On Tuesday I was fortunate enough to make the local practice for the barony of Bryn Gwlad, kingdom of Ansteorra. Interkingdom fencing never fails to be educational. Bryn Gwlad follows the tradition of having everyone meet up at the same spot – heavies, fencers, A&S folk, socialites. The evening was made more enjoyable by the […]
Author Archive
It’s True, What They Say 5 comments
There is Only 2v1 11 comments
Driving back from Champ’s practice, Gawin and I got to talking about advanced melee tactics. It inspired a little more thought along a line I had previously touched upon. I mentioned in my Stierbach BB post that I thought analyzing a 2v1 as a microcosm of melee could be a valuable exercise for informing melee […]
Assessment 2013 10 comments
We had 16 fencers, of whom only two are regular readers of this blog. Some old, crotchety White Scarves insisted that we used to have much better turnout, and that Atlantian melee skills have eroded over the last few years. One is surprised he didn’t hear them yearning for the good old days of epee […]
Stierbach BB and Some Observations 5 comments
The Jaunty Lads headed up to Warrenton for a bit of fencing this weekend—a combined eight hours of driving, all for someone else’s baronial birthday. Might be a Foxworthyesque joke somewhere in that … The event was hosting a pentathlon (A&S, armored, rapier, archery, thrown weapons). Cool stuff, but I have only one skill. For […]
Fabris, Plate 25 4 comments
First of (hopefully) a series, to revenge myself ironically on Letia’s ill-conceived term “plateify”. (Don’t ask.) I’ll be taking a plate each week or so and drilling it, then presenting my findings here. In this episode, I attempt to ameliorate my abysmal oblique footwork. Fabris seems fairly consistent in advocating an offline step to the […]
Running to Rez (and Back) 1 comment
So, philosophical question, because I’m of the mind “run to and run back and then rest where you can see what’s going on”, even if I don’t always do it: “Run to rez, run back (unless it’s an hour-long melee. Then only run if it’s important.)” How do we help our newbs understand when […]
Melee Pedagogy 10 comments
Given the slew of nigh-contiguous rapier melee events promised by the coming weeks and my stated desire to increase both the quality and retention of Scholars in the ARA, I have taken to teaching a short, basic class to recently auth’ed fencers at each melee event I attend. As an unfortunate incident involving a sickle […]
The Zone 11 comments
“Since when did you remember how to fence?” I shrugged. I don’t usually go seventy-five percent against Wistric—even the slow, schlubby teacher-Wistric who shows up at Thursday practices. But in my last dozen or so passes everything was clicking. I wasn’t getting intimidated, my actions were small and subtle, and I was wasn’t falling into […]
Fencer Retention 56 comments
It’s nearing that time of year when, according to longstanding tradition, we make improbably lofty promises to finally rein in our degenerate ways and become the paragons of courtesy, fitness, temperance, and/or martial excellence we all know we could be. It’s likewise nearing that time when we recognize that another year of degeneracy never hurt […]
All Fun and Games 8 comments
Folks who attended Holiday Faire were treated to Dante’s “All Fun and Games [Until Someone Loses an Eye]” tourney, wherein fighters fought in eight iterative bearpits, with head-shots being the only way to definitively eliminate a competitor from the pool. The champs of each pit squared off at the end in a single-elim tournament. The […]