The Value of Oddity

(apologies if this is more garbled then usual.  totally running on 4 hours of sleep)

In light of my last post being about mind games, let's talk about the reverse of that.  The value of oddity.  Playing chess well is the idea that you track the movements of your opponent because you know the standard set of shots thrown from that particular position.  If a florentine fighter drops their left hand to threaten a stab then it's pretty likely that if you so much as leave an inch for that opening they're going to stab the shit out of you.  However, this also telegraphs that particular maneuver.  When playing chess telegraphing a maneuver isn't particularly bad, it just means you get them to watch that hand.  As a florentine fighter if I can get you to watch that left hand and convince you that there's a real threat there, it's quite likely that as a sword and board fighter your guard will drift away from the shield side shoulder I'm also hunting.  But now suppose I walk up to you and I don't ever get into stance.  Instead of moving up and squaring off I simply let my hand hang down at my sides.  ...Now what?

You can only play chess with the pieces that are on the board

If a person doesn't have any distinguishable stance or style that you can immediately identify it's like going into a chess match where you can't see the opponent's side of the board.  You can be sure that they have a strategy and are attempting to kill you but how they may approach that remains a mystery.  Asher in particular often employs the - not taking an actual stance - stance.  It's also possible to engage with a bizarre stance that works simply because your opponent doesn't know how to react to it.  In some cases you can even leave what seems like a clear opening in order to bait out your opponent.  One of my shield styles involves leaving a pretty obvious shield side shoulder opening because my shield is hanging lazily down by my waist.  The thing is though that because I know that opening is there and most people swing for it, I am very prepared to block that swing while simultaneously getting their sword arm for that strike.

Its not good because it's odd it's odd because it's good

Having a weird stance isn't something that grants you any kind of inherent bonus.  In most cases a standard defensive stance is going to suit you best because it covers all of the obvious angles of attack.  Typically these stances also put your weapon in a sensible place to make sure that you have some semblance of a decent offense as well by reducing the distance between a target area and your weapon.  What having a weird stance does for you is make you hard to read.  Whenever you can do this you make it much more difficult for an opponent to react appropriately to the actions that you take from that stance.  If a person has seen your weird stance enough then it stops being weird/new/novel and suddenly it won't work as well because eventually a person learns what shots you throw from that setup.  Eventually, when I go into the exposed shield side shoulder stance, people stop swinging at the shoulder and go for other target areas instead which is the right call.  (Although some vets, out of misplaced pride, try to pick the shoulder anyways, knowing full well it's bait.  If you poke at a person's ego it's amazing what mistakes you can get them to make).

The point being that a weird stance isn't good but because it's weird it will often work a disproportionate number of times.  I can no longer tell how many people I've killed with that exposed shield side shoulder stance, and by all rights it shouldn't work on anyone more then once but it does.  In part I think it's because we're creatures of habit.  If you get a person to respond to an opening whenever they see it they will react the same way by default every time it appears, regardless of whether or not it's clearly bait.  I think that the reverse is also true.  If you're a vet that's used to fighting a certain set of fighting styles over and over again you eventually memorize all the shots that they throw until you no longer have to think about it.  When a person comes up to you then and takes a stance you've never seen before suddenly you have to start thinking about the fight in front of you again.  While you sit there and stare at the other person, wondering exactly what they're doing, you are vulnerable because you're distracted.  While you think about what they're trying to do they are free to strike.

There's such a thing as an element of unpredictability in a normal fighting style

While there's something to be said for having a bizarre fighting style the real takeaway is actually that if you can play chess in a way that your opponent can't read you, you set yourself up for success.  One example of this is the 3 split, where a high cross is also a shield side shoulder flat wrap, a a gut side flat wrap, and a stab in disguise all at once.  Even though a person knows you're going to swing, they can't necessarily read where the shot is going to land so if they're smart they'll keep all 3 areas covered.  Fortunately with a shield those are pretty easy to cover, but the idea isn't so much that you always throw high crosses with some variation, so much as you understand that each swing you throw can be redirected mid flight.  There are lots of examples of shots that are deceptive that rely on your opponent having an expectation of what you'll do, which you confirm at first, only to wind up doing something totally different.  In the last example it's doing what appears to be very clearly a high cross, only to turn it into a different hit location.  Another example is a hip scoop, where you very clearly attempt to swing at their arm, only to pass the weapon underneath their guard and into their torso a moment later.  These shots work because you've broken the expectation that they had set for where they needed to block.  It helps if during the fight you do also actually throw a high cross or two to train them that it's coming, or throw a shot on the outside of the arm between the wrist and the elbow so that they learn to block there.  Once you've gotten them responding to these shots, then you can throw the other shots.  If you've done a good job they're too worried about being hit by the first set of shots to respond to the second shot.

It doesn't matter how good you are

These shots are not about being the best player in the game.  They aren't about being the strongest.  They aren't about being the fastest.  It has nothing to do with how fast you can run or how much reach you have.  This is about having a better mind then your opponent rather then any physical traits you posses.  So long as you can outwit them and throw shots at a reasonable pace you can win while making them do all the work.  One of my favorite maneuvers is planting my weapon for a stab because I expect that they will move into it.  On it's own the placement of the stab won't have enough power, and often because of how the angles are set up in the moment it can't even hit.  But, because I've read my opponent, as they move they move the stab into an angle where it can clear their guard and, because they're moving, they add the force needed to make it sufficient force.  This doesn't even require me to swing.  It's just a matter of reading my opponent and knowing when and were they'll move.  The rest is making sure that my weapon is there to greet them.  This is all psychology and because we're all human, we all fall for it.  I play these mind games all day long and that doesn't make me immune to them in the least.  In the end, it's why I tend to tilt towards offense over defense.  If I can make them have to play my games, instead of having to respond to their games, it's more likely I'll survive.  All things being equal myself and my opponent are both flawed human being who can be played, and sooner or later that's going to happen.  The only defense is to not leave openings in the first place and then to hit them when they have an opening.  Just make sure it's ACTUALLY an opening and not just a feint.

After all.  You wouldn't want to be played.

Mind Games

The easiest way to talk about mind games is to compare them to chess. You have a set of pieces that are in place that have particular rules for how they can move. You can’t move all of them at the same time and executing an efficient strategy is about being able to set up your moves. That means being able to know in advance what you’re trying to accomplish. As you go about setting up your offense you also have to read your opponent and figure out what moves they are trying to set up. You have to respond defensively to their actions but you have to do so also without giving up on your offense. If all you do is play defense and you’re a turn behind your opponent they will eventually win simply because they are forcing you to react to them. Eventually they can control how you move by setting up credible threats. Once they’ve done this it is only a matter of time until you lose because they are able to complete their setup and checkmate the king.

Checkmate

Fighting, when taken to a high level has almost all of the same components. The “pieces” that you have to work with are your body, your limbs and your gear. There are rules that apply to your limbs that limit how far they can reach and at what angle they can swing that are built in by your physiology. How much air you have (how long you can fight), how fast you can move and your height are all set variables that you are unlikely to be able to change once a fight starts. Your weapons also have certain limitations about what they can and can’t do based on things like whether or not you can stab with them, how heavy they are and how much reach they grant you. More reach (usually) means a heavier weapon, and therefore a slower swing and return. Less reach means a faster strike but forces you to have to close before you can use it. A shorter reach also means that you can effectively fight much closer together then if you have a weapon with a lot of reach. This basic dynamic is most of what learning to fight reds effectively is about.

When you set up to fight someone you need to be able to know where all of your pieces are so that you can be realistic about what you can and can’t do effectively in the fight. You also need to be able to observe your opponent so that you can observe all of their pieces to know what they can and can’t do in the fight. After that it unravels in much the same way that chess does. You each move your body around, repositioning a weapon to more clearly prefer some shots over others, and watching them change their guard in order to adapt to the possible shots that you can take. As you do this you respond to their weapons as they position for swings. Periodically someone will swing and depending on how well a person has played chess beforehand, they’ll either swing at an opening or swing into a block. But chess doesn’t stop there. The thing that makes chess interesting is being able to think several moves ahead of your opponent. If I throw a shot at you as a florentine fighter that goes directly into a block of yours, much of the time that’s deliberate. In some cases I’m trying to tell you that you should swing at the arm I just exposed because I’m trying to get your arm out from behind your shield. In other cases I’m throwing a shot or a feint I want you to block with your shield because if you do so it creates an opening for me elsewhere.

Grandmaster

Being a good chess player (which is what I will no refer to when talking about outwitting your opponent) is always a good skill to have developed as a foam sword fighter regardless of what weapon set you’re using. But when it comes to florentine it is CRUCIAL. You absolutely cannot fight florentine without being able to bypass your opponents guard and you can’t bypass their guard if they remain in a perfect static defense a set distance away from you. You need to be able to out-footwork them to get close enough to wrap around a board or close with a red. You need to be able to outwit their sword arm so you don’t get killed by it, and you need to take aggressive offensive actions without them killing you. All non sword and board or florentine fighters have reach on their opponent which gives them a degree of safety that’s not afforded to those two classes of fighters. Sure, if a polearm isn’t careful they’ll get rushed, but one swing is very rarely going to result in them dying before that swing even finishes. A S&B fighter can also throw swings with their weapon while behind their shield, which means that they can throw swings that don’t immediately leave any openings, though in much the same way as a red fighter you can still punish them for getting out of place. A florentine fighter as absolutely NOTHING that stops someone from killing them every time they swing. Not dying is the result of your active effort to make sure that when someone throws a shot for either the arm you just threw with, or for the side of your body that you were guarding, you have to be ready to block. If you aren’t ready to block, you either die or become half dead. If you are ready to block, but guess the wrong quadrant of your body then you also die. If you guessed correctly for left vs right side, but didn’t correctly guess if the incoming shot was a shoulder pick instead of a hip wrap, you die. In short if you the person responding to the other fighters aggression, chances are good, you will be the dead one.

There's no Kill Like Overkill

What having 2 weapons does for you is it makes it much easier to make sure that you AREN’T the one who is forced to respond to your opponent, but are instead are the one setting the tempo. If you can throw the first shot, and keep throwing shots in order to make them continue to respond to your aggression, they will eventually make a mistake that you can exploit. If you’re fighting a sword and board fighter and they swing at you and miss you can often get their arm for it. If they got for a stab and miss then you are often able to guide their weapon past you, opening them up for a shoulder pick. The trick then is about being aggressive and oppressive in your application of force without also becoming reckless. This the difference between a noob just swinging wildly and a florentine fighter who engages with purpose. You should not expect every swing you throw to hit, but you should know why you threw that shot and expect to get something from it. That something doesn’t have to be a limb or a kill. That something can be the subtle manipulation of your opponent by convincing them to move a certain way which sets you up for the next shot, or that can just be a bit of information if you’ve thrown a shot safely and want to see how they react to that particular bit of aggression. Every person you fight will fight in subtly different ways, the trick is figuring out how to beat them at chess before they figure out how to beat you at chess. This is the main reason why older fighters are still so frighteningly effective. They aren’t faster than the average person on the field nor are they inherently better. Their main advantage is that because they’ve been playing chess for so many years, they are REALLY really good at it. This means that as soon as their opponent throws the first shot they instantly know where to swing in response. It means that they also rarely misread their opponent and get caught out.  As a now not-new fighter, let me also add this.  There is no hubris quite like assuming that you've hit someone, or assuming that they are dead.  Always, ALWAYS, keep swinging until you are absolutely certain that they are deceased, or until you hear them call dead.  There's nothing quite like turning your back on what you had assumed is a corpse only to then be killed by them.

Think About It

So. For the rest of your read of this blog's entries on florentine fighting think about chess. Think about swinging deliberately, about how to hit them with them hitting you, about what you have to do to bypass any particular individual’s gear. If you’re having a tough time with a fighter right now, picture them in your head. Learn how they move. Figure out all their chess pieces and think through how you would beat them. What openings to they leave in their guard? When they swing, do they overextend themselves or do they tend to go for short safe chops? If they go for shots that extend their arms past their garb, go for their arms. If they tend to go for short, safe chops, get up in their face and be the one going for wrap shots. If you are shorter than your opponent, check to see if you can get shots in around their hips or waist, especially the ass wrap. If you are much taller than your opponent look for shoulder shots and high wrap shots. Figure out how that person kills you, think about what it would take for the shots they throw not to hit you. Figure out what shots you throw on them right now that aren’t working think about what openings they have and what shots you’d need to know in order to be able to get to those openings.

Think. Florentine is not swinging mindlessly, it’s swinging deliberately, and until you get that part right no trick I can teach you will help.

Your Garb Rules Are Bad And You Should Feel Bad

I'm about to talk shit about garb.  I have a long history of doing so.  But before I get into that and before anyone starts raging at me let me start with this.  These are MY opinions about garb as I have interacted with it in this and other sports.  I am by no means trying to turn my thoughts on it into rules, and I think that if you take the time to read WHY I think the things that I do you may have a different appreciation for garb then you do presently.  I've found that most garb arguments devolve to a few key arguments, all of which are either incorrect or contradictory.  So I'm here to be the bad guy.  I'm here to address BS.  It is only my opinion, and you are welcome to discard it.

What is Garb?

Garb is theoretically the uniform that we play with.  It's the set of rules around what you can and cannot wear on any given field.  The problem starts with that though, as in many places what passes at one event may fail at another.  Some places have a sense of humor about garb, other places are more strict.  I still remember, as one of the more extreme examples getting told that shoes are not safety equipment (and thereby immune to garb rules).  Garb rules by their nature are designed to establish some amount of uniformity across the field so that when pictures or other media is taken we look like one coherent whole, and the spell of a bunch of brave warriors into broken by that one guy in jeans.  The truth is, we are nerds swinging foam weapons.  There's a lot to be said for looking and feeling cool but if we try too hard to distance ourselves from that we'll lose our sense of humor and become the very thing we're trying to avoid.  The other problem is that in most places what qualifies as garb is "pre-gunpowder history + fantasy" which means that it's unlikely that you'll wind up with a homogeneous look in the first place.  Some places focus more on the history aspect and wind up with something resembling homogeneity while other places get the same thing out of playing up the fantasy aspect often by becoming a collective of monsters, (trolls, goblins, bugbears, knolls, orcs, etc).  The problem is that when you put them together you have a person in traditional samurai armor fighting a greenskin in rags.  That can still look fantastic, but again it breaks the spell of having an semblance of a homogeneous field.

The True Spirit of Garb

From what I can tell the idea behind garb is simply "to look cool".  For a number of years I simply didn't get it.  I wore minimum passing garb because it was easy to do so.  My first pair of "garb" was a pair of overlarge sweat pants I had cut the elastic off of in favor of a rope, and a t-shirt that I'd cut up, both of which came from the nearest salvation army.  I think the whole thing wound up costing me less then $20.  The thing is that, at that time, it seemed just fine to me since it passed according to the rules.  The problem being that I didn't "look cool" I looked like a total scrub.  Years later I eventually got better looking garb in the form of a tunic (~$20) and wrap pants (~$30).  They were in matte black so that they would pass anywhere.  While they looked much better they weren't "me".  I had zero investment in them and wearing that as garb so I only wore them when I was required to by rules because I was at an event or some other such thing.  Years passed again and now I have the garb that most people know me for, a psychedelic blue/white/black mixture made out of clearly modern print.  Arguments can be made in either direction about the technical legality of my garb depending on which field you're in, but as it turns out, it passes most places.  I built it largely as a joke to see if I could get away with it, but the truth of the matter is that it's more true to myself, to the character that I wanted to develop, to the character I want to become when I was on the fighting field and that's the thing that has me actually invested in my garb now.  A sense of identity, of who I am, of how that kit will be put together from all the little bits and pieces that will go into it.  For the first time in 12 years of fighting, I could give a damn about what I'm wearing to the point where I'd invest time and energy in making it look good. ...it's just that for me, that's a creature of the void, whose fabric is all messed up and distorted from cosmic forces.  What I've learned from living this way is that in MOST instances what's important isn't the garb you're wearing but a consistent kit that is in line with your character's identity.  If it looks good and is cohesive, most people don't care that your garb is bright colors, or that you've got the Sith or Batman logo all throughout your garb.

Back when I still didn't care much what I was wearing I can remember a conversation I had with Black, Ana, Cheesheart and Brian.  I had long stated that I didn't think that garb was a necessary component of the game but Black and Cheeseheart were adamant that I wasn't just apathetic about garb, I was actively anti-garb (a position more in line with Brian's arguments).  It was then that the following unraveled.  Cheeseheart had just spent $500 on armor for that years chaos wars to be in line with the theme of game of thrones (the clever ones of you can figure out when that was now).  I had also just spent $500 on garb, but I had done so in order to outfit the (now defunct) unit I ran called the blades.  So the issue wasn't that he'd spent any more money on garb then I had, he'd just used it on himself instead of on other people.  So him giving me grief for being anti-garb was baseless.  What it turns out he wanted was for me to be a garb nazi so that I'd follow suite when he and black gave people grief about their garb, so that I could throw my reputation into the ring when that conversation came up.  It didn't happen then and it won't happen now.  I firmly believe that garb should be an optional part of the game.  It is my opinion that the way to spread garb is to make it easy to acquire, relatively cheap and have it be good looking.  Back in college this seemed to work out okay, with the good fighters kicking ass and taking names wearing awesome looking garb.  Having everyone shouting about it now just makes me want to get away from the whole thing again.  ...but more on that later.

Here Be Restrictions

The rules, as they are presently written (for bel mostly, but it's similar in dag), prohibit:

• 1.3.1. T-shirts that are brightly colored, white, with visible logos, with visible collars, and or visible pockets.
• 1.3.2. Camouflage or military issued cargo pants.
• 1.3.3. Modern jeans of any color.
• 1.3.4. Modern hats.
• 1.3.5. Any fabrics with modern prints.
• 1.3.6. Any realistic weapons.

(you can read more on this here if you so desire).

Most of the time this doesn't come up.  It targets largely mundane clothing like t-shirt and jeans ( my go to for fashion) but does so in it's best attempt to legalese the thing without having to be overly specific.  Apparently we can't write rules which say "no modern clothing" because I guess that's too vague?  Nor apparently do we outlaw t-shirts for our game, only ones that are "brightly colored, white" or have "visible logos, collars or pockets".  Technically that means that if you had a t-shirt that was passing and you added a pocket, it is now failing.  In spite of this if you have a tunic with a pocket in it, that's just fine.

The point being that even within this relatively spartan description of the rules by way of prohibited items there are plenty of inconsistencies and ways to cause problems / poke holes in them.  But it's not all bad.  Prohibiting modern caps so that you don't have baseball caps as part of garb seems sensible as does the prohibition on realistic weapons as those could cause issues with local law enforcement.  

Tired Arguments for Garb

As you might imagine, as an outspoken troll of the rules, I have been in my fair share of arguments over garb.  My premise has usually been composed of 3 tenants - 1) If we want people to wear garb then we should do so with culture and not the rules, 2) throwing people off the field because of what they are wearing seems foolish and likely to diminish the growth of our sport and 3) having such a thing as min garb either a) means everyone is wearing shitty garb or b) will be built out of rules that require good garb and therefore restrict who can play.  The arguments I usually hear in favor of garb are 1) it looks cool, 2) I like garb, 3) it's easy to get, 4) it makes the field as a whole look better, 5) (sometimes) it gets people more into the sport.  Let's take a look at each of those in turn.

1) It looks cool + 3) It's easy to get.

The problem here is that you can't have it both ways.  The garb that I started out with that only cost me in the vicinity of $20 dollars was extremely easy to get, however it also looked terrible.  The nicer looking garb cost me closer to $50, required me to pay someone else to make it since I didn't have the skills to make it myself, and was time consuming to acquire since they had to wait for me to pay them, get my measurements, stitch the fabric together and then deliver it back to me.  While it's true that having cheap shitty garb is easy to do, that kind of garb doesn't look good at all.  So either you have really shitty awful looking garb or good garb.  But what you don't have is a set of garb that's personally fitted to you, in your style, for very little money and very little effort.  That having been said if anyone figures out how to make a set of wrap pants + a tunic to my measurements that won't instantly fall apart for less then $20, PLEASE get in touch, because I would be all about that.

2) I like garb and 5) it gets more people into the sport.

While it's certainly true that there are some social groups built around varying degrees of making costuming (see cosplay) you have to first decide what the sport is about.  In my eyes it means that the fighting aspect comes first - that's why in Bel we grade for 1) safety, 2) playability and 3) realism - and the costuming is a side thing that can enhance the game.  If garb were NOT a rule and a requirement I have no problem with these arguments, as I certainly agree that for SOME people the costuming aspect of belegarth/dagorhir/amptgard attracts a specific segment of the population to the game, both as people who wear the costume and people who smith the costume.  However, what's important to realize is that not every cares about the costuming aspect of garb.  Some people don't care about it AT ALL and simply want to fight.  Trying to convince those people to build/wear an elaborate costume to participate is never going to happen... which then becomes a question of rules.  You either let them onto the field in their trashy sweat pants and a cut up t-shirt because it meets the requirements for minimum garb, or you throw those people away because they don't fit with your aesthetic.  Personally, I'm all about being an advocate for and growing the sport so when people make suggestions about rules that will drive newcomers away I'm always vexed.  

4) It makes the field look better

The field as a whole may look better if people have taken the time to actually put kits together but because of the reasons listed in the last 2 paragraphs I hope it's clear that not everyone is going to put that amount of effort in.  In a world in which everyone on the field has awesome looking garb, we have amazing photo shoots.  In the real world it's sort of 50/50.  Some of the fighters are people who are really involved in costuming and have taken to making really awesome looking garb / kits ... and some people are the scrubs showing up in sweatpants and a t-shirt.  The problem being that because minimum garb exists you're going to get people on the field who don't look fantastic in their garb.  The question is really just about degree of the disruption to the experience of viewing the field from is that guy wearing a pair of sweat pants, or are they wearing a pair of jeans.  Neither of those things looks good, historical, or like high fantasy.  Yes, it's jarring in a photo to see that guy who wears mundane clothes, but isn't it also jarring to watch a person painted blue sparring with a samurai in full armor?

In Favor of Awesomeness Not Legality

What I want to promote is the opposite of the culture that we seem to have now.  Instead of tearing into people for either not wearing garb or having shitty garb, let's go towards the positive and take the time to acknowledge and build up the people who do have awesome garb.  If garb weren't such a cause for contention, strife and aggravation I kind of get the feeling that more people would be in garb.  I get the feeling that if we ever removed it as a rule we'd also get more fighters, some of whom would be casual but others of whom would eventually become more invested in the sport.  It's been my experience that if you get a group of 20-40 people to show up and check it out, maybe 6 of those people will come out a second time, 4 of them will come out a third time and just one of those 20 will actually stick around long enough to become a regular who is invested in the sport.  If we could get just a few more people out of that initial batch to stick around for more then one practice just think of what that could do for numbers.  So that's what I'm asking for, that's what I petition and fight for and am stubborn about.  I want to see a pro-garb culture instead of an anti-not-garb culture.  Can we get rid of garb trolls and replace them with garb advocates?  Wouldn't you have more fun if you weren't worried about people giving you shit about your weapons, your clothes, your safety gear?  I certainly know I would.  

Anyways.  Just my 10 cents.

Two Hands as One

I cannot possibly overstate the point that florentine is about fighting with two weapons. It seems like that should go without saying… but too many people fight using their off hand simply like a shield and never strike with it. This is not the same thing as fighting florentine, this is fighting single blue with an off hand to block with. Other people with simply flail with both swords, opting to just go full offense instead. This is also not fighting florentine. Fighting florentine means using both weapons, but doing so in harmony. It means doing everything you’d do when fighting sword and board or fighting single blue, but doing so twice. This means you can block and strike, it means you can throw a feint and a kill shot, it means you can throw things at extreme angles to pull a guard one way will then landing a shot in the other direction.

You Need Never Be Exposed

The first thing to say is that you should always be able to block. If you swing with one hand then you need to block with the other. So if you throw with your left hand then your right hand moves left in order to be able to block for that arm as you swing. Most of the time this is safe to do because your body isn’t in danger due to being out of range relative to the threat range generated by your arms. It’s important not to cross your body completely however as your right hand is the next closest target to their threat range. The goal with that block is to cut off the angle of a possible counter strike by closing out the left lane with your right hand. As with all blocks it’s best to avoid overblocking or cross too far. It’s also important to note that once your left hand returns to guard you want to move your right hand back to its neutral guard position on your right side. I have in the past seen people who simply start crossed with their guard and stay crossed. That’s a bad idea because it means that instead of having both lanes closed off you’re only protected along the left side. Similarly if you throw a shot with your right hand (like a wrap) then you shift your left hand guard to center so you can cover a counterstrike to that hand. This is mostly true against a person who can easily strike that side. If I’m fighting a sword and board fighter I may opt to leave my left hand where it started, prepared to strike at my opponent if they so much as flinch because of my first throw.

You don’t have to cover yourself only by blocking off shots or by getting a guard into place. You can also bait with an opening so long as you are aware that it’s there. There is nothing wrong with throwing a block in response to a shot that’s thrown rather than pre-emptively closing off the angle that would allow for such a shot. I’ve found that if people can’t see the block you throw they’re more likely to bite on the same block repeatedly. In some ways it’s more dangerous to block reflexively, in other ways it’s actually safer. By blocking reflexively you’re less likely to fall for feints, you’re less likely to over block and you’re going to be harder to read when it comes to another person trying to play you. On the other hand if guess wrong then you’re toast. If you block pre-emptively by cutting off the angles a person can swing into you’ve got a higher rate of success at getting the block… assuming they throw it into the area that you’ve cut off. By moving your other hands passive guard you expose that arm to being hit. But it also means that you’re telegraphing what you anticipate your opponent to do, which in turns means you’re easier to play because you’ve become predictable.

There is also such a thing as throwing a shot that’s just safe in the first place. If you’ve done enough block strike or you just have a good understanding of lanes you should be able to throw swings that don’t leave you super open. By throwing safe strikes with one hand you can negate the need to cover that hand with your other hand. If you do this effectively it means that you can throw a strike with each hand instead of just throwing a strike with one hand and then having to block with the other hand. This is generally done by 1) throwing a shot that isn’t overextended and 2) tweaking your wrist to cut off the angle that you left open when you bypassed one of your opponent’s lanes.

Don't Get Stabbed

Part of the defensive game is also not falling prey to stabs as a florentine fighter. Since you don’t have an entire plank of foam/wood between you and your opponent's weapons learning how to make your body small so that it’s less of a target, and learning how to block stabs correctly is hugely important. A good standard defense involves keeping one arm in front of your body to hand match their primary point of offense, this becomes your primary point of defense. The next piece is to keep your torso tilted so that the area that’s closest to their point of offense is matched with your primary defensive line. This then lets you keep the rest of your torso pulled back and away from their primary offensive line. When a person goes to stab for your torso the front hand should give you plenty of time to deflect the stab off its target, either to the outside of your defensive line or past your body if they’ve managed to break your defensive line. If the front hand fails to get the block then you’ve got the second hand to be able to also catch the block. In most cases you’ll only have enough time to cut off the gap between your left and right defensive lanes. Many times this will wind up becoming a punch block put you could also still theoretically guide the stab past your body. Whenever possible getting your opponent to miss by sliding a stab past your body is preferable. The further out you can draw an opponent's weapon out the more time you’ll have to hit them and the longer it will take them to return to guard. In many cases having a person fail to stab you is one of the best setups you can get.

Opening Them Up

Assuming that your defensive game is on point you also need to have some kind of offensive game. In most cases your opponent will not have any immediate openings in their defense (or at the very least you should not rely on them being there). That means that in order to hit them you’ll have to find a way to circumvent the guard that they presently have up. Depending on the gear that they’re using there’s a number of different openings that are often present or at least target zones that are easier to hit. When fighting against a larger, heavier board like a door shield that you’d see on a line your go to shots will be trying to beat their arm or getting wrap shots around their board. Typically you’ll be looking for either a side wrap or a high wrap. These kinds of boards are usually not vulnerable to stabs as they’re typically held in front of the person. Instead, use the closing 45 degree angle step 2 in order to engage their shield side which will give you a good wrap. Alternately if they’re aggressive, simply wait for them to move their shield off their body and use a side wrap to bypass their guard. This is also effective if that person tries to run you over. In order to beat their hand (assuming a right handed fighter vs a right handed fighter where you are in neutral stance) use your left hand to break the line of their sword arm either by moving your hand out or by taking a stutter step (short half step) to get your body out of line. If they throw for your arm in response, block with your left hand and then counterblow immediately with your right. If they don’t respond then throw a shot with your left hand. Assuming they go to counterblow without blocking then block with your right hand as your left hand follows through. Assuming that they first pull their guard out to block then throw with your right hand for that target zone while immediately bringing your left hand back into a guard. I’ll get more into chess matches of that type later.

If a person is using a round shield your best target zones are going to be wrap shots coming in at 45 degree angles rather then at vertical angles. So instead of swinging 1 to 5 you’d instead swing 2 to 8. (Take a look at the nearest clock to set those angles in your head). Wraps thrown at these angles are more likely to bypass their guard. Round shields are additionally vulnerable to left handed stabs (low and high) as well as a right handed hip-wrap. In most cases deliberately trying to beat their main hand is going to end poorly because they’re 1) less likely to actually have it leave guard and 2) trying to get a shot that’s not there is more likely to get you killed instead. These are often strap shields but aren’t required to be… the shots still work regardless. Hunt the shoulders and hips.

Punch shields tend to be more vulnerable to manipulation in ways that a giant board or a strap shield are not. The easiest way to bypass this defense is to use your weapons for offensive shield manipulation. Simple stab at a section of the shield that would be marked by a compass (N, S, E, W). A properly placed stab at any of these locations will open the target up to a follow up shot. An stab to the East side of the shield will pop it open, leaving the torso region exposed, this stab is done with the right hand. A stab to the West side will close the shield on your opponent making it harder for them to swing since the board is in their way. This also move is away from covering their side making a follow up half wrap possible. A stab to the South section of a shield will tip it forward, allowing a person to follow up with a shoulder wrap on that side. This can be completed with either hand though keep whatever hand is more useful for throwing that followup wrap shot should be saved for the wrap. A stab to the north side of the board (which is more dangerous, make sure not to just ramp off their shield and stab them in the face) can be used to open up the bottom of their shield, letting you get a hip wrap. The shot is safer to throw with your right hand, and then followed with a left handed hip scoop under their guard. You can throw the reverse, but unless your positioning is on point that’s an excellent way to get yourself railed in the side. Fighters who use punch shield also tend to move them around a lot, so look for those moments to exploit a weakness when they move. Fighters who use punch shields are also, often, more willing to put their arms out to strike, so look for opportunities to hit their arm when they are throwing or returning from a shot.

When fighting a polearm the main difficulty is simply getting close enough to hit them. Once you’re in range just make sure you keep the striking part of their weapon away from you as you throw for torso shots. In generally I’ve found that you’re better off striking at opposite sides / heights in rapid succession in order to prevent them from blocking as you close. So throw right side high then left side hip. Avoid throwing right side high then left side high as it’s easy for a polearm to simply shift their weapon back and forth with that defense.

When fighting another florentine fighter look for the common errors to see if you can exploit them. If they lean over when they fight, go for a shot to the back. If they over aggress and don’t bother to watch their footwork, wait for them to commit then outmaneuver them and get in a counterblow. If they swing with both hands wildly then play defense and snipe out their arms. If they have a wide guard then go for a stab, most florentine fighters are terrible at blocking stabs to the chest. In particular if you can get some angle on it, so instead of coming straight in, it comes in off angle you’re more likely to get it to stick.

Plenty more to do...

There's plenty more to go over from a fundamental set of shots to have decent shot selection, to combos, feints and mind games.  But this is already a long enough read.  I'll put together some more of it later and have updates next week.  I may also try to inject images into this later.  Failing that you can always check back with the work in progress this is coming from (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JiWh4fvJK-3p-GQTWFiwSS098yJ2ZN0cvZIo_A9siGc/edit?usp=sharing).  See you all next week.

2 points for sickness no points for me

Meant to post stuff last Thursday, but on account of being horrifically ill that wound up not being a thing.  Still sick... have been since wednesday.  I'll post what I had ready probably on Tuesday with the next bit on Thursday.  In the interim I just wanted to let anyone who follows the blog know that I neither forgot nor failed to do the work, I was simply out of commission.