need to play around with a punch shield. The strap shield isn’t mobile enough, and I’m weighed down with armor to the point where I can’t use body speed like in Amtgard.
August 19
Wow. I’ve not fought heavy since April. That sucks. My skills haven’t suffered from this, but they’ve surely not improved.
No other heavies showed up with gear today until late. Gunnar had me gear up anyway and used my sword to work on my shield work. My reactions are too slow. Part of it is that I’m unfamiliar with the types of shots that go to the head, still am not used to blocking the head, and it’s a heavier shield than the corrugated plastic one I use in Amtgard. These aren’t excuses, just comments. I figure I’ll do okay once I learn the various ways a shot to the head can come in, and then I’ll need to work on reading an opponent’s intentions better. This is something that will have to come with time and experience. I could do some practice on reading intentions, however. MHOG’s published notes on Tourney Fu has a section on reading opponents, if I remember right. I’ll have to look at it later.
After shield work, I did some pell work. I worked on only one shot. It’s an offside snap. Gunnar had me work on that one since my onside shots are fairly good, but my offside tends to lack power. I concentrated mostly on putting my hips into it, and did some fiddling around to find the range of it.
Another heavy showed up around 7:45 or 8. I think his name is Caedelus or something like that. My ears were still ringing from a headshot Gunnar gave me earlier, so I’m not positive what he said. Apparently he’s from Morgantown and has moved into the area, after having fought for a few years. He armored up and we went at it for about half an hour. I did better than I probably should have. I don’t know if he’s inexperienced, or if it was because I had warmed up and he hadn’t, or what, but I won about 9 out of every 10 bouts. I noticed that my main combination is throwing onside leg, and then offside to the helm. Most of the time I killed him before his knees hit the ground. On the occasions that I didn’t, I was most successful with a direct stab to the grill. I was also successful with the face stab when standing; I pulled it off about three times. My defense was fairly solid during this. The work I had done with Gunnar earlier paid off. The only solid shots he ended up landing were two to the helm and a shot to the arm, but that one was after I had already killed him. My blocks weren’t really complete, however. Instead, I was mostly just jamming the shots. They still got through, but with greatly reduced power. While that’s not bad, I’m going to try to concentrate on my blocking so that I don’t have to worry at all about whether or not a shot had enough on it to be good or not.
I’ve opted against the chainmail for now. Really, it’s too heavy and doesn’t actually protect enough against what I’m getting hit with. This has me down to elbow cops, helm, gorget, kidney belt, gauntlets, knees, thighs, and a gambeson. In other words, barely above minimum. Doug’s started work on making me a coat of plates, so that will be a little more protective. Right now, thought, it’s actually going pretty well with what I’m using. But I haven’t taken any body shots, really, so that might be part of it.