Meeting the head of Avalon group from Japan

[Lance Chan]

Jay Noyes is a WMA practitioner who's into German style and George Silver. He came to Hong Kong and we had a blast on Thursday. There's nothing better than to experience the prowess of formal WMA styles in first person, literally getting my ass kicked and seeing all my favourite moves neutralized by those master cuts. It's amazing how quick he can attack at different openings at such both close and long range with a sword at 49" over 4 lbs! Damn...

It's an enlightening experience for my group in Hong Kong here and very helpful for those local practitioners who pursuit the German style. It's the first time we see with our own eyes how it works in a free for all sparring environment. How the style survived and fought so well facing different kinds of opponent.

Seeing is believing. Seeing the demonstration clip on some other sites is one thing. Seeing it with one's own eyes when one is allowed to pull whatever moves off against the German style swordsman and still, every one of them was being neutralized and defeated is TOTALLY another thing!

Damn, it's just so COOL. <img src="/forum/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" />

You may check the videos here:


http://www.rsw.com.hk/activities.htm#jay

[Aaron Pynenberg]

Great clips guys, looks like alot of fun, I really like your approach Lancelot- no egos there, only a pure interest in the arts, my regards!- Aaron Pynenberg

[Lance Chan]

Ppl say sometimes a defeat teaches one more than a victory does. I agree with that. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[JeffGentry]

Hey Lance

I like taking a butt whippin once in awhile it is the only way you realy know what your lacking in or need to work on, It is also nice to have some one who does the same technique's as you, so you can work on defending against that also.

I like educational experience's.

Jeff

P.s. i have about 2 hour's left downloading the video.

[Craig Peters]

Lance, you said on your webpage that you got slaughtered. Yet watching the first video, it looks to me as though you won half of all the fights. I wouldn't call that getting slaughtered. <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Alfred Wong]

It was a fun time and it encourages me much in my journey of pursuiting European Swordsmanship <img src="/forum/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Regards,
Alfred <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Lance Chan]

Thanks Craig... in the first half of the fights, I tend to die 3 times to win 1 time and I knew there were just certain areas I couldn't win so I was actively avoiding getting into those issues later on. For example, I could see that I would lose in every closing and bind. I think I'm quite defeated overall if I can't handle all the different distances during the fight. His sword was longer than mine, yet I was forced to "not to close in too far" because I'm outmatched in the close quarter combat. Isn't it bad enough?

I relied on a on-battle observations to improve on the later half of the fight. It means, if it was a real fight, I would be long dead for many many many times (reincarnate many times in between) before I even got a clue.

I aim to be able to handle whatever opponent in the first round. He obviously rendered my most favorite techniques all useless (or semi-useless). The single handed springs hardly hit anything. The upward diagonal false edge cut was elegantly defeated by his parting strike.

Damn.

He just gave me a reason to work even harder! <img src="/forum/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" />

[JeffGentry]

Hey Lance

I just watched the video, I think part of the problem you were having was attacking straight in

He was also doing this if you use your footwork to your advatage it does help alot.

When you attack or void take a traverse step it will force him to re-orient himself after a missed attack or before he can defend himself keep him guessing.

Overall i thought you looked good, your distance judgement looked very good.

Jeff

[JeanryChandler]

I liked the clips too.

That guy Jay is a good fighter, he keeps in his guards and attacks well from the bind. He is also quick on his feet and strikes fast, and recovers quickly from his strike, snapping back into guard.

It was interesting to see your local style up against a more traditional WMA technique.

Lance, you adapted very quickly and I think effectively to the challenge, largely neutralizing his initial advantages and making him fight your fight.

If it had been a judicial combat like the duel of Jarnac, and you had the sort of light / medium armor that they did (IIRC mail coats, gauntlets and a helmet), I think you might have actually survived the initial set-backs and achieved victory.

I think you would benefit by adding some of Jays type of technique to your repertoire.

DB

[Lance Chan]

Jeff and Jeanry:

Totally agree with you two on the improvement advises. Especially the tranverse and adding his techniques into my selections. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[James_Knowles]

Lance,

Thank you for sharring. Looks like that was a lot of fun.

I have to admit that I've a limited number of video from your group. One thing that came to my mind watching this is that it appears that there is a lot of good fighting from zufechten and krieg, but very little closing to ringen with grappling, ringen am schwert, etc.

I understand that with hard floors or concrete it can be very dangerous to actually throw somebody to the ground, but one may still practice closing and cutting it off after two or three seconds, or a strike to the face with the pommel, etc.

That simply came to my mind and thought it'd be a useful comment.

[Lance Chan]

Thanks for your suggestion. In fact we did some grappling on today, when I was using the rapier and when people were fighting against polearms. It might be more than the sum we have had before. The way to work around is to let the partner touch down softly and then continue to work on it. Would like to show you though but the cam was out of batteries (I didn't recharge it after Jay's visiting). So no luck. Next time. I think people are getting more and more used to the grappling range, after all.

Again, that's good suggestion!

[Jeffrey Hull]

Lance,

You guys seem ardent in your practice and I wish you luck!

Jeffrey