Saturday 12th August 2017

Today is possibly a little anti-climactic after yesterday.
I’d long made the decision that today would be a rest day.  No matter how well or badly I did on Friday, I knew that competing in two competitions would mean I would be exhausted the day afterwards.  And so I had a lay in, and a big breakfast, and went down to the campsite fairly late.
I’m still buzzing about yesterday.  Mostly I’m buzzing that Sasha said I fought well.  Praise is very rare from him (Russian feedback) and I get a sense that whilst he might have not taken my aims seriously before, he saw something in me yesterday which has finally convinced him otherwise.  I wish I knew what it was.  I must make a point of asking him or Matt (who also said I fought very well).
I’ve been trying to get my head into Sword & buckler for tomorrow’s Eggleton Cup competition.  I’m feeling really fired up and want to take out everyone.  Given I teach sword & buckler, I’d like to do well in the Eggleton Cup.  I mean, I got silver at Bucklerthon but I’m starting to feel like I need to re-validate my credentials.  However, given that I got my quarter-final or better place this weekend (technically twice as I finished in top 6 in backsword), hoping for lightning to strike a 3rd time is possibly hoping for too much.  I’d just like to think that this is my weekend.
The others had planned to do a few seminars and whilst there was part of me that would have liked to have taken part, I was so shattered that I really just did not have the concentration to learn anything.
In many ways that’s a shame.  There are so many great introductions to weapons at Fightcamp with some of the best instructors in the world and I’m genuinely too knackered to take part.
Stephen & James were busy buying weapons and ended up with a new arming sword and sabre.  I was wanting to reward myself for my result with a new weapon, and so I ended up buying myself a Halberd.
Because
We went back to camp and played with it, trying to see how much force the Rotella could take.  Whilst I might have thought it a dumb purchase before playing with it, it’s an awesome weapon when you do play with it.  Totally worth it!  You can use the axe part to claw a rotella open, the hammer to break your opponents and the spear to stab them.  It’s like a Swiss multitool of death.
We then geared up and went through some sword & buckler for tomorrow.  Stephen is doing rather well at the moment and James, I think, is getting a little frustrated, especially as he’s the one with a competition record.  So I spent some time on his buckler defence by just wailing on him with my sword.  It might not be the most controlled method, but I learnt so much from having Sasha beat me up I figured it’s genuinely going to help prepare him for tomorrow.
The evening was spent drinking.  I started early and was pissed before the rest of them, but it meant that I also started sobering up such that by the time I walked home tonight, I felt relatively sober.
I also made sure I left relatively early (Midnight) so I could get a good night’s sleep.  I’m feeling quite injured at the moment.  My heatstroke might have subsided but my face is badly, badly burnt and I need to start getting in the habit of wearing sunblock any time I’m going to be outside for a while.  My face still feels hot to the touch.
On top of this, my buckler elbow really, really hurts.  In my final rapier fight, I took a cut with the middle of the blade to it.  It’s now swollen up and starting to go purple.  But whilst it hurts a lot, it doesn’t seem to be affected by movement, so I figure it’s not broken.  At least not properly.
I hope I feel a bit better tomorrow as I need to feel more alert for my tournament.  We have the melee in the morning, which whilst a bit of fun, will allow me some practise against longsworders.
But it’ll mean another 2 tournaments tomorrow that will be every bit as exhausting as yesterday.
So whilst I would have loved to have done some seminars (Steve & James said the introduction to sabre was really good, and they took me through some of the cutting exercises they learnt)  I figure the sensible thing to do was to take it easy and try and recover my strength for tomorrow.
Let’s see if I can continue my streak of success.
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