Introduction / Qualifications

Someone will inevitably find their way here who has no idea who I am.

So, hi, I'm Rift.  I'm a Belegrim that's been at it for 12 years now.  Started fighting back in fall 2003 out in Iowa as part of a now dead realm which was then called Chamonix which was part of the Grinnell College campus.

When I started, I was pretty fucking terrible.  Over the course of the 4 years I spent there though most of the really bad habits got beaten out of me, like blocking with my face or blocking polearms down (right into the nuts).

I've fought a little bit of everything.  While I tend to main florentine and sword and board, simply because I tend to be able to keep that gear alive the longest there isn't a weapon set I'm not at least proficient in.  There are even some weapon sets that aren't normally things that, having simply used them enough, I'm alright with, like dual javelin or spear and blue.

I've come a long way since when I first started and I've learned a lot in the interim.  I made a blog to unload my thoughts so that some of those 12 years of learning can be transmitted to you, dear reader, in the hopes that you don't have to make all the mistakes that I have made in getting to be the fighter I am now.

This is just my own 2 cents about whatever random bit of theory was floating through my head.  I am by no means perfect.  I'm still human, I still make plenty of mistakes but hopefully now they're better ones.  In the end it's up to you to sort out which way is up and use this information in whichever way is best for you.  As always read with a critical mind and take everything with a grain of salt.  What has worked for me over the years may not work for you after all.

That having been said, if you read something and think I'm attacking another fighter... take a moment to reconsider.  While I think that using myself and other high profile fighters as good examples for styles of fighting or ways of doing things is useful it's not with the intention of trying to insult or take someone down a notch if I happen to disagree with some way they do some thing.  

I'm sure that if I start poking this blog will generate heat, so if you find yourselves in the comments... at least try to be civil to me, and to each other, as part of a foam sword fighting sport we're all a certain kind of family.

....alright.  Enough rambling.  Onward.