[Lancelot Chan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vQAJNG8V74

I was invited as a guest competitor in a free style sparring competition hosted by a local sword forum. We agreed that I would only spar in the first division to give the newcomers more chance to win the game. It was the first time I sparred in a competition environment. I had been doing free sparring for very long time, in friendly practice mostly, and on a few occasions doing a duel. However, relying on judges to say what's a valid hit and what's not was a new experience to me. So I have to hit harder and become more obvious in my attacks so that the judges could detect my hits easier. There were six division bouts. They came up with "survival rate" to decide who would proceed to the next divison. I won the division I was in at 76% survival rate, the highest of the day. My opponent's arsenal included Chinese single handed jian, double handed jian, twin katana and a basket-hilt + buckler. It was not the easiest environment for a single longsword to survive.

From the semi-final on to the final bout, it was 1 hit-kill mode where the winner was decided by a single valid hit (disabling / killing). The final fight lasted around 5 mins with both parties, 1 using a single handed Chinese Jian and the other wielding 2 Japanese katateuchi, taking many glancing slices and thrusts without a decisive hit. At last the one with twin swords hit the guy with jian at the head with a killing blow and won the prize.

A student from Australia Stoccata school, Clinton, who studies German longsword under Andrew Brew also got to the semi final with a single longsword against all odds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18XhBm-LOhs

After the division sparring, I asked my kendo friend to spar with me, who took up a chinese two handed jian instead of katana. Next, I joined up a queue where I could do some sparring with another esteemed kendoka (the same guy who was wielding twin katana in the division sparring) who was wielding a single katana this time. In these unofficial bouts I switched back to my normal mode because of the lack of need to let judges to acknowledge my hits.

[Jeremy V. Krause]

Hello Lancelot,

It seems strange to me that this competition would feature opponents with totally unrelated weapons from completely diiferent cultures and completely different time periods. Did I read your post correctly. Do you know the reasoning for this?

Jeremy

[P. Cha]

Looks fun...it's something we do in the SCA sometimes with teenagers who's too young for heavy armor training or with justa bunch of other people when we don't wanna lug on all our armor bits.

I'm not surprised by the results. You were at least holding your sword correctly. Almost everyone else I saw was holding their sword out in a "look at me I'm cool" position. Especially the sword and buckler guy. If your gonna use a center grip buckler you should at least line up your sword or punch with it. Also with an active shield, he should have is sword back and in the ready position over a guard position(This also works well with the twin sword, but a A frame stance usually works better with twin swords). Although for some better results, I suggest you watch your footwork. You have a habit of crossing up your legs as you move, This mean less stability, control and speed for you attacks.

What kind of swords are you using? Wooden? foam?

[Lancelot Chan]

Hhehehe because it's how we practice in Hong Kong here every week, so it doesn't seem strange to us. And that's also what I originally made Realistic Sparring Weapons for, so that there will be an equal platform for all different kind of weapons from different culture and period to spar on.

[Lancelot Chan]

Thanks for your suggestion. I'll pay more attention to that. I think I was being less careful with my footwork on the wooden floor because it was too stable compare to the dry sandy ground on the hill and the uneven brick floor on the rooftop.

The swords we were using were Realistic Sparring Weapons that I made. They're made of foam layer with plastic core and metal reinforcement, weight and balance are tuned to be exact of the real swords they are trying to simulate. So my sword was made after my personal tinker longsword. It weights and balances the same.

[P. Cha]

Ah...so they are pretty much like the PVC core boffers we make in the SCA. While most don't try to emulate balance and weight, there is enough people who do. I had a habit of using cement wheel on my weapons for the pommel as counterweight often because they are cheaper then metal hehe. Although at proper weight, many people complain that the boffers hit a bit too hard for boffer combat. Your examples are pretty nice...but at that prices I think I'd spring for the really nice dense foam LARP swords (yeah yeah, not close to real weight, but their balance is surprisingly good for a fake weapon).

[Jean Henri Chandler]

Lance why do you feel a jian would work out but a longsword wouldn't survive as you say?

Good fights btw.

J

[Anders Nilsson]

Quite nice fights.

It do seem like some tend to be a bit suicidal. Some kamikaze moves, straigh forward. I don´t think that they will do like that after some sparring with wasters or steel, it hurts to much so one doesn´t want to get hit. Since they tend to be kamikaze you could use that against them, pivot step forward and right and you get them.

I like your style thou, how long have you been training?

[Lancelot Chan]

I didn't think a jian would work out either. That's why I think the guy in the final fight who fought with a jian all along the way was being extraordinary.

[Lancelot Chan]

Thanks. I have been training seriously for maybe 6 to 7 years, but had been messing around with swords for a lot longer than that. Unfortunately there was no historical western swordsmanship instructor in Hong Kong so I had to work on it myself and took quite a long time to achieve so little.

[P. Cha]

[P. Cha]

[Jared Smith]

[P. Cha]

Hehe, well I spar in SCA in MINIUM armor (gloves, knee, elbow, kidney belt, neck and helmet) using rattan full weight practice swords. Then again, I have a pretty high pain tresh hold . Of course I did end up with bloody lungs once...so I wouldn't recommend this per say.

As far as boffer weapons goes, Yeah I noticed 2 lbs being a good thresh hold as well unless your willing to use hockey helmets and gloves at the very least. And like I said, those dense foam LARP swords do work really well also.

[Elling Polden]

We use light contact steel, which works fine most of the time.

Fighting looks fun, but quite a few of the fighters strike me as somewhat uhm, unreflected.
Take the two weapon fighters, for instance. They consequently fail to defend their center line, and you hit them over the head time and time again. Wouldn't it make sense to lead with one weapon instead? Or at least vary when they get killed?

[Lancelot Chan]

A good sword and shield fighter would have won the tourney hands down. That's my feeling.

[Lancelot Chan]

[Anders Nilsson]

We sparr using weighted shianii, hockey gloves and helmet. We only use T-shirt a bode protection. That way we train to keep away.

When we started we used steel but after i cut a nerve in my thumb we quit using those in sparring.

Against kamikazez I like to use thusts, when they swing I thrust them in the face, then they usually quit charging me.

When using a longsword vs sword and shiled I like to mix in some halfswording when I enter krieg. It´s quite fun fighting longsword vs sword and shield. Me and Elling had some nice bouts at Swordfish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls8uuUKgKNM

Here are some clips from some of my bouts. This is most gritty hits, since I like to use pommels and such, no real clean cuts in these clips.

[Elling Polden]

[Anders Nilsson]