On Pelling, and my first experience

[Matthew Miller]

Today, after over two years of learning Western Martial Arts I had my first pelling session. To set the situation up, I have a wooden post in a concrete base, and I was using my Albion Talhoffer. I have a firm grounding in German technique, but this was new. Prior to today all of my striking experience has been with wasters at sparring speed, just using my sword in repetitive drills, never actually hitting anything. Actually striking a pell is vastly different than anything that I have ever done before.

Already I can tell that there is a difference in the way I time my strikes and being able to attack with lethal intent will help me polish my technique.

My post is two fold in purpose:

1- To experience pellers, I ask this question: Do you pad you pells? After today I went over my sword with a fine grade scotch brite pad oiled it with gun oil, and I did notice some minor damage. How can I take steps to prevent this, or is regular maintenance the only way?

2-To those who have never pelled before, start now. It is essential to the development of proper technique. I have much to unlearn.

[Seth Halsell]

My pell seems to be very similar to yours as it is also a wooden post with a concrete base. I did infact pad my pell with some foam sticks used for swimming in pools to line the post and duck taped them to the pell. I use my single handed sword and longsword wasters against it and its held up just fine which is coming up on just a few months shy of when I built it now.

[Jaron Bernstein]

I actually use this for a pell:
http://www.amazon.com/Century-Body-Oppo ... B00022KIYY

About as realistic as you can get, and it doesn't shatter your wasters either.

[Randall Pleasant]

Matthew

Glad to hear that you are starting work at the pell. I would highly suggest that you work at the pell with your waster or with a blunt rather than with your Albion Talhoffer.

All the best,

[Brent Lambell]

I designed a short lived pell that was padded with pool noodles. I wasnt sure what I would get, but for the price the foam held up very well with my waster. I used a schedule 80 PVC pipe that gave a lot of flex in the target, and it allowed me to experience the impact of a weapon when used with intent.

And I agree, pell is essential. Its time to get mine under repair. I know I need to train traversing more and pelling is a great tool for it.

[Shane Smith]

For blunts, A plain old wood pell with a piece of carpet wrapped around it is fine by me (the carpet is not required however)and any small scrathes you get on the blade are no more then a cosmetic maintenence issue. For wasters, I too favor a padded pell. The only danger in having too much padding is that the pell becomes "bouncy" when struck.

[Matthew Miller]

thanks for the advice, guys, I really appreciate it. I will be going to Wal Mart today to get some padding for it, but as I do not own a quality blunt I guess I will be using my wasters with it for the time being. As soon as I can I want to get a Liechtenauer or an I.33 from Albion for practice, but I just cannot afford that at the moment.

I guess that this sorta shifts the focus of the thread then, where can I get a good sturdy blunt for pelling? Bearing in mind that my price range is very limited.

[Matthew_Anderson]

I agree that pell work is fundamental and highly beneficial. Like you, it took me a while to actually start doing it, but once I did start working at the pell regularly, my fencing improved dramatically. Think about it, how may good boxers are there that never do bag work?

[Mars Healey]

I have a tire pell and I use sapling trunks on it, heavy end out, so I get a good workout. I don't use a wooden waster or my aluminum blade on it because I hit it so hard, I would shatter/bend them. Tree trunks are plentiful and it's easy to go chop another one down.

[ElizabethPangerl]

Steve & I had a homemade wooden pell with a concrete base padded with closed & open cell foam. It split my first waster.
We now have what looks like a punching bag on a stick in our garage. It's held up pretty well against both wooden and plastic wasters.
One of our group members has brought a pell like Jaron (hi!) to practice and I like it best because it has the shape of a head and shoulders and a face.
- Elizabeth