Old Stuff - 10-19-06 Recap
This week the topic was simple, off-hands. I don’t have a lot to say in writing about this topic, so if you have any questions I guess you will just have to ask me. We covered dagger (or short scabbard), buckler, and long scabbard. This left cloak and case uncovered, but I don’t find them very useful anyway.
Practice holding your dagger away from your body. This gives two advantages. One, it provides a larger blocking “shadow”. Two, it gives more time to block. Since work is force over time, more time and the same force equates to more work done on your opponents blade. More work done means more deflection, thus a stronger block. The dagger can be used offensively as well. I recommend steering more to the thrust as the short dagger cuts are not well read. Also be careful with tripplet #2 blades, or other stiff dagger blades, as they tend to be very stiff. Take care not to damage your opponent.
Bucklers also should be held out away from your body for increased shadow. Practice punching at the incoming attack to knock it off line and open things up for a possible close. If you are not sure what to use in your off hand, take out a buckler and use it as passive defense.
Long scabbards don’t offer much protection for the hand. So, you will have to keep them moving to avoid loosing it. They are great for power parrying since they are both stiff and heavy. Try gripping it with about a third of its length below your hand.
For single fighting I will always choose a dagger over the other off hands. It offers lightning fast blocking and close range offensive capabilities. For melee, the buckler is more versatile, particularly the large war bucklers. Typically in melee the dagger is to short to get much done. Long scabbard is great against schlager because it offers such strong blocks. However the lack of hand protection, and its weight and relative slowness make it a distinct third in my book.