Post-Monday Practice Report

This last practice was so good. I am currently on a diet because I am above my ideal weight. I didn't really feel the effects of low blood sugar like I thought I would, though. This might be because of the SFRB (Sugar-Free Red Bull) I chugged on the way to practice. Regardless, I didn't feel slower than usual, which tells me that loading up with carbs before practice can be replaced with SFRB.

I played with my newly-constructed longsword handle. It was pretty great! I threw one hard thrust, which I think was hard partly because of the angle of the shot and partly because of where the shot landed. I didn't really feel that limited by not having a dagger. The heavier, stiffer blade with the two-handed handle allowed me to simply win at opposition most of the time.

I did some Meyer stuff too - a Krumphauw into a false-edge-leading thrust ended up being surprisingly effective. There were several cuts and thrusts that I simply didn't throw out there, though, because I wasn't sure I could perform them in a way that would land with the tip safely. I could hit with the edge with good calibration I think, but I need more practice to hit with the tip after a properly-performed Zornhauw with good calibration. And to do that, I need to use a practice space with a higher roof than my living room has.

Last longsword thought - I think that a longsword might be more effective than my standard rapier game against left-handed people. This is because right-handed cuts seem to cut cross the plane of a left-handed person's rapier more than a right-handed person's rapier. This is a random thought, and requires further investigation.

The rest of the practice was fought sword and dagger. I fought quite a few people who I have fought before, and they all are doing super well. I need to step up my game. In particular, there was one fight in which I was doing my little hilt-first disengage as a first-intention shot, and my opponent just threw out a cut to my blade in response. This put me way off line and allowed her to cut me, even though her thrust went past my head. I need to contemplate this particular response, and see if there is anything I can do about it. If not, then I will only be able to use my hilt-first disengage as part of a second intention, after I have gotten a feel for where my opponent's sword is.

I also fought against another guy who primarily fights in the HEMA/WMA community. Those fights were super interesting. I didn't realize until part of the way through that he was fighting a slightly different ruleset that took percussive hits, mostly ignored cuts, and mostly ignored hand and arm shots. That's okay though! It just meant that he and I walked away with a different idea of our win/loss percentage. If this were a tournament, I would be super salty about it. But it wasn't, and I'm not out to prove something, so it's okay.

I significantly disagree with not taking hand-shots as a ruleset, though. I think it encourages poor form. Capoferro advises that you perform them, and I believe he even advises them primarily against stances where your opponent's dagger is in front, which is a stance which gives me quite a bit of trouble. (If I am incorrect here, someone please correct me.)

Afterwards I caught up to him because I wanted to try working through a particular action in response to his particular stance. He did the teacher thing of going through a lesson he thought was more relevant, rather than the particular isolated set of actions which I wanted to try. It was an interesting lesson about passing steps and two-tempo parry-ripostes. The end result was that his response would have been something I didn't expect. But it still didn't answer my question really.

I like to imagine that I operate from a model based on Meyer's idea of the master cuts. That is to say, a master cut is one which will both defend you and kill the other guy, if correctly performed in the correct situation. When I am working through a particular situation, I try to figure out what the appropriate "master thrust" would be. That is to say, the action which, properly executed, will prevent me from being stabbed no matter what my opponent does, and has a decent chance of success.

Given that, and given the dagger-forward position I was having trouble with, I wanted to see if a passing step to the left with a chest-level thrust with the sword held low and the dagger brought in against the sword to sweep the expected disengage, would have worked. His response was a two-tempo parry-riposte. I'm not sure that would have been applicable given the location and direction of opposition I had wanted. I am sure I will ask someone to work through that particular action with me at some point.

I also had a few good talks about headspace in tournaments. I think I do well at this thing, so maybe I should meditate on that and make a post or something.

Things to work on for the future:

• Appropriate responses to Silver-esque dagger-forward stances.
• It seems like there's a continuum of responses, wherein dagger slightly forward gives an advantage against a Capoferro stance in third, and dagger very forward in a Silver-esque stance gives even more advantage against that. Is there a good response other than reverting to Capoferro in third and hand-sniping?
• It feels like left-handed people are automatically one step farther forward with their dagger, regardless of their actual stance. This is purely intuitive, but why do things feel this way? Again, is there a good response for me?
• More flowcharting on hilt-first disengage.