Figured out labeling of things

So, remember a post a while back where I was sorting through what to label attacks/what possibilities there are. And I couldn't do it. Now, I can. So, here goes.

There are four categories to classify attacks under.
Three of these are very conventional- lanes, body side, and attack angles. The fourth, degrees of motion, is the thing we ignore.

Lanes:

• About what targets are open to attack. 
• If your sword is held in your right hand, to it's right, is the outside lane, left is inside.
• If Florentine, then inside lane is between the two swords, outside lane is, well, outside
• If two handed, forward hand determines, but it matters less
• Breaks down/is less useful when:
• vs hand and a half(forward hand determines lanes, until you let go)
• Attacking, while simultaneously crossing from one lane to the other, tends to be super awkward, more so when the lane boundary is held far out, rather than near. 

Target location:

• This is: does the shot target the left side, or right side of the opponent. 
• If you are targeting the left side, with a dominant right setup, that's offside shot. And vice-versa.
• If you also cross from one lane to the other while doing so, it's a 'cross'.
• Additionally, you have a 'what body part', vertically were you targeting. 
• High, 
• Hip, 
• Leg. 

Attack angles:

• Relative to the expected defense, how does the shot come in?
• Perpendicular
• Easiest to block, easiest to do.
• Parallel
• Almost all 'tricky shots' 
• Outside lane- Noob slaying foo(monkey arms). 
• Good form should make it so you have few to none of these shots open.
• Inside lane- headshot city
• Stab positioning
• Pocket around shields
• Wrap
• Hit with backside of blade. Requires a roll.

Degrees of Freedom:

The fundamental way to describe the motion of a system. We normally ignore it. The arm has 7:

• Shoulder- 
• pitch
• yaw
• roll
• Elbow
• pitch
• Hand + Elbow
• Roll
• Hand
• pitch
• yaw

Thoughts on these things classifications:

Lanes are an extremely useful abstraction for me, in the moment. I can control the enemy, and offer myself in the appropriate ways with them.

Target location, not so much. When I want to hit a point, I want to hit a point- I don't care where that point happens to be. I don't typically get out 'moves' to target that location. I'd rather develop a set of principles, that allow me to go from where I'm at, to hit where I'd like, as fluidly as possible.

Currently, knowledge of this type is implicitly transmitted, as a set of 'special cases': ie 'moves- here's how to do a hip scoop'. And if you learn all the moves, odds are, your body will get the idea, and act according to those principles, in unknown situations.

I'd rather puzzle out the underlying abstractions, and be sure the moves I make up on the fly are sound. The other option is to limit the space of possibilities, and make sure you get back to your known space asap. I guess that's cool too.

Attack angles- Super critical. Love using it in the moment. Mostly when targeting shots. How do I have to come in, to hit that thing? If I attack it with a wrap, it's open, chop it's not. Most parallel shots are either specialist trick shots(stab setup, pocket shot), or shouldn't be open for people with good guards(monkey arms).

Degrees of freedom- Finally, this is where I got bogged down, trying to describe shots last time. People don't intuitively have these sorted. Most newbs, have a hard time, just using one, even if you hold/restrain the others to help them out. The more experienced a fighter you are, the more you tend to have isolated the muscles involved in each degree of freedom.

Also, because we don't use these concepts, shots are hard to teach. Using this language would make describing shot mechanics simple, and precise, once you got used to it. I'm going to start internally thinking through what each joint is best at, and why.

Last week's practice

Was pretty good. Rag and all, made it a small practice.

So I had bbq along with the fighting. I'm into nutrition and stuff, so I busted out the MTC oil for the steaks. Which, btw, tastes awesome. Also, one of our fighters, that is normally really lazy, was more energetic than he normally is. Prediabetic anyone? Not sure if he realized it or not.

I'm blaming it on the MTC, but I'm not going to make an issue about it. I'm 30, and I'm running rings around these 18-24 year olds. I fight, all practice, and none of the other people do. Mostly they sit and recover. Which is pathetic, but I don't put the blame on them- they are just doing what's normal for our culture. It's our culture that is pathetic. The other half of it, is that I know and do better, but I'm not  doing anything, even though I could. I'm really torn about giving people health advice- first because it's not mainstream. But mostly because it's unsolicited. They are there to fight, not to get lectured on nutrition.

Speaking of recovering, I've still got an injured left wrist. Which sucks. And is completely ironic, coming from someone who wrote the above paragraph. That's ok. I'm pretty sure I know why it happened. My health isn't perfect by far- there's a reason I got into nutrition. I'm taking the appropriate countermeasures. It'll probably be healed enough for fighting by next week(I was already at the no pain when using it around the house). But I want to get out more, so I went anyways.

This means I'm getting pretty good at single blue, which is nice- but will all of the experienced fighters off at rag, I was far enough ahead of everyone else on it, that single blue vs single blue wasn't very fun. I'm trying to teach, get people to have better guards, better ranging, that sort of thing. Level everybody else up, so I can study higher level fighting.

Single blue vs sword and board was still challenging. One fighter can stuff me pretty good, and takes me down that way ~ 80% of the time, and a good percentage of that she comes out unscarred. Part of the problem there is that I can't hand match, or use my off hand to grapple. Hand matching is a no brainer for me(I'm highly ambi, and when single sword, I like to swap between hands). And I'm getting to the state where I'm seeing all of these possible grappling possibilities that I didn't use to see.

Also, part of the problem in retrospect was lazy- she was pretty good at the press(while sufficiently covering her legs- her shield to leg area is pretty good), and I wasn't sufficiently backing up to maintain range, which I desperately needed to do more of. That's because the closer you are to your opponent, the harder it is to block, and blocking with single blue is real hard, especially compared to sword and board. So what was happening was she was getting into a range such that she could still block, and I couldn't.

Now, instead of maintaining distance, I guess I could have tried to close even more, with some sort of dodge, or stuff. However, she had a punch, so she could control the range a bit, and my other arm couldn't grapple to disable it. So I really had no other option that to backpedaled sufficiently so that I would still have a guard, and I should have been more diligent with it.

The shots I got on her were threaten the shoulder, the darkside stab. Couple of block, reposts, though she was pretty good about not letting me get those. And of course, sacrifice my injured arm and take either her torso or her leg. Darkside slash was blocked by her shield angle(which opened up her left leg, but she moves her shield only after her attack/my block happens, so the angle on that was super awkward. In retrospect, I possibly could have gone for a fairly awkward, and unintuitive left leg stab, combined with a sidestep/retreat.

Another fighter, who's got a HUGE shield, now has started to have appropriate levels of aggression(before he just sat there, mostly). So he started giving me a bit of trouble. Maybe 15 % kill rate on me. Makes me happy for him, and makes me want to step up my game, in celebration. Give him a couple more practices, and he should be stuffing me as well as she does. Hopefully I'll be healed by then, and able to hand match.

Balancing swords

Let's talk about balancing swords. I can't stand swords that aren't properly balanced.

First off, a confession- this could really be titled- 'Digging around for why grip weighting is superior to pommel weighting'. Because I've never met a pommel balanced sword that felt right, regardless of where the center of mass was. And really, this is me digging to figure out why.

Second- all of the calculations basically assume the person is the dominant source of force on the weapon. This is not true with heavier styles- since gravity accelerates the same regardless of mass, heavier styles focus on taking advantage of the inertia gravity gives them. If you do similar calculations with gravity as the main focus, you end up with completely different results.

Now, with that out of the way, let's proceed. Physics is the tool we want to use for this investigation. Unfortunately, for me, physics was years ago, and I barely remember this stuff. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Remember, this blog is primarily for me to figure out stuff, and other's people consumption is secondary.

The physics of a sword, are thankfully, fairly simple. Quite like the toy problems given by teachers, where a force is applied to a rod. However, most toy problems given by teachers have the pivot point fixed. Which isn't the case here- a sword has no fixed pivot point -it changes all the time. So what do we do?

The decomposition is this- into movement that moves the center of mass, and into movement that rotates the center of mass. That's Translational(moving the center of mass of the sword) and rotational(turning it).  If you are pivoting at a place other than the center of mass, according to physics, you are doing more than just rotating it- you are doing a combination of rotation, and translation.

Translational motion:

Now, translational motion, is a part of every attack, as you shift the center of mass of the sword towards an opponent.

It seems fairly simple to optimize for:
Inertia = sum of the masses
Less inertia means greater speed with the same amount of force.  People build the lightest swords they can in order to get less inertia.

However, there is another factor here- how far your applied force is from the center of mass. You see, some of your applied force will go towards rotation, and some towards translation. The closer you are to the center of mass, the more force goes to translation over rotation. This is how you can get a faster sword, by adding weight.

Rotational motion

Exchanging a vertical sword, for a horizontal one can be very powerful. Guard for reach. Normally, this is done while striking. The reverse is done while recovering. Have another picture.

Obviously to maximize the utility of rotation, you'd like the center of mass to be towards the pommel, rather than the tip, so you'll get a better increase in reach when you rotate it.

There is another reason to want it down there, but I'm a little fuzzy on the specifics of it-
While your arm speed isn't actually constant, if you pretend it is, then the closer you are to the center of mass, the more rotation you can impart. Now, why would we want to pretend our arm speed is constant? That's where I'm a little fuzzy, and just sort of handwave and say your arm has significant inertia.

Finally let's talk about the actual rotation. Rotational inertia specifically. That's how hard it is to turn the thing. The formula is: Rotational Inertia = sum of (mass * (distance to center of mass)2). So we'd like to minimize that too. We can minimize this by putting all of the weight we have to have, as close as possible to the center. (Which is why if you tuck everything in when you spin, you go faster, despite having the same energy)

Center of mass:

So, both rotational, and translation work better when we have the center of mass, down towards the hilt. This is why we weight weapons- to bring the center of mass closer to the hilt.
So, what is the center of mass? It's the place where the following is true:
Sum of (masses on the left * distance from point) = Sum of (masses to the right * distance from point)
So, that's how this thing balances- the weight on one side, cancels out the weight on the other. And the further weight is away from the center, the more it counts.

So if we want to move the center of mass, we are going to be adding mass. The question is where?

If you want to minimize your inertia(and maximize your translational movement) then you want to pile all your counterweight on the pommel, so you could use less of it to move the balance.

However, that strategy is horrible in terms of rotational inertia- rotational inertia is based on the square of the distance. In order to minimize rotational inertia, you should pile your counterweight in a crossguard. There will be considerably more of it than if you put it in your pommel, but your sword will spin faster.

Which is better?

So do we keep our inertia low, so we have better translational movement, or do we keep our rotational inertia low, so we have better rotational movement? Which is more important? I'm betting that answer is a big fat depends. So what does it depend on?

Obviously style has something to do with it. If one is more valuable for your style, you'll definitely want to favor that type of movement.

Now, lighter vs heavier weapons. Surely that affects where you want to weight the weapon? Not really. Basically you are just multiplying all of the masses by a consistent amount, and that doesn't really change anything. (That is, until you factor in gravity, which we aren't).

What does have a huge effect is the length of the weapon, vs the length of your arm.
Translational gets you about an arm's length of motion, give or take being off balance. Rotation on the other hand gets you about a sword length's of motion, give or take the location of the center of mass.

So longer weapons favor rotation, shorter favor translation. Which is true, up to a point. However, the distance^2 term in rotational inertia means much more when there is more distance. Which is why spears mostly stab, instead of hack.

So the question is, which is larger- your arm, or your blade?

Footwork

So. I'm pretty good single blue dueling- I'm probably the best in my area, which says something, but not all that much, because I'm out west. However, I'm terrible at sword and board dueling. And by terrible, I mean I'm terribly mediocre. Specifically I don't have a good offense. My defence is alright though- for the most part, a good fighter has to actually use their skill to get around it.

When I spar against someone with a decent offence, most of my wins are through my defence beating their initial offensive strike, then reposting into a spot where they have opened themselves up. I'm at least fairly good at that.

Fights where I have to go on offense are terrible though. If they have a crappy defence, alright- I just take advantage of that. However, fighting offensively(which I only ever do if they are refusing to take that role- mostly because they can't either. Most people with an offence lose patience after a while..) against someone with decent defence is a really crappy matchup- I throw a couple shots, their defence is good enough. I'm hoping they take this as a cue to attack, in which case I can parry/block and repost. If they don't I'm kinda stuck. Mostly we close, as less distance widens whatever gaps there are, and when there are none, I just kind of brutally plow into/through them with my shield and strike as they falter. It gets the job done, as I can pretty much knock people over- sure there are some giants that I can't knock over, but anyone even remotely my size can be managed. However, It's not really fun for either of us.

I've been trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong, that makes it so I don't have a good offense for a long time- this has (obviously) been bugging the crap out of me. I've been trying to get help where ever I can, and while people have tried to help, no one has really been able to figure out what my problem is. However, I think I've finally figured it out.

So what I'm obviously lacking is a bunch of different wraps, and a darkside or two. And I know this. People show me how to do them, and I do them just fine in practice. However, when time comes to do them in combat, I can't. They are awkward and slow. And I finally figured out why.

It's the footwork. Specifically, my offensive footwork is awkward as heck. And the reason is, my stance.

Most fighters stances are like this-(narrow)
T0
00
0T

You'll see a lot of people with narrow stances. This is because a narrow stance is good for offensive movement. It's also marginally better against stabs.

Mine is like this-(wide)

T000
000T

Now, my stance was taught to me at UCI. They told me it was to prevent yourself from being knocked over- if you are hit. Which is mostly false. If you go limp, and let your reflexes take over, they do a pretty good job of keeping you on your feet from most hits above your center of gravity. 

That said, a wide stance isn't useless- first off, it makes for an easier, denial guard, denying the outside lane. Second off, you can pivot on it, really easily. This make it so you can turn to face people from different angles, and respond to offensive movement easily. Basically, it makes for an easier, better defence.

Which is great when you are single blue vs single blue and defence is king. But terrible when sword and board vs sword and board, where offence is the priority. Because, it sucks for offensive movement- which is what I need for wraps and such.

Glad I found it. Now I can retrain myself, and progress.

Brother Training

So, more brother training, and the postmortem

We worked on ranging- short vs long, long vs short, charging a red with a blue. I think he got that pretty good. Which is good.

We also explicitly worked to reduce his flinching reflex- he was blocking alright, but every time a shot was coming towards him, he'd flinch as it came. Being that open to feints would just get him killed. So we explicitly worked on reducing that, which was good.

Then we worked on his denial guard and a frame block. It's amazing how much you can get away with with just a excellent a frame block.


Now for the postmortem- was the training worthwhile? Did it allow him to work well at saltwars?

So first off- overall impressions- He fought well. I think he did quite well for about two weeks of training. Definitely still at the popcorn level, but definitely chewy popcorn.

Now, some things I noticed, that I would work on with him if we were together.

1) His movement/ranging kept him alive longer than he otherwise should have. Part of this was just plain good- he was working the strategic level, which is nice. However, Amtgard as a whole doesn't.

It seems to be a cultural thing. This criticism can be leveled equally at me too- so I flanked in the ditches there. I didn't flank hard or anything- no real tricks, no real changing of strategy between rounds. I didn't even especially try to curl the line. Mostly what I did was go to the end/outside. Kill or bypass(leg, etc...) my opponent. Then work my way down the line, killing people from their flank. And that really was too much for them. They had so much trouble stopping it. And after a while, I felt ire over it, despite it being the LEAST of my flanking game. Course on my end, I actually felt really crappy because they were REALLY open, and I wasn't taking advantage of them as much as I could/should have.

So my brother, who was babysitting, and maneuvering for 1-1s was also too much for them. I think he would have been acceptable in a Bel context, but towing the line. Not because either of those things are bad, but because he's just learning them. So for instance, he'd take longer to maneuver for a 1 on 1, than an experienced fighter (also, people give experienced fighters more slack, as they have a greater chance of plowing through more people with correct maneuver).

The other thing, is that while he was babysitting mostly correctly, there was a point that I forgot to teach him about it. First off- let's define terms- babysitting is the art of tying people up on the battlefield. It happens like this- you are against a superior fighter, or many inferior fighters in good formation. Rather than engage and most likely die, or flee, and let your opponent turn and attack the rest of your forces, you babysit. This is where you are engaging at maximum range. When they come after you, you back off. When they turn their attention, you move forward and harass them. Done correctly this nullifies them- as they can't get you, but they can't direct their attention elsewhere.

So babysitting has a natural end- two actually(assuming you don't screw up and get hit).

The one you want, which is the other end of the field resolves, with your side winning, and they help you take out your man. This is more likely than not, as assuming the battlefield is roughly equal, you have tied up a person or people who collectively are worth more than you. Therefore, the odds are that the other side of the field are tilted in your side's favor. Which really is the whole point of babysitting. He handled that case correctly

The other one, which you don't want, is the other side of the field resolves with your side losing.
Leaving you the last one, or near to the last one alive on your side. This one he handled decently- he maneuvered till he could get as close to a 1 on 1 confrontation as he could manage, then took it, and died with honor. Which is decent. But that's not how it's optimally done.

The point I didn't think to communicate with him was that if you get into that situation, you've acted too late. You need to keep aware of the battle field, and if your side is starting to crumble on the other flank, it's time to engage. Why? Because first of all, if you don't act, the battle is probably lost, following the pattern in the above paragraph. At this point, while it's low probability, you have the chance to change things- if you manage to catch the person you are babysitting off guard, and kill or leg them, then you can run to reinforce the other side of your line, which is currently failing (the best way at this point is usually a back attack on the engaged enemy, but not always), and turn the tide of battle. And if you don't, you've lost anyway. So, engage if your line is failing.

PS- another way to look at is, at this point, if your line fails, you are going to end up maneuvering for 1 on 1s, and if you start a bit early, you have an easy to isolate 1 on 1- the guy you are babysitting. Given that you were babysitting him, it's probably a tough one- however, with your team dying, odds are, in order to win, you'll have to face him sooner or later. Best to do it one on one, when he doesn't really think you'll engage him.

2) His shots reverted to monkey arms, especially around a tower shield. I'm ok with this. I'd rather he have a good defence, than a good offense, and I didn't have time to teach him both.

3) He managed to understand charging polearms in the field, which is good.

So that sums up saltwars, and training my brother for it. I've learned a lot about how to teach- what should be taught, and I've learned some of the holes which I have in my explanations. Totally a good experience!

So, I'm in utah, for a wedding. Thought I'd stay over another week so that I could go to saltwars.
I'm getting my brother, who also expresses interest in fighting, and who fights with his housemates, with swords I've provided, to go with me. He's of age, but he's untrained- the fighting with his housemates is a terrible affair. He's still at the stage where they run away. It's kinda awful.

So I'm trying to get him into fighting shape. His instincts and reaction times are good, which I'll blame on genes(we come from a line of killers, all the way back to charlemagne), though as a youngest sibling, he's kinda timid, and definitely runs away too much. So to help him with the urge to run, I'm having him work on block strike with me- while it's good for other things as well, mostly it's about him getting used to standing his ground.

Second, I sat him down, and went over the strategy(but not tactics) involved in ditching and flanking. Not sure how much of it sank in- he was attentive, and trying to get it all down, but it's all theory atm. I'll probably have to repeat it to him again later, once he's seen the reality of things, to firm it up.

Third- I've got him practicing denial guard, and practicing parrying back and forth with it, so he'll have at least some (stationary) defense. Yeah, it'll be little more than a speed bump against the better fighters, but it's something against the weaker ones.

Fourth- I did muscle isolations with him- going over the joints, I identified in this post and having him move each one separately. This actually seemed really helpful- it's helping eliminate the sloppy movement that most new fighters have, and got him to be able to understand how to curve shots around a defense.

Fifth, I've shown him a couple of the best youtube videos- BrennonEH's channel, and a little bit of Peter the quick, though I'm not sure how much of the second will be useful to him atm. He's better than me at understanding what's about to happen(even though he's unable to stop it) so maybe it'll help. Certainly it'll give him what he needs to study later, in order to become awesome.

Finally, I'm showing him a little sword and board- he's been fighting single blue, since that's all he had.

We've got about a week or so, till saltwars happens, so we'll see how it goes, and I'll post more as I teach him more.

New fighter guide, First Practice

Having a good time at the first practice-

Showing up-
First- Check their web site for big events/weather cancellations before you go- it's a bummer to show up, to a canceled practice.

If you are new, in the bay area, the best time to show up is, about a half hour after the practice starts- that way people will be there for sure, (instead of just the person responsible for the practice) but there won't be so many people that they won't have time to go over the rules, and focus on welcoming you. Bay area standard is be an hour late, if you are experienced. 

What the timing is in your area, I don't know. Just keep in mind, if you show up on time,(which you should, to be safe) if there aren't that many people, don't despair- most of the people are just lazy and late- they'll be there.

Introductions-
There will be an area with all sorts of equipment, with people milling about. Either go up and introduce yourself, or wander over to the area, and watch the fighting. Most likely someone will greet you warmly. Say you are interested in trying it, and they will direct you to someone to read you the rules(or read you the rules yourself).  The person who reads you the rules will direct you to loaner equipment, and may fight with you for a little bit, before directing you towards other people to fight with. He or she is using those first fights to size you up, so that he can direct you towards someone of about your skill level, so that hopefully your fighting will be fun, and at a level that you can learn from.

Fight/train-

New fighters fall into two categories- ones that want to get out there and fight, and are fine with learning by trial and error, and those that want to be taught. 

They may or may not be sensitive to this dichotomy. If they are they will probe you to figure out which one you are, and then treat you accordingly. If they don't you'll know if your needs aren't being met, as you'll be frustrated, and won't be having a good time.

There are two types of frustration-

If you want to hit things, being told to drill. Dag tends to be lower on this than other martial arts. Ignore the people drilling, and find someone similarly frustrated, that's about your level, and just go spar with them. 

Similarly, it's frustrating going out to fight when you know you don't know what you are doing. If you want training/advice and they are not giving it to you, ask, and most people will be happy to teach you what they can. However, you need to be aware that some fighters, can't teach. If you can't get what you need, email me, and I'll try to help out- I happen to be a more training oriented fighter, and I can direct you to some great online resources. 

Targets for a first practice-

First of all, don't sweat it, have fun. But if you need more concrete targets, here they are- 

First the things you might expect- learn the rules, get comfortable calling the shots that hit you, and try not to hit people in the head. Do sweat it if you mess up on any/all of the above. They'll correct you. Also, if you've hit someone twice in the head, (or even once really bad) try to move on to fight someone else, as soon as you can without being awkward about it. Head hits happen, especially with new fighters, but it's better not to put the burden all on one person.

Next target is learn to die. To learn to stand and fight, even when that means you'll die- and just concentrate on doing your best. It's unnatural not to fear death, but as a Dag fighter, it's required. First off, you won't really die- this isn't real. Second, it's not a matter of skill- everyone dies, over and over. The best fighters on the field are also the fighters that have died the most. You need to get comfortable with that and stop fearing it.

Final thing to focus on, is get comfortable swinging a sword- Knowing where your body is in space, (Body awareness) is key to this game, and in the first few practices, regardless of what people try to teach you, that's mainly what you'll be learning. That's why it's common to let new people spar, rather than trying to drill them their first couple of practices- until you can tell where your sword is in space, it does no good trying coach you on how to move it.

Oh, and in mass battles, think of it as a strategy game- 

First- spar with whatever, but if you are new, in a large battle, borrow a shield if at all possible. It helps a ton.
Your side may win or lose, but as long as you've done your part to nudge it towards victory, it's all good. You may be the worst fighter on the field (someone has to be), and never survive, but if you focus on trying to trade up, you'll be doing your part. 

Note that trading yourself up, doesn't require killing someone- early on, occupying people is often more important. This works because as you distract people, your buddies will have fewer people to deal with elsewhere(helping them to win there). Every second you spend occupying someone who is better than you, helps your team win. I spend a lot of my time do this in ditches, and I'm quite good at it- it takes a little skill, but is an easy way to multiply your value. (Don't mistake this for running away- if what you are doing doesn't improve your chances of winning, and only extends a battle, it will just annoy people. It is the mark of someone who hasn't yet learned how to die.) 

Also, flanking and getting in a backstab or two on somebody better than you also works ;) There's an art to it, and some people know how to counter flank better than others. If they do, watch and ask. If they don't, make sure you aren't trying to just skirt the edge- go wider and you'll do better.

Also, Have fun!