Freeplay

More sword and buckler goodness... from the other side, that is.

Had a brilliant bout with Roland this evening, using our respective weapons - longsword for me, sword and buckler for him. One of the best bits of fencing I've ever done. Roland has a very open way of fencing, relaxed and free and generous. At one point we took a break and he started giving me tips on how to beat him! It made for an excellent learning experience - relaxed and playful, intense and focused all at once. Joyous, I believe, would be the right word.

On a more technical level, some things really stood out. Measure was one: a longsword has a reach advantage, and its wide measure is further out than that of the sword and buckler (with a caveat: depends on the arming sword, and the relative proportions of the fighters. Roland is tall and lanky, with a huge wingspan, and against me of the dinosaur arms, our reach was nearly equal). So the longsword's game is distance. If it allows the sword and buckler to close, it's pretty much dead meat... unless it can then advance to even closer measure and get to grappling range. That's not really a winning strategy but it's all you can do if the fight goes there. Happened more than once and I never really managed to make the grappling work. There were a couple of close ones but each time I would have been sliced and diced before I could get anything going.

Something else that may seem obvious but isn't in the heat of a bout: the buckler side is covered, so you're pretty much forced to go to the weapon side. There aren't many good ways of attacking the shield side. So I ended up having to slide to the left a whole lot. That made my movements more predictable, narrowing down the mental game for Roland. And that, of course, is exactly what you want, and a big part of why you carry a buckler in the first place.

And one more thing, the most immediately valuable insight for me: a lot lies in the setup and the approach. As Roland taught in his seminar, the schutzen are covers which occur in mezzo tempo as you enter fighting range. So they cover a particular line as you close. There was an interesting interplay where my being in certain guards would draw particular schutzen, which would also give me something of a key as to Roland's lines. I'm not technically skilled enough to take advantage of those keys consistently, but they were there. It's something that can be extended to any sword art. It gives a new sense to the notion of breaking the guards, at least for me - I'm well aware that for many people this is old hat.... but seeing it happen in a bout made it very real. Even better was realizing that there were things I could potentially do that would shape the engagement in my favour. Again, I don't have enough experience or technical ability to accomplish that, but at least the theory is making more sense to me in the light of this experience.

One pass that I was very pleased with: at one point I noticed that Roland's hand was sometimes coming up in front of his buckler, uncovered. I managed to time his motions and catch him with a thrust to the sword hand, dead to rights. It was one of the few times I've managed to do something like that - see a mistake, figure out what to do and then exploit it cleanly. All that training has actually made a difference! (Shock, horror)

Of course, that was one point... most of the proceedings involved me getting royally pasted. But it's a privilege to get to fence with somebody really good, who's got the right spirit and attitude to make it a good experience for everyone involved (not forgetting the spectators). It was a very nice bout and I enjoyed it tremendously. I also learned a lot.

As Guy said after, that's what freeplay is supposed to feel like. It's the pure, focused joy of doing something to the utmost of your ability, leaving it all out there and holding nothing back, and having your partner do the same. And at the end of the day, there's no win or lose, there's just the sheer happiness of doing the thing you love.

Sometimes training gets to be a bit routine, and sometimes there's a bit of a grind. But those times are necessary so that we can get to these highs, and when they come they're wonderful indeed. Good times.