Practice Report - May 30

Last nights practice was a little weird... not in a bad way, but more in an unexpected way.  We had some people show up to practice that I would not have expected to see.  Gryphon, Xavier, and Alys all showed up.  Alys was doing drills last night with people to work off her rust from life.  Gryphon hung out and Xavier just popped by.  Others in attendance were Malcolm, Mabel, Jane, Firebow, Scrooby, and Diego.

I showed up early because Antonio was not going to be there.  Edmund had Gabriel for the night, so he swung by to open up the site, but Malcolm, Jane, and I were already there.  Mabel showed up and we started by doing some stretching outside on the grass, which I led.  We then moved back inside to fence.

Malcolm and I continued with rapier and dagger drills and then did a couple of passes.  I did notice while drilling that my hand was cramping, but it went away as the night progressed.  Next up was some passes with Jane.  She took a buckler, and I went single.  The last time I faced her prior to her showing up to practice a few weeks ago was probably 6 years ago.  They were some fun passes last night, but I felt like the distance we were fighting at was to my advantage, as she seemed to be hovering in that middle ground where I could hit her at extension but she could not hit me.  I was very surprised by her hand speed.

After some rest I fought Firebow.  We got locked up at one point and I took the end of his quillion right into the tip of my thumb.  Dumb mistake on the close as I don't want to be that close to any opponent as bad things can happen.  I much prefer to fight at distance.  After that, I put the dagger down for a bit, told him to keep his.  On our last pass, I picked my dagger back up.  The interesting thing was he did not notice that I have been fencing with a much shorter blade.  He was using his 40, I was giving up distance to him.  We talked for a bit afterwards about the passes and more.

My last fight of the night was Scrooby.  Fast, energetic, but he was either giving me the flat of his blade and had his dagger in very close.  

Overall, I'm feeling like I'm getting back to near where I was a few years ago before the shoulder injury.

Practice Report - May 23, 2013

Practice last night started out slowly.  I opened the site, and it took people a while to get there.  Eventually Edmund showed up, and we started doing some stretching.  After that, Malcolm showed up and we continued with the stretching.  With just the three of us, I ran some rapier and dagger drills.  A little after 8, Firebow and Orlando showed up.  They started fencing while I was finishing drills with Edmund.

Prior to Orlando and Bow showing up, we were doing drills in just masks and gloves, so I suited up.  Its been a few weeks since I fenced with Orlando.  We started out fencing single, me with my normal blade (37") and he with my 30".  I was able to use the reach advantage against him, since unlike with a 40"+ blade, I was not giving up a lot in terms of tempo.  I wound up pulling the tip off the blade he was using, so he switched back to his 40".  I was able to maintain my distance and play the game I wanted.  I finally feel like I am learning the measure of this new blade.

After that, I fenced Scrooby, who has just moved down to the area from Boston.  I met him at K&Q up in Montreal.  We sat next to each other at dinner.  I had noticed something in his footwork earlier while he was fencing Firebow, and wanted to see if I could take advantage of it.  Basically, he had a very wide stance, and was leaning in and out, so when his weight was forward, I knew I could press the attack on him.  After some passes, I told him what I observed and how I thought I was able to work it against him.

That was all the fencing I did last night, but the best thing was, I never felt my hand get cramped.  I'm not sure why that is, but I'll certainly take it.

Practice report - 5/2/2013

So tonight we got started late, but it was a good practice overall for me.  We did about 35 minutes of stretching and calisthenics prior to fencing.  I've been hurting since Tuesday when I went on a lunch walk with coworkers.  We did about 3 miles in 45 minutes and afterwards my ankle was sore. It was yesterday, but was telling OK today, until after practice. 

I only fenced with two people tonight, Judy and Garrick.  Judy got frustrated after a few passes, mainly she needs to knock the rust off.  She was flicking her blade at mine from 3 when I would attack from 3 or 6.  Since there was no real parry, I just kept going.  So after the first few I stopped and we drilled for a few minutes.  Then we just fenced non stop, calling out the good blows.  This helps her get into that space mentally where it's just reaction, no time to think.

Garrick was an interesting fight.  I found myself occasionally too close to him, starting at the point of his blade coming at me.  I was able to get out of it most times, but it means I need to be more conscious of my measure, especially with using a shorter session than what I'm used to.  I am getting used to the new blade length.  Yes I'm giving up a few inches in reach but it's less than half the length of my foot. 

So all in all, a good evening, but I'll be posting for it fit a few days.