zzambrosius_02

Amergin's Revolt is an SCA ecvent in the Barony of Adiantum.

I drove up for it yesterday, wanting to try out some swordplay stuff that had been percolating through my "Elderly Swordsman" presona's brain.

The tournament was for the Baronial Heavy (rattan) Championship. I have no desire for jobs or titles at the moment, but they let me play in the tourney as a non-competitor.

I had a good long time to hang out and think about what it was I wanted to try: a more deeply relaxed offense and a softer, more yielding and movement oriented defense (a la Peter Ralston.)

Pursuant to that, I spent a big part of the time (when not socializing) meditating on the subject of relaxation. As sifu R says: "Let your mind return to its natural state of calm and
let your body return to its natural state of relaxation."

Socializing included a long talk with the Baron, and another with the Baroness (that was mostly me talking, since she asked about my writing...) and an interesting talk with my Squire Viscountess Vesta. I also heard Tales of Great Western War from those who'd gone, and had (as always) interesting conversations with the current Prince (Sverre Bjornhartta)

I noticed that every time I went outdoors, I tensed up. "Why?" I asked myself. The pelting rain?

But I am usually at home in the rain, I work outdoors after all. I finally realized that the tension I was feeling was so slight that others probably couldn't even see it: I was not hunched over or 'hiding' from the rainfall as so many people do... I only noticed the tension because of my otherwise relaxed state. I took such steps as occurred to me to reduce my tension even further, and I liked the results.

At long last we all armed ourselves and began. Simple round-robin, I had five quick fights, went 2-3, saw places I could improve.

Then I fought a bunch of pick-up fights, and really began to feel the thing I was looking for. My attacks were quicker than I'd felt them in several years. The time between blows was down as well, which makes it harder for my opponents to respond with attacks of their own. To the extent possible in such a small field I was moving instead of blocking. I did wind up with some tension between my shoulder blades, but otherwise felt good.

I'm sitting reading over this and realizing that I can't even describe in common terms what it was I felt. Hmm. Gotta work on that; when I start to write about Mr. Rothakis meeting his mentor Arrenji in training bouts, this has to be accessible.

Not sure how to do that.

Anyway, here's a short video of Sifu Ralston "boxing" with an opponent. Shows a little of why he's so revered by those who discover him.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8mxqY2Ko_M

Fans and writers had a blast pretending to be Romans. We didn't actually hit them, just scared 'em a little...

Last night I went to Adiantum Fencing practice. For the first time in...I don’t know. Months. At least a few months. I had a good time, and I didn’t do any further damage to my shoulder. Fighting with my buckler-and-schlager style made my elbow ache, which is probably related. So most of the time I was doing Fiore-style longsword work against rapier fighters. Pretty damn good rapier fighters: including the current principality champion, Victor de Guerse. He it was who helped me clear up a problem I’ve been having with a particular play, which I use in both heavy and rapier styles. Thank you Xavier. I will try lying in Iron Gate instead of Boar’s Tooth, when executing (or trying to) that play.
Then I had a very interesting discussion with Miya, about Japanese and European styles. Since I find the comparison of Fiore with Musashi absolutely fascinating, I found that discussion equally interesting. Thank you my lady, for that and the ideas about Japanese dance. Now I have even more research to do.
As for the technical aspects of my own improvement, I think I need to get more upper-body-turn, and hence more force, into my parries, blocks, binds, and envelopes. The way I see and feel it, it’s sort of a tai-chi style twist, to put oomph into the movement without using more arm. This is something I’ve been drilling out of armor, and visualizing, and thinking about, for about a year now. If it ever emerges in actual full speed fighting, I will be very pleased.

Last week at Adiantum Practice I did very poorly. I had been writing off and on all day, and on the drive over to Maple Elementary I was going over stuff from the fiction in my head, relating it to modern economic ‘theory’ and arguing with my inner voices about the cultural consequences of collective economic decisions in the novels. As a result, I was NOT preparing myself mentally or emotionally for swordplay. No visualization, no keyword training, nothing. Stunk the place up good, too.
This week, I deliberately put the implications of what I had been writing out of my mind and concentrated on preparation.
It didn’t work at first: I blame this on the fact that it was so cold I couldn’t feel my fingers, my gauntlets were therefore not secure, and that does tend to distract a guy. I got my hands warmed up eventually and then things got better. I was able to take the fight to my opponents at a higher level than recently. Coming back to greatsword after all these years, I am not concerned with win/lose ratio: a good practice is one where I am (mostly) doing what I want to do in terms of good technique, aggressiveness, footwork, etc. Ended the practice with an extended series of bouts with Thane Durin, which were revealing to me. I can feel my analytical sense of greatsword play coming back, that subconscious knowledge of ‘where to be’ and ‘where to step’ when an opponent moves.
Thane Durin was kind enough to notice that my skill set was returning, and point out to me several ways in which I have recently improved. All in all, a C+ practice.