This year is the first time I looked through sparring videos from last’s year summer camp, and I was happy with what I saw. Yes, I am better now, but I am glad I wasn’t bad a year ago, either. So I’ve decided to make a small series looking though a dozen of old 3-minute videos. I’ll explain what is happening, the context of the sparring bout, and what I liked and disliked about my performance. I have hundreds of videos of other people from our school as well, but commenting on them would b a pain, so I decided to be a little selfish and just cover myself.

It is really interesting how a bout is affected by our mentality about it, and how we come into the play – do we fence in “survive” mode, “explore” mode, “have fun” mode, or some other.

Some general context – most videos are wood against wood. We love wooden wasters, we have to pull stabs a bit when they are to the body, but they are a lot more stable in contact than nylons. We use steel, too, as you will see, but there is no “one above the other”. Both teach you something, and in actuality, wood allows you to go closer in speed to reality, while steel is more precise and has to be pulled a bit more. We fence in gambesons, our made, very sturdy. There are elbow protectors underneath, forearm protection too, gloves, knee and leg protection, masks.

This first time I’ll do only one video, as to not bore you all with explanations and so on.

The first video has its moments, but it is something of a warm-up. Me and Kosta fence with arming swords. I like to work both close and out of range, breaching between distances could be worked upon, but otherwise I am good. Kosta has very unusual body mechanics, much to do with his structure and his experience as a mountain tourist. He also is left-handed, but this has effect only in sword and buckler. Here it is:

Now, there is some testing in the first 30 seconds, just to feel each other out. At 0:31 I provoke with a trust, smash down his counter with my hand on his, and then follow through with a hit with the guard and a slice and control. After, an interesting play on 0:44. I enter with the intention of provoking, Kosta blocks and goes to halfsword, strongly cutting from that on top of my head, his hand clean from the attack. He finishes with a second strike, doubling and stopping a possible afterblow. 1:10 – I rush in, bad line of opposition, I get hit. 1:22, I seem to be cut on the hand, but his sword was moving with less force. I could’ve received a cut, but also quite possibly manage the grab and the finish. 1:41 – a brief exchange, I receive a clear hit on the elbow. 2:10 – very nice action, a bind, a suppressing cut, control an going into halbschwert at the end, pushing away a weak thrust. 2:30 – classic Haengen and counter. 2:39 – very sneaky lower cut. I was confused. A couple of gioco largo tests for the rest of the video.

It was overall a great clip, it has one or two classics, two more rare situations, and we have overall kept it interesting and balanced. I like how tight I am, and how I manage to pressure Kosta even when moving back. I am annoyed about getting confused by his more weirdish attacks, but from what I’ve seen this year, I have gotten used to them. I especially like Kosta’s halbschwert, we only realized what happened later, when we were watching the videos on a laptop.

I would be very happy of any feedback. Comment, discuss, do not worry about being too critical in any way.