Octoberfest Boot Camp

[Michael]

Aside from the bitter cold, how did this go? Tell me all.

[The Great Gigsby]

As much as I was looking forward to the boot camp on Saturday, it was just too * cold that night and I had to catch a red eye flight at 2:00AM.

I did attend Kyrian's introductory class on aggressive shield work. His experience definitely shone through, and I learned a lot more than I was expecting. As a lefty I knew that most of what would be taught would not be as applicable, but fortunately there was another lefty fighter there to pair up with (his name escapes me, some CotH guy).

Kyrian did a great job of covering all of the basic shield maneuvers - bashes, checks, hooks, tables, punches, etc. and we had ample time to practice them. As someone who went in with very little faith my aggro shield technique, I left the class extremely eager and confident in myself when it comes to checks, punches, and other shield tricks. I felt like I had the right tools to set up a bash or check.

As for downsides, it would have been nice to have more coaching as we were practicing. Kyrian did offer some advice for people that needed it, but I didn't get any feedback unless I asked a question. Also, the gear that Kyrian used --a large heater shield and an extremely long sword-- didn't seem optimal for some of the techniques he was teaching.

Overall, it was a great class. I personally learned more than I anticipated and I feel like a more well rounded fighter because of it.

[Physic]

Sadly, it was canceled due to very cold weather. Several people asked me about it and were very excited about it. In the future I think that this will be very popular and hope that it will encourage skill development.

On a positive note I did get to spend some time fighting and teaching some of the Canadians and Puerto Ricans. I had a blast doing it and I hope they took something away from it.

[Kyrian]

As much as I was looking forward to the boot camp on Saturday, it was just too * cold that night and I had to catch a red eye flight at 2:00AM.

I did attend Kyrian's introductory class on aggressive shield work. His experience definitely shone through, and I learned a lot more than I was expecting. As a lefty I knew that most of what would be taught would not be as applicable, but fortunately there was another lefty fighter there to pair up with (his name escapes me, some CotH guy).

Kyrian did a great job of covering all of the basic shield maneuvers - bashes, checks, hooks, tables, punches, etc. and we had ample time to practice them. As someone who went in with very little faith my aggro shield technique, I left the class extremely eager and confident in myself when it comes to checks, punches, and other shield tricks. I felt like I had the right tools to set up a bash or check.

As for downsides, it would have been nice to have more coaching as we were practicing. Kyrian did offer some advice for people that needed it, but I didn't get any feedback unless I asked a question. Also, the gear that Kyrian used --a large heater shield and an extremely long sword-- didn't seem optimal for some of the techniques he was teaching.

Overall, it was a great class. I personally learned more than I anticipated and I feel like a more well rounded fighter because of it.

Giggles,

Thanks. I appreciate the feedback. I will definitely use it for planning the next class.

[Kyrian]

As much as I was looking forward to the boot camp on Saturday, it was just too * cold that night and I had to catch a red eye flight at 2:00AM.

I did attend Kyrian's introductory class on aggressive shield work. His experience definitely shone through, and I learned a lot more than I was expecting. As a lefty I knew that most of what would be taught would not be as applicable, but fortunately there was another lefty fighter there to pair up with (his name escapes me, some CotH guy).

Kyrian did a great job of covering all of the basic shield maneuvers - bashes, checks, hooks, tables, punches, etc. and we had ample time to practice them. As someone who went in with very little faith my aggro shield technique, I left the class extremely eager and confident in myself when it comes to checks, punches, and other shield tricks. I felt like I had the right tools to set up a bash or check.

As for downsides, it would have been nice to have more coaching as we were practicing. Kyrian did offer some advice for people that needed it, but I didn't get any feedback unless I asked a question. Also, the gear that Kyrian used --a large heater shield and an extremely long sword-- didn't seem optimal for some of the techniques he was teaching.

Overall, it was a great class. I personally learned more than I anticipated and I feel like a more well rounded fighter because of it.

Giggles,

Thanks. I appreciate the feedback. I will definitely use it for planning the next class. In hindsight, I should have just borrowed someone's round. I have two shields that I use actively, my heater and my turtle round. I figured that the heater would've been a better choice since it had a definable "edge", i.e., thickness, unlike the round. The edge was far more useful for demonstrating some of the punching and tabling techniques and those tend to be less effective with my round because of the way the edges taper.

[Winfang]

I've been fighting with a round shield lately and all my offensive shield work still works.

[Olos]

He's saying because it's a concave round.

[Jorel]

Ah, Giggles, I was said Hydra lefty, and it was very good to have another lefty there to practice on. Now I just need to fix my strap so I can practice these more.

As a bit of advice/suggestion for another class, I would suggest giving a small spiel about aggressive shield work while using a punch shield. We did cover a bit of it as Kracken and I wanted to know. Granted there isn't much that can be done too aggressively with a punch but suggesting ways to counter another shield's movements with a punch would be a very useful tool as it can differ a bit from the mechanics of a strap.

[Slagar]

Granted there isn't much that can be done too aggressively with a punch

By this you mean, "there isn't much that can be done too agressively with a gigantic cheese-ass punch tower", which is true.

With smaller punch rectangles, or best of all decent-sized punch rounds, there are actually worlds of options available. I've been playing around with them lately, so if you want I can show you some next time we run into each other. There's some pretty cool stuff.

[Titan G]

yea you can aggresivly use all punchs a tower less so but even then cut some handle away to add interchanging hand positions and you change the game up immensly. i can rock some pretty good aggressive work with a rectangle punch including hooks and jabs, altho the size ratio needed for this is a bit bigger than with a strap. as slagar said the stuff you can do with a straight punch round can be vicious. i rocked one at octfest and did pretty well and winfang has used one the last few events.

also you can make a pretty groovy agressive tower by removing the core and adding adjustable straps. again you gotta have some power to move it but vokor did that to a tower he had for a while and it was pretty sick.

[Arrakis]

I've been smackin' folk around with a round punch lately...