The Armour Archive

Greetings,

I'm new to this list and getting back into fighting after a two year absence. I attended my first practice last night and realized that I might need some sort of armor on my upper arms (not my shoulders).

Granted, I should keep my shield up enough to protect my arm but my shield continues to drift down as I get into my fights and smack. Or I don't pay enough attention to what my sword arm is doing (hesitating?) and smack.

Any ideas of basic armor that would help? Or as one person put it, the more you get hit there the more you'll remember to raise your shield?

My Thanks,

Livia Tasia
An Tir

rerebraces should cover that area very well.

If you are going for the authentic solution and and your chosen time frame allows it, a rerebrace is definately the armour solution.
But I will say this: depends on how often and how hard you get hit there. My upper arm protection is a youth knee pad, when I remember to put it on. Since the bicep is a pretty meaty body part, the padding is all I need to keep from getting bad bruises.

liviatasia wrote:my shield continues to drift down as I get into my fights and smack.

Spaulders (outer shoulder protection), as your shield drifts down, your shoulder WILL become exposed. With 3 lames or so, your upper arm will also be protected.

Thank you for the replies. I hope - with a lot of practice that my shield will stay where it is supposed to - and it won't be so much of an issue down the road. I've been surfing a lot of SCA photo albums and haven't seen many pictures of fighters being armored in that area.

A Knight I was working with before I got hurt told me that if I did not keep my shield up, he was going to bungee it to my body.

My Thanks,

Livia Tasia
An Tir

I've been fighting for about 17 years, and I still armor there. Getting big bruises in the middle of a tourney, especially on your arms, can ruin your fighting for the day. First thought; try a gambeson. Padding can be a good thing. Then, depending on your personna and overall armor theme, longer pauldron lames or rerebraces, as mentioned.

liviatasia -

Though this does not offer an armour solution (though the rerbrace is what you want), It is some good insight that was passed to me by my knight, as well as many other fighters.

If you keep getting hit in the same spot, you WILL learn to defend it. For some it takes longer than others, but for some 2 hits is enough to learn to defend. I believe it has been called the "reptile mind" - You learn through doing or, in this case, not doing. Your body itself learns what it needs to do to protect.

Wulfe wrote:If you keep getting hit in the same spot, you WILL learn to defend it. For some it takes longer than others, but for some 2 hits is enough to learn to defend. I believe it has been called the "reptile mind" - You learn through doing or, in this case, not doing. Your body itself learns what it needs to do to protect.

My first sensei referred to this as "bruises teach best". Hard lessons, but they did work.

But as other folks here have already said, get/make a rerebrace or what have you, put something on there to take out the sting. Even an elbow pad slid up there (and underneath whatever clothing you wear) will help.

I need to work on my arm strength and I have a trainer at the gym to help with that now. I'm hoping with more strength that will help in keeping up my shield as well. In the meantime I will try those suggestions. So far what I've worked out is a piece of leather that I'll just tie around my bicep. Like a cuff only a bit wider.

Thanks!

Livia Tasia
An Tir