The last sparring match I had at the HSFA gathering last November 26th was my double sticks versus a longsword. A hard heavy wooden conan-the-barbarian type sword used by Jason who was into the Western styles. This was the first time I got to cross sticks with a different weapons style.
When Jason tagged me good in the beginning of the round, those hits were meant to be heavy and they sure were! I even took a thrust to my lower bicep area which knotted up fast during the round. It was also Jason's first time to really spar in this fashion of full-contact weapons sparring. He really wanted to see what it was like to spar with Kali/Escrima players.
During the match, I quickly discovered that outside of his range with the longsword, I'm as good as mud if I tried to counter his attacks while outside his range.

I found that by attacking his weapon first with my lead stick followed up with  combinations of checks and taps on the weapon, moving up on the hand, arms, body and head all while closing the distance very quickly and angling in to keep hitting with both sticks repeatedly and staying inside his range until he stopped moving.... This was one of the simplest and effective strategies I followed up on doing in order to control the range of the match versus a longer weapon. Then I stepped away to start over again for the duration of our match.

I took a lot of shots from the sword from overhead angles on my shoulders, traps, fencing mask and arms, but most of them really landed on my roof/umbrella blocks & deflections while closing in to attack. Jason also got me clean on the upper right thigh too. But I just kept repeating variations the same strategy against Jason's sword style through the rest of the match and once I knew I was inside of his range, I was "hittin home".

Minutes later after our match, Jason came up to me with a smile on his face expressing his desire to learn FMA. I told him that training in FMA will boost his sword game to phenomenal levels. I hope to see his game improve by the next gathering after just a few lessons in FMA. I also walked away from that match with a interest in fighting with longer 2 hand grip weapons. That wooden sword by the way, was one big heavy mother too. It was a real hardwood and not rattan. Next time, I'm  gonna match that with  some kamagong or the likes of it.

Oh... and next time, if I never ever have to wear that stinkin vest ever again, then I won't!

Can you DIG IT!

Daniel

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