Troper Fencing Academy

Test was today. Afterwards, we shigiri'd the fuck out of some tame.◊

I was the only person to be able to successfully do a horizontal and rising cut through the tatami on my first try. And even after we'd had a couple tries at it, everyone else still had trouble with it.

Those are tough cuts to do, though. If you're not quick enough, don't slice enough, and don't have enough follow-through, you won't be able to do it. You'll either get the sword stuck (happened a lot), or you'll baseball-swing the mat off the stand.

I mean, not to toot my own horn. A couple of the senpai and sensei were obviously quite good at it, and I could only do those strikes from my right side, not my left.

Niiice, mate. You are one step closer to being a master swordsman. XD

Oh, and random question, for a story I'm writing.

What would be a kickass name for five swordsman who are considered the greatest in the world? The Five Swordsmen (technically one of them is a woman, but nobody knows that) doesn't seem adequate.

The Five Blades would be the most stereotypical choice. Suggestions: Swords of the Dawn, Steel Masters, Speed Demons, Blade Gods.

The Five Gods of the Sword?

Woo, I like the suggestions.

Oh, and in addition, all if them are knights, with one of them being a duke and the commander of the king's army.

Five Teens With Attitude

The Swords Royal?

Because they work for the king ?

@Moon - Well, only one of them is a teenager (19) while the rest is in late 20s to early 40s. XD

@3 - Hmm, that could work too.

Another one I have is The Kingswords. But that sounds awfully like the Kingsguards and i already ripped off am hugely inspired by Game of Thrones as I am right now. XP

What exactly are you aiming for, an official name or a public-eye-name?

Non-official, but public name.

Pretty much none of the five swordsmen actually know that they are called as such. The only swordsman who do know is rather annoyed by that title, because he is much rather be known as a great military commander.

Maybe "The Blessed Blades".

One (or more) of them could even even hate that name because it implies a higher force "blessed" them with skill rather than their skill being innate.

"The Five Swords of the Realm"

makes a reference to the kingdom but sound poetic enough to be probably not government issue

I like both of them. I do lean slightly towards the "The Five Swords of the Realm", so I'm going with that one. Thanks. :)

Random question.

Is there any name for a technique/strategy, in which you don't make a big hit on your opponent's body, but instead keeps making small cuts after small cuts, slowly bleeding him out?

Well, in general you'd want to defeat your enemy as quickly as possible. You'd only do those cuts if you want to prolong their life.

So as far as I know, no, there's no such name except "holding back"

edited 6th Jul '15 6:20:15 PM by Clawthewolf

Well yes, but sometimes if you aren't particularly stronger than your opponent, small cuts could be all you can manage to make. XP

Fencing isn't an RPG where you deal scratch damage on more skilled opponents. You either deal maiming or killing blows on your enemy or you receive them.

True dat.

EDIT: Well, unless you're rapier fighting in the Italian Renaissance and you're going to the blood instead of to the death, but... that doesn't come up a lot.

edited 7th Jul '15 4:02:34 PM by Blackmoon

Actually that is not entirely true. If all you can get through defenses are lesser hits you take them. Even small injuries and steady blood loss from small wounds can cause an opponent to start to falter. It is one those strategies though you should only use if you absolutely have to. Otherwise get the best blow you can land.

edited 7th Jul '15 8:26:23 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant.

I mean, who lands a small hit when you can land a big one? When you can only land small ones, hey, gonna take what you gonna get. XP

The only thing I can think of is the difference between a draw cut and a thrust. Thrusting (whether with the point or the edge) will typically go deeper, but it's harder to do. Slashing will generally make a longer shallower cut, but it's easier (the entire outline of your opponent is basically target area). So it's a trade off depending upon the type of weapon you have, the level of skill you possess, and the nature and circumstances of your opponent (reasonably heavy armor will make slashing cuts pretty nearly impossible, but they work well with lightly armored opponents).

My instructor tells me that the first wound is really the only one that matters. If you stab somebody, their reflex is to tense up or freeze, and you can finish them off pretty easily if you want to. If you don't, then they're weakened enough that you can wait for them to tire out and give up.

Sounds solid to me. Marine bayonet fighting has a variation where the scenario is the opponents defense against a definitive strike is too good to settle the matter you change your attacks to target things easier to hit. You start going for arms, hands, fingers, and upper legs. Anything that if injured makes it harder for them to keep you at bay. Cuts are preferred for this approach as they don't quite require quite as much commitment to the attack as a thrust does.

edited 9th Jul '15 10:38:59 PM by TuefelHundenIV

This talk made me realize:

Holy crap, I actually forgot about thrusting part of fencing. XP

When I started learning the sabre, I had already been practicing with foil and epee for several years. Apparently some people will leap straight in to the sabre without having learned proper point control on the other weapons. And without having practiced thrusting, you cheat yourself out of a lot of potential uses of the sabre.

Not true, adrenaline can do funny things to people in deadly situations like a sword fight. Its often the case that a person hoped up on adrenaline doesn't even realize that they have been stabbed. A good example of the first wound not winning the fight is Edward Sackville who was run through and lost a finger before killing his opponent.