Investiture

I got to fight in my first investiture tourney this week.  It was my second tourney since I’ve been back.

I fought well, and placed better than I expected, defeating three people.  One of whom went on to win.

On the Sunday I fought in the Cadet Tourney, sponsored by Oberst Luther Magnus.  I did much better than I expected in this tourney, with 14 victories, which is almost 50/50.  Luther gave me some tips which helped a lot, bringing my dagger lower, and pulling my sword closer to me.

With the dagger lower, it needs to move a bit more to protect my head, but it needs to move less to protect the rest of me, which I found was useful in my parries, and kept me alive much better.

With the sword closer to me it was harder for my opponent to take my blade, and made it easier for me to take the initiative.

I did get a few hard shots, but most of those were because of the dusty floor, and everyone slipping forward on lunges.  Apparently few others had hard shots, so perhaps the floor just didn’t like me.

I also took a hard shot to the head, which laid me out for a moment, but I seem to be ok from it.  It was very interesting to watch the video of that in slow motion.

I”m starting to remember how to do this again.  I’m speeding up a bit, and able to read and respond on the fly.  Still need to dial things in, but it’s coming.

I’ve been going over the video of my fights to see places to improve.  I won’t be able to be at practice this week, but I should be the week following.