Longsword Sparring in the Park (11 March 2018)

Hey folks, finally an opportunity to record some sparring again. So here's an example of a successful feint. Start a left side cut and then turn it into a right side cut to the arm. I used my GoPro to record as well but some of the first person footage unfortunately is unusable. Sometimes the camera moves and then points up at the sky or at the ground. So here's a nice one. Cut to my hand and then the blade goes to the body. This didn't have enough rotation for a proper cut but the blade was right there for a thrust so it's still valid. The first person view can look really cool if it points in the right direction. There's some better footage later in the video. I didn't like the cut I did there. It didn't have enough rotation but the one that I received was definitely good. And here's an example of how a feint can be risky. It was well done but because I performed a counter cut at the same time I could hit without being threatened. It's just a quick arm snipe. Sometimes you can get those in. Being a bit too passive here but then I do decide to move in for the cut. So my cut was deflected with a krumphau or crooked strike and then I wind up to come around for the strike to the head. This I suppose you could call either a low shield hau or a forward krumphau. Either way a nice thing about this is that it looks like a cut from the right side at first but then it goes to the left. This was nicely done. My first cut provoked my defensive krumph. I was a sloppy krumph and then while I was defending on the left side the cut came around to the right. So this is a somewhat better first person footage. You can actually kind of see what's going on. Not as well as from the other perspective but it sure looks pretty cool. So this is quite a long exchange as you can see. So there's a thrust. I counter it and I catch the fallout cut. Come back around. It's also parried. Here I moved out of the guard too early and it struck my arm. So I should have committed more to that defense. And then a plane screwed up. I should not have rolled up here to do a cut. I should have defended that first. I got a hit in but that's no good. And this exchange here we just kept parrying and counter cutting. This was interesting and here you really need the slow-mo footage. Otherwise you can't really see what was going on. Right here this workout comes in and hits my arm. But at the same time my cut also connects. These things can be really hard to see sometimes. And sometimes it's also difficult for the fighters to determine if it was a good hit or not. Or what exactly happened at the time. It can get pretty intense and it's not always clear. There's not gonna cut to interrupt the attack. This is one of the exchanges without a hit. Looks very close but we did parry both of them. Here as well. And I really need to bring my arms out further in AUX. It's hard to do in full gear because of restricted mobility. But the blade needs to cover the body better. With synthetic swords. Here the camera angle is not perfect but it's okay-ish, I suppose. It's kind of funny. I saved myself at the very last second by turning this into a krump to deal with the low cut. Here the thrust got me and only the very tip of my sword connected with his mask. That wouldn't have even hit his face, I think. So here I noticed that the cut was out of measure and I just cut at the same time. Because I knew that it wouldn't hit me. There's a feint. So as soon as he moves and does a krump I come around but he still caught it. This is something I tend to rely on a bit too much. I shift back to make the cut miss me and then I throw a cut of my own at the same time. It can be very effective but it's also risky. Because if I misjudge the distance by just a little bit I get hit. Trying to shoot in over the top of the guard here but didn't work. And that cut I called off. It was just too puny, so to speak. That was a really nice hit to the leg. And I was way too passive there. I think I was just running out of steam at that point. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and thanks for watching.