My latest tournament

[Langenschwert]

Returning to competition after a broken fibula. I got two bronzes and overall senior champion due to medalling in multiple divisions and having a high hits for/against and very few double hits. It was a small HEMA tournament in Edmonton: longsword, sword & buckler and knife. All my students did well, and I'm very proud of them. Here's a clip of the longsword finals, which my club swept from 1st to 4th.

Overall, I'm happy with my footwork considering my ankle isn't back to 100% yet. I'll be happy when I'm springy again. I'm happier with my range perception. There are places where I fade out of distance slightly and return fire, or stand stock still knowing the incoming strike wouldn't connect. I credit this to my injury, which forced me to fight with very little footwork during my recovery. Once I took a step, I couldn't fix it fast enough for it to matter if I was too close, so I had to creep in, inch by inch. I applied that to a lot of my fights in that tournament.

 

[Buka]

Ah, adaptability. So important, especially when dealing with an injury.

Great to hear about your students, good on them, bro.

 

[tshadowchaser]

congrats

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Looks like a lot of fun. If I was in your neck of the woods, I would definitely be signing up for classes.

 

[Steve]

Looks like a blast.

 

[Langenschwert]

It certainly is a blast. It never gets old, and there's nothing quite like 3 or 4 lbs of steel flying at your head to make you feel alive. Or at least attentive.

 

[Jenna]

I had not seen a sword fighting tournament before this.. absolutely awesome to watch and see the deployment of the techniques for real. Thank you for posting it, Jx

 

[Langenschwert]

Thought I'd post a video of my most recent tournament to show the recovery of my right ankle. I managed to capture gold in both longsword and dussack (a leather sabre), and bronze in messer, and clinched Tournament Champion. I also ended up third in the league overall. I'm the only lefty in the pool, and you can see me on the left at 4:22. I also managed to defeat the longsword gold medallists from 2015 and 2016, and was undefeated in longsword and dussack for the whole day. I think I lost two messer bouts. Fortunately the 2016 gold medallist for dussack and messer was absent this year, or I might have gotten a beatdown.

Compared to the video in the original post, you can see my movement and springiness has much improved, and I worked my cardio to the point where I was fresh for every fight. It's hard to breathe in those masks and the gear is very hot... we're essentially fighting in winter coats. My strategy was to use simple techniques, focusing on range, timing, and pushing the pace because our club trains at altitude, and this was our home tournament. I tried to end every fight quickly to avoid fatigue, but didn't take any unnecessary risks either. Rather than trying to force high scoring techniques, I took what my opponents presented and worked with that. If that meant shots to extremities, that's what I did. Only when the way was clear to a deep, high scoring target did I go for it. I think that played out well since my opponents learned to never expect me to go deep, and when I did it messed up their OODA loop enough that they couldn't respond in time.

Overall, this was the best day of fighting I've ever had. I learned a lot about what techniques to do when, and to resist temptation and the traps of my opponents. At 44, I have to fight differently. I'm happy it worked!

 

[drop bear]

Nice.

 

[JowGaWolf]

It just occurred to me the type of personality a person has to have to participate in weapons sparring. There must be a great deal of control of one's ego and emotions. I've yet to see anyone who does weapon sparring to display some of the habits that you see in non-weapon sparring. For example, when the command is given to break the action, both fighter do just that. I've yet to see any "sucker punch" behavior with weapons sparring. I'm not sure how accurate my assumption is, it's just I've yet to seen that type of negative behavior.

 

[Langenschwert]

It just occurred to me the type of personality a person has to have to participate in weapons sparring. There must be a great deal of control of one's ego and emotions. I've yet to see anyone who does weapon sparring to display some of the habits that you see in non-weapon sparring. For example, when the command is given to break the action, both fighter do just that. I've yet to see any "sucker punch" behavior with weapons sparring. I'm not sure how accurate my assumption is, it's just I've yet to seen that type of negative behavior.

I've seen it happen, but it's very rare. Tempers can flare up, and I've seen people censured for unsportsmanlike behaviour, but never evicted. I have seen people deliberately hit an opponent after a halt to a vulnerable target to slow them down for following exchanges, which dirty pool and not acceptable.

More common is auditory exclusion leading to strikes after the halt. This happens from adrenaline, and if the call is made at the exact moment you get hit, it's hard to hear. That's why the ring boss has a big stick, to separate fighters if things get ugly. I have seen that maybe once.

One can legally hit one tempo after a point is called to attempt an after blow in order to reduce the points awarded, hence the admonition to "protect yourself at all times".

Another thing is that we all know each other. We're all friends or colleagues and each others' biggest fans. We party together after the tournament. We celebrate each others' victories, and maybe try to get revenge in some friendly sparring afterwards. We want to see each other do well. Almost no one who swings weapons around is willing to deliberately injure someone to get a medal. It can happen, as it's a combat sport. Injuries happen. I have never seen a deliberate injury in my league.