These simplified Italian principles give junior-level fighters a way to process the chaos of melee, to focus their limited Attention in the right places, and to interpret the fight from the sidelines. However, to build up from individual swords and individual actions to a full melee, we’re going to have to add more people. Principles […]
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Applied Principles: The 2v1 Leave a comment
Principles of Melee, Mk. 2 10 comments
I’m teaching a class at Sergeants & Scholars next week. Might as well lay it out here, for my benefit and yours. This will also allow me to expound on a few tangential topics and theoretical underpinnings, while I’ll have to keep things relatively short and simple at S&S. We have a certain way of […]
Gulf Wars 2014, Part 3: Wherein Ruairc Forgets to Parry, and Then Forgets A Few Other Things 11 comments
Thursday There was an Everyman tourney, open to all non-WS. I fought single sword in accordance with my training, per Fabris (which got some compliments. That’s always nice). A number of my opponents did not. My strategy was, generally, “keep their sword covered, stay at measure, and wait until their secondary is out of position […]
Gulf Wars 2014, Part 2: Wherein Ruairc Grouses About Melee Leave a comment
Wednesday As it happened, all of the melee was on Wednesday. Field Battle – your usual no-rez, no-cover brouhaha. Atlantia was deployed with the Trimarian Pony Lords (yes, seriously) on the right flank. We were stacked there, in numbers and skill; the idea was to smash through and roll them. At lay-on, we charged in […]
Gulf Wars 2014, Part 1: Wherein Ruairc Dissembles Leave a comment
Attendance was a good 30 or so of the cream of Atlantian fencing. I think I had more fun, in the aggregate, than I did at either Pennsic XL or XLI. It’s a nice atmosphere. People don’t take it so seriously. But you, gentle reader, didn’t come here to read about the ambiance … Sunday […]
On University, and New Folks 7 comments
A week ago, I went to University to teach some classes. (Gawin was supposed to come co-teach, but life intervened.) Our classes were three: Rapier Melee Fundamentals – providing a mental framework for new fighters to process melee, based on how my own brain works in melee. When in measure, focus on swords: stymie threats, […]
Ymir 2014 20 comments
Because nobody else has made this post yet. February 22 was the official day of the Rag’narok. So, of course, the weather was a balmy 70 degrees, with nary a Giant in sight. About thirty fencers showed, which was lower-than-usual attendance. Not sure why. I guess they don’t like fighting. The Tourney Traditionally, Ymir is […]
My Weekend at Dante’s 7 comments
The last week in January Gawin and I headed up to Maestro Dante’s for some one-on-one intensive training. Ben helped. Snow covered the ground and the wind chill had us in the single digits, but our love of Atlantia kept us warm. Saturday We expected drills, and Dante delivered in spades; there were nine. These […]
Principles of Melee: The Individual 5 comments
A few months ago I ruminated on the fact that we have no ready analogue in melee for the nice, neat set of principles native to singles fighting, and that this made the didactic process a bit challenging (or nonexistent, depending …). My previous post on 2v1’s represents the first significant breakthrough I’ve had in […]
Questions for the Audience: Approaches to HMA 4 comments
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this recently. These questions are getting at some pretty subtle distinctions, if they exist at all – I suspect Dante, given his trollish mien, might answer with a single word. Why do you study HMA? What is your goal? What’s the draw? Broadly, are you informing your […]