Binary in an Analog World

Its been a few days, so this is from memory, which isn't so good these days.

( Alan )

( Freddy )

( Alan (C&T) )

( Roland (C&T) )

( Alice )

Kingdom Crusades was a ton of fun. The fighting started with a populace tourney, followed by a champion's tourney, then a melee, then a champions melee, then an open list. I was asked earlier this week to be on the Champion's team, and I was nervous for a while. I've never had others rely on my fighting, so this was a first.
( Polulace Tourney )
( Champion's Tourney )
( Melees )
( Marshals Court )
( Active Marshaling Sucks )

New people - The new people (Joe & Rebecca) were back. I worked with them on basic footwork & bladework. They are coming along pretty good. Master Robert took over for me, which let me get quite a bit more fighting in this week than last week. I'm pretty happy with their progress.

lisettelaroux - Working on her confidence issues still. We fought for a while, working on a number of different things, and she seemed to have fun at the end. Lisette got very frustrated with me at one point because she did what she was told and it didn't work as well as she wanted. attack_laurel made the suggestion to to Lisette to think less, which worked *really* well. Following Sir Corby's suggestions, instead of slowing my fight down, I worked on shots & footwork that I am less comfortable with. Hopefully, this makes it so both Lisette and I gain from the fighting.

Alice - I've noticed that none of her closing shots are actually threatening. Flat out ignoring them works just fine, since I know she is going to do something different when she actually throws a "real" shot. As such, she is using far more energy than I am, and I have the advanced knowledge of where she is likely going to be. I had a hard time pulling my shots because she was closing very fast, far faster than usual tonight. After the forth stiff shot in a row, I sat myself, even though she wasn't concerned at all. I don't like hitting hard, even if it didn't hurt & was an accident.

rolanddem - I tried to not let him control the range & tempo, which worked out better than it had in the past. He was using his monster sword, which required massive amounts of work on my part when using my 40". I switched to my 30 and was able to control his sword better. I need to work on owning the fight with Roland. When I take tempo & control range, it works FAR better. Easier said than done, and I'm willing to bet he knows most all of my tells by now...

Alan - Ah, Alan. We had the floor to ourselves, so I tried moving. As much as I could, I didn't fight linearly. I had a number of nice off angle shots, including a favorite of Alan's, the rising cross shot while dropping back. My "line" defense is decent. My linear shots are pretty accurate. However, Alan won't let me fight there. So, I need to continue working on non-linear fighting.

Today, we had two new people come to practice. I worked with them for a while on the basics. We've had a ton of new people coming to practice lately. Thats great, I'm glad to have new blood. More people to fight the better. Only downside is I don't get to fight as much as I would like. This week, I got in two fights.

My first fight was with Sir Vlad, who has a great control of range. I was alright if I could keep him at *my* preferred range, but he's pretty good at putting me in position to make it hard to keep that up. He's not a knight for being good at knitting, thats for sure. :)

My second fight was Cut & Thrust with Master Alan. We fought for what seemed like a half hour, but was probably much less time. I was completely exhausted after fighting him. I worked *way* harder fighting him than I have in quite some time. I did quite a bit better than last time, but I still have quite a ways to go.

Two things I need to do:
1) I need to make a mask insert similar to Jimmy's so I can fight C&T before geting a helm.
2) I need to start some pell work. My muscles are seriously not used to the motions (both with good form, and my very poor form).

Three years ago, Chalice of the Sun God was my first event, if you exclude my first Pennsic. This event has been at the same site for the last three years. The last two years were done as a bear-pit. Honestly, I was looking for that Ponte Alto typical "fight til ya drop" format, but Geoffrey ap Clywd decided on a triple elimination tourney.

Everyone starts with single sword. After your first loss, you add a defensive secondary. After your second loss, you replace your defensive secondary with an offensive secondary. After your third loss, you were removed from the tourney.

( Connor Sinclair )

( Daniel )

( Flaithri )

( Thomas )

( Dominyk )

I did pickups afterward, but I don't remember them. I still need to pickup a notebook to put in my haversack.

This weekend was the coronation of Logan and Rowan. I was sans children, which allowed me to get more fighting in than I have in quite some time. gabrell received his Queen's award of Courtesy, which put many people to tears. Many other deserving people received awards as well. Skorri has photographic proof that I was there. The photograph shows lisettelaroux looking spiffy dressed as a boy, and me looking like a bum. But my shoes are correct. :)


( Percy )
( Dante )
( Baron Jean Claude )
( Baroness Alyna )
( David (the vegan?) )
( Chris Cunning )
( Some young guy )
( Celric )

I know I fought others, but I don't remember their names (and at this point, probably not the fights). I really need to start with my notebook again, as that was quite useful.

A while ago, I told myself I would write comments about every fight I ever fight. I was doing it in a notebook, which fell apart. (Need to get a new one). Then I did it online on my personal site, but I fell out of the habit. So... I will try and start logging my fights here.

- Master Alan, single
( Alan )

- Master Kit, sword & dagger
( kit )

- Master Robert, single
( robert )

- Giacomo, my 40 vs his 30.
( jimmy )