I had a lot of fun this past weekend at Anvil, a tournament ran by The Forge WMA in Calgary. The tournament was well organized, probably the best job I’ve seen them do yet. And the fighting was challenging and enjoyable – I think for everyone. I’m really looking forward to the remaining tournaments I’ll be in this year.
I didn’t place in the finals for either Messer or Longsword this year, but I kind of expecting that, since I haven’t truly competed in a long time. I made a few mistakes that made me angry at myself. The funniest of them – yes, funny – was when I grabbed a Messer being swung at my head. I have been drilling so much with sword & buckler that the movement to block was automatic. And I tried to block with the buckler three times in that one fight. Yeesh! I lost. And I sustained an injury from it, a severe bruise to one of my fingers. No big deal, as I have full movement, and the injury will likely be gone in a week.
This was one of four injuries I got this tournament. The least painful of them is the one on my ankle. This was a strange one, as the blow was mostly received on the upper part of my shoe. It was kind of a freak injury, and not likely to happen again. However, it does make me wonder about whether there should be protection on every spot where a bone could be hit. It did partially hit the bone on my ankle, but I didn’t feel that at the time. If it had hit there fully, instead of the top of my shoe and the soft tissue behind the bone taking most of it, I would have a fractured ankle. A couple of years ago someone else had his leg broken because he didn’t have any covering the couple of inches above his ankle and was hit there. And the power of the blow against the leg may also have been a factor. Since then PHFL rules dictate that there must some protective gear that comes down to the ankle, and that there must be no exposed skin. There are some issues with increasing the protective gear. But I’ll get into that at another time.
I also have a bad bruise on the back of my shoulder. This one is also my fault. I get hit in that spot by the guy who inflicted this bruise in that area about one out of four of our fights. So, it’s obvious that I’m doing something wrong that makes me vulnerable to that strike, and he knows exactly what it is. I guess I have some more training to do! And that’s okay. One of the things that getting a little bit of pain can do is to teach. There’s the adage “no pain, no gain.” While it’s not true in most things, in this instance, the pain can teach – or at least motivate – one to figure out what the issue is that is causing one to continually get hit in the same spot. A good coach can help with this. The mistake in one’s sparring becomes particularly obvious when it costs a match during a tournament. And so, I know I have one thing (and probably a lot more) to work on before the next tournament.
My fourth injury is a bad lump, which left a mark and a swollen lump, on the top of my head. This was the hardest hit I’ve ever received to the head, regardless of what weapon has been used, the entire time I have been doing HEMA. And that’s a long time [I founded the AES in 1994]. The event was being fought with “lightsaber” rules. This means that no matter what, the first hit eliminated the other person, and after blows made no difference. I knew I was going to get hit and sacrificed that for the win. But getting hit with a light leather Dusack through a good HEMA mask shouldn’t hurt so much. And it certainly shouldn’t leave a wound, no matter how slight. This means the person I was fighting was hitting way too hard. The problem is how to deal with it. And that’s something I don’t have an answer to now.