Mistakes (theirs)

This is sort of going to dovetail off of the post on being a new person, the TLDR of which was, swing, even if you think you'll lose, because simply standing there will get you just as dead as attempting to hit someone.  There's more to it then that but I've already written on it here

To be human is to err

We're all human.  That means that we all make mistakes.  This is as true for a top tier fighter as it is for a person who is brand new.  As you learn to become more precise with your swings those mistakes become less apparent.  When your opponent's block is only a few inches away from their passive guard it's harder to tell that they made a mistake compared to when their block is a few feet outside of their starting guard.  But a mistake is a mistake and it means that in either case there's an opening you can capitalize on.

One in a million

As a fighter becomes better their movements gain more efficiency.  Having high efficiency of movements means that they're very fast, to the point where if you haven't trained your eyes the shots and blocks become invisible.  But even if you can't see the exchanges shots are still being thrown that can miss and blocks are still being thrown that can be missed.  Making those swings and blocks faster does nothing to change the basics of the game, it just means it's over sooner.  When top tier fighters fight each other they tend to throw a flurry of swings that have guard patterns built into them.  Newer fighters tend to throw one shot and then take a long time to recover back to neutral.  A top tier fighter who is moving and active is constantly generating openings that they can be hit by as they move.  The thing that stops them from dying immediately is simply their positioning.  If they move well they know exactly who can swing at them and then shift their guard to the strikes that are most likely to be thrown at them.  The simple truth is no matter how good you are you simply can't block every part of your body at the same time.  This is why a good fighter that gets legged and outnumbered is generally screwed.  Once they have to block from multiple angles they're going to die.  Since a fighter can't inherently block swings from every angle all at once this means that they are always vulnerable lots of possible swings that shift instant to instant as they move.  If you're a new person fighting a vet you can throw the same shot a dozen, a hundred, a thousand times and miss.  But you only need that vet to make a mistake one time in a million blocks to win.  One mistake on their part where they either blocked too quickly and returned to neutral, or blocked the wrong place, or simply were distracted and didn't block at all, and they're dead.  Sure, in an ideal situation you'd go for a swing you'd know would connect but chances are that shot doesn't exist.  You are just as capable of making a mistake throwing a swing as the person is in blocking one.  However, if you aggress and they make a mistake then they die.  If you defend and you make a mistake then you're dead instead.  It's always better to be on offense then is to be on defense because the first mistake wins.

Improving the odds

Swinging blindly and hoping to land the one in a millionth shot on a vet is by no means a winning strategy (though it sure beats blocking until THEY make a mistake).  But there are things you can do to improve your odds.  The first thing being, work angles.  My favorite thing to do on the field when I have people to work with is to closeline an opponent at 45 degree angles.  By breaking their center line from two angles, they are either force to defend at extreme angles, or turn to face someone to unbreak their line.  The problem being of course that once they turn to face on individual they give their back to the other one.  The correct solution is of course to backpedal and not get closelined... but as anyone will tell you, it's much easier to run forward then backward.  For fighting an opponent who still has mobility a 45 degree angle attack is going to be best (just imagine an equilateral triangle) if an opponent is legged you can make their life more difficult and switch to being directly in front and behind that opponent.  Now, they have to fight forward and backwards simultaneously which makes blocking nearly impossible.  If you outnumber your opponent by more then 2 people they you just add folks to more sides.  Think of your opponent as the center of a compass.  With 2 attackers you cover north and south.  With a third a person steps in at east.  With a fourth a person steps in at west.  Too often I see a line of 3 people simply all walk forward in a line, hoping that numbers will overwhelm their opponent.  It's not that this CAN'T work... but you're not really getting anything from those numbers.  Additionally, there's problems with pacing where, if one person is faster then the rest they get there first and then are fighting in a 1v1 which probably ends badly if you need to outnumber an individual to kill them.

The swing that isn't

Another way you can improve your odds is that you can throw feints.  Feints are shots that aren't actually thrown.  If I pump my weapon like I'm going for a high cross and you move your board that way, I can then throw a wrap for the shield side.  A shot that I've seen up north used by Zale a lot that at least used to eat Morder's lunch was a stab feint, where he'd do half the stab motion to provoke a response, and then after they'd flinched actually follow through.  The beauty of a feint is that even if your opponent doesn't fall for your feint (AKA "bite on it") then you haven't lost anything because you haven't actually thrown a shot.  This means that you can invite them to make an error basically for free and you only have to follow through if they bite on it.

The swing that was many

One of the pieces of tech that's stuck in my head recently is something that I've been calling the 3 split.  I don't think I can do it justice on a blog, so if you're really curious about learning this, come find me, that having been said, let's see what I can do.  The gist of the 3 split is that for any 1 swing that you make you can then turn it into 3 additional swings.  If you throw a shot straight, IE a slash of some kind then that sets your initial swing.  As an example, let's use the ever infamous high cross as swing 1.  Swing 2 happens when you flick your wrist up.  This turns the high cross into shield side shoulder pick.  Swing 3 happens when you flick your wrist down.  This turns the high cross into a sword side slot/stomach shot.  Swing 4 is actually a stab.  Instead of finishing your swing 1 you pull the shot short so that it misses and then you rotate your hips into a stab.  This means that everytime I throw a high cross I'm actually seeking 3 targets.  I only need my opponent to leave one of those 3 shots open to get the hit to land.  If they don't cover all 4 gaps or they mistake my swing by overblocking one of those target zones then they'll leave another one open.  For instance, if they're used to the high cross (swing 1) and up flick (swing 2) so they overblock to the outside with their weapon and overblock their shoulder with their shield then they leave themselves exposed to a down flick (swing 3).  If they overblock for a swing 1 and swing 3 combo then that tends to leave the swing 2 pick open.

Another good example of this kind of trickery is the stab reverse.  You simply throw a stab and if the person goes to parry the block with their weapon you rotate your weapon over theirs in a sweep and take arm.  If they don't block the stab at all... well, then you just stab them.  Either way it tends to be a win win.

Brought to you by Admiral Ackbar

Also known as "IT'S A TRAP".  If you're fighting a top tier fighter and you see a very obvious opening... it's probably too good to be true.  As human beings it's hard for us to not bite on what appears to be an easy swing.  I cannot count the number of top tier fighters I've convinced to swing at my shoulder when I drop my shield in an obvious way.  About 90% of the time it gets me the arm and about 10% of the time they're faster then I am and they get the shoulder.  Given those odds I'm pretty happy to use my shoulder as bait.  While it's not my first choice for a feint when it works it's extremely effective.  Peter the Quick once said something in one of his videos that stuck with me.  I'm paraphrasing but the gist of it was that when you leave obvious openings by throwing obvious swings you tend to get a pretty consistent counterblow.  The majority of fighters will swing at the opening that is most apparent, (especially if you appear to be off balance or it looks like your fighting is sloppy... tactics I clearly never use ;) ), and this means that if you present them with obvious targets you can often lead their swings to be thrown where you want them to be thrown.  By way of caveats let me say that for all the benefits of feinting with your body when you make a mistake this absolutely gets you killed, so start with the other stuff first.  That having been said, if you appear to be a new fighter baiting with your body by leaving apparent openings works great because most fighters will believe that they can land that swing.  If you're ready for the swing that you've invited this often means you can get a low risk counter shot while exposing yourself to minimal risk.  The risks two main risks are that either they're faster then you or they swing somewhere other then the opening you've given them.

And against my better my better judgement let's talk about some practical applications of this... if you find yourself fighting me the main counterblows I tend to get are a counterblow when someone swings at my front leg, an arm snipe when someone misses a stab, and a left handed block to my right side when I throw a cross with my right arm into a counterblow.  The leg that's out front appears to be an easy target 'cause it's close.  The stab looks open when I fight florentine because I tend to have my arms to the side rather then right over my chest.  When I throw a cross I tend to hyper extend, sometimes throwing my weight with the swing to get an extreme angle, this creates a VERY obvious opening and gives the impression that I'm off balance.  The reason the leg sweep doesn't work is because most of my weight isn't on that foot so I can move it very quickly if a shot comes down, and I've trained my reflexes to counterblow for the shoulder immediately when I have to move the foot to dodge a leg sweep.  The reason the stab doesn't usually work is because my body is angled so you actually have to get a pretty precise stab to have it land, and my weapons are offset so I can try to parry with my front and then my back hand if I happen to screw up the block with one side.  The reason why the side swing tends not to work is because 1) I'm not actually that off balance.  I've got slow motion video to prove it :-P 2) I've learned how to throw a cross block throw which is where people tend to throw and 3) because my body is torqued to such an extreme degree if you move your sword to swing you've almost always guaranteed me a torso shot.

So remember.  Everyone is human.  No one is invincible.  In the end the game comes down to 2 key components.  1) Can you throw a swing you can hit the other guy with? and 2) Can you block the shot the other guy throws so you don't get taken out yourself?  The first person to make a mistake doing either of those things potentially loses, so if you can learn how to play smart you can often outwit your enemy even when the odds are against you, be that skill or numbers.