Altavia Anniversary 2011, garb plans, and an awesome present!

In a word? Muchbetterthanlastyear.

(Also, look! I've figured out how to use Blogger's jump break feature!)

Keep Calm and Carry On

Hi all! I just wanted to drop a brief update here--there's not much new going on over here in Chateau Enid, but there are a couple of things worth noting.

I've been going to Darach practice recently, because my work weeks have been super busy and my carpool buddy moved to Mississippi, making the drive down and back from Altavia (between 45 mins and 1:30, depending on traffic) a bit more nerve-wracking. I tend to get sleepy on the freeway, especially in a warm car or at night, so driving by myself at night, in winter, with the heater on, doesn't really appeal. :)

I really enjoy the feel of Darach practice--it's usually pretty small, but it's spearheaded by Dons Alex K. and Eogan ("Owen"), giving us a good ratio of Scarves to non-Scarves. They're both really willing to teach and pretty much everyone who attends the practice regularly is very friendly, laid back, and approachable, which really colors the whole ambiance of the practice for me. That's not to say that any of the other practices I've attended are stuffy or overly serious or in any way not fun--just that this one's smaller, so I get some more individual attention, which I like (spoiled brat that I am), and all the regulars there are very easy to get along with.

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good about my fencing right now in general. Between the maintenance exercises and the fish oil, neither foot nor elbow have been bothering me much (I could feel my elbow working hard at practice yesterday, but it's not sore at all today). I've been working on incorporating more forward motion into my fight, and a shout-out is due here to Don Alex B., who led an impromptu class on sloping and compass steps at Altavia practice a month or so ago that I found really helpful.

Yesterday I was playing around with them with a fencer who I haven't fought a lot (I think he might be kind of new, not sure). He basically fought with lots of circling, lots of going backwards, and lots of sticking the sword out, hoping someone will run into it. Forward-moving aggression consisted pretty much exclusively of little shots at the hands and face--more of a "Don't come any closer!" than a genuine attack. It was a lot like fighting myself six months ago, with less hair. ;) I had fun experimenting with sloping steps to throw his circling off, or to invite him in closer so I could hit him. I concentrated mostly on my own defense and working through his sturdy parries and offhand-work, with some good success. Now I just have to work on making my advances more subtle--if I wasn't taking a step in to counter his circle, he could tell what I was doing and countered my advances quickly.

I did notice that I started getting frustrated with myself as I started getting tired at practice. It was interesting to note--I haven't had a lot of frustration with myself recently. Between time commitments and joint issues, I've been so glad to be out fencing at all that it's hard for me to have a bad time out on the field. :) Yesterday, though, my brain had ideas for stuff to do and none of it was quite working fast or fluidly enough--I think I was just getting tired, and I wasn't reacting quite as fast or as skillfully as I wanted to. Either that or because someone dropped a comment about my not doing the correct motion to counteract my opponent's defense, and it bothered me. I didn't think it did at the time, but it might have wormed its way into my brain and irked me. I'm disinclined to take my subconscious that seriously... ;) Not a big deal either way, just something worth noticing.

Let's see, what else is going on? Tourney season is almost upon us, Caid's Crown Tourney was this past Saturday, and I'm working on a new doublet. I hope the pattern I have now serves me well enough to get a fighting dress out of, as well. We'll see how the new doublet wears--I already know it fits me, but it remains to be seen how comfortable it's going to be. Working on garb has always been a bit of a challenge for me, because it ties into some body-image issues I've always had (and really, doesn't everyone have some body image issues? Come on, now.) It's been a long uphill battle to acknowledge and accept that the only way I'll feel like I look nice in my garb is by taking the time and effort into making nice garb, rather than just throwing a T-tunic on and trying to avoid mirrors for the whole event. :)

There's all of that and the fact that I really do think a nice, period appearance on the field is important (or at least an obvious attempt at a period appearance), so I really owe it to myself to make something nicer. My current doublet is basically a waster I cooked up quickly, trying to supplement my fighting gear, and ended up wearing full time after I gained some weight in the last quarter of college and hadn't lost. Now, a year and a half later, I've lost some of the weight and don't have any good excuses anymore. :)

Also coming along the pipe are slipcovers for my sneakers, a new hood, and hopefully a dress of some kind. I'd love to find some super-discounted brocade for a new gear bag as well, as the camp-chair bag I repurposed for my gear is on its last legs, but that's kind of an ongoing desire, not an active plan.

That's about it for now. See you next time--Same Enid time, same Enid channel.

The New Year: Plans, little thoughts, and a dash of whatnot.

This is just a little check-in post, not a lot of groundbreaking revelations here, just some stuff I've noticed and updates on current projects.

I took about a month off of fencing this winter, both by accident and by design--our cat went back into congestive heart failure and we decided to put her down, I traveled up to the Bay Area to be with my family for a week over the holidays, I got back into town and was booked solid for New Year's weekend, and then we got about a week of rain which mired our local practice and occurred around the same time I sprained my right foot, which I had injured the year before and which frustrated me hugely. It was a busy month, and between the emotional stuff, the physical stuff, and the logistics of the holidays, fencing got put on the back burner.

I fought yesterday at the Caid pre-Estrella melee practice, and I was pretty pleased with my performance. My parries are doing really well, and while my endurance isn't up to par (you mean a month of holiday food and no fencing has, like, detrimental effects? Madness!), overall I felt like I did well. My reflexes, if nothing else, seem to be continuing to improve. I no longer seem to be letting my offhand do all the work for me--both my sword and offhand parries were fairly good yesterday, and I felt like they worked well together. It's worth noting that my calibration suffered a bit after the time off, and a couple of my hits near the end of the day were rather hard. I felt crappy about it and apologized, naturally, and managed to get it under control in fairly short order.

I've been careful not to stress out my tennis elbow during the last couple of months, and I'm pleased to say I fenced for about four hours yesterday and am not feeling it at all today. I was having some trouble with it last week, but I took my fish oil twice a day and stretched it out with some reps on my one-pound hand weight, and that seems to have helped.

I could feel my recently-sprained foot muscles working really hard yesterday, but they didn't hurt in a bad way, if that makes sense. They ached and felt tight, but they didn't throb, feel hot, or sting/burn in the way I've come to associate with my body saying "Stop what you're doing immediately or face the wrath of your soft tissue!" I'm pleased to say I seem to have read myself right, because the foot's not sore at all today. I iced it last night and took some ibuprofen before I went out on the field, just in case, but I seem to be pretty much mended. I'm really reassured and pleased by the good results.

I also turned in my written marshaling test yesterday. I completed the events I needed as a Marshal-in-Training over the summer and fall, got the recommendations I needed from marshals, and spent some time last week working on the written test. I have a lot of issues with the so-called 'current' edition of the marshal's test, from a documentation standpoint, but I don't need to burden the webernets with them at the moment--suffice it to say that I haven't gotten official results back, but I think I did as well as I could, felt good about my answers, and hope to hear the same from the KRM.

So, what's the spring look like? Well, a few different things:

• We won't be making it to Estrella this year, which is actually kind of a relief. Don't get me wrong, we wouldn't go to Estrella at all if we didn't have a good time, but between two full-time jobs with no PTO or sick time, upcoming changes at my job (I hope!), and a beater truck that will need major repairs or to be replaced at some point in the next six months, I think Estrella would be more stressful than fun this year.
• I'm running the rapier tournaments and melee scenarios at King's Hunt this year. I'm stoked--I've run tournaments and pre-existing melees before (Blood of Heroes and the like), but I've never orchestrated a whole weekend's worth of fencing before. I'm a combination of excited and nervous, but I know I have lots of people I can ask for help and advice, so I'm looking forward to the challenge.
• I plan to experiment a bit more with fighting garb this spring--and by "experiment" I mean, "make something it's not embarrassing to be seen in." I'm slowly re-envisioning my craft corner to be friendlier, more functional, and generally less of a PITA to use. Right now there's a major energy barrier to doing anything sewing-related, just because the space is so cramped, messy, and generally overburdened with stuff. No matter how long I wait, the boxes of fabric don't seem to be making more space for themselves (is this normal? I'd expected them to breed some square footage by now. Maybe I need to play some Barry White.) so I'm starting to spread out a little bit. Anyway, the garb plans include a new doublet or fighting dress, slipcovers for my sneakers, and potentially a new hood.

Anyway, I think that's about it for now. Weights, fish oil, practice, and sewing machines, here I come. Onward and upward!

OMG Shoes

Hey all,

So I had a lovely time at Darach Pirate Tourney yesterday, and now I have a question. Rather, I'm soliciting for recommendations.

I need good fencing shoes.

Here's the thing. Nothing hard about good fencing shoes, right? Twenty dollars at Payless, right? Right. EXCEPT for this damn back of mine.

I've been wearing my New Balance sneakers (by far and away, the most back- and hip-friendly sneakers brand for me), and am often given shit for them. It annoys me to get commentary about my footwear, but I can't really complain because period appearance really is important to me, it's recommended in the marshallate handbook, and I definitely look down on those dudes at Estrella who walk onto the field in wolf furs and black jeans. I can't just turn my nose up at them while lacing up my sneakers... especially since I usually have to kneel down to lace up my sneakers, making it hard to look down on anything but my knees. :)

The reason it annoys me to get commentary about them, however, is because I've tried three different versions of more acceptable footwear on the field, and none of them work. They've all thrown my back or hips out within a few hours of wearing them. My hiking boots worked fine for awhile (and while still obviously out of period footwear, they look better than sneakers... and, for some reason, garnered me less criticism. Go figure), but when I tore the ligaments in my foot, they were too heavy to wear long-term, especially when running around.

I have fairly limited options for long-term footwear right now, and the more physical activity I'm doing, the more careful I have to be about them. I do need to get some more back musculature to keep everything in place, which will improve the problem somewhat, but this really is an ongoing complaint--not only are the sneakers more comfortable, they keep my chiropractic bill down and keep me walking and having a good time after I come off the field. Usually wearing the wrong shoes will end with me flat on my back waiting for my joints to realign properly. I'd really like to fence all day and still be able to run around afterwards with my friends, not have to pop some Advil and call it an evening early.

Sigh. It feels stupid to write about this, because I feel like I'm whining, and I really don't mean to. I just want to articulate myself and my complaints accurately, and I really want some advice.

It's been suggested that I make some leather or fabric covers for the sneakers, which I think is a great idea, but would probably take a lot of upkeep and trial and error before I got them right. I'm certainly willing to do it, but I'd like some other options, too. ...Not to mention a pattern. Anyone got a good pattern for spats or slipcovers for sneakers?

So, what do y'all like to wear on your feet when you fence? I've done a couple different kinds of period-oid boots, and they don't give me proper arch or heel support. The hiking boots worked, but won't do right now for reasons mentioned above. I've tried both the generic Dr. Scholls gel inserts and more expensive athletic inserts, and they add a couple hours of comfort, but still aren't ideal (at Lyondemere Anny two weeks ago, I tried them with a pair of thick socks in one of my pairs of period-y boots and while the fencing wasn't uncomfortable, I was flat on my back before the end of court).

So, what have I tried so far?

• Different boots (hiking boots, a shitty cheap pair from Payless, and a nice pair from Clarks)
• Inserts (generic and athletic)
• Socks (thick or thin socks can affect the fit of a non-lacing shoe, like a boot, so I try to mix it up and see what works best)
• Stretching before and after fencing (durrrrrrrrrrr)

What have I not tried so far?

• Custom-made boots (OMG money)
• Custom-made orthopedic inserts (can these be swapped between pairs of shoes, or are they specific to one pair? Can anyone tell me approximately how much they cost? Do they actually help, or are they no different from over-the counter athletic inserts?)
• Building up the muscles in my back and hips and transitioning over to nearly-barefoot footwear (slip-on ballet flats, jazz shoes, or what have you--also not terribly periodoid, but better looking from afar). I think this might be the best option just for my long-term health, but it doesn't solve the immediate need-to-fix-ugliness-right-now kind of problems.

I really need something that fits, well, a lot like a New Balance sneaker and doesn't weigh too much. I'd like to keep the cost down, but at the moment I'm more interested in collecting some useful vendor names and links so I can do some more research. Lay it on me, folks!