Emma of Septentria - Danica Evering - Post a comment

Kitchener/Waterloo

Fighting: Sir Bess, Sir Ed the Red, Master Trumbrand, Kayla the Cheerful, Mo, Man with pretty gothic plate and a gold V on his tunic, Cheerful squire in a purple tunic with plaid pants, long blonde-haired man with many piercings and a red and white sheild that I can't beleive I've forgotten his name, and New fighter in translucent plastic legs and purpley blue gambeson. I am horrid with names. :( But it was a great turnout and lots of good fighting.

Sir Bess drove me to fight practice :D! For which I am eternally greatful. She is a wonderful lady, and easy to talk to. We got there early after listening to Great Big Sea. Fought a few rounds with Mo and Kayla to warm up. Kayla—“I like a woman who puts on lipstick before getting in armour” :P.

Fought with Sir Bess. Worked on moving my shield down to protect the leg, along with moving it back. Noticed that I was doing a Bettie Page pinup pose thing by popping my shield-leg right to “escape” the blow. It doesn’t work, to say the least. So we tried it…and it didn’t work. And then it clicked and the pieces and instinct and mindset fell into place and I blocked it consistently after that. Triumph!!! *un-fighter chick dance*.

Then I did some sword and shield on two-stick with Kayla. I hit her without success for a few rounds. Then we talked about what to do against a case. No shield sweeps. They’re usually bigger and stronger than you and it doesn’t work. So…sweep them aside with your sword, and hit the side of the helm while their swords are down. Or, wait for the A to fall into a V—something that happens when your opponent is tired, occupied, or forced by you into that position. Then, take the pipe. Beautiful! It’s good to know what to look for. We also worked on what to do when you take someone’s legs…tricky! Lastly, we worked on doing a few shots and then getting out of range. This is something I have a huge issue with, but I felt like I was getting it at the end. Oh! And we worked on some thrusts….palm up to the grill, palm out to the body and gut. Learned a lot…most of all to be smart, and think when fighting…I started to think, to analyse what I’m doing, what they’re doing, how they’re reacting, and what I’m “telling” them…which is amazing.

My third round was with Master Trumbrand—sword and board. I died a lot. We worked on the rising thrust…that the same downwards movement can turn into a leg snap, a head snap, a face thrust or a body thrust, depending on how your opponent moves. And they don’t know which one you’re going to do. Twist down on thrusts so it doesn't skip up. Also, he showed me how to move right and hit left…clever. Because the opponent thinks you’re going to hit right when you move right, and compensates with sword and shield, leaving the left side of their body open. Also, he noticed that when I move, I move forwards and backwards, but not side to side or around. This was also really good to notice. Smart fighting=good fighting.

My last bout was with Sir Ed. He fought with shield and buckler. So frustrating. Tallness + buckler on really long arm = Emma swinging into the nothingness where Ed isn't :P. After much flailing, I managed to leg him, and we worked on immobilizing the sword with a shield or a shot, moving in and hitting lots. Kayla mentioned that earlier—don’t let your sword be immobilized, and hit them when they’re approaching you. He hit me many times in the head, which happened when I went for his leg and left my head open. He pointed out that this is a good tactic…take the head when they go for the leg. Or, as Trumbrand pointed out, go for the arm if you can hook the sword downwards.

Such an excellent fight practice and I can’t wait to do more fighting next week! This worked out so well. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!