2012 Fechtschule America Wrap Up & Discussion

[John Harmston]

The problem here is that people want to compete! How do you get a pool of good experienced judges trained up when they have to give up competing in the tournament in order to be a judge? Its tough. If someone isn't a fighter they can catch criticism as a judge for that. But if someone is a fighter, then they don't want to judge!

I like the idea of incenting people to judge in tournaments (and to do it well) somehow.

One thing I will note, is that there are a certain percentage of HEMA practitioners who don't love fighting in tournaments for any number of reasons. It would be useful to press them into service and get them trained up.

As an aside, if this starts to turn into a judging thread let's start a new thread.

[zarlor]

I did just that. There is a thread specifically on judging at viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1924 in the Misc. HEMA forum. There is also another on refereeing that I'd love to get some feedback on.

[Keith P. Myers]

As far as the after-blow and the double-kill, I see these as two subtle and very different situations. While we would sometimes see two fighters initiate an attack simultaneously and thus land at exactly the same time, more often what you would see was one fighter begin his strike and the other fighter, in response to the motion begin his attack. Thus, the strikes wouldn't land exactly at the same time, but the motion for the second strike would have been begun before the first had landed. This is different from the after-blow which could be thought of as a riposte made by the second fighter even though his defense failed--thus, the after-blow needs to have been started after the first attack hits. There is a subtle but very real difference between the two

I agree. And this was a particular problem for me during the Dussack. I was trying to use as much "classic" technique as possible. I was attempting to parry/absetz or jam an oncoming attack with the weapon and then do a counter strike. However, the leather Dussacks are not really rigid enough for this. I would throw up my defense and the opponent's strike would blast right through it. So as I did my "parry riposte"....I got hit through my parry and my riposte counted as a double kill. It was very frustrating. I guess if I had slowed down my beat between the parry and riposte, it would have counted as an Afterblow. But that wouldn't have won me any bouts either. If I had had someone to be sparring it out with leading into this I would have known better. The Dussack play in the tournaments has become primarily a game of "evade & hit" or "counter-time" because you just can't defend very effectively with the leather Dussacks. So it would be interesting if there were stats showing whether there were more doubles during the Dussack than during the Longsword.

[Myles Cupp]

Dustin, I have to say that of the fighters I saw at the tournament, you were one of the most impressive. I don't think I saw anyone else use as many identifiable Kunst des Fechtens techniques as varied and reliably, effectively and consistently as you could. It's a shame your hand forced your withdrawal from the tournament. I say you are a certified badass.

Thanks for the compliments. i liked watching your sword & buckler fights, you had a lot nice exchanges and people didn't seem to know how to deal with the low stance you were holding.

You're welcome!

I tried adapting a Fabris Sword and Cape guard for use with the buckler. I saw a lot of people going for the head and torso as targets so I figured I would just withdraw them entirely and hide my entire body behind my extended buckler.

I also put my sword point behind my buckler so that, as long as I stayed on the offensive, my opponent would have no idea whether I would begin my attacks from the left or right.

[Jean Chandler]

You can block and cut like that with those leather dussacks, but it helps to block with the weapon a little out from your body so the judges can see it. I had that problem in 2010

Also, practice blocking with the dussack so you can make sure you can stop strikes cold.

J

[Keith P. Myers]

Also, practice blocking with the dussack so you can make sure you can stop strikes cold.

J

No Jean. The point was that once those leather Dussacks get a bit "broken in" and floppy, they won't stop anything!

[Mike Ruhala]

I agree with you, Keith. I own two of them and never use them anymore because they don't fight anything like a sword.

[Ben Floyd]

The redesigned (reinforced) grip blocks well. I didn't have nearly the same problem with them as the older ones. Other than the new one I have, the others I own are pretty bad for any parries with opposition. They work ok for displacements.

[Steven H]

I can't find any of this year's dussack matches. Anyone know if they are posted?

Thanks,
Steven

[Ben Floyd]

There's only three videos posted by Fechtschule America. They are the longsword final, Jeanry vs. Nathan G., and Mike E. vs. me. I want to see the dussack matches too!!!