The Armour Archive

Hello. I started fighting again and got some interesting feedback at a practice recently. It seems that I am overly aggressive. I don't wait for openings, I try to force them. Obviously this doesn't work so well for someone 10 years out of practice. But part of the reason for the aggressiveness was that I was concerned I lacked shot strength. I was told that I actually develop a good half again more force than is needed for a good shot. The downside is I am stiff and throwing really basic shots. My diaphragm is tightened up and I found I am taking few breaths.

I'd like to jumpstart my return to fighting. Do any of you have any suggestions for things I can do to increase my speed and fluidity for changing shot vectors, or even suggestions to help me not hold my body like it is made of cement? Right now the snow is keeping me at home, so I have missed the practices I wanted to go to, so anything I can do in the yard (after I shovel the several feet of fluffy coldness) would be handy.

And yes, I will make it to practice when I can, but am looking for things to do between practices.

Mentioned this in a post recently, but slow pell work, focusing on overall positioning/mechanics of the body, keeping your body "tense" but not stiff. Start moderately slow and work up to speed, and pay attention to your breathing the whole time. Something I picked up from martial arts in the past was exhaling when I threw a punch/kick. It has translated well into SCA combat for me. I do two kinds of slow pell work. The first is blow repetition: preforming a blow, coming back to stance, repeating the blow etc etc. The second I do is, again at a slow speed, throw a blow, then try to throw the best second blow from whatever position I'm in after the first, then the third, etc etc. This helps with being able to move from one strike/defense to the next more fluidly, and not having to come back to the same stance to set myself up for the next blow each time.

I'm a relatively inexperienced fighter, so can't claim to know much, but this has worked well for me.

This reads like a near perfect situation for the application of Duke Paul's "rhythmic slow-work". You can do it alone, visualizng an opponent and working on throwing - slowly - a combination of blows. Be sure to include movement and blocking their imaginary counters (works better with a partner where you don't have to imagine things ). By practicing slowly the entire process, you will get yourself settled down so it's not unfamiliar and your breathing should improve just from that aspect alone. Plus, doing the slow-work part of the exercise is to keep breathing and that will help make breathing a part of your fighting routine.

In the slow-work, you can always stop, reconsider a choice and try a different option. This helps in a number of ways. For example, if you have a three blow combination: Flat snap to the head, offside to the head, onside leg - you might work on other options for the third blow. Instead of onside leg, you might try offside leg, or onside head with the false edge of the sword, or offside body. This would give you four combinations that all begin with the same two blows and you can choose the finish based on what openings appear.

You reference posture, and I think this is so over-
looked. Make sure your hips are tucked under,
your legs are slightly bent, your back is not
hunched. If you belong to a gym, and you've
a little experience with cables, you can set up
a bench press scenario on really low weight
and run through the shot motion. You should feel
the tension from your palm to your toes. A martial
arts buddy once told me, The ground is a good
friend to have as your ally. Or something like that.

Like the two previous posts suggest, I bet some
pell work would help you on power. Help you feel
less like you need aggression to set the blow
strongly, and if you're ten years out, getting some
knight or otherwise puissant individual to show
you the blows again is always helpful and never
shameful. Posture work will also make your power
explode.

In terms of openings, I would just impart a phrase.
Be hungry for opennings. The best opennings your
opponent will offer. And make sure you're moving
through them diagonally! and not flat-footed, cursing
at the castle gates.

Eadrich:

We teach an SCA fighting Scholum here like a martial arts dojo with a standardized curriculum based on an integrated offensive/defensive/maneuver framework for fighting bio-mechanics.

While the material is naturally much easier to follow and learn in the classes, a number of folks have found it helpful on its own (along with asking questions of us as-needed).

You can find the curriculum online at our Scholum Website.

Hope it proves of some assistance!

Max Von Halstern

Thanks all for the suggestions and help. I'll be trying these suggestions after the holiday. Merry Christmas all.

Eadrich

http://www.bellatrix.org/school/

Its what we teach.

Slow work teaches the body proper blow PATH.
Hand speed is developed in other ways. When I started doing power cleans my sword speed tripled. Ask anyone who fought me before my shoulder got messed up. I was almost as fast as Duke SIR Gareth.

Which leads to an interesting point. If you want to fight for a long time, find blows to throw that will not cause you to injure yourself.

I have known many men to follow the path of fighter, knight, king, and cripple.

Vitus von Atzinger wrote:<snip>. When I started doing power cleans my sword speed tripled. <snip>

Good Sir, could you elaborate on this? Not sure if sword technique, weight lifting/strengthening technique or what exactly. I've heard it bantered about in conversation but meaning different things. Curious which yours is.

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

Ponder on that for a while.