Melbourne event report

[Jay Vail]

Here’s a brief report on our recent Florida training day in Melbourne.

We started about 10 a.m. in a spacious park in west Melbourne. Although it was hot, there was enough shade that we didn’t have to work out in the open.

There were, as I recall, six participants besides our instructor, JC. Robert and Lisa were new members and it was especially fun to meet them. They run woodenweapons.com and we had several chances to discuss Robert’s work, which is high quality. He was eager for the feedback so he could improve and make his wasters more realistic and useful to the WMA community. (Robert was a great sport and bought everyone lunch. Gotta love the guy.)

We started first in the workout reviewing the longsword, mainly the basic guards and cuts. It was good to work on this material just for the sake of review. Working basically alone, as I do, it is too easy to let mistakes creep into your practice.

The objective of the workshop was not, of course, to study the longsword. It was to cover sword and buckler and sword and dagger. But JC had the important point to make that the guards and techniques between the three methods are actually quite alike. That should not be surprising, when you think about it.

After this review, we leapt into sword and buckler. Because of time constraints (this was a half day session), we covered only five techniques, which involve five different methods for setting aside blows and counterattacking -- three against cuts to the head and two against cuts to the legs. Coordinating the sword and buckler together as a harmonious unit is challenging, but I can see why, as JC says, the old masters regarded the combination of sword and buckler to be superior to all other weapons.

By this time, it was late afternoon, and we moved on to sword and dagger. Less of this material stuck with me because we received it late in the day and by this time I was having technique fatigue. After practicing drills, some of us had an opportunity to spar with sword and dagger with JC. Predictably, we weren’t much competition. I whacked myself in the head with my own waster while slipping on pine needles, and suffered a badly bruised finger, but it was all in good fun, and worthwhile. Too bad there wasn’t more time for that, especially with padded weapons.

Afterward we also had a chance to perform flourishes to get comments about our practice and what we needed to focus on.

By then it was 5 p.m. and time to go. Too early, too. I’m sorry it didn’t last longer. All in all, it was a good session, and I hope we have another soon. Every time I attend one of these workouts I come away energized and better informed. I’m looking forward to the 2-day event in Feb. 04 in New Orleans.

[Shane Smith]

Sounds like it was a great event. <img src="http://www.thearma.org/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[David_Knight]

Like every other ARMA event I've ever been to, the morning of Sept. 14th found me pushing 24 hours without sleep, fresh off a 12-hour graveyard shift and not quite sure what to think of the massive flaming orb in the sky, but otherwise thrilled to be there, and eager to test out my first set of homemade wasters.

Attendance at this event was lower than I had expected, which was unfortunate, but on the other hand allowed for a more informal, one-on-one study session, and it lasted MUCH longer than I had anticipated, so I was really able to get some valuable feedback after sparring with John.

Upon arrival, I was glad to see the familiar face of Jay Vail, whom I'd met at the previous Melbourne longsword seminar, as well as three new faces–Robert and Lisa from woodenweapons.com (who, in addition to kindly picking up the tab at lunch, gave me a great deal on a Rondell and some helpful tips on making my own wasters... the quality of their work really made me self-conscious), and Robert Lightfoot (whom I'd never met before and gave me a sweet deal on a pair of pauldrons).

As Jay said, we spent a good deal of time going over the basics of longsword for the newcomers, and I was relieved to find that I remembered most of it from the previous seminar. Of course, that meant that I was among those John constantly called upon to illustrate what not to do against various techniques, so most of my morning was spent being maimed, stabbed, hewn, and otherwise defeated.

After a lengthy longsword refresher, we moved into sword &amp; buckler, which at first seemed ackward, but quickly proved to be much more intuitive and dynamic (and forgiving!) than the longsword, in my opinion. While we only covered a few basic guards and counterattacks, the option of moving the left hand independently allowed me to expand upon John's instructions. I found that you can easily close in and grapple, disarm, or strike the opponent with the buckler while ultimately maintaining control of the situation with your sword. There are many similar techniques in longsword manuals, but these all involve half-swording, whereas with a buckler, your hand is already free, so the moves flowed more naturally for me.

While equally intuitive when used to parry, I found the sword and dagger to be very difficult to defend against. The same close-quarters combinations made possible by the buckler are suicide against an opponent wielding a dagger, and it is very hard to keep track of two blades, each with a different range, coming at you from both angles. I will definitely be spending more time studying this formidable weapon combo.

All in all, I came away from this completely obsessed with sword and buckler (though being up way past my bedtime, I didn't retain half as much as I'd have liked... can't wait for the new I.33 translation to come out), and much more confident about my longsword basics. Of course, I am still very much a beginner, and am looking forward to New Orleans. Hope to see you there!

[John_Clements]

Thanks David. IUt was good to see you again and note your considerable improvement. Btw, I thought you new ahead of time this was not a full fledge workshop or seminar event, just an informal "study day" for our FL members since I was going to be in my hometown for the weekend.

Looking forward to seeing you again too.

JC