I had a very strange conversation at Equinox with another knight.  He seemed genuinely distressed to have been called a "service knight".   He felt he had been demeaned by being called a service knight. Perhaps in his eyes, and the eyes of many others, he had been.

 

I am about to vent one of my major philosophical differences.  I consider myself as a service knight. I happen to be decent at fighting, but that is in my mind of secondary importance to the service I put in as a squire, and more importantly, continue to put in, regardless of whatever title I may have received. 

 

There are many brilliant fighters on the field who are not knights, including such monstrosities as Bhakdar and Peter the Quick.  They may not have the title of "knight" to show for it, but they certainly have the fighting skills.  In my mind, they are still knights.

 

Yet, I think the contributions of the so-called "service knights" who continue to serve after their knighting is at least equal to the contribution of the "fighting knights".  The knights who continue to give up their time, money, and effort to help the entire sport, deserve more than to be looked down upon as a second-class knight.  They are often the ones who are the first ones to set up your event, check you into the event, check your weapons, run your field, cook your food, clean up your trash, and take down your event. They don't have to do everything, but odds are, they gave up at a pretty significant portion of their time to help you have fun.

 

Just like there are some people who I recognize as fighting knights who have not been knighted, I recognize some people as service knights.  It isn't about the title, it is about who they are and what they do. 

 

In my mind, the people who are "service knights" should be proud of what they do, as difficult as it may be.  Service knight certainly should not be taken as an insult, nor used as one.

 

At this point, I watch more to see which squires are the ones helping, not which ones are the ones killing.  I watch to see which squire is willing to do their share of the work, and who is shirking their burden onto others.  My true knight's challenge is service, not combat. That challenge is always in effect, not just when you challenge me.  At the end of the day, if something needs to be done and there are no squires available, I'll do it myself. 

 

I'm not perfect. Some days I don't want to help.  Service knight does not mean serving b!tch. However, I certainly don't view my contributions to Belegarth as any less than those fighting abominations. 

 

Yeah, I'm a service knight. Lots of emphasis on "service", not so much emphasis on "knight".  If you want to use it as an insult, I'll be the first one to nod my head and say, "That's me!"  So, to the unnamed knight in my story, don't take being called a "service knight" as an insult.  Take it as a compliment, and to hell with how it was intended.

[...]

I have noticed that many fighters, especially newer fighters, have no real concept of range. They assume that if their opponent can hit them, they can hit their opponent.

 

Range is perhaps one of the most important elements of fighting.

Roughly speaking, there are perhaps four types of range.

 

1. Nobody can hit each other.

2. You can hit him.

3. He can hit you.

4. You can hit him, and he can hit you.

 

The difference between 1-2-3-4 and 1-3-2-4 is often the difference between winning and losing. If the order is 1-2-3-4, and you kill him at 2, the fight is over. Similarly, if the order is 1-3-2-4, and he kills you at 3, the fight is over.

 

Yet, unaware fighters frequently like to fight at 1, 3, and 4.

Fighting when nobody can hit each other (1), and when you can hit him and he can hit you (4), while not ideal, is not that bad. Fighting when he can hit you and you can't hit him (3) is a killer.

 

In the simplest terms possible, if he has a longer reach than you, you have to fight where both of you can hit each other. If you have a longer reach than him, you have the option of fighting outside of his reach, but you can also fight where both of you can hit each other. You should never fight when he can hit you, and you can't hit him.

 

The first step is to figure out your own reach. Many fighters use weapons of roughly the same length. It is a fairly simple process to determine how long your reach is. Reach out and touch something at "shoulder", "waist", and "leg" height. That's your maximum reach. Odds are, your opponent will dodge out of that reach. You should almost never take real swings when you're outside of that reach unless you have a darn good reason to. Memorize that distance!!!

 

The second step is to figure out how long the other guy's reach is. There are a couple main things to look at, and I'll list them in roughly their order of importance.

 

1. How long his weapon is.

2. How long his arms are.

3. How close his feet are together.

4. How long his legs are.

 

As you fight, you will slowly learn to approximate how long a opponent's reach is. After that, figure out who has the longer reach. If you have the longer reach, you have the option of fighting inside or outside of his reach. If you have the shorter reach, your only real option is to fight inside of his reach.

 

Personally, I move as little as possible to stay outside of somebody's reach. A minimal amount of movement is all you often need to stay outside of somebody's reach. A garb or light hit is still a garb or light hit.  Sweeping your leg back, tucking in your tummy, or swaying your chest just a tiny bit often is enough to remove most of the force, changing a killing blow to a  light hit.  The closer you can make it look to them being able to hit you, the more likely they will make an error by swinging when you are truly out of their reach, or are able to move out of their reach. You are faking them into making an error just by standing where they think they can hit you. After that, you can step in and capitalize on their error.

 

*******

 

On a more advanced note, there are actually 3 more ranges that come easily to my mind.

 

5. You're so close he can't hit you.

6. You're so close you can't hit him.

7. You're so close neither of you can hit each other.

 

A fighter who has developed close ranged shots has an extra option available to him…fighting so close to their opponent that their opponent can't swing, but they can. Actually, many fighters absolutely hate somebody who can stand right in front of them. If you are significantly shorter than your opponent, I highly recommend learning how to fight at extremely close ranges unless you are using a very long weapon.

[...]

There are some people who focus more on the social aspects of Belegarth. If they fight at all, their participation is relatively limited. Most of this post is not for those people. Instead, this post is for those who aspire to become better fighters in some way, either as a newbie aspiring to be mediocre, a mediocre aspiring to be a veteran, or a veteran aspiring to be an elite.

 

I believe it is possible for almost every fighter to become veteran fighters, if not one of the lower elite. Now before you laugh, please hear me out. The key is your mindset.

 

When I first started, I was one of the most unhealthy, uncoordinated, clumsy, non-athletic and useless fighters on the field. An abundance of one thing, and a lack of another thing lead me to become at least one of the veteran fighters. I had an abundance of enthusiasm, and a complete lack of shame. It didn't matter who they were, if they were good, I wanted to fight them. I would get completely humiliated over and over, but I would always ask what I was doing wrong, and what I could do better. I was sparring people I theoretically had no business fighting. There were some fighters who could beat me ten, twenty, even thirty times in a row. From them, I slowly learned how to fight until I stood where I am at today. I have had many teachers who have given up much of their time and energy to train me, and I would like to return some of the kindness that was shown to me when I was new.

 

Now that I am on the other side of the fence, so to speak, I understand the perspective of those dominating fighters a little bit better. It is difficult to constantly go up to new people and ask to fight them when you have no idea whether they will stay in the game, or whether they will leave shortly. You can't easily identify those who want to improve from those who want to hang out. You don't know whether whoever you fight will appreciate what you have to teach, or if they will think you are patronizing them or merely showing off by beating on the newbies. Having somebody come up to you and ask for help solves most of those problems, and lets the veteran fighter know this is somebody who is interested, and has a better than normal chance of sticking around.

 

That is why the mindset of the newer fighter is so important. Go up to every good fighter you can, and ask to fight. Ask them to teach you, not just beat you. Don't spar the same people at events that you spar in your own practices, because you can spar them at any other time. Ask to spar the fighters who look like they are slaughtering everybody else who stands in front of them. In return for you initiating, the veteran fighter passes on what tips and tricks he may know. Better yet, many veterans are like the dispensers who keep dispensing. Every time you see them, you can ask to fight them and for them to help you out in any way they can. That's not a bad trade at all.

 

In my time, I have assisted in the training of many veteran fighters. By the standards of most people, they never had any business becoming more than mediocre fighters. Instead, many of them are now veterans simply by their effort to improve. The gap between mediocre and veteran is really not that large. It consists mostly of basic tips and tricks for improvement.

 

The difference between many mediocre and veteran fighters is mindset, not athleticism. Sitting on the sidelines and sparring your friends, or just fooling around with them is fine. However, I've got to say, you can take an awful lot of satisfaction in watching your own steady improvement in skills. The earlier you start trying to learn from other people, the fewer bad habits you have to unlearn from self-training.

 

There is a saying that goes something like this--"He who teaches himself has a fool for a teacher, but I must tell you that he who does not teach himself has no teachers at all."

 

Go out. Leave your pride and fears at the door. Learn. There is a good chance you will have more fun. It is not just about beating people. You can watch yourself improve. Heck, you can even meet more people this way because you are sharing an activity more personal than you dying in the middle of a mass melee. It is about your mindset.

When you're a veteran...maybe...just maybe...remember what an awkward clumsy newbie you were, and return the favor to the next generation of awkward clumsy newbies.  

--Kenneth

[...]

The day was both exhausting and utterly exhilarating since I came to the realization of how much I enjoy teaching especially Belegarth-related subjects.

 It started first with our third training  session. My thanks to Squire Cyric for helping with the class since Sir Fox just started a second shift job and has to work on Sundays 8(. We started with everyone stretching and then reviewing the subjects from the previous training  session.

The first topic we went over was about how to mesh defense and attacks. You can't kill your opponent if you just block all of his shots but you won't survive if you don't defend yourself. We did a drill in pairs where a person would block a shot and then immediately lead into a two-hit combo. Then the two fighters would switch roles.

After that, we discussed range using the terms "close", "medium", "far", and "outside". "Close" is when you're close enough to touch your opponent while "medium" is where your weapon can hit your opponent. "Far" is where you can hit your opponent once you take one step while "outside" is where it takes more than one step to reach your opponent. We had the pairs work at visualizing their ranges.

The next topic we introduced was footwork. After we covered the major points about trying to avoid crossing your feet--(if your opponent bashes you when your feet are crossed, you're probably going to fall over)--trying to move your feet in concentric circles to face your opponent, and stepping in at an angle to your opponent, we went into the drills. We had the fighters form two parallel lines facing each other. We had one line move forward while the other line moved backward to maintain the same distance. Once it looked like people got a feel for this, we had them do the same thing going left and right. We split the fighters back into their pairs and then had them practicing shifting around their opponent in a circle. One fighter would basically be in the middle shifting only slightly to face his opponent while the other was shifting around him while being careful not to cross their feet.

After footwork, we moved into the basics of wraps. We told the new fighters that you can do wraps at essentially three heights: high (also known as the scorpion since it goes over the opponent's shoulder like a scorpion's tail), medium targeting the lower back, and the low wrap which either hits the back of the leg or the buttocks. We focused mainly on the medium and low angles since it's very easy to hit someone in the head with a high wrap shot unless you have good control. We talked about good form-rotating the wrist the full 180 degrees to prevent flatting and adding that additional wrist snap at the end-and trying to hit with the top third of the weapon instead of closer to the hand. We referenced the range exercise to emphasize how this is a type of attack that tends to be most effective at close range as well as stepping in as a means for generating power for the wrap. After the instruction, we had the pairs stepping to close the distance while executing a wrap and then switching roles.

The last subject of the day was grappling. We talked about what you could do, how armor affects grappling, as well as some of the things you can't do, i.e., strikes, joint locks, etc. when grappling. Then we did two drills. In hindsight, the first drill was pretty useless since it assumed that a person has no weapons with which to attack. We will most likely not repeat it in future training sessions. In the drill, one person wielding a sword attempted the number one attack to their opponent's left shoulder. The defender would step in and grasp the attacker's sword hand with both of his hands. After that, we discussed options such as attempting to disarm the attacker or holding him in place until help could arrive. The second drill had both fighters armed with a single sword. The attacker would attempt the number one strike while the defender would block with his sword, check or grapple the attacker's hand, possibly pulling the attacker off balance, and then the defender would follow up with a couple of strikes. After the drill we released the fighters to go do regular practice.

The session ran very long and we'll probably have to shift a couple of topics to other sessions to shorten this one. At the very least, we'll shift the grappling section over to Session IV.

A little while later, I helped one of our brand new fighters learn archery. We had started the previous week and picked up where we had left off. I had her learning using two basic techniques. One is the "group of five" while the other is individual feedback/replaying the shot. In doing the "group of five" a person has to complete five perfect iterations of whatever he's learning before he can move onto the next milestone. In starting out, I first had her just focus on bringing up the bow and drawing the bow with no arrow. After she completed that group of five, I introduced the arrow in and had her release it, not concentrating on trying to hit a specific target. After that, she had to hit a large shield. Once she was able to hit the shield five times in a row, I had her tighten it to a specific section of the shield. When she wasn't able to do something properly or if she missed the target, I'd ask her what went wrong and to try and visualize the events leading up to the shot. The iteration count would be reset back to zero and she would again start working on doing five in a row. It can be a tedious process that requires a lot of patience but I think she's making solid progress.

Towards the end of the day, I helped one of our fighters on Florentine. At several times during the training, I could see the light bulb go on and the look of realization after showing him a particular approach or technique. I went over some of the blocking techniques-pivoting from the elbow, swinging down, dropping the pommel-as well as using the bounciness of our weapons and shields for redirecting attacks. I showed him how to do the concurrent block and counter swing to the sword arm as well as a technique for dealing with a spear: Sweep the spear up with the right sword, check the spear with the left sword, and then immediately follow up with attacks with the right sword. I explained that I preferred to send the spear up since if you hit it down, the spear fighter can bounce the spear off the ground and into your legs or groin. He had mentioned that he was having some issues with footwork and I showed him some drills he could do with his swords. I had him lay his swords at his feet in a vee pattern while standing at the point. I then had him step at an angle to one end of the vee, back to the point, and then on to the other end. Then we flipped the vee over so that we were standing at the point of an upside down vee. Again, we stepped not directly back but at an angle to the side, returned to the starting point, and then to the other end. With regards to the spear technique, I illustrated how this same technique could be applied to both single sword (use the open hand as the check) as well as when using a sword and shield. One of the last things we did was a variation of a Sinawali ("weaving" in Tagalog) drill.  Here's a video showing some sinawali drills: http://youtube.com/watch?v=jFuwLhXNgmA.

While I didn't get to fight all that much, it was a very busy and fulfilling day.

[...]

yoooo im new and i like making weapons 2 bucks a sword etc. etc.

Oktoberfest is a week away!  How very exciting!  In order to continue to pump myself up about the event, here’s a brief summary of what I’m looking forward to:

-VACATION!  My job is really easy but soul crushing.  Not only does it have nothing to do withanything I want to be in life but our company is dying a slow and ugly death.  It’s annoying to me that I’m both too smart for this job and yet incapable of doing anything to stop the inevitable.  And the real world blows.  It’s been nothing but sprained wrists, heartache, and country songs.  Well, not that last one, but you get the gist.  I look forward to a long car ride of knitting, followed by cold care free nights with friends around a fire and maybe hitting people with foam swords.  We might just get that wacky.  Most of all, I look forward to not my cubicle.

-NEW TENT!  Kayle and I will be sporting fashionable new tents constructed by our genius friend Kurt/Pipeline.  (He’s the city mouse to Bo’s country mouse and I would kill to watch them do a Junkyard Wars grudge match… They can each of them build anything.)  Kayle will be living in a yurt (you heard me) and I will be in a “campaign” or “wall” or “officer’s” tent. Stop by the Hydra camp – one reason of many – and take a gander.  If you like what you see, we can set up custom pricing and sizing for much more reasonable than any site on the interweb.

-BEARD AND PIPE CLUB! In Hydra camp, chaired by Kayle and Grendel, there will be a Beard and Pipe Club.  Beard and Pipe are required (fake beards and bubble pipes are accepted – how else do you think I would be attending!?) and tobacco is the preferred pipage.

-CAMPING! I really love the outdoors and so rarely get to enjoy it anymore except for an occasional hike.

-NEW PEOPLE!  My social anxiety can really get in the way at times but I’m determined to meet people at this event.  When you are at Hydra camp, poke or throw something at the frizzy haired, doe eyed brunette.  I’ll probably be knitting.

-BARDIC GAMES!  I miss singing and performing.  What a delightful opportunity for it again!  I’m sad I don’t have Beowulf ready for oral performance (yes, yes, tee hee, “oral”) but I’ve got a slew of songs ready.

-FIGHTING! I suck less than I used to.  That’s a start.  :)

 

And finally…

-BO’S KNIGHTING!!!!!!  Do I really need to say anything else?  It’s going to be fantastic.  And it will definitely be done in that Hydra style you’ve come to know and (hopefully) love.

 

Have a great week, everyone!  I can’t wait to see you all and hopefully get to chat with you at Oktoberfest!  Travel safely!

[...]

So, because okfest is getting closer and closer, whoa, i'm already packed and ready to go. Hmmmm......wonder when that happened. Maybe Hades did it. Oh well, now i don't have to do it later. But, i still have to get that stuff called alcohol.  i'm not bringing much, only 4 bottles of zombie rum. By the way, Zigor is bringing along his wonderful Bugbear juice. Yay!!!!! If one is wonderingwhy I'm bringing so many bottles of zombie rum. reason 1: i owe Kirra a bottle of it because i drank all of hers at spring wars last year. reason 2: it is so good i want to at least have a bottle of it a night; along with other stuff. Lets hope I still don't get a hangover from this. Or should I hope for a hangover? Hmmmm......don't know what a hangover feels like yet, maybe i'll find out at okfest.

[...]

So, things that happened Friday night at Spring wars last year I don't really remember.  So, I have to write what people told me I did. Supposedly I drank a whole bottle of Bacardi Zombie Rum, three Mike's Hard Lemonades, 1 shot of Capt. Morgan Private Stock (straight), 1 shot of Jager (straight), a mug of Bugbear Juice, a jew gulps of River Water, and 1/4 of a bottle of Pinneapple Rum. The only thing I remember was looking up at the stars, seeing fire, and waking up in my tent.  Also, my friends told me I kept on hugging people, I don't even remember that. Also, my friends told me that I said I had a crush on someone.  OMG, I was so embarrassed!!! I'm still embarrassed!!! Ha ha. (I'm embarrassed because he was there at the event, however he did not find out, thank god.)

[...]

So, the last fight clan issola had was awesome!!!! I didn't even have any bruises (I finally learned how to dodge, yay!!).  It was really exciting, we had a lot of people walk by, stop, and watch our fighting. Some of them even joined in the fighting. At the end of the fighting, all the primary and secondary archers just shot at each other for about an hour and a half.  Man, I reallyneed to practice archery some more. However, it was so much fun. Also, afterwards I started to build my wonderful boulder, Hades.

[...]

Oh yeah, that's what being on stage is like. When you stop seeing the audience, and forget everything but what you are doing it. When you stop counting beat and just go with it.

For some reason this doesn't happen for Bardic games. I know everything that goes on there -- it has always been harder to perform in front of friends than a room of mostly strangers.

And not falling, or forgetting anything. Yay! And now I have new ideas for dancewear and all sorts of things. And also more confidence in moving my hips.

But at least I have songs I want to dance to. They all are slinky, earth-grounded songs. mmm, dead can dance.

[...]