2003-06-21 - 9:43 p.m.

A letter to Wise Wonderful Wiley Wynn,

(in response to a letter from her)

I�m recovering from a variety of woes. I don�t like to get started talking about them because I always over-share. But, my recovery is very intermittent and will not have progressed far enough soon enough for me to go to Pennsic. Though I have to admit that I�m considering a short trip and staying in a hotel.

I can hardly think of two finer men who are less appropriate for you to be learning combat from than those two. You can tell them I said so, too! I will not say that you are not bending your knees enough, that�s just pulling a line of dogma from the book.

I would tell you that you�re not reading your opponents intent well enough. It�s much more mysterious and spiritual. You�ve been fighting and watching fighting enough now that you should be able to make the determination on your opponents intent early enough to be able to make the block. Otto isn�t far wrong when he describes it as a file of index cards that have positions on one side and what you�re supposed to do about it on the other. I think it�s more complicated, like using differential calculus in three dimensions to predict curves.

There�s another good possibility, are you blocking with your shoulders and hips? Using a bit of a hip motion, down and to the left usually, is really important for us vertically challenged fighters. Shoulder blocking, usually back and down with the right shoulder, is very important for blocking off side blows.

Don�t ever give up great sword and pole arm. They are the art forms of SCA weapons. Two weapon is for bandits, sword and shield is for working folks, pole arm is for the gentry, and great sword is the nobility of SCA weapon forms. By the way, spear vs. spear counts as great sword. Spear in melee is for killers. I like the way you spell favourites. I think we should all go back to the English spellings of similar words.

Yours in Service to Kingdom and Kith,

Diccon