Adiantum Fight Practice
Nov. 6th, 2013 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zzambrosius_02I’ve been a little slack about reporting on my sword practices. For that matter, I’ve been a little slack about attending them. I wonder how many re-starts it’ll take to get me back on track? Oh well, we’ll see.
Monday at fencing I had a little teaching session with Geneva. I don’t want to show her ‘how to fence’, because my fencing style is kinda out there. But I can be a practice dummy for her. I discovered that the way to get her to stab me (with a lot more élan at that) was to fake thrusts and cuts at her, causing her to parry and riposte. That was fun, since I then had to counter-parry, or whatever you’d call that.
Then I spent most of the rest of the practice in very brisk exchanges with Don Viktor de Guerse. I felt like I was doing very well, even approaching 50% victories, and was quite full of myself. Then he explained that he was running a new sword, it was heavier than he was accustomed to, the grip was all wrong, etc. He wasn’t trying to excuse his play that night, he was just showing off his new sword; but it did occur to me that the “new, heavier sword” was a reasonable explanation for my better-then-usual results.
Heavy practice tonight was good, bad, and beautiful.
The Good: I was the first onto the field and the last to retire.
The bad: Kinda off-balance, footwork not up to snuff. Slow to cut once I was in range, and not bringing the heat once that first cut was complete. Combinations, old man, and no rest for the opponent, that’s when I’m at my best.
The beautiful: I was fighting Squire Sverre at the end of practice, and finally felt that I was getting loose and moving better. I legged him, and we fought a while. I found my wrist crossing his, and for four or five of his blows I simply tai-chi’d his arm, turning my hips and defeating his blows with almost no arm motion beyond a wrist turn. (Four or five of Sverre’s blows means something under five seconds of fight time: it takes way longer to write it or read it than it takes to do it. Even when Sverre the Left-handed is fighting right-handed.)
When, part way through this sequence, I realized what I was doing, I said to myself (out loud as it turned out): “I’m being a bad boy.” This distracted my opponent and my next blow struck true. I wouldn’t have let him take it in a tourney, but it was beautiful nonetheless.
Anyway, I have to bust my butt and get ready for OryCon, I’m a panelist and have a solo panel on “Chivalry for Writers”. If you’re in Portland, stop by and see me.
Viscount Ambrose, KSCA
Monday at fencing I had a little teaching session with Geneva. I don’t want to show her ‘how to fence’, because my fencing style is kinda out there. But I can be a practice dummy for her. I discovered that the way to get her to stab me (with a lot more élan at that) was to fake thrusts and cuts at her, causing her to parry and riposte. That was fun, since I then had to counter-parry, or whatever you’d call that.
Then I spent most of the rest of the practice in very brisk exchanges with Don Viktor de Guerse. I felt like I was doing very well, even approaching 50% victories, and was quite full of myself. Then he explained that he was running a new sword, it was heavier than he was accustomed to, the grip was all wrong, etc. He wasn’t trying to excuse his play that night, he was just showing off his new sword; but it did occur to me that the “new, heavier sword” was a reasonable explanation for my better-then-usual results.
Heavy practice tonight was good, bad, and beautiful.
The Good: I was the first onto the field and the last to retire.
The bad: Kinda off-balance, footwork not up to snuff. Slow to cut once I was in range, and not bringing the heat once that first cut was complete. Combinations, old man, and no rest for the opponent, that’s when I’m at my best.
The beautiful: I was fighting Squire Sverre at the end of practice, and finally felt that I was getting loose and moving better. I legged him, and we fought a while. I found my wrist crossing his, and for four or five of his blows I simply tai-chi’d his arm, turning my hips and defeating his blows with almost no arm motion beyond a wrist turn. (Four or five of Sverre’s blows means something under five seconds of fight time: it takes way longer to write it or read it than it takes to do it. Even when Sverre the Left-handed is fighting right-handed.)
When, part way through this sequence, I realized what I was doing, I said to myself (out loud as it turned out): “I’m being a bad boy.” This distracted my opponent and my next blow struck true. I wouldn’t have let him take it in a tourney, but it was beautiful nonetheless.
Anyway, I have to bust my butt and get ready for OryCon, I’m a panelist and have a solo panel on “Chivalry for Writers”. If you’re in Portland, stop by and see me.
Viscount Ambrose, KSCA
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Date: 2013-11-07 04:50 pm (UTC)out where?
Date: 2013-11-08 06:27 am (UTC)