My latest tournament

Discussion in 'Competitors Corner' started by Langenschwert, May 27, 2015.

  1. Langenschwert

    Langenschwert Molon Labe

    This was my first tournament after breaking my fibula in late November. It was a small HEMA tournament. Our club brought six fighters. There were about 30 competitors, perhaps 20 or so in our division. The divisions were knife, sword & buckler, and longsword. I managed to get bronze in both s&b and longsword, and overall tournament senior champion due to hits for and against, and for medalling in more than one event. I managed to get to the s&b finals undefeated. Our club swept senior longsword from gold right down to 4th place, and bronze and silver in the other two divisions. Every team member from my club ended up with a medal, many times coming from behind to score a victory when it really counted. I'm very proud of my guys.

    Not bad for an old man with a broken ankle!
     
  2. 47MartialMan

    47MartialMan Valued Member

    Congrats!
     
  3. aaradia

    aaradia Choy Li Fut and Yang Tai Chi Chuan Student Moderator Supporter

    Yes! Awesome! What did you take away from the tournament? Any things it pointed out that will affect your training? Like- I need to work on................? Even if one does well, I find tournaments always point out where one could improve.
     
  4. Langenschwert

    Langenschwert Molon Labe

    What I learned...

    Well, this was the first outing of our new "Fight Team" format. We had not really spent much time on tournament prep previously, but the membership decided that they wanted to do better at tournaments. We discovered that the training worked. One of our members is a former collegiate football player, and he brought a lot of new training regimens to help us with the sporting side of the art. There is no magic, just hard work. We worked our agility ladders, did cardio in full tournament gear and worked on high-percentage techniques. We filmed everything and analyzed our performances and tried to do better each session.

    For my own performance, I need to move more (not that I'm static). Doubtless when my ankle is at full strength that will improve so long as I keep working at it. My range perception is very good, due to months of having to fight with very little in the way of footwork. One inch makes a huge difference when you can't step back fast enough for it to matter!

    I also upped my mental game. I used to defeat myself in the ring, but not this time. Twice I was faced with the bronze medal match against difficult opponents who were at least my equal, but I refused to believe they might win. I said to myself "they will not take this from me, it is MINE." They are both students of mine, and among the best fighters in the club. I had to set aside my feelings and do my best to pick them apart. That was probably the biggest thing.

    There was a workshop the next day by Axel Petterson, arguably the best longsword fencer on the planet. I learned a lot there too. Eight hours of instruction by one of the best. I'm still processing it all. :)
     
  5. Langenschwert

    Langenschwert Molon Labe

    Here's some footage of the longsword finals:

    [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT-2UBuAc50&feature=youtu.be"]NordSchlag Longsword - YouTube[/ame]
     
  6. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    Congratulations! And thanks for sharing that.

    I know nothing about sword fighting, but watching that video was fascinating. At first it was just a blur of quick movement for me, but as I watched more I started to get a better appreciation of what was actually going on, and contrasting the styles of the two fighters was really interesting.
     
  7. Langenschwert

    Langenschwert Molon Labe

    Glad you enjoyed it. Individual tournaments will score things differently depending on what they want to see. This one used rules quite similar to those used at Longpoint 2013 (which I competed in). The scores go in tiers as such:

    • Contact: One point if two out of three judges agree a hit was made
    • Quality: If there was Contact, and if two out of three judges agree the hit had good form, one point is awarded.
    • Target: If there was Quality, one point for each judge that says the hit landed on either the head or torso.
    • Control: If Target points were awarded, one point from each judge that believes the opponent's weapon was actively controlled in the exact moment of the hit, by the scoring fighter to negate any possible afterblow.

    An afterblow is a "revenge strike" that you can use to reduce your opponent's hit to a single point if you manage to hit the opponent in the next tempo after he hits you. The idea is to hit and not be hit in return, just like a "real" fight with swords. Thus we train to protect ourselves after we land a hit in case we didn't incapacitate the opponent, and we likewise train to not give up after being hit. There are points for takedowns, disarms, and forcing the opponent out of the ring as well. The fights go to 7 points, meaning a single perfect shot can win the bout.
     

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