Thursday, April 7, 2016

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Bhakail

Today I had an hour and a half of available fighting time which I fought for roughly 30 minutes. Today I also didn't focus on any of my historical work. Overall it was a good practice in both fighting and in terms of the conversations I was involved in.

First I fought James and he had made a comment about fighting just dagger and apparently I laughed at that so he fouht me with just a dagger while i used single sword. I struggled to find/create openings and when he closed I struggled to both keep control of my blade and use my off hand. It was a silly and fun time that taught me a few things. First is that i need to work on finding and creating openings when fighting with single sword. Second is that I should have been able to kill him more times than I did because I was using a 37" blade and his dagger was only 18". I needed to be more agressive so going along with finding and creating openings I need to learn how to be more aggressive when I need to while fighting forms I'm more defensive with. But after James and I had our fun he put down his dagger and picked up a straight blade. During our fights I was generally able to disengage and counter attack pretty well. James has a very unique way of fighting and I almost always struggle to keep up with his changing tecniques, though in the recent past I've been doing better against him, and no I dont mean about how many times I kill him. I did do well with counter attacking when I could and retreating when I needed to, though James very much has speed on his side.

Next I fought Morwill with rapier and dagger. This was my first time fighting this form in a few months and I do plan on picking it up more often so I can clean it up for the current tournament season/Pennsic. Despite being a bit rusty I still feel I fought well. I feel I did well with both defense and offense though fighting Morwill I was more able to stay alive for a long while and less able to defend then kill. Morwill is left handed so I definately struggled with controling his blade while avoiding his dagger so typically when i came in for an attack we both stepped in and defended ourselves and ended up backing up and resetting. I'm going to need to work on controlling my opponent's blade while fighting with rapier and off-hand weapon/parry object against someone who is left handed. Overall I do feel good about how I fought against Morwill.

One thing that made me smile today is something that will generally make me smile. After I was finished fighting and I was walking back into the other room with my gear so i could change and pack up I let out an exhagurated sigh while saying, "I'm so old!!" And two of the other fencers gave me weird looks and started scolding me saying I'm too young to say something like that. It has been my goal for at least 5 years to make my friends who are older than me feel old, typically practice is a great place for me to follow out this evil!

1 comment:

  1. Not knowing you I can't say how old you are for me I'm coming up on 58, my first authorization in single was in 1988, rapier is a great deal of fun, and has been for a whole bunch of years, I noted your other Blog post on the OGR, as #18 one of the things I enjoy most is teaching, the more people the more folks I have to play with, take the time to learn slowly, when you are free fencing have a goal in mind of what you are trying to practice. if something works well or fails ask your opponent if you could go over it right at that time it will help you both.. If your ever up north dont hesitate to look me up.. Don Scamus O'Neal at your service.. Malegentia Southern Maine.. With luck I'll be at Roses if your there maybe we can cross a blade or two .. Most of all enjoy nad have fun...

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