A knight in Edinburgh

This May, researchers have found a family crypt of a knight and his family under a car park in Edinburgh.  Why it should be a surprise that they would find skeletons under a known ancient monastic building is anybody's guess, however this is the whole article from the Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2317097/Researchers-family-knight-Middle-Ages-buried-Edinburgh-car-park.html

Click on the image to embiggen, then click "beside" the image to come back here.

Why do I find this interesting?  Well, being a knight was more than just being a random soldier.  A knight was the law, the kings representative, the dispenser of justice...a lot more than being just a man at arms.  The cracked sand stone grave marker above shews a great sword.  Such a sword is not really made for fighting...it is a "great" sword, a symbol of the hand of royalty on the person under the stone.  Such "great swords" were used in judicial combat because they represented royalty.  "you gonna fight amongst yourselves boys, then you use these swords".  Often they were blessed by representatives of the church, and consequently, people felt they invested a lot of "right" on their side.  No doubt swinging such a big heavy sword would slow the hand of the guilty...a psychological effect which must not be overlooked!

The knight himself did not seem to have had much in the way of injuries...and the skeleton is of quite a small man...cause of death undetermined at this time.  What is poignant is the skeletons of the kids.  Death was never far away in those days. 

Seize the day...

This is a fairly straightforward situation to get into.  The fellow on the right will move forward and to his right just as soon as his opponent's sword is tossed away by his overhead ward.  He walks toward his pommel, the safest thing to do in the circumstances.  and of course two things can happen.

If he slips in close enough to his opponent, he "might" be able to snake his arm over his opponent's sword arm.  No doubt he will try, because it is a very successful grappling technique.
 (plate 225 shows this as well)

 This is what we call an "inside" technique.  It is less than optimal because, well look at the fellow on the right in the above pic!  Although he may be facing a power house smash from that sword, he can do a lot of damage first!  If he had a knife in that left hand, the guy in the fancy hat would coughing up blood right about now. Or he can simply grab the guy's wrist, and step away, freeing his hand and his sword.  He has the rest of his life to do this! 

For instance, this might be a solution!

Another way to handle the situation at the top would be get the sword in a wrist in-turn.
This is really hard to do with a sword in your hand, but not impossible.  And if you get it, you like, totally win.  If you fail, things don't go to hell in a hurry, so it is worth a try.  You start like the fellow in the top picture, then slam your butt into his body.  Slide your hand down the outside of his arm, keeping him from pulling it back.  Grab his hand with your free hand, and back out. 

Lay your sword on his fingers, to keep them from writhing out of position.  Then crank him down.

 This is a wrist in-turn done with a sword in your hand.  It is NOT a European move, and will never be taught in a EMMA salon.  However, it works a treat.  Its moves like this which set us apart, and make the STAG swordhandlers more devestating than any other Martial Art on the planet!


Can you learn this from these pictures?  Of course not.  You will have to take my classes!

Next class ....  Algonquin College May 1st 2013.
                       http://www.algonquincollege.com/index.htm
                       If you have trouble with their system (and who doesn't) email me!  I'll walk you through the registration.

                       Plante Rec Centre April 7  Phone: 613-232-3000

Sign up now while you think about it.  Information and phone numbers are here at the Armoured Company of the Sword web site.
http://armouredswords.ca/ACOTS_Class.html

Plante Grads March 2013

This was the graduation class at Plante Recreation Centre, March 2013.
From left to right...Dmitri, Natalia, Maryanne, Dave, Jason, Nika and Dave P.

And of course, Bill and Jeff in front. 

Dave P. is showing off his new armour.  Crikey it looks good on him.  Now everybody is jealous and wants to make their own! 

Samurai Sword Cutting

Hours and hours of perusing youtube videos.

Oh my. 

Check this guy out!

The guy is really smooth.  The cuts are clean.

However......

Although he says he uses the curve of the sword, he does not.  The first cut is like...so beautiful! The second diagonal is just like he learned it from his Sensei.  After that, his cuts are like baseball bat swings.
            So Andy Dean is one of the greats, but I think he got camera happy and decided to show off.  

Pumpkin Cutting, Mid November 2012

There are MANY reasons for cutting inoffensive squash with swords.  For one thing, it really teaches "edge consciousness", a skill which can be learned like any other.  Cutting pumkins, watermelons, or cabbages helps to provide feedback to crisp up this skill.

Of course the real reason one does such an oddball activity is because all in all, it is great fun.  We had a bonfire, with plenty of hot apple cider.  Kept everybody happy.  I didn't see a single long face there the entire day.

Above and below you can see Shayne and Lorne using the biggest baddest sword on the planet.  This anime scaled blade is particularly large, especially when you consider the guy holding it is 6 foot 4. 

The pumkin Mayhem has begun.

Above are a collection of the assorted exotic weapons available for use.  All, sooner or later, passed through a pumkin.  In the back you can see the pumkin on my archery target.  We stuck to throwing weapons since we did not think it good practice to use an unsecured archery lane in the midst of a crowd.
    (well, duuuuh....grin!)

Many thanks go to John at Bowman Farms, and Canamore Orchards for all the pumkins.  Very decent of them.  They tell me they were more than happy to get ME to compost them.  Ah shucks...

The metal stantions that Brian Fence made us came in really handy when it came time to define the thrown weapons lane.  

Eventually we shoveled 3 trailer loads of smashed pumkins to the cows, and there is this much yet again preparing to render down into compost.  Cows didn't quite know how to take it.  I think they eventually decided that broken pumkins were edible, but not like tasy fresh grass of course.   We had left on the ground a plethora of seeds which has kept the squirrels, rabbits and racoons VERY happy. I don't imagine many of them will germinate next spring, but believe it or not, under that orange carpet of yellow fleshed mayhem is my plowed garden.  So, you never know.  Most of the seeds will fall victim to undersnow field mice I am fairly certain. Did we have a good time?  Oh, lordy!  The feast later on was stunning,  with cider and ribs with pulled pork in the tent.  It was becoming a bit cold (Jeff said he had trouble deciding whether the sauce covered items he was sticking in his mouth was ribs or fingers, his hands were so cold) so I may have to think of a way to warm the tent next year.
  
And yes, there WILL be a next year. You know, we had between 120 and 150 people!  How am I gonna feed all those people if they ALL buy meal tickets?  In shifts I guess. 

We had a thousand pictures, but I think I liked Natalia's pictures the best.  I know there are a dozen sword handlers with photo accounts, please feel free to post the addresses of such accounts in the comments below. 

Takedown

The disengage.  Now there is a place where you can shine!  Or fail miserably! 

It is all part of knowing how to deal with what is thrown at you and how to handle it. 

First rule....get into guard.
Second rule...meet the attack, deflect it, turn its energy against the attacker.
Third rule...Disengage and get into guard.

That disengagement is where you can get into a lot of trouble.

It was a development of techniques which I shoved together because I had to teach a class filled with veteran fighters who wanted to see something different.  Its not so much a matter of coming up with something totally different as combining existing techniques in new ways.  So its not just one technique, but rather several tacked together.  And if I can do it the way Talhoffer did it, even better!

First I got into guard.  Second, I deflected his sword over my head.
So far, fairly straightforward.  Thats just rule number one and two.
Then I pushed the hilt forward and hooked his sword hilt with my pommel, pulling on his arm trying to straighten it.

Stepped in, place my foot behind his, and tried to drive him into an arm bar by slamming my shield hand against his elbow.  (I like to use the back of my hand, my shield, buckler or forearm, but Talhoffer just pushes the elbow with the palm of my hand.  Same, same.  The other difference is of course that Talhoffer steps in front of his opponent's leg instead of behind it.  This leads to a different finish yet.  But...back to the arm bar...

An arm bar almost never works...he bends his arm, the armour locks up, so I go to the fourth part of the techinique quite smartly.  I brought the sword blade up towards his neck for a throat cut.
        Cute technique.  And quite complex with four discrete moves.  (four things to go wrong! ha!)  But it won't work on a guy in armour because of that pesky gorget.  So now we must disengage.   (rule three) 
         To do this, I must free the sword from its tangle of pommels, heads and so forth.  Only direction it CAN go is forward, so I shove the quillion into his throat, and lift my pommel out of the action.  Also, I body check him forward as I am doing this.    Hopefully my left knee is still behind his right knee...not a guarantee!
      Withdraw the sword smoothly from the action and place the blade into a tail guard, then bang the pommel into his ear.  This covers up my movement of my fist behind his head to the far side...I place my left hand on his left shoulder. 

      These next two things must be done at the same time... I unlock his right knee with my left knee, and shove his body down towards his right foot.  He should drop in front of you. 

   My sword was still in its tail guard, and it comes naturally onto the back of his neck with 180 degrees of movement.  This will be a kill.  To make this strike work, you MUST move your left foot back and you MUST withdraw your hand. 

This withdrawal technique was a development of the shoulder twist takedown which we have been teaching for many years.  The only difference being that the guy being taken down ends up on his face.  The unlocking of the knee and the push straight downwards with the left hand is the same....but you are less likely to drop your opponent on your leg by dropping him in front of you.  But you DO have to watch out for that elbow...grin!

The above picture shows a drag backwards so it doesn't "quite" illustrate the technique I just described, but the samurai has his left knee placed in the back of my right knee, and there is not a lot I can do about it.

At this point in the picture, the samurai pulled me down.  He could have dropped me in front of him, or he could step forward and drop me on my back.  These pictures show me on the way onto my back. 

       

Further development work on this techique can be derived from plate 188, 182, 177, and plate 32.
All show work you can do when you are tight in like this. 

        

New class

Advanced Chivalrous Swordhandling

Hi Bill,
The above-mentioned course is a "GO".  Currently there are 6 students registered however there may be a few more by the time the course starts.  Your course is scheduled on Wednesday October 31 - December 12 from 7 - 9:15 p.m. except on December 12 where your class is scheduled from 7 - 9:30 p.m.

 Well, that it then!
See you all there.