Recent practices & drills

I'm finally getting around to updating this thing. Getting to practice has been a bit sporadic lately, but I hope to pick it up before Pennsic, as well as get a bunch of physical conditioning in. I ended up not being able to complete the 60 in 60 challenge because I was unable to fight for about a month after Birka due to medical reasons.

Practice this week was very good. Ken Mondschein who teaches at the Higgins came by and we ran through a number of drills (a couple of which I'll go over below) and got some good sparring in. I plan to hit the Carolingian regional practice tomorrow, and the depending on how the new job goes on Monday, the regular Monday practice in Millbury. Depending on how my event/work schedule is, I'm also hoping to get to the Higgins for the Sword Guild practices.

1/17/11 Practice Log

We had a good practice last night in Millbury, I'd estimate between 15-20 fencers. The 60 fights in 60 days program encouraged me to fight more and chat less. I ended up getting fights with seven people in, and probably could have done two - three more.

• Aiden McShane
• Edward Grey of Lochleven
• Diego Miguel Munoz de Castilla (OWS, OGR)
• Anastasia Da Mont
• Tiago Santos
• Rhiannon the Curious (OWS, OGR)
• Mathias Grundwald

I split my fights between stick and dagger, though mostly stick in preparation for possibly having to fight other forms at K&Q Champions this weekend. It worked well for me, and I think I'm going to try fighting it some more. The main thing I need to remember is it's not a dagger, and if I end up in close, I can't hit people with it.

Running 60 in 60 count, 7 fights, 2 OWS

60 fights in 60 days

I start the 60 fights in 60 days challenge tomorrow at the Quintavia practice. I'll be posting updates here as I go along. K&Q rapier champions this weekend, and Birka the weekend after that should help boost my numbers.

Transporting your gear

One of my personal pet peeves at events is seeing the row of golf bags that people use to cart their gear around. While I do recognize the usefulness of them to transport gear, a row of uncovered bags on the side of a listfield is very visually jarring to me. The simplest option for this is to buy a blanket or other cloth to cover it, there are period ways of transporting gear.

Article Ideas

I've got a bunch of topics that I'm thinking about writing about at some point. There is no set schedule for what I'll be writing when, so if there is a topic that seems particularly interesting, please let me know so I can work on those first. By the end of the weekend I'll have an article on carrying gear posted.