Zwaardkring

[janestarz]

I get the whole point of swordfighting lessons, honestly I do. I go to this club and they teach me new and interesting ways to kill other people. Only, we don't actually kill people but we play at killing people. It's all in the technique, so to speak.

So we have hängers and abstellen and absetzen en uberlaufen and all these other interesting techniques. If we don't stab you in the torso under your shield, or lock your sword between two shields to stab you in the face, then we just bash our shields into your face after we've swatted your puny sword to the side. Or, just when you thought you had us and you were really quite happy to just attack me from above, I surprise you and stab you right in the stomach with an underhand awkward left-sided thrust. I get it. It's really cool.

What I don't get and what's starting to really piss me off is that as soon as we do any kind of game with these weapons, everyone suddenly starts "mowing the grass". Hey look at me trying this really cool attack from the... oh never mind there go the legs again. King of the hill? Yeah, no more ankles. Tactical 4 against 4 game? Oops there go the legs. One side attacks, the other only defends? Hey guess what? My legs!

It's not Merlyn's fault, really, but after two lessons where all that gets hit is the legs, I'm kind of sick and tired of the whole thing. As soon as we're not learning a new technique everyone just wants to win as quickly as possible and they go for the legs.

We're not practicing our new techniques, we're just mowing the grass. If I wanted to do that, I'd get a lawn!!!
Last week it really hurt, they weren't careful at all. This week it was just annoying. I'd like to kick someone's ass for a change, and not be sent off the field because someone thought it was cool to hamstring me yet again.

Comments

[erwinl.livejournal.com]

I can imagine that would be anoying. It takes away a lot of the fun in using the techniques from the sparring matches.
This asks for a new rule at the next sparring. "legs are forbidden". Curious how the sparring would go then. :-)

Right now (well, not literary right now) I'm reading a book about the forensic analysis about a mass grave from a battle during the Wars of the Roses.
Fascinating stuff by the way.
Anyway. Of 40 individuals (28 of whom were complete skeletons) the amount of wounds on legs or lower arms was very low (from my memory a total over these individuals of about 3-4 on arms and two on the legs). The 28 skulls though each had an average of almost 3,5 wounds on them, with a lot having only one but some quite a lot and one individual as many as 13 wounds in his skull.
Of course, wounds that didn't penetrate to the bones wouldn't show up in the analysis, but it shows that in medieval times they primarily went for the head, certainly not the legs. No grass mowing in those times! :-)

Edit: to clarify a thing, and one of these day I will be able to post without having to change my spelling.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

We did discuss it after the lesson, which helped.

What you're describing has a very simple explanation: duels versus battles. In duels, which is basically what we're doing all evening even in most of the simple games like King of the Hill, you would choose a technique that works well to get your opponent out of the fight as soon as you can. Legs are quite hard to defend, especially if you're none too light on your feet.

In battles, however, you're scrunched together with a thousand of your buddies. The six rows of bodies behind you are pushing you forward and in front of you is a similar wall of bodies. It gets pushed together like a meat grinder, and there's no room to swat at anybody's legs. Actually, sometimes you can't even use your sword properly and you have to resort to bludgeoning the other guy with the pommel!
Big difference.

I must admit that Rob did stick up for me and brought the topic to the table, as it were, so hopefully Merlyn will take it into account next time.

[anemoona.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, heroisch vechten is dus nog niet doorgedrongen tot de re-enactors ^_^.
Wel goed van je dat je het ter discussie hebt gesteld. De regel 'benen tellen niet' vind ik een goede.

[anastaszia.livejournal.com]

TOen ik bij Cor leste was het benen slaan ook een tijdje een probleem. Tot hij ons leerde dat je met een klein pasje achteruit je benen buiten schot houdt, waarna het zwaard van de tegenstander toch onhandig laag zit en dus feitelijk zijn hele torso open staat voor jouw aanval. Zijn zwaard zit ook nog eens in een zwaai en naarmate ze harder slaan is het ook nog moeilijker voor ze om deze slag om te buigen naar een verdedigende positie op torso.
Makkelijker gezegd dan gedaan, maar een hele fijne techniek om onder de knie te krijgen.

[kenshinichinyo.livejournal.com]

Eens. Als ze voor je benen gaan, _kan_ het niet anders dan dat hun hoofd "exposed" is.
...Of is hoofd ook geen locatie bij de training?

[erwinl.livejournal.com]

Ooh I forgot about that one! :-(
Just stand in Vom Tag (the lower one, with the cross guard of the sword next to your ear) with your left leg a bit to the front.
When they go for it just take a half step back and rap them on the top of their back or even better on their wrists. :-)

Anybody who goes for the legs against someone who stand in Vom Tag is suicidal by the way. :-)

I'll show you saturday if you'd like.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Vom Wattes?

Je weet dat dit mijn vijfde les was he?