Tournaments.

My esteemed and honourable maestro is a particular fan of pressure testing and throwing himself into the deep end. It is something he recommends to anyone that will listen. A good way of creating pressure is by entering tournaments, especially with unfamiliar weapons. In fact, the harder you make it for yourself, the better. This is not my way, I am trying to maintain some kind of focus with my fighting. It is too easy to be distracted by all the interesting things to do and end up knowing a little of everything. I will permit myself that distraction once I'm happier with my rapier.

However. One of our Scrappers (I should do something about naming them at some point) bravely embraced his ignorance of the rapier and followed our maestro's example. The first match was painful to watch, he froze and was beaten to within an inch of his dignity and barely out of his corner. Still, every thing is a learning experience.

The second match was much better, he was facing a smallsword- something that is close to an epée in weight, reach and size. This gave him an advantage of around a foot, obviously this gave him the courage to attack and move around. Some strikes landed and when it was all over, he actually looked pretty good. He lost, but he had clawed back some dignity.

I'll be honest, I was expecting the last fight to turn into an absolute bloodbath. Our Stalwart Scrapper was up against Mr N. who graciously came and gave us a little instruction a while ago. Mr N. knows his stuff, whereas our Scrapper knows which end should go in the bad guy. This was a match with rapier and dagger, after all, if you're going to get obliterated you may as well really confuse yourself.

As the air rang with the word 'Fight' I was counting the seconds until the first 10 hits. Expecting our chap to be stabbed, cut, pommelled and disarmed every time he thought about striking. Except this didn't happen. Somehow he had found his game. Mr N. had difficulty predicting what was going to happen because he was up against an inexperienced fighter- the textbook precision of Mr N. was reduced because our fellow didn't read the damn thing. Our chap defended himself very well. In fact, according to one of the judges, he spent a little time in the lead.

So, I say well done our man. You may not have won any of those matches but you should hold your head up high. You did very well, all things considered.

The idea of pressure testing is a great one. Your fight changes utterly in competition, experimentation goes out of the window and you stick with what you have coded into your muscles. I think the orientals have a word for when your mind goes blank and you stop thinking and start fighting. I find this much easier to achieve under pressure- during freeplay/sparring it's about finding new methods and intellectually choosing openings. But a fight is not the time to be thinking, a second's thought is a second you're not protecting yourself.

Fightcamp 2009. Part 1: lessons and thank you's

I have recently arrived home after a weekend of training. The 6th annual FightCamp is currently winding to a halt, the events officially finished yesterday, but there has been socialising and people sleeping on site. Alas, I heeded the psiren call of hot water and soft fluffy pillows and was back yesterday. This may was probably for the best. The bar was lovingly stocked with 3 casks of really nice beers for the first two nights, we drank it dry. Then the bar was restocked with Black Sheep and Adnams. There was no Black Sheep left. My outside is bruised and I don't think my liver could handle any more violence.

Now, Fightcamp more-or-less marks my anniversary in HEMA. I started a few weeks before the last one and I believe it has shaped my vision of the international scene. This year has moved to a new venue, which increased the cost of the 4 days of camping and 3 days of events by 100%. I must say, it's the best £20 I've spent in a long time. In fact, the last event I attended that was this packed, interesting and cheap it was held by the Scouts- and they have a phenomenal amount of funding and facilities compared to us.

Firstly, I should thank Jim and his staff. They were all great. If you need something HEMA based and don't know where to look. Start with the Grange (http://shop.suspensionofdisbelief.co.uk/hema)- the prices are low and the service is brilliant. There were times when you looked at Jim and saw his 10 year old self looking back and thinking "this is sooo cooool". I like Jim.

The next on the list to thank would be Matt Easton and his charming fiancée, Lucy. I can't imagine how tiring and complex organising something like this would be. Still, they managed it without apparently breaking a sweat, although Matt's Godlike powers obviously stop before weather control. His collection of marshals dealt with any problems in a swift and discreet manner, allowing us to get on with the important things in life, like fighting and drinking. Hats off to all involved there- your dedication and insight makes FightCamp the enjoyable event it is.

And finally, thanks to everyone that took part. My partners during lessons were great and I did not have an unenjoyable bout. There were similar grins from the attending Saturday Scrappers. Despite the trecherous ground and some very intense fighting (Sparks flew. Literally), there were few injuries that and seemed to be fingers. Which justifies my preference for complex hilted weapons.

There are two main parts of FightCamp (three if you count the socialising)- Fighting and learning. I decided it would be more productive to learn... well, actually the lessons were so good that I didn't really have the energy to spar. I could have done some sparring today, but everyone was either being careful due to the main tournament or feeling delicate after some enthusiastic socialising.

The highlight of the lessons was (unsurprisingly) Mr Marwood's Bartitsu class. It was engaging, enjoyable and principle based. His teaching style is fantastic, he explains a principle and moves that use the principle and tells you to play with those ideas. (Described by one of the Saturday Scrappers as "here's 100 ways to cause intense pain.. have fun trying them out"). Although there were constant warnings to be careful, and it's obvious why they were needed- even at 1/4 speed there were times when you'd accidentally find your partner on the ground and you have no idea how it happened.

Those of you familiar with Neverwhere will know Mr Croup and Mr Vandemaar, in particular the scene where they are instructing Richard on the force needed to cause pain... well, imagine that scene with a one better dressed person replacing the two. Although, generally lovely, Marwood gives the impression that he would (if provoked) pull your arm off and use it to give you a practical demonstration of force multipliers and why it's better to use the end with the hand rather than the bloody stump.

Everyone I spoke to who took Mr Marwood's lesson on close combat gun use was enthusing about that.

I would like to expand on Mr Stillwell's Gatka instruction but all I got from the Scrapper that attended his lesson was "that's cool. We should get him down for one of our sessions." My dear brother would certainly agree, since Gatka has been interesting him for a while.

My honourable maestro held two classes that went down well, despite a few teething problems with one of the first lessons of the weekend, I believe I've mentioned his style and strengths before so I won't waste valuable space here. This is a mere fraction of the events, there is a lot more to say, but for now I shall just say:

Bloody hell, that was a fantastic weekend.

Safety and HEMA

My main reason for staying with HEMA for so long is that it's fun. The health benefits, the ability to purge my fight or flight instincts, the fact that I do not look like an easy target (quite important if you're wandering the streets at night wearing eyeliner and flouncy shirts) and all the other bits are side effects. I'm not competitive, except against myself so I'm not out to win fights. In fact, part of that is not doing my best in a fight and helping someone else improve- explaining things to other people helps your own understanding.

And this is the position I come from when discussing safety.

As far as I'm concerned, masks are essential. I will not take part in anything resembling a real fight without a mask on. My primary targets are face, neck and chest. No mask means I will not go for the face or neck. Why? Well, I refer you to my main reason for doing this. Pulling your friend's eyeball from your sword does not come under my definition of fun. (And friend they will be, or at least someone you trust and respect- unless you're an utter moron). In a good fight, things move fast and get confusing, your brain switches off and you run on instinct. In this situation, accidents will happen. It's just a matter of time and hoping that it's only a minor one. I've recently had a blade break on me- the flexible bit just went sproing as it was thrust into me. These things happen and if I wasn't wearing a decent jacket it could have been quite nasty- hospital visit, stitches and several weeks off training kind of nasty. Instead, I had a rather pathetic bruise.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind hurting and getting hurt, but I draw the line at harm. In fact, I don't want to cause any damage that requires more than a 10 minute pause for things to ease. I certainly don't want to cause any damage that prevents the post fighting beer.

So how does this affect my fight?

I tend to pull blows when they look like they'll land on unprotected areas. I'll never try anything particularly dastardly unless I know my opponent's wearing a box. This means that unprotected fighting is not going to help my technique. Some people may be able to override those instincts, but it serves no purpose for me to do so. I know I don't treat blows as seriously as I should if I were training for combat.

If I were to get into a real fight, I know things would be different. For one thing, I would not be armed (unless you count an umbrella or a beautiful blackthorn and yew dress cane that would look terrible covered in the blood of a ruffian...anyway), I would be as weary of getting hit as I am now, but I would use all the dirty tricks. Stabs to the throat, eyes, testicles, knee stomping, the lot. Why? Because I would be fighting for my life. The fundamental difference is that I don't want that person to come back, I don't want a beer and a laugh with them when it's all over. I want to see them running away or down and staying there until the police arrive. Preferably the latter.

More park thoughts.

As I have said recently, we are making the most of the weather and meeting for informal training in the park. Now, I should explain the setup of this. There are lots of groups around the City, but for some strange reason we don't meet up much. In an attempt to alter this, myself and a few people from another group are meeting. This is not the optimal situation. Although we have different weapon preferences and different backgrounds, our basic strategies are shaped by the instruction of our honourable maestro.

I do not think I'm giving too much away by saying that he is a fairly static fighter, holding a strong defence and waiting for the other to become impatient or knackered through running around. It's an effective strategy. In a lot of systems the defender is considered to have an advantage. Even the German concepts of Vor and Nach- where you gain the initiative by forcing your opponent to do something can be used to explain a deliberate defence (probably..I'm not too familiar with the German stuff). I may remember to explain this in a later post.

One of the strengths of HEMA is that it is still evolving. This can be perceived as a weakness, but sod those people- they have no imagination or understanding.

Why is this a strength? Well, we have hundreds of people across the country all looking at the same manuscripts and getting different things out of it. Is this a failiure, a sign we're doing something wrong? My answer would be no. Look at sheet music- that's a precise notation, yet you will get people playing the same notation on the same instrument in remarkably different ways. This is the nature of art. Art rarely means the same thing to different people. This means that different schools have different focuses and interpretations, something considered minor to one group can be very important to another. It's not a matter of right and wrong, this is an art after all.

George Silver says that to become a true master you should be able to hold your own against a drunk, because he will know no fear. Someone untrained but determined, because they will not be predictable and a master because they will be the better swordsman. Safety does not permit the first option and most of my fighting is against my esteemed maestro, or the occassional newbie.

With this in mind, I was rather glad to hear that someone I've been wanting to fight since I became competent with rapier was heading to this city and had some time to kill after taking in a few museums. I met Mr N once, about this time last year, my first impressions were of an intelligent man and a good teacher.

It sounds pretentious to call our little band of scrappers a study group, but I suppose we are. This title was certainly earned this week as we enjoyed Mr N "waffling on" (his words) at us about how to use the rapier and pointing out a few subtleties that I've overlooked. Once the others were in a position to engage in swordplay, I got the bout I was looking for.

I have been working on a little project, I suppose you could call it the viola of the rapier world, I don't really want to say much more than that for the moment, I'm still working on it, and I'd like the element of surprise to be on my side when it gets to competition time. So this fight was testing a few things. Does my interpretation hold water and do I think my skill is at an acceptable level, all things considered.

The answer to the former is, probably. I blatently need to do more drilling and become more competent with muscle memory, but I didn't get hit that much

The swordsman who enjoys freeplay and sparring is an enemy of the Art?

Obviously I don't think so.

Freeplay is fun. As far as I'm concerned, that should be enough reason to justify its use- a fun thing to prolong interest in the art. But people do not think like me, and that is ok. So here are more intellectual reasons:

Let's start this by looking at why I'm not a fan of oriental martial arts. Kata, the struggle to fend off an invisible army by a sequence of 'programmed' moves. It has it's uses, helps teach proper form, for one thing. But remove the context of a fight and you are left with a bloke in white pajamas, stepping around a mat and waving his limbs about. I would like to see what happens if the imaginary fight surrounding the kata became a real one. Some things would work, some would not.

Ideally You should train as you would fight. Naturally, with swords that is difficult. You get quite a lot of amplification of force for one thing- so a certain amount of pulling your blows happens, you have a psychological difference when fighting in a mask (for example, your head is the most protected part of your body- a cut to the head hurts much less than a cut to the arm). Pulling blows is not a terrible problem- Once all the safety measures are removed from the sword (flex, bluntness, slappyness) it is more than compensated.

A mask, to my mind, is necessary and will remain so until I show such prowess with the blade that I can cut the corset from a tailors dummy without inflicting damage (then I move to an attractive cooperative goth chick, then an attractive, willing but uncooperative goth chick). The usefulness of fighting unmasked is questionable- your head becomes less of a target simply because you would never do that kind of thing with someone who would cause you great injury. My honourable and respectable maestro would have to curtail his instinct to go for a blow to the head whenever it's uncovered.

Anyway, I digress. I'm supposed to be talking about the uses of sparring and freeplay. As far as I'm concerned- my personal goals- is to fight. I understand there are going to be some compromises between that and using a sword to kill. I can live with this. I don't interpret what I want to do as a sport. I'd use the word swordplay more often if play didn't have such a negative/trivial connotation.

Play is one of the best ways we learn. Look about you, remember the memory games and maths games you played as a child. Look at the rough and tumble of lion cubs that play is part of their training to become killers. So my aim is to play-The simple fact is I have no desire to kill anyone I face. In fact, I want them to have as much fun as me and come back for more.

So, how do I work towards that?

Simple Stationary drill (assuming that you can perform the action without moving)- building up arm movements, getting a feel for the acceleration and where to be aware of your own blade.
Mobile drill- Add in the correct footwork.
Target practice if possible.

This is all to build up muscle memory. Once the muscle memory is developing nicely some people will go for cooperative drilling. I'm not a fan- people don't let you hit them and don't come in for the blows in exactly the same way every time.

Uncooperative drilling- This is pretty close to sparring. You have restrictions to force you to use what you are trying to improve on. Huge variation on what can be done here, but it boils down to A will try to hit B, B does not want to get hit.

Freeplay- I suppose I'd classify this as sparring with minimal intent. The restrictions in place with uncooperative drilling are lessened, maybe removed altogether. But it lacks the 'killer' nature of competition.

Competition- Pressure testing. Regardless of how beautifully you pose with a sword, how elegant and smoothly you move. You're dead if you can't put it between you and someone who wants to kill you. In lieu of homicidal maniacs that the police will turn a blind eye to, competition is the most sensible alternative.

You use all these tools, identify weaknesses and start again, working to strengthen aspects of your fight.

Personally, I can take or leave competitions. I am a gamer by nature- I see no problem with losing if it results in a better game or an improved opponent. Don't mistake this for giving someone an easy ride or making a mockery of the Art. As stated before, I hold games and play in very high regard. In fact, they the keystones of intellectual, social and physical development.

But if I want to beat myself, I need to go up against people I wouldn't usually choose to fight in situations where losing matters. I need to face off against people who do not want to get hit and will try to hit me in return.

Also- certain things will not make sense unless someone is trying to hit you. I have some ideas about flinch reactions that I'm slowly shaping. I've always thought the best techniques embrace and build on hard-wired responses. There's no point reprogramming yourself if you can just add an extra twist into a pre-existing program.

We're interpreting something at the moment and the logic behind some of it did not make sense until uncooperative drilling. In fact, a lot of things like that don't make sense until it's put into the context of someone trying to kill you. One well placed thrust is remarkably good at showing you which direction your interpretation should be heading.

Ah... Summer.

Time for the usual outdoor pursuits. Days in the park, listening to the the gentle sound of willow on leather bamboo on flesh. Yes, now the weather is what passes for good in this green and pleasant land, we have decided to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts and have some additional, informal sessions outdoors.

The focus of these sessions is freeplay/sparring. I admit I don't do enough drilling- it's a means to an end and I'm likely to be developing bad habits because of this. Then again, I don't fight many different people either.

Fortunately, I haven't developed a suntan (mesh patterned or otherwise)
yet. However, I have noticed a few things about outside training that are worth mentioning.

Water-The most important one. Lots of water. Those masks get rather hot and you're being very active. After 2 hours fighting, a litre and a half of water is barely enough. It's much better to have too much than not enough- dehydration headaches (the main reason your head pounds during a hangover) are awful.

Know your surroundings- this is a common thread amongst schools of thought. If you can force your opponent onto ground where he will mis-step on his attack (a sudden dip, sandy ground where he was expecting firm earth) then do it. The same with the sun, he will find it difficult to parry a blow when you have the sun behind you. Fighting in a public area
also brings some safety considerations, curious onlookers, stupid dogs and children mean that you have to be aware of many things during a fight.

Focus- London in the summer is a beautiful place. People from all over the world flock to this city and enjoy its charms. This includes the many green spaces. As such, there are quite a few attractive young ladies of various nationalities wandering about in very little clothing.
Understandably, this kind of thing is distracting. Get distracted in a swordfight and you die. As last words go- "look at the legs on her" doesn't really cut it.

Filming- this is a useful tool. My honourable sensai and maestro can shout 'your legs are too stiff' until his throat is sore, but 2 minutes of video helped me analyse my stance and some problems. I am tempted to post and critically analyse my technique at some point in the future. It will give you an idea about where I'm coming from and would help frame my
words. But not today.

I have also started to fight mixed weapon bouts. I am still forming my ideas and opinions about it, all I can say right now is that it's fun and you stand a much better chance if you know the weapon you're against. So the knowledge exchange starts- I pick up a little longsword and they pick up a little backsword and rapier.

The Rapier Virus is contagious. Maybe because a rapier just doesn't hit as hard as a longsword, maybe because we all secretly want to be gunless Musketeers, maybe because rapier and dagger just looks so damn cool. These things make it a fun weapon to use, easy to start, difficult to master and provides pain in new and interesting muscles. I gave the longsworders some brief instruction on how to use it and some are now making noises about
getting their own.

It may be my bias towards one-handed weapons, but I find the longsword terribly confusing. Not only do I wonder why it took several centuries to produce something as blatently sensible as a basket hilt (my knuckles do not like the simple hilt found on most swords) apart from that, there's something like 12 guard positions. So far, the only thing that makes sense
to me is cutting through to another guard. And the grappling. This may seem counter-intuitive to people unfamiliar with swordfighting, but there are two distances that are 'safe'. One is so far away that he cannot stab you, one is so close in that he cannot stab you. Unfortunately there's this zone of painful death between the two. Still once you're in close you've got to wrestle, disarm and kill your opponent before he has a chance to react. I'm used to fighting at distance, a rapier blade is long and your opponent is likely to have a
dagger. This means there is only one safe distance- closing means you're likely to get a blade between the ribs. Fighting against people who grapple is a different experience, part of your brain is geared up to get rushed, disarmed and pinned and so you are even more aware of keeping the right distance.

HEMA, Study and learning.

It's been a while, but I'd rather say interesting things than fill this up with bollocks.

I have recently taken one of my inevitably expensive trips to Foyles. They're starting to stock a lot of books in 'military history'. Arguably, they should be downstairs in the martial arts section, but it's a start. There's the glossy hardback Silver interpretation, a Talhoffer reprint, some Huttons and Mayer/Mair's polearms.

I was well behaved. I left with one book, and I paid for it.

I'm not sure if I like interpreting work. My group has done it a few times, mostly with Cappoferro- there are enough people around with the knowledge and the manners to assist when we get stuck or make cock-ups (That, and Windsor's interpretation is well written and works well as a reference point).

Don't get me wrong, I like asking "why this" and "how that" but it's nice to put that all on hold and build up the mechanics. It's very easy to get distracted by what does that mean and forget that the point is to become a swordsman. Unfortunately the local experts are far too manly and butch to embrace the kind of weapons suitable for a pasty faced, frilly shirted, makeup wearing weirdo.

The "local" rapier school is somewhere close to a 6 hour round trip away. If you include the lesson and the socialising, that makes it 9 hours for one lesson. I want to learn rapier and the off-hand weapons. Especially rapier and buckler. I can learn I.33, the earliest known sword and buckler techniques- but the dynamics of a fight with an open hilt are vastly different to the closed hilt I prefer. I've seen the local I.33 teacher in action, I like his style and I can believe he is a Name. It's just a shame the weapon does not 'talk' to me.

I'm not sure if the necessity of interpretation is a good or bad thing. A bad habit well learned is still a bad habit. However, it opens up a world of debate. I can email questions to almost every person that has interpreted a manuscript. The good ones will be happy to help, will not get offended by a good question and through the community will build a 'true' system. (for given values of true).