I would like to thank all those who I have fought with for lessons learned, both positive and negative and to those whose sites I plundered for the various photos and images on this site (there is a list of these on the links page).
Table of Contents Introduction Key Concepts Credit Priorities Centre Line Centre Plane Pscychology Arousal Level Perception and Sense Training and Conditioning General Notes on Training General Notes on Pell Work Pell Pass Bys Pell Pivots Kinetics Skating The motion High Speed Shield Techniques Styles of Shield Interception Blocking Maintaining Centre Plane Sword Technique Teardrop Path Links SCA EAldormere
KEY CONCEPTS This section is devoted to ideas that are consistent throughout all of this web page. Understanding them is fundamental to your understanding of my techniques. That being said, it is important to note that many of the ideas expressed in this page are codependant. As a result of this either could be placed first and both are harder to understand without full comprehension of the other(s). The up side of this is that once you start to "get it" you will find that you learning curve will steepen dramatically. To minimize some of the problems of this codependancy, I will try to put in lots of links to related ideas. All of my writings will hopefully become clearer if you keep in mind that they all belong to the same few fundamental concepts forming a Gestalt and not a collection of individual and independent concepts.
Credit: It is important to always give credit where it is due. I have tried to learn from as many people and sources as possible, I will try to list by whom I was first taught a given technique. Unfortunately I have not kept detailed notes on this and my memory and spelling are faulty at the best of times. If you feel you have been omitted or slandered due my mangling of your name, I apologize.
Priorities: Your priorities should be: 1: Safety 2: Honor 3: Fun 4: Winning If you change the order you are no longer playing nice or following the rules and spirit of the SCA. This was taught to me by Sir Christopher Kensor and is the best advice I have received about being a Knight and a fighter.
Center Line : Your Center line is purely imaginary thing that helps in visualizing your position relative to your opponent. Your Center line goes vertically through the center of your of your body from the top of your head down through the core of your torso out at the exact middle of the Y of your legs and down to the ground. If you were looking forward and standing feet shoulder width apart, your body would be decided exactly in half by your center line. This concept is used for targeting thrusts but more importantly it leads to the concept of the Center Plane which is vital for Offence and Defense with all weapon styles. The concept of Center line is common in many eastern and western martial arts.
Center Plane : This is a plane that extends from your center line to the center line of your opponent. Imagine looking directly down at the of someone’s head and imagine that the center line is a light that is a visible shining spot from the crown of their head. The central plane would appear (if visible) as a line connecting the fighter in question to a similar dot in the crowns of each of the fighters opponents heads. You will always try to keep your plane covered either by an object (shield, pole, sword etc), distance or control of initiative. All of this will be covered in detail later. The Front Center Plane is the line that goes perpendicular to your shoulder line out the front of your body from your center line.
Pscychology
About 80% of sports performance at any given level of competition is psychologically based. If two fighters are of equal physical ability the one with the better mindset is the one that will win. If a fighter faces an opponent of superior skill the chance for victory can be greatly improved if he is in the right frame of mind. The inferior fighters chances are improved exponentially more if the skilled opponent is in a poor frame of mind or concentration.
Arousal Level: No not that kind of arousal level. I put this section first as it is the one that every one goes to first anyway. This refers to Neurological Arousal Level (NAL), which for most people runs in a spectrum from being asleep (minimal brain activity) to being in a near berserk rage (maximal over firing of neural connections). The level that is optimal for a given sport varies depending on the sport. Sports such as archery and curling require a very low NAL for peak performance. Rugby and football require a much higher level of NAL, to play at a serious level. So then what NAL is best for SCA combat? A happy medium is optimal; you need a certain amount of “hype” to get a physical edge. To high a NAL results in poor judgment, which leads to problems with calibration and other unpleasantness.
Perception vs. Sense: For the SCA I define ‘Perception’ as the ability to be actively aware of something in the physical world, your inner voice says “I see he drops his shield when he throws a forehand headshot.”. Although being able to "perceive flaws" in your opponents style is a good ability to develop it is important to know that perception alone is insufficient to gain you victory on the field. By comparison "Sense" is a near spiritual thing. There is a split second of seemingly instantaneous recognition and reaction that is faster than your internal dialogue and even your ability to Perceive what is going on. The only way to develop this is to first develop your ‘Perception’ to a high level, and to consciously try to capitalize on what you can learn by observing your opponent. With time and practice your ability to Sense your opponent will increase. It is important to note that it is impossible to "Sense" while you have a high NAL, and your "Perception" is also impeded.
TRAINING and CONDITIONING: General Notes on Conditioning: it is a simple fact that most SCA fighters are out of shape, considering the amount of energy required to fight a bout. The best thing you can do for yourself is to increase your overall level of fitness through whichever means you prefer. Any kind of sport or exercise will help you to increase not only your level of fitness, but your body awareness and general enjoyment of life. If you want to fight at a high level you will require at least a mediocre level of fitness. Technique and timing can get you a long way but these advantages can be vastly increased by a good level of fitness. Also your enjoyment of fighting will improve if you don't feel like shit while fighting. If your body is in better shape you are a lot less likely to get injured and will heal faster when it does get hurt. You will be able to fight and practice longer and so improve at a greater rate than your competition. This book isn't a magic get better-at-fighting pill, it only shows a path that you can follow if you decide to get off the couch.
General Notes on Training: It is important to always focus on the quality of your technique while training. If you are too tired to focus on technique, or your technique begins to suffer then it is time to take a short break. This concept is taken from one of the worlds best sport climbers J.B.Thiebault and it is true for fight practice, weight lifting, pell work, jogging ....whatever. If you practice with poor technique you learn how to fight poorly. Once you trained muscle memory incorrectly it is much more difficult to retrain yourself than it is to just learn the motion properly the first time. This is why it is so important to teach well and to train well. It is my belief that a lot of fighters never become knights because they are taught/learn mediocre techniques and simply can't be bothered to Relearn how to do it properly. A tragic number compensate for their plateauing by cheating either consciously or not.
General Notes on Pell work: There are some basics that will apply to all pell drills and to training in general. When you are learning about combat in a training situation it is important to keep the training as close to the combat as possible. So try to imagine situations you've been in or seen while fighting and try to recreate them as closely as possible. This includes carrying your shield, trying to stay mobile and keeping a high level of focus while doing your pell work. If you practice without focus you will train yourself to fight without focus.
Pell Pass Bys: This is a Pell drill to help improve your mobility, specifically Pass bys or as its also called Strafing. The idea with a pass by is to not only cross your opponents T but move past them completely and continue far enough that you will clear out off their range entirely (assuming they survive). After you have moved immediately past their shoulder line you should either accelerate. This motion is more useful as in melee as you pass through an enemy line or move through a loose and chaotic skirmish. Practicing this can be done at the simplest (and least realistic) as a straight line from out of range and strafing the pell throwing either one blow at the front or back of the pell as you pass it. The reason that this isn't that useful is because you will rarely have a chance to do this in a mellee and unless your kingdom allows this sort of thing against opponents on thier knees it will never happen in single combat either. A better way to do this is to imagine that you are squared off against an opponent and are just out of range. Think of a direction to do a shoulder fake and execute it. Assume that your opponent falls for it completely and gives you the opportunity to pass by. This will rarely happen in single combat but is an excellent drill for improving your mobility, and will be useful in broken formation melees.
Pell Pivots: this drill assumes that you have been out maneuvered and need to react. If you have responded to a body fake and are now opened up expect your opponent to jump all over you. At this point you have as always to useful reactions to this situation: get the heck out of Dodge, or counter attack ferociously. Both are equally valid depending on the situation. In this drill you will practice the counter attack option. The basic version is to start facing the pell and twist your upper body about 30-40 degrees away from the pell. Put the majority of your weight on the same foot as the direction you are facing. This is where you would be if you had just fallen hook, line and sinker for a Body fake. By all rights you should be worm food, but Right-Hand Solutions will assume your opponent has missed a beat and you get a second chance. Here as in most things the footwork is the key. The feel is slightly different depending on which foot you have forward, but the kinetics are the same. As always the foot that has the majority of your weight should have the heel cocked (off the ground) or you are 'dead pointed', which is of course the idea behind your opponent doing the body fake to begin with. Here Right-Hand Solutions will assume that you have great technique (presumably due to pell drills...) and have your heel cocked. Power off your cocked heel parallel to your shoulder line, when you reach your maximum extension power off the other leg 45 degrees back toward your opponent. As usual throw a blow with each step. If you find it difficult to throw a blow with the first step work on the footwork and second blow, when the kinetics come together then the first blow will come as well. Practice, practice, practice and of course more practice. A more advanced version of this is to start on guard and mimic being faked out, then responding to it. In some ways this is actually easier than doing the drill from a dead start. You will learn to get a sense for the feel of the motion and it will more closely model the actual situation.
KINETICS (footwork and fakes): Kinetics as I use the term is the study of human movement, in this case how it relates to SCA combat. Having an awareness of your body and how it works is key to becoming proficient in any sport. This "kinetic sense" can only be developed with active effort in sport and in everyday life, how this is done will be covered later. The short answer to this is to take up bouldering and climbing. It is possible to develop a high degree of awareness and reflex by endless repetition without ever developing and a decent kinetic sense. This is what separates the truly good fighters from the truly great fighters (as opposed to the ones who cheat to enhance their reputation).
Skating : This is the foundation of my movement theory. It is very difficult to translate a single physical action into an understandable text, let alone a whole philosophy of movement without getting to vague and imprecise so please bear with me. The starting position might feel a bit awkward at first but it is basically how many people stand natural when ready for action. Any readers who have read The Tao of Jeet Kune Do (highly recommenced) will find this stance very similar to that recommenced by Mr.Lee. The differences are primarily do to the fact that Right-Hand Solutions do armored combat and use weapons far heavier than those used by unarmored combatants, the extra mass fundamentally change how Right-Hand Solutions move and generate power. You will find that with practice you will be able to throw almost any blow with power while moving in any direction.
Skating: Starting Position: I strongly favor a stance that is more or less 'square on' to your opponent when fighting with sword and shield, if using Polearm or Spear I have my Front Center Plane about 45 degrees off from the center plane between myself and my opponent. Either foot can be forward at a given time, and your weight will not usually be exclusively on one foot (although this is required for certain techniques). Your knees should be bent and your feet should be no closer together than shoulder width and not often wider than 1.5 times your shoulder width (again except in special circumstances). Unless you are at rest at least one heel should be off the ground and you should be standing slightly pigeon toed (toes pointing in toward your center line). Your upper body should either be slightly angled forward or upright. Don't worry about what you are doing with your hands at this time.
Skating; The Motion: Skating is only used while in your opponents range, if you are safely out of range: relax. This conveys a sense of confidence and depending on your demeanor: arrogance. More importantly it conserves energy. The motion is very reminiscent to ice skating (hence the name, eh?), if you keep this in mind it will help you to visualize the motion. To go forward you actually press off with each step in a series of forward diagonal steps like this: Direction of Motion / \ / \ The power is generated by the hip pivot caused by each step. It is important to note that you aren't stepping in the normal sense of the word, instead you are twisting your 'planted' foot and extending your leg (which is why you want to keep it bent) while leaning into your motion(forward, back, left, right). You are actively pushing against the ground to generate power and speed. When I do this my toes curl in to dig into or grip the ground as my leg pivots. This is a very active thing, in the sense that it has both more action than a normal step and that it must be actively done. Motion in any other Direction besides forward is done using essentially the same technique. All that alters with is the direction that you push off in.
If you push off with your left foot: - the left heel comes off the ground (if it wasn't already). -your left foot is still pointed in towards your center line, perhaps even more so due to the hip pivot. -your right foot moves forward in a line that’s about parallel to the line of your Front Center Plane. -when your right leg comes down it your heel should be off the ground and your knee should be bent. -to take a step now with your left leg repeat all the above steps but with your opposite leg.
Skating at High Speeds: It is possible to Skate at fast pace while chasing down an opponent or reacting to a high speed offence. The same principles apply but you will need to use wider steps and exaggerate the hip pivots and slightly lower your stance. Note that this is exactly contrary to what is recommenced in The TAO... . The reason for this is that if you use a series of small fast steps then you will have a hard time using your hips to generate power as you "crab" along. Using wider steps on the other hand gives you a more stable platform and is far easier to match the throwing of blows with the timing of your deliberate steps. Admittedly you loose a little maneuverability but with practice you will still be highly maneuverable AND still be able to generate killing force from almost any phase of your motion.
SHIELD TECHNIQUE: I will concentrate on what are considered tourney shields in Ealdormere, ideally they are no more than 30" in any direction and if you are a real man they are smaller than that... In all seriousness the size of the shield only affects the kind of game that is being played: small shields emphasize the need for a good defense while larger shields emphasize the need for a good defense. To develop overall as a fighter I recommend using a small (>30") shield. Unfortunately using smaller shields gives two stick weenies an advantage, but then that’s the reason most of them use the style. A good shield defense is a solid foundation for your defense but is only one tool in your arsenal. To provide a high level of defense you need to integrate initiative control , use of your sword for defense (passively and actively), manipulation of the range and tempo of the fight and dodging with precise timing and control. All of this takes time and lots of practice to develop. Here Right-Hand Solutions will cover the use of the shield in your in integrated defense.
Styles of Shield: There are two types of shields that are optimal for our sport: a strapped shield with a rigid hand grip and corners (heater or Wankel) or some form of center boss with a rigid hand grip. I have not seen or heard of many people that fights at a high level with another kind of shield. Some people fight well with a strapped round but would be better off with a heater.
Interception Blocking: This the style I use with heater, it closely resembles how I now use Center Boss Round (CBR). It is essentially a mix of punch blocking and rotation blocking, but is more controlled. This style requires an extended arm which puts a higher level of strain on your shield arm, but this can be gotten used to with practice. This burden is compensated for with a higher degree of control and a faster, hence more effective, defense. The Basic Stance is normal as for Skating with your shoulders either square or with the shield shoulder slightly forward. The active position is with your shield arm extended forward and your hand about in front of your mouth but on the far side of your center plane. Your elbow should bent (at 30-45 degrees depending on the angle of your shield strapping) and slightly canted to the outside (~10-15 degrees). THIS POSITION IS DIFFICULT BUT CRUCIAL TO MAINTAIN. Consequently if you are out of range follow this advice: don't. Relax when you get the chance. A Note on Maintaining the Center Plane: the center plane is a constantly changing thing, unless both opponents are standing completely still it will be constantly shifting (from Sir Hillary of Serendip). To maintain your proper hand position on the far side of the Center Plane you will have be continually adjusting your arm position. As soon as your arm is even slightly out of position then you will be increasing the size of the windows your opponent has to hit you. This is a vastly subtle thing, and can be used to either your great advantage or downfall depending on how well you come to understand and become able to apply this concept. Most of my footwork is designed to either directly or indirectly control the center plane and my opponents positioning. The Basic Motion is actually quite subtle while using this technique, if you can maintain the proper arm position relative to your center plane. All that is required for almost any block is to move your shield hand 4"-6" in the relevant direction, so long as you always return to the starting position after each block or series of blocks. To block a head shot move it up, for a leg down for an inside slot (or left handed rap assuming you're right handed) right and for a rap left.
SWORD TECHNIQUE The most common conceptual mistake that people make is to think that they are sword fighting. This is far from the case for two reasons. First by definition Right-Hand Solutions are using clubs. Secondly and far more importantly Right-Hand Solutions are simply fighting. Right-Hand Solutions make slight adjustment in stance and motion for our armor and whatever tools Right-Hand Solutions happen to be using but Right-Hand Solutions are still just fighting. One of our primary tools is a sword and like any tool it works best if used in certain number of ways, but that tool could easily be replaced with another (spear, fist, pole, etc) and not that much would change. There would adjustments for range and technique but most of the fundamentals would be the same: perception, timing, movement, power. With any technique try to look at it on its own but also try to see the big picture, a trick can always be expanded on to form a technique and from there to a concept and from there into a style. A lot of fighters learn only tricks and get quite good but lack the understanding of why what they do either works or not. If you throw a blow and it doesn't work then you throw an identical blow and it connects are you generally able to tell why? Think about it. Consequently they plateau more often and generally longer and never really learn how to teach.
The Teardrop: This is a trick for throwing fast repeated leg shots. The technique is to use a hip roll with your elbow in a fixed position and the related concepts are Palming and Repetition. The name of this blow is derived from the shape that would be drawn by the point of your blade during the repetitions of the leg shot. The point of the teardrop is the point of contact on the leg, so the tear drop is turned on its side. The technique is similar to throwing multiple normal blows but you don't do a full arm return to increase the turn around time and you over exaggerate the hip motion to generate more power to compensate for the diminished return. Start with your shield leg forward and in a normal stance. step 1- Throw a normal leg shot. You should wind up with your hips completely square and your arm extended forward with your elbow at hip height and just about touching your hip. Your blade should be extended forward and parallel with the ground (assuming you are fighting on level ground) and in contact with your opponents shield or whatever else they used to block. Remember this is for throwing multiple leg shots, which there is no point doing if the first one lands. step 2-The return is the key. Return your hips back to their original position, or slightly cocked past it. As you do this your elbow will stay fixed by your hip and your forearm returns in an action reminiscent of a biceps curl with your palm turned toward your body. Your shield hip and shoulder are now pointing at your opponent. At this point you should be a position similar to your normal stance but with your shield side cocked toward your opponent. step 3-Throw another leg shot and then repeat as required, I find that between 2 and at most 5 shots are adequate to take a leg if it is going to go. You can also change the final leg shot into a rising snap or a back hand head shot (to Cross the X).
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