Sharing a sparring video on Christmas

[Lance Chan]

Some new stuff to share, the sparring on Christmas. I fought 4 opponents. The first two were done almost full speed, controlled power, trying to practice various techniques. The latter two, I went against a claymore and a 2 hander so there was no reservation on my part (which wasn't very good in speed and skill compare to the ARMA standard, of course).

http://lancelot.servehttp.com/gathering/

Right click on lancelot-fight.mpg and save target as.

If you're interested in the full Christmas sparring video, sparring.mpg will be it, which included some group battles involving the pair of huge swords and a spear.

[Matthew_Anderson]

I watched most of the bouts and here are my comments:

Mostly, you are all making choppy little cuts, mostly to the hands and arms. Very little passing footwork or committed attacks where you close the range. Don't get me wrong, the hands are a valid target and if someone puts them out there like that, I'll hit them too. But I don't like having it done to me! You are all getting smacked in the hands a lot because you are all just reaching out trying to play "sword tag" without really commiting to the attack with proper intent and closing of the range. The best way to protect your hands is to make committed attacks, in range, on target, to your opponet's head and body. In this way, you force him to deal with your attack by setting it aside, displacing it, etc. which in turn, sets you up to twitch, wind, thrust, etc., maintaining the initiative and fighting in the "Vor". By contrast, if you are just reaching out with your arms making half-hearted attempts to cut, it's easy for your opponent to just countercut your hands. This is something I see a lot and constatntly work on with new people. You may instinctively feel safer not commiting to the attack, but in reality, a good fencer will tear you apart if you fight this way.

In general, most of your guards look a little sloppy, i.e holding your vom tag almost verticle and very low in front of your shoulder, pflug with the tip very high instead of leveled at the opponent. This makes your attacks and transitions from these guards weaker and slower, and invites your opponent to take advantage of it instaed of being held at bay. Also, as you strike and move, you should be moving from one guard to the next, rather than just ending up with your weapon out of position or your feet backwards, etc.

Also, althouh you may have excluded it intentionally, I didn't see any grappling. There were several instances where weapons could have been seized, and strikes, trips, throws, etc. could have been executed.

Please don't take offense, I think you guys are doing pretty well for not having had any hands-on instruction and I assumed you posted here to get some constructive critique. If you could swing it, I think you'd really benefit from having John over for a seminar. I think it would be a real eye-opener and give you a good grounding in the basics to work from. Good luck and keep training!

[Jonathan Scott]

I think I saw most of the stuff Mat was talking about.
The main thing was that this is basically "sword tag", who touches first, and the "round" ends after the first touch, many of which were not very decisive hits it looked to me. Also when the round ends you walk back and turn your back to your opponant (I know the match is over, but if you do this in training there's a risk you might do it in real life when you didn't finish off your opponant decisively) (example of non-decisive hits-especially you vs..I think his name is Simon? (guy with the greatsword)...he did not acknowledge hits that looked pretty clear to me that were in your favor even if he "tagged" you first)
As a suggestion, maybe you should have two sparring "systems", the first one if it must remain in effect, and a more realistic one where it's "to the kill" where only a decisive hit to a place that would "kill" (strong attacks on arms and legs, body, and head) will determine the winner of each match (also try to encorporate more grappling into it like Mat mentioned). And in this system you should dismiss light hits (most of those hand shots, just keep going and hit their body) if possible (or at the least don't stop the match because of them). I think this would probably encourage more in range decisive cutting and thrusting as Mat said, as well as encourage following up your strikes.
But in your favor, you are taking the initiative much better than the people you face (I see you driving them backwards into defense most of the time, and you should definitely keep that up), and I wonder if they've caught on to that secret or not <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Lance Chan]

Thanks everybody! It's good to have inputs and constructive comments to work on. I'm spreading the feedback around the participants of the day and we'll take note of those important points raised. Happy new year!