The Armour Archive

Okay:
Went to our major non crown event this weekend and sucked. Had some fun in pickups though.

Tired of watching people around me get better than me while I was so inactive for so long.

So... if you live in the lower mainland of B.C. I'm inviting two or three of you to come to my shop for a practice once per week. Monday practice is awesome so I hope to run on another day. The plan is intensive serious training on this day.

I'm not a trainer, not good enough to be one. But we have the collective wisdom of the local group and the AA to draw from.

What tips would you give to a small group of three or four fighters who want to become wrecking machines? Specific drills? Training techniques etc.

What material would you suggest?

Specific tips for watching videos?

Etc etc.


Ewan (tired of not improving)

Throw 1000 blows a day on the pell. Watch your enemies flee from your blows.

Baron Alejandro wrote:Throw 1000 blows a day on the pell. Watch your enemies flee from your blows.

Su Excelencia,

Question (note: not a challenge but a question). Let's assume that our friend, as it may happen to myself, is not always able to practice either with people much better than himself, or even with other people at all. His pell will surely not tell him that his (or my) flat snap sucked, or that I need to make a "plan" for each approach or to his immobile and inhuman opponent. Or to stay away from direct approaches, or to stay outside of his kill zone.

Unless he gets one of these:


How can he (or me) tell if he is practicing his skills or reinforcing bad habits until it is too late?

Rowan soon to be G.....

Some thoughts:

Put a sheild and helmet on your pell. YOu could use cardboard for each. The idea is targeting, not power. If you hit the edge of the sheild, you know you didn't hit the opponent.

Draw, paint or tape a circle around the pell. Draw lines that cut the circle into 8 or so pie pieces. As you throw shots at the pell, move around the circle and forward and back on the lines, so you avoid becoming static.

Place pieces of duct tape on the pell in various places. Number these targets, then practice throwing at them. Use combinations of numbers like your birthday, social, phone number, etc.

In addition to the duct tape, take short pieces of dowel rod and place them about an inch apart, parallel to each other. Practice throwing into these 1 inch slots since most openings will be about that big.

PLace yourself in awkward positions and analyze what your options are from that position: Can you throw a shot? Can you move? Where is your sheild? YOur weapon?, etc, etc.

Watch tons of crown videos from your kingdom. Analyze what the fighters are doing that lead to their success or failure.

I will tell you that the two things that will make the biggest difference in your fighting success are your footwork and your defense. These two things will keep you alive long enough to improve your offense. The most importants things to work on are the basics. There are really only a few basic blows plus the point.

To improve your defense, take your sheild and get in front of the mirror and look for gaps. Figure out how to close them. Is your sword arm chicken winged? Pull it in tight.

To improve footwork, dance. PLace your helm on the ground and move around it in stance and in balance. Every once in while, freeze in place and analyze where everything is. Can you throw a shot from where you are? Are you on the balls of your feet? Is your defense in place?

For a small practice: Two guys fight one guy watches and analyzes what is going on and provides feedback. Then rotate. Do drills for a portion of practice. Do slow work so you can analyze what's happening.

Finally, travel as much as you can. If you can make events, you'll get exposure to other fighters and new ways of doing things.

Rowan,
In regards to pell work, you need to plan your practice. In that you must try to practice movements that can happen in an engagement. Duchess Mari Alexander once remarked that if there is not a worn path around your pell, then you are using it wrong.
While many stand and slug it out in one spot, most effective fighters move. Practice your shots while moving. Practice throwing a shot as you close to engage or float a shot as you move out of engagement. Walk a circle around your pell as you throw wraps.
You should not worry about about calibration when doing pell work. Should you use that level of power on a pell consistently you will wreck your arm.
To my understanding, pell work is used to develop accuracy,muscle memory, and flow (transitioning from one shot to another). You need to already know what good form feels like. If you need to check your form , then use a mirror or other large reflective surfaces.

When you have partners, start with slow work. Then do drills where one is defensive only and the other is offensive only. Rotate through on the drills and as you improve, go to two on one to increase the challenge for the defender. Then do meat grinder drills, where one holds the field and fights through the others, rotating such that each fighter has held the field against all the others.

After the meat grinders, spend some time talking about what was happening, and then - if there's still enough energy for more fighting - do some fights where each fighter focuses on a specific technique that they need to work on (should be something identified in the discussion about the meat grinder phase).

Rowan of Needwood wrote:Su Excelencia,

Question (note: not a challenge but a question). Let's assume that our friend, as it may happen to myself, is not always able to practice either with people much better than himself, or even with other people at all. His pell will surely not tell him that his (or my) flat snap sucked, or that I need to make a "plan" for each approach or to his immobile and inhuman opponent. Or to stay away from direct approaches, or to stay outside of his kill zone.

Because those are not the things that 1000 pell blows a day solves. Throwing 1000 blows a day transitions you from <i>overthinking things</i>* into throwing a blow that is sheer instinct. If you throw 1000 blows a day, your shots will be so hard and so fast that grown men will flee to the hills from the strength and speed of your blows.

Are there drawbacks? Of course. There are drawbacks to any training methodology. No method is perfect.



* - something <u>you</u> might want to consider. Just a friendly thought.

lots of good vids

http://ebonwoulfe.com/fighting.htm

If you have any questions about what you see shoot Duke Logan or I an Email

Lots of good stuff here folks.

Some specific questions:

Corby, how well do you see Oldcastle teachings crossing over to a more western/an tirian style?

bkillian, specifically how does your household break down a fighting tape?

My plan is to tape all of our practices and then analyze them. I know you Ebonwoulfe folks focus on tape quite a bit so some insight would be great.

Thanks Alejandro... but I know myself well enough to know that I won't do 100 blows on a pell by myself per day let alone 1000. I need the dynamics of the interaction between fighters.

Thanks and keep it coming.

Ewan wrote:Lots of good stuff here folks.

Some specific questions:

Corby, how well do you see Oldcastle teachings crossing over to a more western/an tirian style?

Could you explain what you mean by "crossing over" if the following doesn't answer you? I've been to two western tournies. One in Caid, one in the west. Did pretty well in the one in Caid--killed some knights. The Western one was small, out in the valley. Won that one.

And I do pretty well fighting westerners in general. Of course, there are a bunch of western styles, but the classic "small shield, open stance, long sword, high guard, outside range" westerner has tremendous trouble fighting someone with an open shield, a sword side pass and an A range rising leg wrap.

The Oldcastle manual is, in my opinion and experience, unique because it allows you to methodically practice all the parts of a coherent style of fighting even if no one is there who knows how to teach it. The manual has ONE mistake in it, in the illustrations, not in the text. Do what the text says when you notice a contradiction and you'll be fine.

Ewan wrote:
Thanks Alejandro... but I know myself well enough to know that I won't do 100 blows on a pell by myself per day let alone 1000. I need the dynamics of the interaction between fighters.

Thanks and keep it coming.

I'm going to recommend that you get over that aversion to the pell

I don't recommend a thousand a day (although in the heyday of my training I would do several thousand strikes on my pell per session). It's too much for starting out.

However - pell work develops a very specific benefit that is much harder to build against a live opponent. The first time your opponent falls down, you ask them why and they say because you hit me.... that's when you realize the benefit of pell work. They gapped at a spot you had practiced hitting on your pell - a spot you had practiced hitting often enough that when the gap appeared your sword struck out without your conscious mind being involved.

Pell work produces instinctive blows. Even if the only thing you do is 100 flat snaps to the temple and 100 to the leading thigh, if you do those every day, they will become automatic.

Corby, fair enough. It wasn't the success of the fighter I was thinking of, as I'm sure that the best fighters in any given style will be competitive against any other given style regardless.

Gavin, I know, I know.... it just sucks.

Thanks again all.

Just to clarify as well, I'm not looking to change my fighting style. 6 years ago when I was active I was pretty competitive with most guys. Those guys have all surpassed me for obvious reasons (fighting three or four times in the last year will do that...)

I'm trying to come up with a program that will quickly return me to where I was and then surpass that. Intensity will be the key, I think.
Pell work (shudder) and lots of fighting, with video critques by everyone I can convince to look at the tapes combined with intense physical training will do the job...
Thanks for advising me.

bkillian wrote:lots of good vids

http://ebonwoulfe.com/fighting.htm

If you have any questions about what you see shoot Duke Logan or I an Email

The EbonElves were absolutely fabulous. Not sure what Ewan could learn about fighting from it, but it was fabulous.

Corby, have a look at a few of the fights here: http://ca.youtube.com/user/tcanevaro

(if you want better video, let me know. I can get you the uncompressed versions)

As an Oldcastle fighter, what do you see from the fighters on this tape? Inherent Weaknesses? etc.

Anyone, please feel free to comment.

Went to our major local practice last night. Turned out it was tourney night. I got lucky and won it.

Have a look at the video here: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=uQVOFWBK_ao

and critique please.

I felt pretty good, other than endurance issues, but please identify weaknesses you see. How would you exploit them? What did I miss for opportunities against my opponents? Suggestions?

How long is your sword? (including hilt)

I just built this sword after my last one broke into two pieces this weekend. It is long, but I didn't realize how long until I measured it.

42".

Balance point is 9" ahead of my hand.

I'll do some analysis of the videos in depth.

But first off, the swords seem long for the size of the fighters, and the distance you guys seem to prefer to fight at is relatively large.

These are probably related issues. Also related: Lord Kettle Hat sure does like backing up!

"Lord Kettle Hat"...



Yes I back up too much. At what point does trying to reset your range become a problem? I intellectually get it that I back up too much. When I'm in the fight it "feel" like I am dictating range.

"I don't like where this going right now, I'll get outta here and reset."

or

"I'll make this guy chase me a bit cause he's got a short sword THEN I step forward and close with him and take the fight to him."

My knight and I were talking about it a bit tonight and he mentioned that the transition between offense and defense was where I've always been the weakest. Thant makes sense to me. How much do the two correlate I wonder?

Thanks Corby, I do apprecaite your analysis.

What you're describing is precisely where the pell work will help you, actually...

at some point the difference between offense and defense gets REALLY murky if you're training hard. Granted, some of that is just lots of time playing. But the rest of it is being able to snap off really good blows just because the opening was there and begging for it.

...die stepping back.

This is not UNIVERSALLY true, but it is MOSTLY true. I'm sure there are a dozen or more guys who will say "but I kill guys all the time moving backwards." yeah yeah. Those guys are the exception, and they are working harder to do what they do.

If you usually do anything, you have a weakness. In other words, if everyone expects you to back up, and you back up, you are not surprising your opponent.

To challenge yourself, go into practices for a while with the determination to NOT back up. Find your way to something new, and you become less predictable. You become multidimensional.

Strive to be an opponent whose game cannot be summed up in 3 sentences.

Good stuff.

Thanks all. Still listening too...

bumpage

Ewan wrote:I just built this sword after my last one broke into two pieces this weekend. It is long, but I didn't realize how long until I measured it.

42".

Balance point is 9" ahead of my hand.

How tall are you ? Is that balance point comfortable for you ?

I use swords that length for two sword, with balance points four inches ahead of the guard. At 9 inches out they are much too tip heavy for my taste and at less than 4 they are too much "in the hand".

I don't like swords that long for sword and shield work, as a bit shorter sword is very much quicker.

I don't wish to appear to be arguing with Sir Corby, as I am confident we actually agree, but I want to try and go a bit further with something he said.

"die stepping back"

You can die stepping forward too

It's all about the why and the when.
I win a good number of fights by pulling people in to me. But - higher quality opponents don't get pulled in - and if/when they choose to come in it's with a plan to turn my trap against me.

Against a fighter who won't chase me and get pulled into the trap, I have to be able to go forward and take the fight to him.

It's rather entertaining to face someone who thinks they know how you fight and watch their face as you do something completely unexpected and highly aggressive.

Something I noticed about the manner in which you step back. It's a straight line, you pull out along the exact line you have been fighting, keeping the relative alignment with your opponent. The only times that changed were when you turned to avoid backing into a wall.

It is extremely effective to not step straight back, but rather to slide out to either the shield or the weapon side, changing angles so their attack misses while keeping yourself within range for a counter-attack against the openings that appear with the change of angles.

Consider Duke Paul's frequent advice about "attacking the corners" of your opponent. That principle can be applied both entering or exiting combat range.

You mention transition from offense to defense. When one is really fighting well, there is no such thing. All movement is both offense and defense.

Go into guard in front of a mirror. Do you mean to be holding your shield that far away from your body?

Adam

Adamo wrote:Go into guard in front of a mirror. Do you mean to be holding your shield that far away from your body?

Adam

Yes.

Kilkenny wrote:

Ewan wrote:I just built this sword after my last one broke into two pieces this weekend. It is long, but I didn't realize how long until I measured it.

42".

Balance point is 9" ahead of my hand.

How tall are you ? Is that balance point comfortable for you ?

I use swords that length for two sword, with balance points four inches ahead of the guard. At 9 inches out they are much too tip heavy for my taste and at less than 4 they are too much "in the hand".

I don't like swords that long for sword and shield work, as a bit shorter sword is very much quicker.

I'm 6'.

So far, I'm really liking it. I felt a lot faster and my combos seemed to flow much better than the 36" sword I was fighting with before.

Time will tell if that length allows be to work well enough inside.

It does look really looong in the video though.

Kilkenny wrote:I don't wish to appear to be arguing with Sir Corby, as I am confident we actually agree, but I want to try and go a bit further with something he said.

"die stepping back"

You can die stepping forward too

It's all about the why and the when.
I win a good number of fights by pulling people in to me. But - higher quality opponents don't get pulled in - and if/when they choose to come in it's with a plan to turn my trap against me.

Against a fighter who won't chase me and get pulled into the trap, I have to be able to go forward and take the fight to him.

It's rather entertaining to face someone who thinks they know how you fight and watch their face as you do something completely unexpected and highly aggressive.

Something I noticed about the manner in which you step back. It's a straight line, you pull out along the exact line you have been fighting, keeping the relative alignment with your opponent. The only times that changed were when you turned to avoid backing into a wall.

It is extremely effective to not step straight back, but rather to slide out to either the shield or the weapon side, changing angles so their attack misses while keeping yourself within range for a counter-attack against the openings that appear with the change of angles.

Consider Duke Paul's frequent advice about "attacking the corners" of your opponent. That principle can be applied both entering or exiting combat range.

You mention transition from offense to defense. When one is really fighting well, there is no such thing. All movement is both offense and defense.

Excellent! Thanks for the insight Gavin. Good stuff. I just watched the vids in slow mo and you are totally right. Angles were something that Duke Uther mentioned the last time he and I fought and I was amazed at how he just decimated the best fighters I had ever gone up against. It was all angles. Thanks.

42" is quite long, although many people have success with that. It seems to me that it is making many of your shots "loopy" rather than direct, possibly slowing them down. This is not necessarily a bad thing if you can use it deceptively.

I do like the balance point out - and especially since you fight "sword back" this is pretty critical. You can make a 36" sword balance out, maybe not 9" but certainly 6" from the basket. Much easier with a plastic or light basket... you DO use one of those right (heavier steel baskets and hand eighted swords I think are more suited to a closed sword forward style)

Also, it seems that for a guy with a long sword, you want to fight in close... although I didn't really notice the "backing up thing" - probably because I am a big backer-upper myself (with mixed sucess)

I would consider dropping the sword to maybe a 38" or 40" but use strapping tape to weight it out where you like. Alternatively, if you are going to fight with a 42", try to sit in your range 2.5 ("C" for Sir Corby!), which should be most opponents range 3+ (they should barely be able to hit you).

Baron Alejandro wrote:Throw 1000 blows a day on the pell. Watch your enemies flee from your blows.

I am not sure if Alejandro is serious or just joking around, but I wanted to chime in just in case. When I first started fighting I had a very strong drive to get better as quickly as possible. I came on here or another forum similar to this and asked the very same question. And I was told throw a 1000 blows a day on the pell and your fighting will explode.

Well since being better quicker was the name of the game for me I started throwing a 1000 blows a day on the pell 5 days a week. I think I did that for about a year and a half and then I went down to 300 a day 5 days a week, and now I do about 300 a day 3 days a week. The problem I have with 1000 blows a day is that it is VERY hard on your joints throwing those kind of repetitions 5 days a week. And of course with any pell work slower is better… it is hard to throw slower you have to be patient and have more control, but it is safer on your joints.

I can’t say my enemies were fleeing before me while I was on that very serious pell work out, but I can say I did have pretty good results very quickly.

I would suggest starting out with 300 a day, but do them in 2 second shots… do that for about 6 months and let us know how your game is

WT

I would agree with the comments about stepping straight back. I think it in your last fight against Arg when you step back and to your right - Arg's shot is easily blocked and effectively countered winning that practice tourney. Most of the fights you lost seemed to be in the transition time between defending and attacking and were a result of being exactly where your oppoents hoped you would be.

Ieuan

I have trained two knights and three dukes and an Eorl. They had other teachers besides me, but I like to think I did something for them. That sounds really self satisfied, and for that I apologize. They succeeded. It was them. But I like to think I helped.

My advice is this.

Listen to Audax.

Learn to move and defend.

Her specifics drill ideas are really good.

In simple terms...

The quickest way to get instant results is to be more ferocious. Most fighters are not giving it their all. Learning to open the whole can of whoopass is the quickest way to "level up". Life is too short to fight half assed.

I have a feeling that you don't need that advice.

The next easiest way is to improve your cardio vascular fitness. If you can pour it on for a longer period of time than you opponent, you have an advantage, but only if your defense can keep you alive long enough to have that happen.

If you aren't doing those things, you aren't getting everything you can from your current skill level.

After that, Audax has given a number of great ideas.

The "Numbered target" idea is an old one. You should remember to throw each shot as if it was "the important one" and not cheat any of the blows. Experienced opponents (the only ones that matter) will simply wait until you commit to a blow, block that one, and restart. You get nothing from that except tired.

For bonus points, mark the compass points around the pell as numbers as well, and move to that spot before starting the phone number. "9" might correspond to "up close and personal" or "move back to sniping range". Your choice.

For the dowel opening shot drill, try taking a piece of undersized rattan, and using six inch nails instead of dowels. Quarter inch dowels just don't hold up to the abuse. Use nails with a one quarter inch shank, and drill one quarter inch holes in a piece of undersized rattan to allow you to make a one and a half inch channel that you have to throw your shot though. Be careful, that nail heads will chew up your rattan.

For bonus points, hang the rattan post from a piece of bungie cord, top and bottom. It moves. That's OK, your target moves too.

I don't have a studio mirror large enough to see my whole body. I use a construction light, and shadow box. A big dojo mirror is a useful thing.

Hope that helps.

f

Excellent input all. I'm going to be building my pells tonight so I won't have any excuses any more.

Thanks so much everyone.