Pennsic Post?

I haven't done a Pennsic post because honestly, I didn't have enough time to really get out there and fence during this Pennsic. It was always far too hot, so even when the field wasn't closed I wasn't really able to put forth my best effort.

There are only really a few points worth mentioning.

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First, my champs fight. I lost against an opponent who out-played me. My head wasn't in the right space, and he has some real estate in my brain from previous encounters. He kept his sword offline up and to the right in a way that my current Fencing Game couldn't deal with. There are two things I could have done to overcome this.

1. Revert to my two-years-ago Fencing Game, in which my response would be to approach slowly with my blade farther off-line to the outside. Then, if he came on-line, I could thrust through his blade. If he remained where he was, I could perform a lunging giarata.
2. I could have brought out my longsword, knowing that he would probably not really have much experience dealing with people who have longer range, and knowing that my Effingham-style longsword techniques are rare to encounter in the wild.

Instead, I attempted to play my current game against him, and my current game apparently doesn't have a good way to deal with an opponent who keeps their sword off-line in that particular way and outranges me. I'll probably over-analyze the fight more when video happens, but that's all I've got for the moment.

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By the Book tournament was interesting. I tried to apply my new Bargain Basement Destreza, and it largely didn't work. I lost my first match soundly and firmly. My second match went 1-1, if I remember correctly, as did my third. My fourth went 2-0 in my favor, and then the tournament was called due to heat.

(Keep in mind that I'm using questionably-incorrect terminology defined in last post here, when I talk about Destreza Things.)

At the start of the tournament, I was trying to step based on a circle centered on my opponent. This didn't work quite as I expected - my opponents were relatively easily able to counter my Line in Cross -> Weak Over Strong and Narrowing -> Weak Under Strong. I think that this is because the "hole" in WOS and WUS is in the same place as the corresponding LiC or Narrowing - this means that moving to the attack would widen an already-existing hole that my opponent could start to exploit during my atajo, and then continue to exploit as I moved forward.

BEGIN DIGRESSION

As an aside, the Mutating Circle was stuck in my head all war as a brain-worm, so the above is applicable to my pickups, too.

I think the correct way to fix this would be to switch Weak Over Strong and Weak Under Strong in my default sequences. That is to say, change my sequences to Line in Cross -> Weak Under Strong and Narrowing -> Weak Over Strong. If I maintain some sort of crossing with my blade and theirs on the attack, this would allow me to plug the opening left by Line in Cross and Narrowing, while simultaneously attacking.

This is essentially the same insight I had about Destreza a while ago, which resulted in me performing windshield-wiper atajos. But I'm dumb sometimes, and I sacrifice correctness on the altar of idealogical cleanliness. Lesson learned.

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As the tournament went on, I started migrating more and more toward just using Weak Over Strong and Weak Under Strong, only using Line in Cross and Narrowing as last-ditch parries. I ended up with several victories due to hand-shots, which seems super correct and period given how cup hilts became more and more of A Thing in Destreza as time went on. I also was more and more patient, waiting for my opponent to mess up somehow so I could capitalize on their mistake.

I feel confident that if I had another shot, I could have performed far better in that tournament. I would make sure to warm up this time.

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Lastly, the Mutating Circle in my Italian game. The Mutating Circle was a brain-worm all war. The idea is that, depending on where my opponent's tip is in relation to their shoulder, I should be able to approach and attack in a set of particular ways, as dictated by the circle of Destreza. This is a mixing of historical styles, but it comes with good reason.

Essentially, Italian opposition and blade-coverage doesn't work properly when your opponent has their sword far off-line. This leads to double-kills. Far, far too many of them, if your opponent is good at bringing their sword offensively on-line from an off-line position. This becomes a semi-viable game plan if you happen to be good at defending with your off-hand or off-hand implement. In fact, it's the way I used to fence. Past tense. When I first moved out to the East. It's also an extremely common way to fence in the Midrealm.

The circle of Destreza, as I understand it, is a defensive tool. If you keep your sword toward the center of the circle, covering your opponent's sword and walk around the circumference, you are increasing the distance your opponent's sword needs to travel to stab you, while decreasing the distance between you and your opponent and how far your sword needs to travel to stab them. Since the circle doesn't rely on any particular movement from your opponent, you should be able to step in at any part of the circle and continue as if you had started from the outside.

Image stolen from Black Birds and Blades, which is the second result on Google when I search "viedma circle".

Also, seeing the actual physical version of this that Doroga made was super great, and we nerded out over it for a long while.

So, if my opponent's sword is off to the side, I can step on to the edge of the circle and defend myself as though I have walked around it. Instead of assuming that their shoulder, tip, and my shoulder all lie on the line from A to A, I assume that I'm somewhere off to the right of the circle and step from outside of the circle directly on to point C to the right, imagining that their shoulder and the tip of their sword lie along that A-to-A line.

The problem I have run into is that my opponent can force me into a bad choice, if I step onto the circle at C when my opponent is far off-line, they can thrust with opposition through my sword at my face. This is obviously a bad thing, so I am required to throw a cut or thrust that raises my hilt to defend my face. This opens up my belly, which they can then thrust at.

I *think* that one of two things is happening here.

1. My mental model of the circle is wrong. I think I'm stepping onto C, but I'm actually stepping somewhere in the vicinity of D, but not quite reaching the circle. This means I would need to fix my distance, and perhaps perform a cut while stepping away.
2. My understanding of how I can defend myself is wrong, as per my previous thoughts on Triangular Thrusts. That is to say - the placement of my blade can either defend me high, or it can defend me low, but due geometry I can't defend both.

So, I'll try to work through both of these and see what happens. If the problem is 1, then I need to change my stepping patterns somewhat. If my problem is 2, then I need to start doing Destreza in a Fabris stance, to minimize the amount vertical profile available to my opponent. I've noticed that doing Destreza things in a leaning-forward Fabris-esque stance does make things Just Work Better, though, so I might do that anyway.

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So, those are all of the things I was able to work on at Pennsic. Other topics of interest include:

1. Dealing with huge shields using long swords in singles fights.
2. Dealing with people who understand how to appropriately avoid blade contact when fighting Fabris-ish.
3. Dealing with that position used by my opponent in my Champs fight.
4. Dealing with left-handed people who perform a rising low-line shot.

That's for-realsies all I need to cover for this post. FOR REALSIES.