Punchy
As your mom and I were talking last night she brought up some good points that I may need to cover in this blog. One of them is that I have not really talked about sword except by loose reference. Also to that point, I cannot say that things will always be the way they are now, so it may be worth it to try to get some of this down while I remember it. (This may be the same with several things) All of that being said, I may be shifting directions some. While still writing this blog every day until you are born, I may also write once a week or so as you are growing up just what is going on around our house, what if anything is new with you. so that it is documented somewhere. We will see where this goes but I like the idea.
OK, so sword.
I joined the UCSA in January of 1999. At that time, I had friends in class who were doing it and it sounded like a fun thing to do. At that time we were using wooden swords that we cut out of 2X4's and our guards were made of plywood that we cut out with a jigsaw. We then took all of that and wrapped it in duct tape, or electrical tape. Things were very different then but it was a start. I have a collection of some of these swords in the garage if you ever want to see them. (Some are mine some are not) As for manuals there were not really any that we used. We followed what our instructor Knight Stallion had been taught from his instructor. As time progressed some of our students began studying a few books by John Clements that you could find at the local library.
This was a different age for sure. To me it feels like we allowed more variety of weapons, and I remember at one point people shooting bows with Tennis balls at the ends so they could safely shoot them at people though indirectly. We often had "night games" which was completely unofficial but was a bunch of us getting together on Saturday nights and doing more sparring or fun sword related games like warfare's, or hide and go seek with swords, as well as variations on capture the flag. It often turned into a social hour as well as many of us were there because we so enjoyed sword that it was a great way to socialize with the stuff and the people we liked spending time with.
As for the weapons, none of them were well balanced. That is the nature of the beast. We did what we could to add pommels or to bring the weight to the back but I don't ever remember a sword that balanced as it should have been but they were relatively easy to make and relatively cheap to make so they served a great purpose. Customization was a big deal. To that end we had an unwritten rule that if someone put tape on their grip in a particular combination or way, that was theirs and no one else was supposed to do the exact same. (I think in part this was based around being able to identify your sword from the others in class.) We named our swords, and after 5 weeks of class we were given Swordsman's names, This was not something that you picked out for yourself, but was often based on how you fought, and if you had any preferences for something you could always suggest it and it would be taken into consideration. I liked Dragons so I suggested that I wanted that to be a part of my name. The day I was supposed to be given my name I was sick as a dog, I had been home from school sick just before it but I showed up because I wanted to have my name dammit! I was presented with the name Dragon Fyre, I promptly went home and stayed home the rest of the day after that.
I loved sword, but as happens sometimes life does get in the way. I won my first trophy that was not a participation trophy the summer of 1999. It was a big deal to me and I have tried to make a good place for it in my home since then. After awhile I took a break from sword because in my words I was going to be a minister and I could not balance in my mind the study of war, while being about peace in my work. I did come back at one point at study with Marc's class while it was going mostly because I worked on Saturdays at the Bombay Company and in retail, Saturdays are generally non negotiable. As for protection it was a hodge podge of what people had or wanted to use for protection. I remember at one point wearing soccer arm pads for my arms, and a paintball mask but things were far from standard. As for target areas we did not allow hits to the head, since no one had sufficient face protection, and if they did it was not across the board used.
Some time after his class stopped meeting, as I hear it the UCSA broke up. At that point, as I have been told we had 60 or more people in class every week. Dues were a dollar a month to cover costs, and we had grown to having so many people in class I can't say that I know everyone who is or was in sword at some point within our organization. I can't speak to the break up as I do not know all of the details.
As I understand it, it was sometime after that that Crusader (Michael Ricks) began teaching his class at through Granite peaks. He changed a lot of things, tried some new one but what it meant for the UCSA was that it survived the break up of the big class and began its transition to HEMA as we know it. Eventually they would move to wooden wasters which move a lot better than the swords we used to use. (Though with the duct tape ones, the more you used them, the softer they hit as the wood broke up inside the tape and eventually it was the tape that kept them to the shape.) Some of our fighters who have been with us a long time are from this time in the evolution of our organization. Right now that means Heather and Jack mostly.
Coming back to the park
In the spring of 2009 Knight Sentry/Travis announced that he was going to start holding class at Liberty again. At that time your cousin Emily was living with me and I thought it would be fun to start back in class, and if she wanted to learn it would be a great time for her to do so. I never could have known at that time how much it would go on to shape my free time and my life. By this point in time, and through the change of class and the evolution of class, we were using Purple Heart wooden wasters, they had studied Fiore so that was what our curriculum was based on as well as adding in some of the things from our old curriculum. Most things were back, though ranks were not for a time, and some things had evolved. When we had swordsman's names originally we often had people who showed up in class for 5 weeks, would get a name then we would never see them again. The challenge is that we had a rule that said we would never reuse someones name or parts of it so things eventually got complicated with them.
When we came back names were given to those at a certain rank but only there. The first ranks were based on knowledge. the next ones were based on physical requirements, and it went on from there. For a long time we did not include the head in our sparring and practice because people simply did not have head protection. For awhile we went on our own, but a year later, we joined the HEMA Alliance a somewhat recently formed group who provided non-profit status and insurance protection as well as a large umbrella work under.
I was the first proponent of joining. Offically I bought a membership in November, and by December we were a member organization. It made sense to have insurance protection, and it provided us with an opportunity to talk to and work with other groups who did the same thing. It took another year for us to move to mandated head protection and scoring the head as a viable target, but eventually it came, as did moving from wood to synthetic weapons exclusively. I will admit, at this early point in time, I was not a respected member of the community. I tended to complain about things too much, how unfair it was that so much in the community was tied into events that were thousands of miles away.
In January of 2012 we went on vacation to Puerto Rico, and I was able to spend a class time teaching them technique and sparring with them. A funny thing happens when you visit other clubs. It often turns into a "Who wants to fight THIS guy?" thing. People who you have never sparred with want to fight you often most of them. It is really a funny way to make someone feel welcome but it works.
In 2011 I started dating your mom, and we were married in May of 2012, bought the house in September of 2012 and by October we held our first Great Pumpkin Festival. This was an opportunity to get together with my sword friends, partake in pumpkin related food and drink, and take out the sharp and cut pumpkins. I had bought the Hanwei Tinker blunts for myself the Christmas of 2011 (as well as other sword things) and I had picked up the sharp blade not too long after, though it rarely came out. For the parties we bring out my sharp, Machetes, and anything else that will cut a pumpkin. It was a blast, and something that we did for the next couple years. (We are not hosting it this year, you are due too close to when we normally hold it.)
In 2012 we started researching German techniques, and in 2013-2014 we had a German exchange student who really helped us learn and practice those techniques.
In the winter of 2014 something changed. By that time I had placed again in our local tournament and I felt pretty good about how I was doing. Then I heard about Combat Con. Your mom and I looked at the calendar and saw that in 2014 it was happening over my birthday weekend. I had always wanted to go to an event, meet people, take classes and compete on a bigger level. By this point in time I was wearing most of the required protection for it Jacket, Mask, Gorget, Lacrosse gloves. Elbow protection, Knee protection, would be picked up before the tournament, and for the first time we were going to be walking on a bigger stage then we ever had.
Being that this was the first event we had attended as a group, we pooled money together and made sure our Instructor could make it down there too. The next thing that came from it was that at one time we found out that it was a bring your own steel tournament, with none of the swords we had being eligible to be used in it. It was almost a time to give up on it until your mom said to me, if you need it, we will figure out a way to do it. Within a few days I had a credit card to buy one with, and by the end of the event I had a second one so now we can and sometimes do practice with steel. At this time things shifted from, "We can't make it to events" to "What do we need to do to get us there." It was a game changer. We walked away with a lot that we had learned, but the biggest take away was the perspective change, and the fact that we had gotten there, fought our best, and at no point felt so overwhelmed that we felt we were so out of our league with everyone. Sure we got beat by some people but we went stride for stride with others. Not the best, but definitely not the worst.
In October we went to Disneyland, and while I was down there I met and spent time with some people who I had met in Vegas. Some of these people are helping me get better even though miles and miles separate us. They want me to succeed because as I said yesterday, they believe in me and it is hard not to feel good about that.
In preparation Combat Con, and to pick up some different techniques and work on moving my feet. I started taking Olympic fencing in January of 2014. By this last spring I started helping coach Sabre. and this year I made it back to Combat Con 2015. It was a great experience and something I may make a yearly tradition. but I wont go into a lot of detail as I have gone into it extensively on other blogs.
Where I am going from here I don't know. Right now I am filling in coaching when Travis is not in class. One day soon, I want to be teaching more. There is a conflict sometimes between teaching and training yourself, but I have found the better fighters in the community do what they can to practice both. For me, in many ways, Sword is life. I am passionate about it, it is something I love. and though your mom is not involved in it, she supports me in it because it gives me such joy. If you can do that for someone do it. You do not have to do exactly what they do to support them, you can encourage them and help them in ways that are not directly connected. Your mom loves to bake, I don't so the way I support her is helping her get things she wants or needs for that. (Though she is keeping track, and I owe her a lot in for the Kitchen!)
So that is a brief history of sword and my participation in it. It is not all there, I could write a book on what all is not included, but as I feel I have gone on too long it is what it is.
-Dad
