SCA Fighting

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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby scorpio » Thu Feb 02, 2012 6:43 pm

*flat
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby Dane » Thu Feb 02, 2012 7:18 pm

Bingo.
Graavish wrote:it's not the weight of the weapon that makes for a solid hit, it's how much i don't like you when i'm swinging.

If they don't take it, then it wasn't sufficient.
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby Arrakis » Thu Feb 02, 2012 8:05 pm

Dane wrote:Scorpio, your weight's too far forward.

Arrakis, try leading with your right foot. It'll change the way he ranges you and help with power generation. Also, left sword stabs the face. Stutter right, move left, stab. Hack at the dome with your right, stepping with your right if you need to.

Both of you: face stab-->moulinet-->hammer to the dome. Fake on-side wrap, rotate your hand so the sword is pointing away from your body, covering your face and the cross, and rotate it back and snap into the dude's face.



All awesome advice. I actually switched lead leg to right against righties a lot at Birka on Saturday; I found it helped with exactly what you indicated.

I've seen the face stab->moullinet done with great power and grace; I'll be working it. It's been weird for me to take my left hand from stomach-stab territory, but I'll work on migrating it to face stab territory sometimes.

Thanks.
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby Arrakis » Mon Feb 06, 2012 3:18 pm

Report from Bergental Regional practice on Sunday:

a) East Kingdom does not joke when they say they'll dent your 12 ga mild helm. Got a nice big ding from a pole swung by the East Kingdom unbelt team captain.

b) On that same topic, I now have light bruising on my forehead and need to buy a helm with room for more than 5/8" of padding before I do any more melee fighting.

c) I fought WAY better. I had one streak during the singles fighting where I just killed four or five fighters in a row, including a newish fighter or two, an old knight, and a couple of mid-high-end (locally) unbelts. Two-stick vs. pole, S&B, and two-stick.

I'm keeping my hands back further. I don't need as much active forward defense in the SCA because the speed is a little lower and your blocks don't have to be anywhere NEAR as clean. This helps me power my shots; I got a lot more accepted strikes this practice.

I'm also taking a more aggressive role in the fight. Stepping in and opening the fight is helping me a lot. I'm trying to retain my footwork advantages, but I'm still having to learn how to operate in a chest-to-chest range where I CAN'T just grab their **** and drop 'em, so I'm still a little weak vs. poles.

Also, I can still be overwhelmed; this one dude was fighting flo and apparently had a hurt rib, so he was just flailing the outside lanes continuously like a third-day Bel newb flo fighter but it was so hard and so intense (and he so much more SCA experience than me that he automatically had usual logical return lanes covered) that I couldn't formulate a reasonable counterplan and never really figured out how to disengage from him.

Again, I landed a half dozen or more good, hard body stabs, all but one accepted and she verbally called it off as too light, which is fine by me. That one was a bit on the lighter side. Another two or three face stabs, a handful of headshot kills, a couple arms.

More pell work, more armor tweaking, redo helmet padding, knock dings out of helm and shoulders, take a week off, look into ordering a bigger version of the helm I already wear, get back out there in a couple of weeks.
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby Remdawg Killionaire » Mon Feb 06, 2012 4:28 pm

Thanks for the update.
Bishop wrote:Overall I believe the article was positive for our image, loosely defining us as a sadomasochist anti-larp. I'm ok with that. http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/LARP-harder

Caleidah wrote:But, his sensei passed that style down to him! Literal hours of tradition!
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby scorpio » Mon Feb 06, 2012 9:11 pm

My second post-practice review:

Switching my shield position by moving it higher and wider (into the classic A-frame) was effective at taking away the shieldside head snap, which is a newbie killer akin to the shield side shoulder drop in Belegarth.

SCA polearm fighting is WAY more advanced than Belegarth polearm fighting, particularly in 1v1 tournament contexts. I run poles all day in Bel, but in the SCA they will just shove you back and buttspike you in the face if they haven't legged or decapitated you on the way in.

Still having trouble generating sufficient force on fast shots - it's easier on more deliberate shots when I am forced to concentrate on my body mechanics, but it's pretty difficult to see an opening and countersnipe it both quickly and forcefully. Landed a sweet spin shot on a guy's offside arm while he was fighting florentine, though.

One very important distinction between Belegarth combat and SCA combat, particularly for shieldmen - your vision is constantly being obscured, either by your helm or the movement of the shield. In Belegarth I can always have a clear visual picture of everything that my opponent is doing, but in the SCA I often can only see part of their body and have to mentally project what they're doing with their sword or shield or whatever. In fact, getting your opponent to obscure his own vision by delivering a fake that forces him to raise his shield and block his vision is a very effective maneuver. To be truly effective in the SCA, a combination of head movement (ducking and weaving like in boxing) and better spatial awareness is necessary. Both will come with time, but it's definitely very new to me. I'd like to hear from other cross-gamers what they have done to adapt their shield style to avoid blocking their own vision when raising it above head level.
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby Slagar » Tue Feb 07, 2012 7:48 am

This is actually why I switched to centergrip. Because stabs to the body have to harpoon you to count, very few folks throw them. This lets me angle my centergrip to point the edge almost directly at them, and just use sword-blocking to shut down their right hand's outside lanes. Lifting it in this way minimally obscures my vision. I still haven't figured out how to use a strap shield without blinding myself in the SCA, but I decided a long time ago that I'm fine with that. I liked the variety anyway.
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby Remdawg Killionaire » Tue Feb 07, 2012 12:45 pm

Sorry to pseudo-derail the thread, but have you guys seen King Marc fight * sword? I don't know man, **** looks legit as ****.
Bishop wrote:Overall I believe the article was positive for our image, loosely defining us as a sadomasochist anti-larp. I'm ok with that. http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/LARP-harder

Caleidah wrote:But, his sensei passed that style down to him! Literal hours of tradition!
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby Spyn » Tue Feb 07, 2012 8:36 pm

When i fight left handed sword and shield, i mostly pick the shield up high enough to remove the flat snap to the head as a option and pull the sword back far enough for great power on a opener. Only view them with one eye, with your head leaned out far enough to see with it so that you can tuck your head back in case of a face lead. Use footwork to remove any leg leads on yourself, and keep the shield in position until they actually swing and use the shield to block leads while returning fire at the same time. Only use the sword to block once you are trying to clear. Arm snipe and learn to throw a off side head with good power, equals instant profit. Hopefully i will take some videos of me fighting with my 2x3 shield.


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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby Remdawg Killionaire » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:06 am

I've seen some, you're fighting a shorter lady and are throwing hot fire.
Bishop wrote:Overall I believe the article was positive for our image, loosely defining us as a sadomasochist anti-larp. I'm ok with that. http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/LARP-harder

Caleidah wrote:But, his sensei passed that style down to him! Literal hours of tradition!
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby scorpio » Mon Mar 12, 2012 9:10 pm

Just so people here get an idea of the calibration level:

http://youtu.be/rDMUJlhoBWM

I'm the guy on the left. Thoughts?
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby Slagar » Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:19 pm

It's hard to say, but it does look like you're hitting with Bel form still. You hit to him, not through him. Which isn't to say the dude isn't thick (he is), but I've had shots like that called off all day. You should be aiming for his right leg when you swing at his left one.

Also, it's hard for me to see, but did the leg shot he threw on you skip off your shield coming in? Didn't look clean to me. If it bounced off my shield first I'd probably have called it off.

The SCA isn't Bel. If you go into it expecting it be like Bel but with differences, you're going to get frustrated. Keep on open mind, and try to focus on what you can learn. Bruising rhinos through steel armor can be a growth experience. :p
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby Cedric » Tue Mar 13, 2012 5:24 am

i would say that leg shot had very little on it, both the one you hit him with and that he hit you with. Obviously, I don't like talking about taking hits with a video, because there are too many factors involved. But you threw a good fake, then threw the leg shot, had no hip rotation, all arm.
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby scorpio » Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:09 pm

I think I was more bothered by the fact that he did not even acknowledge it. I do agree that I could have put more hips on the shot, but I feel like I can't sneak openings in like that if I commit more. As for his leg shot...I probably still take light, and will be for a while. I don't really trust my gear all that much and avoiding injury is my first priority.
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby Slagar » Thu Mar 15, 2012 6:10 am

Yeah, I hear you. Nobody in northshield acknowledges light blows at all, communication isn't drilled into folks the way it is in our game. I've peppered dudes with shots that were almost certainly light, and never heard a word. It's just not part of their culture at all. Frustrates me sometimes, because then I look like the jerk for just wailing on someone who's already dead.

I still take light too, a lot. Just mentioned it as an fyi.
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Re: SCA Fighting

Postby Cedric » Fri Mar 16, 2012 7:22 am

i still take light alot too, lol
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