Belegarth

In an effort to take my game to the next level, I've just recently begun to go back to the basics. I've got myself shot zones marked on a tree to use as a pell and I'm going through all of the shots I throw, doing my best to perfect each one and integrate it into pure muscle memory.
My questions are how often do those of you who use a pell use it? Is it a daily thing, a couple times a week, weekly? What shots do you think should be focused on the most? What type of footwork drills do you utilize and are there any resources that outline practices or drills to use for both pell work and footwork?

Any and all suggestions for improvement and upping my game are appreciated.

Kurai wrote:In an effort to take my game to the next level, I've just recently begun to go back to the basics. I've got myself shot zones marked on a tree to use as a pell and I'm going through all of the shots I throw, doing my best to perfect each one and integrate it into pure muscle memory.
My questions are how often do those of you who use a pell use it? Is it a daily thing, a couple times a week, weekly? What shots do you think should be focused on the most? What type of footwork drills do you utilize and are there any resources that outline practices or drills to use for both pell work and footwork?

Any and all suggestions for improvement and upping my game are appreciated.

A lot of your question can be answered by looking at the fighter resources page. Footwork drills, pellwork drills, everything you can dream of. I always recommend anything by Spyn and Brennon, and the Res Ducis series with Duke Gaston.

Also, pell work is your best friend for re-establishing lots of the basics, and the only correct response anybody here has is "not enough".

That said, make sure your 'back to basics' doesn't neglect footwork or range. Those are easy to start letting slip, and absolutely fundamental to good fighting.

Footwork is probably the single biggest difference to my fighting over the past 2 years, and totally changes the way you think about the game.

Awesome, thanks so far guys.

Peanut, I've been actively perusing and studying the fighting resources index since I found out about it a few years ago. I love Spyn and Brennon's stuff, but I've somehow never seen the Res Ducis series, thanks for the suggestion.

Slagar, I'll be hitting the pell for at least an hour every day, as well as mixing in footwork exercises like the ones outlined in the SKBC class here: http://www.swordknight.com/2010/notes/F ... -rev02.pdf
I have a question for you specifically though. I lurk around these boards a lot and I see you and others mention mirroring and hand matching. I have my own guesses, but what do these really entail?

Jimmy, I absolutely agree with you. After working with Wisp for a while at both Gates of Summer and War of the Iron Fist this year my footwork has improved a lot and I've seen a huge improvement, but I want more.

Now, another general question for everyone about shot trees. I understand the idea is to be able to respond to each new opening your opponent gives, processing the information like a computer and acting or reacting accordingly. What's the best way to practice this?

Hand matching implies that, when fighting single blue, you actively switch your sword hand so that it lines up with theirs by choice.

So as a righty fighting another righty, you would choose to use your left hand. The reason for this is that it completely changes the decision tree, shot selection, footwork, and range inherent in the match. The style/school I subscribe to practices this almost exclusively, where most fighters are not used to it. It's one way to guarantee that you have some advantage in your preparation, and has the side-benefit of training both hands regularly, on the chance you bump into a lefty, feel like playing florentine, or lose an arm while fighting.

Mirror-fighting is just fighting somebody while hand-matched. It's a dorky, over-dramatic term for the same thing that I like because I'm a huge nerd. Ignore it.

The best way to practice shot selection (or decision trees) is to find someone who knows fighting theory very well, and learn what the correct actions or responses are to common situations. Baiting the outside forearm while hand-matched, for example, is bread and butter. The opponent throws a chop to the exposed forearm. The correct response is to brush it out and return a chop or stab inwards.

Once you've ironed out the dozen or two shot trees you like, and practiced the shots into muscle memory, the challenge becomes forcing your opponent into the shot tree. This is commonly done using baits and feints, pushing your opponent into a predictable response. In the previous example, this would involve finding opponents, baiting them outside, and just blocking or denying anything until they throw that chop to the outside forearm for you to capitalize on. The entire point of a shot tree is that each one starts somewhere, and each step within the tree is very predictable. A side note: pick trees where if they don't take the 'correct' next step, and instead do something weird, you don't die for it. Noob-fu is the term for fighters who don't have the experience to see the situation and make the 'right' choice, and instead just kill you. I can't count how many times some kid at his first event has just swatted me like a * because he didn't even notice the feint I threw.

There's no real substitute for going to events, and spending lots of hours watching how people respond to given stimuli (baits/feints/etc.), and picking ones that basically everybody responds to the same way. Most fighters (myself included), will gladly tell you which tree they pushed you into and how they did it, if you ask.

Slagar wrote:A side note: pick trees where if they don't take the 'correct' next step, and instead do something weird, you don't die for it. Noob-fu is the term for fighters who don't have the experience to see the situation and make the 'right' choice, and instead just kill you. I can't count how many times some kid at his first event has just swatted me like a * because he didn't even notice the feint I threw.

This is something I've had to work on a LOT out here in BFE. I can't convince these kids to see a feint any smaller than literally yelling "I'M GOING TO STAB YOU NOW" at them loudly enough to break through the deafness induced by their extreme focus on what goofy **** they're about to try to throw at me. If it weren't for some good Amtgarders I get to fight every couple of months and Scorpio moving up here, it would be to the point of me losing what little skill at feinting and faking I have.

I've had that happen plenty of times just seeing if they'd even react to it. Because of the way I have to throw them for people to see them out here, more time my feints and fakes are much larger than they need to be with more skilled opponents. Gets me chumped every now and then.