The Armour Archive

Cedric brought up this in his post on the habits of fighters thread.

I was curious if anyone knows any drills on doing this when working with your pell or working with another person?

For the life of me I do not know why I plant my feet and stand in front of my opponent.

I haven't been to practice in a couple of months since I'm off until my doctor says I can go back (neck stuff). So, I'm reading everything I can online about fighting. Especially the parts I seem to have problems with.

Mainly, moving my feet.

Watching our fighters - they almost seem to 'dance' if that makes any sense. And despite how heavy their armor is they seem really light on their feet. Is there some sort of trick to that? Something I can practice out of armor as well as in?

Cedric also wrote about taping practices. I might go and watch/tape practices even though I can't fight yet and watch the tapes.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Tasia

liviatasia wrote:Cedric brought up this in his post on the habits of fighters thread.

I was curious if anyone knows any drills on doing this when working with your pell or working with another person?

For the life of me I do not know why I plant my feet and stand in front of my opponent.

I haven't been to practice in a couple of months since I'm off until my doctor says I can go back (neck stuff). So, I'm reading everything I can online about fighting. Especially the parts I seem to have problems with.

Mainly, moving my feet.

Watching our fighters - they almost seem to 'dance' if that makes any sense. And despite how heavy their armor is they seem really light on their feet. Is there some sort of trick to that? Something I can practice out of armor as well as in?

Cedric also wrote about taping practices. I might go and watch/tape practices even though I can't fight yet and watch the tapes.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Tasia

Duke Paul has footwork drills in his online book.

I suggest balls of the feet, heels lightly touching the ground (like you could slip a piece of paper, and nothing else, between your heel and the ground).

Try Sir Vitus' Frozen Man Targeting drill (a search on this forum will readily find the instructions).

Dance. Imagine you are trying to get behind your partner. Don't worry about swinging. Add the swing when you are comfortable moving. Again, much better instructions at Duke Paul's website.

Stance and footwork are crucial to mastery of our sport. In the Go Rin No Sho, Musashi says to walk like you walk in your normal life - to make your combat stance your everyday stance, and your everyday stance your combat stance. Like many things in that book, the practical application is not obvious. I have taken this to mean that the adherance to an unfamiliar stance can limit our effectiveness, and all motions should flow naturally regardless of position and attitude.

Dig through Ursus' picture archive and find still frames of the Best of the Best tournament and you will see some of the most skilled fighters in our sport in all kinds of odd positions - many of them completely out of what may be called a proper stance. The dance you describe is a product of the fighters being comfortable with their bodies to the point that they can generate power from positions and attitudes beyond the stance that they have mastered.

This gets back to good body mechanics, and lots of practice. Regardless of venue, top fighters move with confidence and a degree of grace regardless of their size. Stance is the thing that will give you power, but it is just the foundation of skillful maneuvering.

http://www.midrealm.org/redco/frozen.html If you are interested.

liviatasia wrote:
Watching our fighters - they almost seem to 'dance' if that makes any sense. And despite how heavy their armor is they seem really light on their feet. Is there some sort of trick to that? Something I can practice out of armor as well as in?

Tasia

We call it the Rattan Two step round here...and Yes it does look like dancing... Unless you have two florentine fighters...then it becomes the Danse Macabre

I'll see what I can come up with as far as drills to wpork on range out of armor. what are the limitations of your neck problems?

Cedric also wrote about taping practices. I might go and watch/tape practices even though I can't fight yet and watch the tapes.

Tape the fighting an watch it looking for particular things. you can watch the same 30 sec fight 100 times and still not see everything,
who's foot moved first?
who's hand moved first?
what did Fighter X's shoulder do just before he threw that back cut?
You may even find things that people don't know that do.
"Hey look! when Fighter Y sets to throw a wrap, his shoulders square out a bit and his lower shield leg is more open!"
1) you see the tell for the wrap
2) when you see that tell you know what he has given up as a target.
It's best if you do you playback on a player that can go slow motion or even frame by frame forward and backward.

I watch tape of fighting fairly often and as Ceddie says, you really can find out alot about what other fighters do as well as see how certain shots are really done. Some fighters don't even realize how they throw certain shots, they just seem to come and when they try to slow down and show you, they actually show it wrong.

As far as movement one thing to practice is moving around in angles without really lifting your feet off of the floor. Just sort of slide around like ballroom dancers in turns. That will really help in your fighting because it removes the up and down timing of normal heel toe walking which can create openings. Also if you move by sliding, your opponnent may never realize you have moved until too late.

Thorald

We think my neck was injured when I tore my ACL at fighter practice in 2003.

There was a snap, crack and WHAM! I fell down straight backwards like a sack of taters. I had my helm on and it rang my bell but my knee felt like it was broke so I wasn't exactly worried about that. Thankfully we had a Chirugeon at practice. Once they realized it wasn't broke and I was hollering, "DON'T CUT MY ARMOR!" I drove to the ER. (Left knee).

For several months my neck hurt but the surgeon said it was pain telegraphing from my knee. I went to a neurologist in November and it was only then we found he vertebrae had gotten 'squished' (not a medical term but how he described it to me).

So it's been causing migraines (which I had gotten anyway, but now worse).

He thinks epidurals will control the pain and the issue itself isn't bad enough to not swordfight. I explained how the fighting went so he could get a good idea of it. He didn't like the amount of weight of the helm BUT with physical therapy he thinks I can make my neck muscles stronger.

Pretty cool to have a doc willing to work with you. And I just found an armorer that will make me a knew helm with my issue in mind. A heavier cap to prevent whiplash issues but still light - so I'll go from a 7 lbs. helm to a 9 lbs. one.

I spent all day yesterday going through the info you guys gave, Duke Paul's site, Sir Vitus' drill. Those are things I can practice now.

Though, dancing in armor might work too.

Thanks for all your advice!

Tasia

Livia: you do it because your opponent tends to do it. Your opponent tends to do it because a lot of practices happen where conditions don't permit a lot of sideways movement. Then you get to the tourney field and haven't practiced it.

Want to get out of the habit? Fight two weapons and/or move the practice to somewhere that's well lit that has room.

Regards,

Jonathan Blackbow

One of the best tools for this I saw a few years ago was a guy from CAID who's knight had him put bells on his shoes. (I think he kept the bells on after he got knighted) It was his job to make sure the bells always made noise. If you couldn't hear the bells you were doing it wrong.

Thanks Sir Daniel - I'm going to try that!

BTW - looking forward to the War Moots starting back up again this fall. Saw your post on the fighter forum. I'll be back to regular practices by then and will finally get to attend my first one. Everyone here talks about them.

Tasia