Awareness

Had a good practice last night.  We had one other knight out and a few long time players. 

During one of my sets with the other knight I was working on a tight leg wrap.  I would throw it and be pummeled.  I was on the tired end of the spectrum but it was ridiculous.  Close.  Low wrap. Pummel. 

I became aware that I was throwing that wrap, but I was looking at it.  seeing how it traveled, watching it hit his shield.  When I knew this I could correct it.

My last fight in the set was so much better.  Close, low wrap, low wrap.  I was able to stay in.  Stay aware of my opponent and finally land the shot.  Then while in range I let myself relax a little, look for an opening, become less aware.  I got popped in the face for it.

For this awareness has two components.
1) Be aware of what you are doing.  What is working, what isn't, how can I change that.
2) Being aware of my opponent.  watching what they are doing.  Keeping my defense in the game.

If #2 lapses I lose.  If #2 happens I can less effectively work on shots.

If #1 happens practice just becomes a big non directed sparring session.

An Tir Crown, May 2013

Final showing: fourth round in a double elimination tourney with 94 entrants.

Fought decently enough.  Although I think a smarter approach to my fight might have avoided at least one loss.
Warm up fights were good against Erik, Martin and Arminius.

Pressed the attack strongly in the first fight against a smaller opponent.  We closed to short range and I got caught.  Will use some defensive work and range holding drills and exercises.

Another problem is recognizing what I am fighting against.   Need to work a pre tourney check on my opponent.  Shield type, handedness.

Second loss involved a decent fight that ended when I tried to throw an opening pendulum.  Need to stick to bread and butter and fight.  No stopping to see how the shot landed.

Drills
Pell work
2 second drill
Frozen man
Surfing

Test post

Testing posting blog enteries on small tablet.

In general, this tablet was largely purchased as a way to film and review fights at practice.

100 blows. 100 days: Finished

I set out to complete the century drill.  I survived it.  I used it to work on some new shot techniques at the end. 

Basically the first bit was getting it done.  Coming up with ways to comlete 100 shots without becoming bored with it. 

Then I moved on to more flow and flourish work, constantly working with 1-6 drills and 100 slow-medium flow strikes.

The end was working on throwing the basic Oplomachia shots, warm-ups and some left handed work as well.  I recorded some of this, and have meant to do more but haven't.

All in all it was a worthy endeavour, and one I am happy to say I did.  I am still out on the pell working most days, but no longer every single day.

100 strikes, 100 Days

Eques Vilius Antonii contacted me among others and suggested we all start a 100 pell strikes for 100 days routine.  After deciding I could do pell work in my garage (single car garage, space is tight) I agreed.  I started getting into it the previous week and did 100 strikes on a couple different days, working through the 1-6 drill and then doing some repetitive form work at the end.

We started officially on Monday, Novemeber 12.  Did my 100+ swings, again working through 1-6 and then doing a few extras at the end.

Had a small tournament in our Barony a little while ago. I did ok, but am really not super happy with the results.  It was a round robin.  I won victories against the newer people, but anyone that was even a little bit of a challenege I hit a wall on and nothing would come together.

Still like the new sword though, it's pretty awesome. 

Monday practice & a new stick

On Thursday I fought only a few sets because the rattan was SO worn out.  It wouldn't flow.  Maybe I was a little off, but the rattan was not helping.

Monday rolled around again as it always does.  I largely squandered my weekend and avoided making a new sword.  For some reason I alway see this as an onerous task, I would apparently rather fight with a broom, making it nearly impossible to land a good blow.

Yet, here we were again.  Monday after work.  Old worn out rattan.  If I went to practice with it I wasn't going to fight.  So I grabbed new rattan and craved up a sword. 

For the past 5 or 6 iterations I have been carving my handle a certain way.  It is a sort of modified saber grip, fatter at the top than at the bottom.  Over trial and error I have determined I like it a little on the larger side over the smaller side.

I do not plane my swords, I don't really believe it helps make it look more like a sword or function more like a sword.  It's a stick.

When I was fnished and I had it all taped up I noted despite the length being identical to my previous sword, this one was significantly heavier.  Rattan must be denser.  I have 2 more blanks from this piece of rattan.

Although Monday practice was small it was a joy to fight with a new stick.  Absolute joy.  I always think this when I have a new sword.  ALWAYS.

Practice was a light sparring session with 2 other fighters.  It was good to put the armor on and swing some stick around.  Often with only three of us on the Monday we do not.

October closeout. November start.

Final day of October.

Goals were as follows:

Goal updateNutrition: 19
Pell & slow work: 8
Practice: 6
Blog: 4

Nutrition:
Out of 21 days, I have eaten well for 17 of them.  I am aiming for around 1900 calories a day.  Some days I have come in pretty low, but haven't suffered for it.  I have felt fine, not hungry.

I am a few days from my goal however.  I was aiming for 90% compliance and ended up more like 81% compliance.  I had a few days of emotional eating, but over all I did farily well.  17 day of eating well is a far cry from where I was, which was pretty much 0 days of eating well.

November starts a new month and it will be time to set some new goals.

Pell & Slow work:
As usual I did pretty much zero pell and/or slow work away from practice.

Practice:
I made it to six practices over the last half of the moth, but we only fought four of them due to low numbers.

Blog:
Have managed to keep up with the blogging, and have easily posted 4 times since the middle of October.

November goals
I will keep up my momentum.  I will be looking to increase my dietary compliance, see if I can bring it up to 85%.  That is 25 days in November where I am eating at my designated caloric limit.  Coronet is also in Novemeber so it will affect the number of practices I make it to.  Still I should be able to make 7 next month.  I will continue to work at putting slow work into my training schedule.  Be looking at once a week for now, so if I can get it in four times next month that would be awesome.

For new goals I am going to add resistance training to the goals in this blog as well as using my training journal.  Using the training journal will constitute writing in it after practice and then reviewing it before next practice.  Identifying areas I believe I am having trouble with and coming up with ways to fix them.

I have no real plan for resistance training.  It will most likely take place at home.  I have items in the garage I can use to make a fine workable gym.  If I can get in there and lift something a couple times a week it will be a vast improvement over where I was.

GOALS:
Nutrition: 25
Practies: 7
Training Journal: 8
Slow work: 4
Resistance: 8