Waterloo Sparring Group on the 14th was pretty great.

I went with variety of weapons over just longsword, but when I did fence longsword I kept with the “Versetzen Like Cap Wants” plan. I’m not sure how much I can attribute to this tactic, but I felt like I was fencing quite securely and with less timing/distance games than previously. Also, after Russia it was interesting to be told I needed to lower the power I was hitting with.

I do wonder about doing a better job of keeping fencing within the “pistes” - often it seems back-pedalling until your opponent is too close to other fencers/the mirrors to safely attack them, then attacking when they halt, is a strategy. Or I just get pissed off when I stop fencing and get lunged at...

I also actually enjoyed sabre. Well, broadsword vs sabre. Nylons weren’t too heavy for the knackered elbow. I focused on staying tight and making good cuts that wouldn’t threaten the tennis elbow. Seemed to be as good as my sabre ever gets, quite a few nice transitions between attacks.

I also did two dussack rounds and three with bartitsu canes. I was trying to use very different strategies, despite them both being one handed short-medium weapons. In dussack I was working on Vor-Nach, and also on integrating kicks. I wanted to focus in the cane-fighting on entering into grappling, and on maintaining flow between attacks. That said, I wasn’t using the “moulinet-as-guard” as much as I’d like to.

I also did a round of rondel dagger using the cold steel trainers. Really good stuff, even if facing a lefty threw half the techniques out the window. I had a scissors-lock at one point, except he just transferred the dagger to the other hand and stabbed me up...