Lance, thank you for your detailed analysis of those sparring clips. I think your observations are insightful, though there is some of the context you may not be aware of (I'll get to in a second)
I do want to say that my advocacy of the hanging guard, if you will, really only extended to your bouts with that fellow who had won the gold medal in Korea. I suggested hanging guard as an appropriate countermeasure there because of the way he fought, using a lot of strikes from above and telegraphing his strikes.
As to the differences in technique, we do have a variety of styles with different fighters here, and I hope to get some more clips up soon which will illustrate those. Each fighter in our group has a different background which influences the way they fight.
Skip for example is a veteran of our old sparring group and has a lot of street fighting experience, and has also done training in Brazilian capoaeira which emphasiezes a lot of spinning. This is reflected in his fighting style which is almost playful, but can be very effective. He also does rely on hanging guard a lot.
Personally, while I like the hanging guard, I agree with your assessment as to it's limitations. My favorite attacks these days are combinations starting with false edge cuts from the tail guard, some of which you can see in these clips. I am also a generally aggressive fighter though and that hanging guard can be useful in a charge. But when I fight I react to my opponents fighting style, and attempt to select the most appropriate approach.
Incidentally, I think some of what you thought was telegraphing in the clips was actually feinting, or at least, clumsy attempts at feinting. We hadn't sparred for a while and as out of shape as I am I was pretty tired and weak, so some of my strikes weren't as fast as they used to be. This is another reason why I can be too aggressive, I tend to want to finish the fight quickly before I get too tired <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />
This improves greatly though when we've been sparring & training regularly, which we are now starting to do again now that the weather has become endurable with the onset of fall.
We do also employ some of your favorite techniques of quick cuts to the hands and etc. from maximum range, we call this "sharp shooting". And I like to attack the legs, which you will see in some other clips I think. One other factor which may make a difference as well is that I think our weapons are a little heavier than yours, so not as quick.
In the future, I'll have some more clips with some different fighters from our group, I think you will notice some very different styles, and also with different weapons (we even do padded swords against steel rapiers sometimes which is a very interesting match-up).
Curiously, while my longsword technique has evolved quite a bit, my best weapon is still sword and shield and I still fight the old self taught way with those weapons. We are planning to study several fechcbuchs with buckler and shield this fall so it will be interesting to see how things change.
Incidentally, I think after watching these several times, almost all the parries were edge on flat, or flat on edge, which is interesting because skip doesn't always have correct edge placement...
Thanks again Lance for your thoughtful critique, I look forward to your further comments as I'm able to make more clips available.
J
