An Tir Dearg

Common Mistakes of New Fighters:

I have noticed that many new fighters tend to make the same mistakes repeatedly. Worse yet, they practice these mistakes in the hope that practice makes perfect. Practice does not make perfect, it just makes permanent. Thatmeans many people are training themselves in a fundamentally unsound manner, not realizing it, and training themselves in mistakes that they will have to unlearn before they are to progress in skill.

In order to correct that, I am writing a fighter blog on common mistakes I've seen new people make. It is not designed to be an all encompassing list, nor is it designed to be a completely inflexible system of rules that never changes. It is designed to be a set of helpful guidelines and a few main reasons for why each guideline exists.

Since the majority of fighters use a sword and a shield, I have divided the mistakes into three broad categories: Footwork, Shield technique, and Sword technique. For the purposes of shield technique, it is assumed that the fighter is using a standard Edhellen round shield because many other shields compensate for the lack of footwork, and the purpose of this blog is to improve basic fighter technique, not to have equipment compensate for poor training.

******Footwork******

Crossing your legs while stepping:

Many fighters cross their legs in some fashion when they are stepping from side to side. At some point during their step, their legs become locked into a position that is extremely difficult to dodge leg shots from because both legs are tied up, and are essentially in the same location. You can't hop off either leg in order to dodge if you're caught in the legs crossed position. More advanced fighters will circle to either side, and wait for their opponent to cross their legs, then throw in a leg shot that can't be dodged, and can only be blocked. Instead of crossing your legs when you walk, try shuffling your feet. If you want to move to the right, move your right foot to the right, then move your left foot near to your right foot, but not further to the right. If you want to move to the left, move your left foot to the left, and then move your right foot to the left, but no further than your left foot. This way, you still retain a decent amount of mobility no matter which direction you decide to move in.

Too much weight on the front foot:

Fighters often put an extreme amount of weight on their front foot without realizing it. This makes it very difficult to dodge backwards or to the side, because all of your weight needs to be shifted before your front foot can move. Instead, keep your feet evenly balanced, or more weight on your back leg. This way, if a leg shot comes in, you can sweep your front foot backwards quickly, and without overbalancing.

Dancing in and out of range without a purpose:

Many fighters get too close to their opponent without realizing it. Worse yet, they attempt to leg their opponent without realizing that the swing entails serious risk. Here is why-- Take a sword and hold it at an angle, as if you were swinging at somebody's leg. Look at how far your reach is. Now, staying in the same position, go down on a knee, and look at how far your reach is again. The reach should be considerably longer. This is because your first swing is the hypotenuse of a triangle, and your second swing is the leg of the triangle. In other words, if you can leg your opponent, assuming you have equal arm length and sword lengths, he can almost always leg you right back when he goes down on his knee. If you have shorter arms and a shorter sword, do not try to play the range game and dance in and out of somebody's range. Advance, and stay close. The range game only works if you have the longer arms, longer sword, or have considerably better footwork.

*****Shield technique*****

Using your shield too much to guard your legs:

If you are using a round shield, look at how far you have to dip your shield to guard your legs. When you dip your shield down that far, your entire body, shield arm, and sword arm are exposed, which is going to get you killed far faster than if you get legged. Unless you are certain a shot is going to come for your leg AND you need to block it with your shield, use your footwork to dodge leg shots, and your shield to guard your upper body.

Overreacting with their shield:

If your shield has to move at all, it only has to move a few inches to block any top shot, either by rolling your shoulder/waist, moving a few inches up or to the side, or moving a few inches forward to cut the other fighter's swinging angle off. Anything more than that, and you're just overreacting and opening yourself up. Try to avoid making large motions in any direction with your shield unless you understand why you're doing it.

Hunching too far forwards:

This is partially a matter of footwork, partially a matter of where you put your shield. The more you hunch forwards, the easier it is to hit you in the shoulder because your shoulder is closer to your opponent. Your shoulder is also lower to your opponent, which gives them a better angle to hit your shoulder. Try to avoid hunching over, because you're opening up your upper body, AND putting too much weight on your front leg (See the same mistake in footwork…)

Dropping your shield while falling:

Hold your shield up. Now go down on a knee. Most people **in combat** drop their shield as they go down, or at least, keep it steady. This is dangerous because as you are going down on a knee, your opponent gets "taller" relative to you. That means his shoulder shots are going to be more dangerous. Instead, keep your shield level, or best yet, raise your shield slightly as you are falling in order to compensate for becoming "shorter".

*****Sword technique*****

Sword too far back:

Many people start with their swords way behind their head. This presents several problems. The first problem is that your sword is ineffective as a blocking weapon if it is behind your body. The second problem is that the sheer distance your sword has to cover is considerably greater. That means your swing is slower, relatively speaking, compared to any other person's swing. It is also "telegraphed" to your opponent, giving him more time to block, dodge, or counter your swing. Keeping your sword closer to your opponent provides a huge increase in speed compared to trying to become physically faster. It also provides sword-side blocking as a bonus. Don't give these advantages up for no reason.

Not pulling sword back after you swing:

Many people take one (or two or three…) swings…and then just leave their arm hanging out there. They are so not used to being blocked, or late swings, that they assume their arm is invulnerable. Mistake. If you are not making an extra swing, your sword and arm should snap back into some form of guard position. Even if you think you've killed the guy, snap your sword back into a guard position. This prevents you from being killed by the last few swings, or swings from another opponent.

Swinging from too far away:

I've seen a lot of fighters swing from distances when they have no chance of hitting their opponent, even if their opponent doesn't move.

-Let's start with shots aimed at above the waist. Your sword should at the very least, be able to REACH your opponent. Better yet, your sword should be able to reach your opponent without you twisting your entire body to try and get closer. Memorize that distance, because that is basically the maximum distance away you should ever be swinging at somebody unless you have a specific other reason for doing so. Maximum distance means exactly that. *Maximum* distance. Most shots from maximum distance will not land because your opponent will move backwards, which means most of your shots have to be from closer than maximum distance.

-What about shots below the waist? Well, hold your sword out…now angle it down as if you were swinging for their leg. Your sword should be further away. This happens for roughly the same reason I described earlier...holding your sword straight out is the "leg" of a triangle, and holding your sword down and at an angle is the "hypotenuse". Hence, your sword has more distance to cover. Therefore, you actually have to be closer to your opponent to swing at their leg than if you wanted to swing at their body. Most fighters don't realize this. Now you do.

*****

Once again, this is not designed to be an all-inclusive or rigid set of rules for fighting. Instead, it is designed as a set of mistakes newer fighters make. Actually, I'm a little uncertain if new people will understand what I have written, but I think veterans will understand, and hopefully they will be willing to teach new people in person.

Best of luck!

-Kenneth

Mindset

There are some people who focus more on the social aspects of Belegarth. If they fight at all, their participation is relatively limited. Most of this post is not for those people. Instead, this post is for those who aspire to become better fighters in some way, either as a newbie aspiring to be mediocre, a mediocre aspiring to be a veteran, or a veteran aspiring to be an elite.

I believe it is possible for almost every fighter to become veteran fighters, if not one of the lower elite. Now before you laugh, please hear me out. The key is your mindset.

When I first started, I was one of the most unhealthy, uncoordinated, clumsy, non-athletic and useless fighters on the field. An abundance of one thing, and a lack of another thing lead me to become at least one of the veteran fighters. I had an abundance of enthusiasm, and a complete lack of shame. It didn't matter who they were, if they were good, I wanted to fight them. I would get completely humiliated over and over, but I would always ask what I was doing wrong, and what I could do better. I was sparring people I theoretically had no business fighting. There were some fighters who could beat me ten, twenty, even thirty times in a row. From them, I slowly learned how to fight until I stood where I am at today. I have had many teachers who have given up much of their time and energy to train me, and I would like to return some of the kindness that was shown to me when I was new.

Now that I am on the other side of the fence, so to speak, I understand the perspective of those dominating fighters a little bit better. It is difficult to constantly go up to new people and ask to fight them when you have no idea whether they will stay in the game, or whether they will leave shortly. You can't easily identify those who want to improve from those who want to hang out. You don't know whether whoever you fight will appreciate what you have to teach, or if they will think you are patronizing them or merely showing off by beating on the newbies. Having somebody come up to you and ask for help solves most of those problems, and lets the veteran fighter know this is somebody who is interested, and has a better than normal chance of sticking around.

That is why the mindset of the newer fighter is so important. Go up to every good fighter you can, and ask to fight. Ask them to teach you, not just beat you. Don't spar the same people at events that you spar in your own practices, because you can spar them at any other time. Ask to spar the fighters who look like they are slaughtering everybody else who stands in front of them. In return for you initiating, the veteran fighter passes on what tips and tricks he may know. Better yet, many veterans are like the dispensers who keep dispensing. Every time you see them, you can ask to fight them and for them to help you out in any way they can. That's not a bad trade at all.

In my time, I have assisted in the training of many veteran fighters. By the standards of most people, they never had any business becoming more than mediocre fighters. Instead, many of them are now veterans simply by their effort to improve. The gap between mediocre and veteran is really not that large. It consists mostly of basic tips and tricks for improvement.

The difference between many mediocre and veteran fighters is mindset, not athleticism. Sitting on the sidelines and sparring your friends, or just fooling around with them is fine. However, I've got to say, you can take an awful lot of satisfaction in watching your own steady improvement in skills. The earlier you start trying to learn from other people, the fewer bad habits you have to unlearn from self-training.

There is a saying that goes something like this--"He who teaches himself has a fool for a teacher, but I must tell you that he who does not teach himself has no teachers at all."

Go out. Leave your pride and fears at the door. Learn. There is a good chance you will have more fun. It is not just about beating people. You can watch yourself improve. Heck, you can even meet more people this way because you are sharing an activity more personal than you dying in the middle of a mass melee. It is about your mindset.

When you're a veteran...maybe...just maybe...remember what an awkward clumsy newbie you were, and return the favor to the next generation of awkward clumsy newbies.

--Kenneth

Range

I have noticed that many fighters, especially newer fighters, have no real concept of range. They assume that if their opponent can hit them, they can hit their opponent.

Range is perhaps one of the most important elements of fighting.

Roughly speaking, there are perhaps four types of range.

1. Nobody can hit each other.

2. You can hit him.

3. He can hit you.

4. You can hit him, and he can hit you.

The difference between 1-2-3-4 and 1-3-2-4 is often the difference between winning and losing. If the order is 1-2-3-4, and you kill him at 2, the fight is over. Similarly, if the order is 1-3-2-4, and he kills you at 3, the fight is over.

Yet, unaware fighters frequently like to fight at 1, 3, and 4.

Fighting when nobody can hit each other (1), and when you can hit him and he can hit you (4), while not ideal, is not that bad. Fighting when he can hit you and you can't hit him (3) is a killer.

In the simplest terms possible, if he has a longer reach than you, you have to fight where both of you can hit each other. If you have a longer reach than him, you have the option of fighting outside of his reach, but you can also fight where both of you can hit each other. You should never fight when he can hit you, and you can't hit him.

The first step is to figure out your own reach. Many fighters use weapons of roughly the same length. It is a fairly simple process to determine how long your reach is. Reach out and touch something at "shoulder", "waist", and "leg" height. That's your maximum reach. Odds are, your opponent will dodge out of that reach. You should almost never take real swings when you're outside of that reach unless you have a darn good reason to. Memorize that distance!!!

The second step is to figure out how long the other guy's reach is. There are a couple main things to look at, and I'll list them in roughly their order of importance.

1. How long his weapon is.

2. How long his arms are.

3. How close his feet are together.

4. How long his legs are.

As you fight, you will slowly learn to approximate how long a opponent's reach is. After that, figure out who has the longer reach. If you have the longer reach, you have the option of fighting inside or outside of his reach. If you have the shorter reach, your only real option is to fight inside of his reach.

Personally, I move as little as possible to stay outside of somebody's reach. A minimal amount of movement is all you often need to stay outside of somebody's reach. A garb or light hit is still a garb or light hit. Sweeping your leg back, tucking in your tummy, or swaying your chest just a tiny bit often is enough to remove most of the force, changing a killing blow to a light hit. The closer you can make it look to them being able to hit you, the more likely they will make an error by swinging when you are truly out of their reach, or are able to move out of their reach. You are faking them into making an error just by standing where they think they can hit you. After that, you can step in and capitalize on their error.

*******

On a more advanced note, there are actually 3 more ranges that come easily to my mind.

5. You're so close he can't hit you.

6. You're so close you can't hit him.

7. You're so close neither of you can hit each other.

A fighter who has developed close ranged shots has an extra option available to him…fighting so close to their opponent that their opponent can't swing, but they can. Actually, many fighters absolutely hate somebody who can stand right in front of them. If you are significantly shorter than your opponent, I highly recommend learning how to fight at extremely close ranges unless you are using a very long weapon.

Stance

Stance

*As a reminder, these are written with the right handed fighter sword + shield user who is fighting another right handed fighter sword + shield user in mind.

**This is more of a working post than a carefully thought out article. It is extremely difficult for me to describe stance in wording that is even remotely comprehensible.

At its most basic level, there are really three places you can put your feet. I don't see many people who stand with their feet side by side naturally, so really, there are two ways you can put your feet. Either you put your right foot forwards, or your left foot forwards. Each placement has its set of natural advantages and disadvantages. Beginning fighters often pick one or the other, and as they become more advanced, flow back and forth between them as the situation requires.

As a general idea of where this post is coming from, stand with your sword and shield, and have your left foot in front of your right foot in some fashion. Odds are, you are in a variant of a left foot forward stance. Now, put your right foot exactly where your left foot was, and your left foot exactly where your right foot was. Odds are, you are in a variant of a right foot forward stance. Notice how your body, sword, and shield shift when you change between a right foot forward and a left foot forward stance. If you naturally stand left foot forward, chances are, standing right foot forward will feel awkward. The same is true in reverse. Left foot forward is by far more common on the Belegarth field.

Left foot forward:

Standing with your left foot forward usually provides you with a lot of protection on your right side because your shield is more towards the right. Not only does your shield naturally block your right side better, it is better at intercepting cross shots. It is also relatively fast at dodging leg shots.

However, standing with left leg forward does leave you slightly more open to wide shield side attacks compared to right foot forwards.

Right foot forwards:

Standing with your right foot forwards is naturally more offensive. First, your sword is slightly closer to your opponent, because it no longer has to cross the length of your body. In other words, you have more reach. It is also better at throwing shots at an opponent's arm or sword-side because the distance between the two is slightly shorter. Finally, it has a tremendous advantage in blocking shots aimed at your shield side, because your entire shield is naturally tilted to block those shots.

These advantages come at a cost…defense. Those who stand right foot forward usually expose a tremendous amount of the right side of their bodies. Everywhere from their right foot up to their right arm and shoulder is more vulnerable compared to if they had stood left foot forwards. Fighters who stand right foot forwards are more prone to overextending on the offense, and opening up vulnerabilities. In line fighting, they are also more likely to be hit in their side by an opponent who is standing diagonal and to their right.

To partially compensate, fighters who stand with their right foot forward may use their sword to block shots aimed at the upper right side of their body.

Angles

Many fighters fight like they are standing on a straight line with their opponent. They only move forwards and backwards, and never side to side. They ignore one of the most important elements of fighting--Angles.

**(Assuming everybody is right handed)**

Here is a little experiment. Grab your swordand a buddy with a shield. Stand straight in front of him. Have him hold up his shield so that it barely covers his shoulder. Hold out your sword so that the tip of your sword rests on the shoulder that his shield is covering. You should not be able to hit his shoulder.

Now, take a tiny step (about three inches) forwards and to the right. You should be able to see more of his shoulder. Return to your starting position, and then take a full step in the same direction. What you are seeing right now is the offensive power of angles. A slight shift to the right (or left) opens up a rather large target area on the side you shift towards. Try reversing the step and stepping forwards and to the left and see what opens up.

Return to your starting position. This time, have him take a step forward and to his left. His shield side should be more difficult to hit. This demonstrates the defensive power of angles. By shifting to the left, your left side becomes more protected. By shifting to the right, your right side becomes more protected.

Be aware that the direction you shift in may open up a better target zone for your opponent. If you go to your right and he goes to his right, your left shoulder is going to be awfully exposed. As an extra warning, be aware that stepping closer tends to make your shoulders more vulnerable to certain types of shots.

By playing around with angles, you can enhance the protection of certain locations, and gain enlarged opportunities to strike your opponent. For example, if you take a step forwards and to the right while swinging at your opponent's leg, your opponent has a more difficult time hitting your own right shoulder compared to if you had just stood still and swung.

Many fighters step to their right to take a leg or shoulder shot. They step to their left to take the high crossover shot at their opponent's sword arm.

Basic footwork opens up an entire realm of offensive and defensive opportunities.

Best of luck!

-Kenneth

The high cross

This blog discusses the advantages and disadvantages of one of the most common shots in Belegarth, the high cross.

What is the High Cross?
The high cross is a shot thrown at your opponent's sword side. The target is typically their upper right shoulder, upraised arm, or mid-right flank. During this shot, your elbow is roughly on level or higher than your wrist.

Advantages of the High Cross:

The high cross is one of the only beginner level shots to target an opponent's right side, particularly their right arm or right shoulder. The shot's target area is usually more vulnerable because it is not guarded by a shield. It is simple, easy to learn, and effective against most fighters. Used in a proper manner, it can bait opponents into swinging, or pin their sword in place temporarily.

Finally, the High Cross is a pretty decent counter to one other frequently thrown shot…the High Cross. What that tends to lead to is "High Cross battles" where both sides throw as many high crosses as fast as possible at each other.

Disadvantages of the High Cross:

Performed poorly (Fairly frequent), the high cross is one of the worst opening moves possible because it exposes a significant portion of your arm and shoulder. Further, it is a slower shot than a shield side shot because there is more distance to cover, both on the way in and on the way out.

Also, one of the only ways to protect yourself while throwing a high cross is to move your shield over to your sword side. However, that opens up your shield side significantly. In other words, the high cross is an offensive attack that sacrifices a tremendous amount of defensive ability, and tends to leave you in a poor position to defend once it has been thrown.

Summary:

In many respects, this is similar to the newbie duck-and-swipe-at-the-leg shot. It is simple and effective against both newbies and veterans. However it often leads to inconsistent results and high cross battles where both fighters move to their left and swing as fast as possible. Against fighters who are expecting or baiting the high cross, it frequently leads to loss of an arm or death.

This is a great set of posts worth rereading for noobs and vets. Stickied.

My concurance with the Isk and Tiberius thanks for sharing this information.

Reading this post and then being able to put into a group demo was so totally awesome!