#rapier journal

today was a small group - dustman(he/him), captain(she/her), lion(he/him), and myself. i helped out toward the end of youth practice as a pin cushion, which is always a good time. for all the bouts i fought today i fought single rapier since i’m still easing into things post surgery.

dustman, i’m realizing, is inconsistent about taking shots. a shot he’ll take one time he won’t take another, which makes it hard for me to make judgements about distance and calibration when i’m fighting him. i’m not generally bothered when people don’t take shots, but at least do it consistently. i might bring it up with him at next practice. i just worry that if he doesn’t take shots that i think landed i’m going to compensate by throwing harder shots, which i don’t want to do.

the last several times we’ve fought, i noticed that lion always seems surprised when i land shots on him, which. i dunno. when i first started doing this 5 years ago would have made sense as a beginner, but i feel like we’ve been on even footing for a while now and it’s starting to feel a bit patronizing? maybe i’m overthinking it (or maybe i’m still bitter that he messed up my pronouns today, despite knowing each other for 5 years and me only having gone by they/them the whole time). either way, i think i did very well in those bouts. i think i anticipated his attacks well - i can think of a several moments in particular - and i think that single rapier is a style that i have the slightest upper hand in, since he does lots of other styles and i tend to focus on honing single. 

fighting the captain is still my most challenging fight. she’s so quick and precise and fluid and generally hard to anticipate. we went over the 8 italian guards and did some dynamic footwork at the beginning of practice and i managed to successfully employ some of that in my bouts with her, which felt good. the first guard in that sequence is the hardest for me to remember to use, but i’ll try to remember that for next time and see if i can be deliberate about using it.

i didn’t get a chance to fight the captain today, but she’s promised me a fight next week.

i fought the dustman and frenchman in single sword, frenchson and neko rapier and buckler, and short single sword with lady anemoia.

dustman continues to be fast with his retreats, which makes a swift forward attack difficult. better to wait him out and get him on a counter.

frenchman is easily still my most even opponent. he’s well guarded and strategic. very good at stabbing me in the face. i still have to get better at guarding that thing...

frenchson has plenty to work on, but he’ll do well in time. his footwork and guard still needs lots of work, and his attacks are often predictable and imprecise. he has some trouble gauging his distance and he seems to struggle with deciding how to approach successful patterns of attack that i present. he does nicely with a rapier and dagger, but he needs to learn how to protect his hand if he’s going to use a dagger that exposes it.

neko has such a fighting spirit! it was wonderful to cross blades with her. she and i fought as i did with the frenchson - she with rapier and dagger, and i with rapier and buckler. her footwork/posture and point control could use improvement, but her tempo is good and she’s not scared to try things out, which is an excellent sign. i look forward to further bouts with her!

lady anemoia has been off the field for several years and is making a tentative return - i am excited for this! she makes excellent use of her off hand and moves very well. as we fought only briefly today and never before, i don’t think i can make too many judgements, but i can see hints of a good guard. i eagerly look forward to further bouts!

since it was my first day back to it in a while and i took it easy with mostly single rapier, i think the objective for next time is to continue getting back in the swing of things and build up to where i once was, especially now that i’m a silver rapier! i ought to make a separate post about that...

i’d like to ask the captain if there’s anything further i can do to help as a marshal in training. i’d love to help teach the kiddos and perhaps do some more detail oriented footwork and posture lessons and drills. those were so important and helpful for me when i first started.

most of practice was the bear pit, which functions as follows: two people begin in “the pit.” the one who loses the bout goes to the end of the line and the winner remains as the next person enters the pit. if the winner sustained any losses (arm, legs, hand) they maintain those losses.

there was an array of offhand options as well, which i made use of extensively. options included daggers, extra rapiers for fighting case, and rigid parry devices such as a buckler, cane, bell, stick, etc. these can not come in contact with your opponent but can be used to manipulate/parry/block their blade.

i tried to use every form at least once during the bear pit rotations, and the most difficult i found was actually dagger. im not sure why, as it’s a form i’m fairly well practiced with, but i’ll try to sort that out next week.

dustman was giving me particular trouble today, and i think i was just overthinking our bouts a bit. his footwork can be sloppy and therefore unpredictable and he retreats super fast. i decided not to chase him toward the end of practice, and had more success there. also, he’s taller and has much longer arms than i think, and so parries that move his sword above me keep failing because he can just reach over them. i want to experiment more with how to defend my ripostes against that, especially if i don’t have an offhand.

lady anemoia is a delightful fighter, my goodness. her guard is good and her calibration is excellent. her preferred style is rapier and a dagger-length wooden dowel/stick as offhand. we only got around three bouts in the pit, but i look forward to more passes with her.

neko is coming along beautifully! her style is much like the frenchman who fights in the style of fabris, with the body drawn back and blades extended up and forward. her footwork needs some attention but that’s very common for newer folks.

the captain, of course, successfully killed me with my own sword several times today, as well as sniping my fingers through my guard - her favorite. i managed several hits on her as well, but usually through her seldom mistakes rather than my own competence. i felt rather predictable and slow today compared to other days, so i felt a bit sloppy. i did reign myself in at certain points and reset my focus, and i think the process of noticing and resetting is super important. it’s a bit of a mindfulness practice.

i’d like to practice lunges more - i have a long lunge as i may have mentioned from my years as a foilist, and i underutilize it mostly out of laziness and a failure to commit to the action since it requires a lot of energy. practicing that and getting it back up to speed will help my confidence i think. generally more footwork is my response to feeling slow and predictable.

once the field at work dries up from the snow melt i’ll be bringing back swordplay lessons for the kiddos.

i am very excited about my progress with longsword. i fought the captain, the frenchman, and lion in longsword, and im starting to properly figure out how the thing moves. my distancing is getting better, but i’m still pretty hesitant about throwing thrusts - i tend to lean toward making push and pull cuts as opposed to calibrating a thrust. the thrusts i did throw were mostly well calibrated, with a select few hard shots that i feel icky about.

when i fought the frenchman it was longsword vs two short swords, which is tricky business. as soon as he got on the inside of my distance, it was pretty hard to detangle and reset. but i figured out that if i could snipe just one hand, i could almost always win against his single short sword. good stuff to note.

with both the captain and lion it was longsword vs longsword, which is quite glorious stuff. lion was quick to praise the way i adapted to the handling of the two-hander, and gave some advice about dealing with only having one hand in the event of losing one - it comes down a lot to forearm strength, and when you’re one-handing a two-handed sword the strategy is to largely just keep your distance long and be patient if you can. the leverage is wack and the control drops significantly. it’s a time to be reserved about energy use and to be smart - take the targets that are closest to you. hands and arms are good targets - you don’t have to stab the squishy bits if you can get rid of their arms.

we also fought some bouts with single, which was good stuff. lion always comes with personal challenges he wants to work with, like his recent thing of only fighting with one arm to practice having lost one mid-fight. he’s still quite slow for me i think, and fairly predictable in his patterns. he has good footwork and a very solid understanding of the sport though, so i feel like i learn a lot whenever we cross blades.

fighting the captain with longsword is just...wow, she’s just so lethal. she is so much fun to fight and be killed by. i will absolutely be requesting a longsword session with her every practice now. oh! and i got to watch her fight with sword and cloak today! it was incredible to watch. it had been a long long time since she broke out the cloak, and it is just so gosh dang cool to see her in action with it.

i fought case and single against the dustman. he still has some pretty significant footwork stuff to improve on, but he’s quick on his feet and makes swift retreats, which is tricky. i couldn’t seem to advance on him quickly enough to land shots often enough for it to be a super noticeable pattern, which is a unique challenge. it’s predictable, yes, but also difficult to counter. if he keeps out of distance all the time, how to lure him in closer... i’ll have to think on that. i might just have to move to the defensive and rely more on patient counterattacks. we shall see.

frenchson did so great! i had never fought him before as he wasn’t old enough to fight with the adults, but what a treat! we both fought sword and dagger. his calibration and footwork need some work, but he’s quick and creative with his shots. i also think he might’ve been a bit nervous, as he had a different sort of conservation fighting me than he did when fighting his father. i will have to see if i notice any further patterns from him.

i had some brief passes with a new fighter as well, but not enough substance to write much about. i was fighting in slow motion and mainly playing the slow-reaction defense game so she could get used to going offensive. i think she’ll figure out the footwork just fine, but her wrist droops when she gets tired, so some stamina/muscle buildup is necessary.

my brainspace was pretty good today, but i totally felt the gap of not having practice last week. it for sure has to be a weekly thing for me to stay in good form - both in mind and body. i want to re-learn the italian forms that the captain taught the last time, as i’ve mostly forgotten them now and also didn’t remember to ask her about it today. cause i’m silly.

i did so well today! i was in the zone - two nights of good rest after a long while of not sleeping well was greatly appreciated, and payed off for sure. sir north was also present today, but as i’ve mentioned before, i don’t like to fight him.

as for things that might need work, fighting on the inside, and fighting someone with a longsword. i fought the captain - i fought case, she fought longsword - and although i got a solid couple of kills, i would like to actually be able to explain what worked and how i did it. it still feels quite foreign to me and i’d like to be able to dissect it better.

i have a lot to say for things i did well today! i enjoyed playing with so many weapons forms. fighting the captain in single sword is so, so challenging, but such a good learning process. she’s so damn quick and clever, killing me with both my own sword and her own by dropping it, catching it by the blade, and then stabbing me with it. dirty pirate tricks. i love them.

fighting case against longsword with her was very effective i’d say! once i saw she was bringing out the longsword i knew single rapier wouldn’t cut it (well, it would, but it would be ridiculously difficult). i am very pleased with those bouts. then we switched it up - i fought rapier and buckler, she fought case - and i did well there too! i very rarely play around with buckler, but i did good! it was essentially having an indestructible fist/forearm, which works well for me as i use my off hand a lot.

my bouts with snoot were so much fun! he doesn’t usually do fencing stuff but i’m so glad he did some stabbing with me today. he’s more of a heavy list fighter, so he enjoyed the challenge of the calibration difference. we both fought sword and dagger, which was delightful. still getting back in the swing of that form, so i enjoyed watching snoot and his less conventionally “rapier” fighting style.

smith had done very brief fencing in his youth but we started from the very beginning just to cover all the bases. he did so well! very good and mindful about calibration and point control, and i think he will do very well if he continues with us.

for next time i want to continue experimenting with different forms and fighting different people. i do specifically want to do a bit of longsword and - if one is available - cloak.

today was a pretty off day for me, compared to other practices. it might have just been fatigue, but i felt myself fighting a bit slower and more defensive than usual. it reminded me of how i fought in high school, making minimal attacks and only when convenient. that tactic doesn’t work in the long run for me. it puts me in an insecure mindset, like i need to wait for an opening to get a shot in, when i really don’t. i need to actively make openings for counterattacks to work. as soon as i forget or ignore that, i lose my edge and fall back on old, ineffective habits.

i still need to work on protecting my head as well. i felt so vulnerable today for some reason. it felt like my defenses were weak and my movement was slow, even though in my bouts with dustman he complimented my tempo. perhaps i felt slower than i was, but i do feel like he landed a lot of shots i should have blocked.

i lost far more than usual i think to the frenchman, which might have thrown me off since he was the first person i fought today. he’s not an easy fight by any means, but he felt particularly difficult today. i dont fight delorean as often as the others, so my bouts with her are hard to track. she’s fairly new still, but has a fencing background and strong foundations. i feel i did okay in my bouts with her. sir north i only crossed blades with in the melee, but i’m not fond of fighting him as his calibration can be inconsistent and unpredictable. i took a hard shot to the head during the melee and was reminded of why i tend to avoid bouts with him.

i’m super out of practice when it comes to melees - coordinating as a team with others has never been a strength of mine in fast paced environments, and being teamed up with delorean was difficult as i didn’t feel i had any good advice or tactics to offer her. i also don’t have many opportunities to practice melees, so finding ways to improve that skill will be more difficult than others.

let’s see, what went well today... i’m forcing myself to find things for this section, knowing i don’t always recognize my achievements. i did well fighting inside and close i think. my bouts with the captain were exciting and fast paced, as usual. she’s probably the best fighter there, and is exceptionally good at fighting in close, but i held out for a long time in close combat with her today, even if i usually lost.

i only fought single rapier today, which is typical, but i do want to practice more with dagger. i should also play with parrying devices, case, and longsword much more. generally, i want to expand my arsenal. i’m proficient with dagger, but the rest need work. i want to have more bouts with the frenchman next time after finding him so much more challenging than usual today. taking more grounding breaths to manage insecurity and pushing more attacks rather than waiting to counter should also be on my mind.

mantras for next time: i’m a good fighter. i can do this. there’s no need to feel inferior. i am respected by my fellow fighters. i am aware of my body and i have the skills to defend it. 

a small practice today, and short, it felt, though it was the same two hours as always. i’m there for three hours to help with youth practice, but i don’t usually get any fighting in during that first hour.

i fought celeste in single to warm up, which was nice. i found her to be more predictable than i remember her being today, and figured out that she struggles in close combat. a rapid advance and a kill in close seemed to work pretty consistently, so i’ll keep that in mind next we meet.

frenchman and i fought longsword, which was lovely. initially he fought with his long rapier and a buckler, and then shifted to longsword. both were great! getting around bucklers is still hard for me. i’ll have to remember that for next time, which won’t be till january. perhaps i’ll start a physical journal that i can bring with all my queries.

frenchson did well with rapier and dagger, though his footwork and distance still needs work. he’s doing very well otherwise i’d say. not much else to say here.

the melee was a challenge, as usual. i’m still very not used to tracking multiple targets and allies, even though it was only a two vs two and later a two vs two vs one (the captain can hold her own). i struggled with dustman a bit in the melee - i’m not sure if my shots really weren’t landing or if he wasn’t taking them, or if he simply didn’t notice them in the fray. guess i’ll just have to keep things clean and obvious when fighting him. i fought case in the melee, which was good. initially i took sword and dagger, but the dagger was just too short to be that useful. i’m still developing how to talk about melees, so i’ll leave that there.

i did well today, but i’m disappointed i didn’t have many opponents. also, the captain’s health isn’t the best, and i worry about her. she had covid a couple of months ago and is suffering some long term effects (she’s fully vaccinated and wears a mask whenever out, but she’s a teacher and got it from her school). she can’t fight as long or hard as she used to, and has to take a lot of breaks. i no longer think i’ve merely gotten better - i think it may be some time until the captain’s full strength returns, if it ever will.

get vaccinated, wear masks, keep distance. please. anyone spreading covid misinformation via this post will be promptly blocked.

as for swordplay, i fought single rapier against the captain and did slow motion drills against dustman with longsword. the rest of the time was footwork and guard drills.

i want to practice the italian eight guards that the captain taught today - they seem incredibly useful and gives me new forms to drill on my own. now i know three sets of guards.

the captain taught me some longsword stuff too. a lot of half-swording with that. it’s about moving slow and fluid, which is what tripped me up last time. my fighting style tends to be pretty quick with the rapier, so slowing down with the longsword is a challenge, but a welcome one.