Shooting myself in the foot

Over and over, I've been told that the way to get recognized for fencing is to go out and fight. I should find the events with the big tourneys, and enter them. I've been told that the only way to get recognized for my prowess it to go out, fight and win.

I can see the logic in that. It's the whole money where your mouth is thing, so what did I do this weekend? I skipped the big event where they were holding their champions tourney and attended a small little event, where there were only pick-up fights.

And what's even worse, I didn't even armor up. I mostly stood back and watched and gave the occasional pointer.

Why? Well, the not armoring up was while there was no loaner armor on site, there was a young lady who was very interested in learning fencing. So I talked my son into loaning her his armor, and then he used mine.

As for why I decided against the big event, there were two reasons. The first was the pure logistics of the thing: the event was seven hours away, and my son had to be to work by noon on Sunday. It just wasn't doable. The second reason was a little more nebulous: they didn't need me. They had multiple Masters of Defense, multiple White Scarves, multiple Papillons, and many, many fighter. We had a Cormac, an Albion and me, along with eight fighters, half of whom had less than a year's experience.

I know I'm shooting myself in the foot when I do things like this, but I've always put promoting fencing above promoting myself and, quite frankly, the Masters and Dons have the larger groups down south pretty well covered.

A hard lesson to learn

One of the first things we try to teach new fencers is that this is a martial sport and that you will get hurt. But what we too often forget to teach them is that not only will you get hurt, but that you will hurt someone, too.

We had a young fighter learn that lesson the hard way at last weekend's regional fighters practice. It was about three hours into the practice and he was going hard and maybe just a bit tired. His opponent zigged when he expected him to zag, and he nailed him kind of hard on the tip of the thumb, breaking the nail. Not a bad injury, but a painful one.

And, bless his heart, the young fighter is a gentle soul who took injuring his friend to heart.

So we stopped fighting, and started talking. The first thing we did was to ask him if he'd intentionally injured the other fighter. His answer was no, of course, so we continued on. We explained to him how, as people get excited or tired, their control starts to wane. We explained that, no matter how hard a person tries, telepathy doesn't work, which means that sometimes you will guess wrong about what your opponent will do. We explained that sometimes your opponent's armor isn't quite what it should be.

In short, we explained all the various ways that you can unintentionally and possibly through no fault of your own injure your opponent.

This is one of those lessons we wish we didn't have to teach and far too often we gloss over it, but it's probably one of the most important lessons we can teach.

CAS Hanwei Practical Single Hand Sword - Initial Review

So I broke down and bought myself a dedicated cut and thrust sword. Like most of my purchases, my choice was guided by my budget and bought myself one of Hanwei's practical single hand sword. It arrived today, and while I haven't had a chance to practice with it yet, I do have some initial thoughts on the sword.

The stats:

• Weight: 2.4 lbs
• Overall Length: 36.5 inches
• Blade Length: 30 inches
• Balance Point: 4.5 inches in front of the guard (30% of total length)
• Vendor: Amazon
• Price: $148.50 + shipping

First Impressions:

This sword is tip heavy. Ideally, a sword of this size should balance between 2 and 3 inches in front of the guard, not the 4.5 inches of this one. And with the guard peened onto the tang, it is not a simple process to change it out. On the up-side, the blade flows very nice. It takes next to nothing to get a cut started and you just follow it through. On the down side, it stops like a freight train.

The blade is very stiff, requiring the entire length of the blade to make the flex requirement for cut & thrust, so be very careful when thrusting.

While the sword weighs less than a lot of rapiers, its balance point makes the blade feel heavy in your hand. The edges of the pommel weight are knocked down, but not rounded, and have a tendency to dig into your hand when swinging.

Given its price, this sword may be appealing to new fighters, but its balance and stiffness make it more suited to advanced fighters. And its simple crossguard makes the use of full gauntlets mandatory.

Technically, it is legal for heavy rapier (just barely), but I wouldn't. This is strictly a cut and thrust sword that will show you all the weaknesses in your form.

All in all, if you have gauntlets and if you are willing to put in the time training to ensure your safety, this makes a completely serviceable cut and thrust sword for those on a budget. If, however, your budget can handle it, you would probably be better served with something like Fabri Armorum's Flexible Gothic Single-Handed Sword (if you have gauntlets) or Hanwei's Practical Mortuary Hilt Sword (if you don't).