Omg! It is sooooo cute!!! And deadly!!! He he he. I can't wait to try it out at oktoberfest. It should pass because there is barely any tape and it is covered the way Zigor told me to. Also, if it doesn't pass, I can use it as a pillow. It is made out of a matress pad foam. Wow!!! I'm really enthusiastic about oktoberfest that I'm already packed!!! Well, this isn't about okfest, this is about my wonderfully cute cuddley boulder. I'm gonna name him Hades. Awwwwwe! Cute little Hades. Wait, Hades what are you doing?! Don't attack me!!! AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

[...]

Inner dialogue of the day:   "Oh shit, I hope that didn't kill somebody! 

...... Ok, good!  Let's try it again." 

One of our students has discovered hormones. Not the ones that will make him slobber over females, but the ones that make him want to assert his dominance over other males.

In this case, one of the other students. All day long, Dewey blows raspberries in the others face, gets into his personal space and throws things. You know, things that piss off most boys with autism.

And today, he started to do it to me (I took a book to the leg, and hands in my face). My teacher voice is coming along nicely. I said one sentence and he hasn't done it again since lunch.

Now, if we could get J to talk without whining, I wouldn't have a headache after an hour every day.

Ahh well, going to the library. Getting a few books for me, and a few for davit. Then to the grocery store -- I have a hankering for soup and bread.

[...]

This is the brief account of what Bruder experienced on Khador hosting it's first event:

My guesstamation is we had about 30-40 fighters show up.  About 15 of which were in my realm alone.  This is the exact reason why I set up and ran the mini.  So that my noobies in Rockford see what it's like firsthand what an event is like without the travel.  That way they are more likely to put up with traveling for upcoming events, such as Okfest.  From what I've seen while heralding most of the event, the noobies in my realm fought really hard.  All but one (which I affectionly call the realm's douche) took their hits well and did not bullshit around.  I even saw a couple of them sparing with vets during the breaks.  This shows to me that they want to learn and get better.  And for that, my respect and admiration for them grows.

This also gives me some optimism that if I were to suddenly leave the Rockford area for whatever reason, then Khador and Belegarth will stay.  Some of these guys appear to be really serious about Belegarth.  Hell today, a noobie within the realm just started petitioning for House Dregoth despite knowing damn well I am going to pick on him a lot for that. :p

 

A lot of people left right before we started the back trails/capture the flag battles.  I understand that the Rhun guys have a practice at 6 but they missed out on a lot of fun.  There was this little girl dressed in complete hippish looking monster garb who showed up today.  She never fought before.  She is about 4'9", and has to weight less then 100 pounds.  Obviously I'm the exact opposite.  I am the only thing standing between her and the flag.  She apparently thought the best way to get around me is to not to block and spin/side step around me, but instead to dive and barrel roll inbetween my legs.  The last thing I saw was this girl roll under my shield.  While doing so, she bumped into both of my legs.  This caused me to lose my balance.  I figured I was going to fall, so I tried everything in my power not to fall on top of her.  I remember my brain saying to me "Oh god, oh god!  I'm going to kill her!" Someone watching this later said that I apparently screamed "Ahhhhh!"  Well sometime during all this I felt both inside of my legs tapped.  I somehow managed not to fall on her, and I counted myself dead.  I have not decided if that was a stupid or a totally sweet move.

And I also can't help but giggle as I'm writing this.  It was pretty damn funny.

Anyways, I can not wait until Okfest.  I've already pre reg.  I am planning on heading on down Thursday morning or earily afternoon.  Unless there is a Northern Illinois camp, I am going to camp with the Hydra.

By the way...

A special shoutout to Rabbit and the Order of the Eternal Flame up in Rhinelander.  They drove about four hours to come down to this event.  Thanks guys!  You guys are definitely near the top of my list of practices to hit up next summer.

[...]

Stance

 

*As a reminder, these are written with the right handed fighter sword + shield user who is fighting another right handed fighter sword + shield user in mind.

 

**This is more of a working post than a carefully thought out article.  It is extremely difficult for me to describe stance in wording that is even remotely comprehensible.

 

At its most basic level, there are really three places you can put your feet. I don't see many people who stand with their feet side by side naturally, so really, there are two ways you can put your feet. Either you put your right foot forwards, or your left foot forwards.  Each placement has its set of natural advantages and disadvantages.  Beginning fighters often pick one or the other, and as they become more advanced, flow back and forth between them as the situation requires.

 

As a general idea of where this post is coming from, stand with your sword and shield, and have your left foot in front of your right foot in some fashion.  Odds are, you are in a variant of a left foot forward stance.  Now, put your right foot exactly where your left foot was, and your left foot exactly where your right foot was.  Odds are, you are in a variant of a right foot forward stance. Notice how your body, sword, and shield shift when you change between a right foot forward and a left foot forward stance.  If you naturally stand left foot forward, chances are, standing right foot forward will feel awkward. The same is true in reverse.  Left foot forward is by far more common on the Belegarth field.

 

 

Left foot forward:

Standing with your left foot forward usually provides you with a lot of protection on your right side because your shield is more towards the right. Not only does your shield naturally block your right side better, it is better at intercepting cross shots. It is also relatively fast at dodging leg shots. 

 

However, standing with left leg forward does leave you slightly more open to wide shield side attacks compared to right foot forwards. 

 

Right foot forwards:

Standing with your right foot forwards is naturally more offensive.  First, your sword is slightly closer to your opponent, because it no longer has to cross the length of your body.  In other words, you have more reach.  It is also better at throwing shots at an opponent's arm or sword-side because the distance between the two is slightly shorter.  Finally, it has a tremendous advantage in blocking shots aimed at your shield side, because your entire shield is naturally tilted to block those shots.

 

These advantages come at a cost…defense. Those who stand right foot forward usually expose a tremendous amount of the right side of their bodies.  Everywhere from their right foot up to their right arm and shoulder is more vulnerable compared to if they had stood left foot forwards.  Fighters who stand right foot forwards are more prone to overextending on the offense, and opening up vulnerabilities.  In line fighting, they are also more likely to be hit in their side by an opponent who is standing diagonal and to their right. 

 

To partially compensate, fighters who stand with their right foot forward may use their sword to block shots aimed at the upper right side of their body.

[...]

This blog discusses the advantages and disadvantages of one of the most common shots in Belegarth, the high cross.

What is the High Cross?
The high cross is a shot thrown at your opponent's sword side. The target is typically their upper right shoulder, upraised arm, or mid-right flank. During this shot, your elbow is roughly on level or higher than your wrist.<span>

 

Advantages of the High Cross: 

The high cross is one of the only beginner level shots to target an opponent's right side, particularly their right arm or right shoulder. The shot's target area is usually more vulnerable because it is not guarded by a shield. It is simple, easy to learn, and effective against most fighters. Used in a proper manner, it can bait opponents into swinging, or pin their sword in place temporarily.

Finally, the High Cross is a pretty decent counter to one other frequently thrown shot…the High Cross. What that tends to lead to is "High Cross battles" where both sides throw as many high crosses as fast as possible at each other.

 

Disadvantages of the High Cross:

Performed poorly (Fairly frequent), the high cross is one of the worst opening moves possible because it exposes a significant portion of your arm and shoulder. Further, it is a slower shot than a shield side shot because there is more distance to cover, both on the way in and on the way out.

Also, one of the only ways to protect yourself while throwing a high cross is to move your shield over to your sword side. However, that opens up your shield side significantly. In other words, the high cross is an offensive attack that sacrifices a tremendous amount of defensive ability, and tends to leave you in a poor position to defend once it has been thrown.

 

Summary:

In many respects, this is similar to the newbie duck-and-swipe-at-the-leg shot. It is simple and effective against both newbies and veterans. However it often leads to inconsistent results and high cross battles where both fighters move to their left and swing as fast as possible. Against fighters who are expecting or baiting the high cross, it frequently leads to loss of an arm or death.

[...]

...didn't happen yesterday. We had a large number of visitors. Instead of pulling the new fighters out of the battle,  we decided it would be better to keep practice going.

I found this nifty web app called http://www.backpackit.com . One of the analogies used on the website was that it was a spiral notebook that you can access on the internet. Some ofthe examples they showed are here: http://www.backpackit.com/examples.

 I've put all of the training session information (outlines and training notes)at this site: http://kyrian.backpackit.com/pub/1236454

 If you have any questions about the information, please post them on this thread: http://belegarth.com/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,38/func,view/id,6099/catid,37/

One of the neat functions is the ability to collaborate using a whiteboard-type function. You can invite people to view and edit the whiteboards  and everyone can see and compare the different versions. I hope to do that with the actual curriculum in the future.

[...]

I am in a unit called the sword sworn. The leader of my unit used to belong to a kingdom called the wolves. He still had the sword sworn.. When I joined the sword sworn the wolves were non-existant. But now the wolves are making a small comeback... I don't like the leader of the wolves and I have expressed my feelings toward him to the leader of the sword sworn.. I told the leader that if we joinedthe wolves that I would leave the sword sworn... He said Goodbye... we ended up talking about it a bit. but now my loyalties to him are shaking... We became a unit to fight together and he knew that most of the people he recruited in his unit didn't like the wolves. So should i stay in the unit and bare with the wolves or should i go? I need some answers...

[...]

Well I told you I would get a picture of my bike. Its with a phone due to my camera falling into lake michigan. I hope to have another one by EQ.

 

well thansk Kenny, that is great to hear. it has been a struggle to stay positive, always losing the fight to better fighters. that is why i am not the best fighter, but i am the dumbest. it is because i always get back up and try agian.

We had a post on our website that went something like this:

You know your a hydra if you got beat all day and are fine with it, but that time you fell in the mud and got your tabbard dirty really pissed you off.

 

[...]