Fencing at Pennsic 2016

My second year of fencing at Pennsic included significantly less fencing than before, (mostly due to weather), but was no less fun and productive for it. I melee'd, I tournamented, I did pickups with Handsome Calivers, and I left with a solid set of good notes to work on and the reminder that my mood is always readily improved by being stabbed repeatedly by my friends.

I'm still getting better. I've made less improvement in these last six months than I did in my first, but zero to something is flashier than something to something else, and I've been taking it easy this summer. Once I'm back home and this heat fades, I'd like to get back into my old good habits, steered by Pennsic observations on what I need and want to work on next.

Speaking of, some highlights:

On Stance and Guard:
By far the aspect of my game that gets most complimented is my stance and guard, and for once I felt it. When I set up properly, I didn't die. When I got sloppy as I moved or attacked or let tired arms get the better of me, I died. But there's a clear click in my brain now that knows whether I'm in a good or safe position or not, and I'm finally starting to trust at least my starting guard.

That said, I have some clear steps to work on here. For one, I got some excellent feedback in some of my matches where I was setting up a little off, exposing my right hand by pointing my sword too high, and my left arm by letting my dagger drift over more than it needed to. I got further feedback (including before Pennsic) that some of my movements are creating openings where they don't need to be (aiming thrusts too low and exposing my upper arm, parrying too wide and slow and exposing the side of my arm), and those small, concrete corrections are exactly what I need to better conceptualize and fix my overall defense.  I understand the principles behind guards, and looking at a diagram I can talk about strengths and weaknesses, but as always with fencing I need concrete, easily digestible examples before theory and practice start to mix well in my head. But that finally feels like it will click, and maybe now I can start pre-emptively fixing my defense based on where holes are likely to be, rather than having people find them and only shifting according to what I'm told. It doesn't help that I don't have a good mirror at home, or at any practice other than Wednesday, and have yet to figure out how to fix that.

The other issue I need to fix here is that my guard falls apart. Too much movement and I inevitably have to step back and do a full reset to get back to my starting position. But that's an easy enough fix. More drills and footwork and diligence. Included in there are restarting my guard-shifting drills, because having a good defense in terza is only so helpful. I need to get my offensive positions and thus attacks to at least as good a state.

On Tournaments:
I'm finally, finally starting to get comfortable with tournaments. They're just pickups where I don't have to work up the social momentum to talk to folks beforehand. And sure, I want to win and to do well, but aside from the internal pressure to have a good game and fight well, there's no reason to stress about them. I fought in the Ansteorran tournament again and enjoyed myself. I had the same win/loss ratio as last year, but with much better fights, including one where I waited and watched and studied her guard and attacked when I saw an opening, as opposed to relying on reaction and muscle memory, which always feels more satisfying.

I surprised myself by enjoying the Novice bearpit tournament way more than I expected.  Everyone was courteous, and I made double the effort to be nice and cheerful to folks, since presumably we were all new and uncertain and dying of heat. I greatly appreciated the active marshalls. I lean too conservative in my calls, and got corrected a couple of times in my favor. The more fights I'm in and watch where those calls get definitively made, the better I'll be able to see "nope, flat" and "actually, no, that did hit" and so forth. On both sides.

I was doing fairly well there until I stepped out halfway through to join the By The Book tourney. At which point I almost hit Remy with my hat, since he'd suggested I join and my list was filled with people I know pretty well who are well out of my league. But I found that more amusing than anything, and it didn't change my goals. My one additional worry there was that I'd fall prey to the posture slump I've watched so many fencers fall into when they tell themselves they've lost before they even start the fight. I have no idea if I avoided that or not. I was soundly defeated, but I got something out of almost all of my fights, and it will be an interesting benchmark for next year.

I still don't have a tourney headspace of any kind, but I'm fully sold on the concept and will be trying myself against more of them. So maybe that will come.

Tournament prizes I won included (and were limited to) a small brown glass bottle filled with mysterious white powder.

On Melees:
I need to practice melees during the year. I dislike melee practice, for reasons that aren't 100% clear to me, given how much I enjoy them at war, but I need to get used to the particular brand of chaos that accompanies them. They aren't as safe as one on one fights, and I worry more than I need to about it. In LARPs, my favorite skills are all in the backstab family, but I've never DFBed someone in an SCA fencing melee. I'm too worried about stabbing them instead.  I even did stab someone in the back this war, but lightly, and only because they turned and extended their right arm such that an attack that would have hit them on the front of their right side hit them slightly behind it instead. (I don't think they noticed it wasn't technically in their front 180, honestly.)

That said, I mostly parked myself on lines this year, and so only needed to hold still, not die, and stab people when they mistakenly left themselves open for such. That was simple enough and satisfying. And the final rushing offense of the last battle I was in showed me that as much as I police myself for tunnel vision, I have better situational awareness than a lot of folks (who don't field fight at LARPs throughout the year), and there was a lot of just moving forward and leaving a ridiculous trail of bodies behind in the chaos. It was...strange. Fun, I think, but strange. Having excellent generals and folks to fight beside always makes me happy.

On Equipment:
I would like to start playing around and fighting with other weapons to see if I can get an opinion on blade length and balance, though I'm not buying another sword any time soon.

Once I came to the conclusion I wasn't going to buy a sword, I bought a dagger to match my current sword and named it after a skull. It seemed appropriate in the moment.

In General:
I brought a new notebook and resolved to take notes from every one of my sparring matches and tournament fights. That didn't work with the bearpit, but I managed to write something down for every one of my non-bearpit fights, even if only a description of how the fight went and felt. In all but two instances, I managed to pull out a lesson to add to my notes as well. I'd like to be in better shape, I'd like to restart some of my drills where I see myself slipping, and add in some drills where I'm seeing holes, but overall I'm comfortable enough with my basics and where I am now that I'm happy to dive back into Capoferro over the next couple weeks.

Now to channel this renewed drive and see how much progress I can make before K&Q!