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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2007 21:07:41 GMT
One of the biggest problems people have fighting sword and shield is that they do not use the shield effectivly in a proactive manor. The tend to leave the shield hanging there hoping the other person will throw their weapon in it. The shield should be just as active as the sword, activly trying to seek out the opponets weapon.
I did a little self-evaluation and I determined that I also needed to sharpen up that area myself. I have been doing a drill where I have hung three softballs in a doorway. Two of the softballs are about the hight of my head the third in the middle hangs about 6 inches above my knee. So it is two high and one low. With my sheild, I practice hitting the balls out and hitting them as they return. I am constantly moving the shield back and forth, and also down as try to follow the softballs comming in. I am gona drill just with the shield for a few days and then I will practice also hitting the balls with my rattan sword. It should help increase my targeting accuracy.
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Post by ShooterMike on Jan 10, 2007 16:33:12 GMT
That is an awesome practice drill. I've gotta set up something like this. Karma to Tsafa for this suggestion!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2007 18:41:46 GMT
I have a friend that used to shield train with tennis balls.
He had a friend toss tennis balls and he'd proceed to proactively block with his shield. Sometimes they even had the use of one of those machines people normally use for tennis, and he'd have his buddy move the machine little by little to vary the flightpath.
He said it was also good because not every ball being thrown is spot on accurate, and you exercise your mind as well as to know what shots you need to block, and what you can safely avoid without even needing the shield.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2007 20:09:32 GMT
I thought of using tennis balls too. I use tennis balls for my point control rapier drills. I thought that the softballs would be a better simulator because they are heavier. You can feel something when they hit your shield. I am trying out diffrent stringlength variations today.
I have also started hitting the softbals with my rattan sword in various combinatins between blocking with the shield. I never realized how much my aim was off. I normaly am hitting a bigger target like a pell or a human, so the aimming is easier. Now that I am hitting these softballs I had to do some readjustment. The good news is that it does not take long to readjust. I was on target after 20 minutes of practice.
A am eager to go to my fighter practice tonight and try out my new targeting and blocking accuracy.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2007 13:10:41 GMT
I tend to try to keep my shield as still as possible. There is a tendency for people to make movements that are too large and leave areas open while trying to defend another area. You can pick people out who do this and throw shots at opposite ends of the spectrum to create an opening.
For protection I tend to take a lower stance thus making myself a smaller target. Then I only need to move the shield about 4 inches in either direction. Of course this tactic changes when using a small or "punch" shield. The other thing I tend to do is as I get tired my stance gradually gets higher, thus leaving more of me open.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2007 19:21:02 GMT
Yes, you hit the nail on the head Trueswordsman. I seem to have swong to the other exteme at fighting practice this week. I went form not moving the sheild enough to moving it too much. I will focus on finding a good medium this week in my drills.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2007 2:56:05 GMT
I will be fighting on Sunday and will concentrate on the shield movement as well. I have also made a new lighter rattan sword, and can't wait to try it out. It only weighs 2 pounds and is the lightest SCA sword I have ever used. I have had to get faster as down in the south (Florida) they wear less armor and go for speed more than power.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2007 2:20:34 GMT
My kingdom in NY/NJ has one of the heaviest calibrations in the SCA. Unless I knock them off their rocker they won't take the hit. I use three swords. My lightest is 3bs 1oz. I use that mostly for sword and shield guys. I have one that is 3 lb 7 oz for those guys who I know have thicker skin and need a serious beating. Then I have my 3 lbs 12 oz moster for the polearm and great sword guys and malee. Most people find that their is too much action going on in a malee, so again you have to knock the wind out of them for them to recognize the hit.
I have been doing my drills with a 2 lb rattan against the softballs to focus on accuracy and form. It is also convinently shorter, almost mace size, so I don't hit other things in the tight space I am drilling in.
I few times I made the mistake of fighting the polearms with a my light sword and I could feel it bending as they blocked me. I don't want to break it. My heavy rattan hits the polearm with athority. I sometimes beat the polearm with my sword, transfer to my sheild and then come in with the sword.
Funny thing is that on the rapier side, NY/NJ has one of the lightest calibrations. We also have another localized organization up here called the MSR, their calibrations are heavier for rapier. They tend to be more strict with the authenticity of how you dress. They won't allow plastic armor in the MSR.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2007 5:09:12 GMT
Practice went well on Sunday. The lighter sword allowed me to fight longer with more speed. There was only one guy who called a few of my blows light, so I just added more hip and the additional speed gave it power.
As I said before here in the south speed is key, but during melee you do have to crank it up a notch for someome to take the blow.
Because of this thread I did mind my shield control and actually did a better job protecting my lead leg by not over blocking blows to my head.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2007 10:54:16 GMT
Some people while using their shield hide the large area of their own view holding it in one line with their breast..From my experince I realized the best for me is holding my shield 45 deegres to the line of my breast(hmm try to imagine it -I have some dificulties in decribing it since I am not english speaking native ) It protects most of my left side and I can see what my oponent is doing.Right side can be easily protected by shield movement and the most important thing in all swordplay-feet movement! The other mistake people often make is a style of chess-when they attack they use their weapon only-then comes the block with a shield while enemy is attacking.Sometimes is looks like turns in strategy games(my turn-your turn-my turn-your turn-sword-shield-sword-shield..)I mostly use block and attack in one sequence.When my opponent is trying to hit me i make a block or make the weapon slip off the shield and in almost the same time i make a cut/thrust into opponents gap(usally leg/butt ;p or head-I love headshots! )It works good on opponents with longswords-but a shieldman opponent has difficulties with defending himself too.Thay have very very little time to avoid my blow.A shieldman (? how do you call a fighter with shield? ) shoud move forward -trying to shorten distance and catch opponets sword on the beggining of its slice-or even before it attacks.As a bonus 'shieldman' can make the opponent see only nice painted shield with his hands and weapon pressed between his own body and the surface of the shield. The third mistake -which is the higher level mistake of the previous one is called by me 'Hollywood style'while attacking a shield is somewhere near butt(see Chronicles of Narnia for egzample).I suggest not trying this one-it leads to a quick death. (By the way- if butt is not proper word and may be a bit rude please inform me -but I think it sounds more gentle than ass remember I'm the foreigner ) Of course all those statements are based on my few years of fighting experience (with some ARMA training included) and should not be taken as the Holy Word of God Of War You can of course disagree but it is how I try to teach my soldiers (good to be a captain I hope it can be useful for someone.Maybe we'll make some movies one day and I'll show them to you. I understand trueswordsman's concern about shield movement-but the solution in my opinion is not trying to keep the shield still nor using it like a buckler.It has to be active use of course.But I think it is better to use it to cancel the attack of the oponent in early stage than to block a hit in its full power ending stage.(of course it is also required in some sort of situation )While reflecting oponents sword it is soemtimes better to use the shape of the shield with feet movement than simply hiting it like with baseball bat leaving your body exposed for a while. Of course sometimes one action is better the other time different action...The master should not only know them all but know when to use which technique and do it like a machine... I have to try this exercise with tennis balls...It just may work!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2007 3:50:34 GMT
This is a common complaint I have heard from people who choose to fight two sword. The visibility issue seems to be more of issue to them the the duel offense capability. You should also check out the thread on fighting "Christian".
Yeah, I agree, I call him a shieldman regardless of what is in the other hand. The shield will dominate how the other weapon will be used because of the visibility and attack restriction of the shield. As a result sword, mace, axe are often used in a similar manor by a shieldman.
Also funny you mentioned shortening the distance. I have been experimenting with fighting real close against other sheildmen. For this stratagy I have switched to a short, 31 inch sword (23 inch blade). What I do is get so close that I no longer need worry about getting hit on my chest or legs because of the close distance. I have only worked this out fighting righthanded against a right handed person. In this close distance I can only be struck on the right side of the body or anywhere on the head. I hold the shield to my left side slighly back covering everything on that side. Remember, it is too crampt for opponent to get my chest or front of legs. I then use my sword to cover my head. I point it down over my my head to the left side for complet left side coverage in combination with the sheild on that side. Elbow is over my head in that position. I drop the elbow down to my right side to cover any rightside attack to my head. Because of the short blade of my sword I am able to make thursts to the face in that short distance as well as cuts. The swords that most fighters use are too long for that. I'm still developing this stratagy.
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Softballs.... I am using it just as much with my sword to develope my aim. Important that when you work the softballs with you sword to hold you shield in you other hand and occasionly punch the ball with your sheild too.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2007 9:24:48 GMT
That is why I'm plannig to use a shorter blade too...maybe a messer?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2007 20:05:04 GMT
I based my simulator based on the balance and agility of this sword as best as I could. It is a deggesse. 33 " total, 26" blade.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2007 23:28:51 GMT
Ahh deadly beauty! One shot-one dead!
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Post by rammstein on Jan 31, 2007 23:51:07 GMT
Type XIV I believe from the picture. If that thing had a thinner grip (as tsafa mentioned in his review) that would be a monster of a sword for I.33.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2007 21:26:22 GMT
Look closely at my pinky finger in the picture. I can barely wrap it around the handle. If I wear gloves no way. If I had to go to war with this sword I would shave the grip down. Other then that, it is an excellant design.
The rattan simulator I a made came in at about 3 lbs even. In practice last night, I found that it did not have the bite I like. I am going to wrap a piece of thick leather around the blade simulator and then wrap that with duct-tape to bring the weight to 3.5 lbs. Balance on both the real sword and the simulator is 3 inches down the blade from the handle. I will place the leather wrap about a quater of the way down the blade from the handle to gain the extra weight but still maintain the balance I had. I can up or down from their to fine tune.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2007 2:11:59 GMT
Hello all, That softball thing sounds interesting. I am currently studying Sabre fighting using Cold Steel's "Fighting with the Sabre and Cutlass" and the Sabre Drill excerpt from Cooke's Cavalry Tactics (U.S. Cavalry; 1862). I think I will try to the softball thing to try to improve my accuracy with my sabre and to improve keeping my movments smaller, thereby keeping my sabre and its guard in front of me in the guard position more.
How do you suspend them? Just tie string around them in a couple of directions and suspend them on a central string? Freebooter Millbrook, Alabama
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2007 20:41:25 GMT
Get screw loops and screw them into softballs. The scews will hold nicely. I made some short videos for you Freebooter of my drills. A few things to keep in mind. We don't fight pells, we try to do repeated motions in order to create muscle memory. We then take that muscle memory to fighting practice where we try to do it against a real person. Does not mater if you hit the person in practice, what is important is that strike the same way as you did the pell against a moving target. Once you can excecute your strikes without having to think how to do them, you can think about timing, distance, fakes and other ways to beat your opponent. Also keep in mind that my strikes are designed to hit a person behind a shield. Those shots will mainly be to his head and legs. The body is too well defended, occasionaly you might get a wrap around his shield if he opens up too much. If the person does not have a sheild it is all that much easier to fight him... but you should train to beat the best possible defences. Here are my softball drills. We are not looking for power here. We want accuracy and good form. Keep the sheild up, strike over your shield and his to his head. mysite.verizon.net/tsafa1/armor/softballs_right_handed.MPGmysite.verizon.net/tsafa1/armor/softballs_left_handed.MPGHere are my drills against the tire using a bit more power and speed. Not full speed of power or you will not be able to see the strikes on my cheep camara. mysite.verizon.net/tsafa1/armor/combinations.MPGmysite.verizon.net/tsafa1/armor/combinations_called_out_loud.MPGI must add the disclaimer that my form is hardly perfect. You would do much better learning from an SCA Knight then me. My video is only intented to interest people and give an idea.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2007 20:50:42 GMT
Thanks Stafa, Thanks. Interesting videos. Yep, that is what I am trying to do also is to try to perfect my finess and movements, develope muscle memory, etc.. Take care, Freebooter
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2007 6:39:15 GMT
Again, thanks tsafa. Your videos and posts are most helpful for a learner like myself... It is good to actually see the moves and gear, not just read about it - I think it's about time I tried this Karma thing - like this?
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