RingoSo I’m in a rush and don’t have time to do a full post the way I like to so this a quick fight between myself and Steve Parker at the end of our last chapter match. We are both dead tired, to the point I almost puked putting my helmet on, but we needed to end it so we stepped out and let fly. I don’t think Parker took a single melee off that whole day so he was probably even more tired than me. Anyway enjoy.
Like that? I really like eating that face punch. Lets see that again. 
Brutal. Drove me back so hard the I hit the rail and almost lose my wind. Good times :D.
alright lets do something that sounds somewhat vaguely intelligent and useful to pretend this has some actual benefit.
First engagement, we square up and and I side step to the camera’s right. Footwork does not look good but I’m out of range at least so that’s something. Normally this would be a waste of energy as I don’t use it to land a strike or set anything up. However due to the nature of the Knights hall Arena, I’m playing field strategy. I’m trying to place the pole between us, shifted off to the my left, Parkers right. This means Parker has to take a step left to really bring the weapon into bear, while I can fire freely with straight punches or weapon strikes. It’s a hugely advantageous position.
Which is why I’m an utter idiot for backing away and just letting Parker walk around. I try to throw a teep to keep him at distance but looks like that was more a stomp to his thigh, never getting good extension. It does give me time to tie up his weapon and use the distraction to land a few shots of my own. I try to roll out while attacking the thigh, hopping to slow him down with a little pain. Parker is trying to close the gap the whole time, looks like he wants to tie, which is smart. I have him well beaten in weapon skill, but he’s certainly stronger and his aggression is high which can make the difference when trying to throw someone.
I’m not sure if he grabs me before the punch or just his desire to close kept him at good measure. Either way our footwork is terrible on both sides and I break free right around 7-8 second mark and pop my head, before starting my exit shot. If you don’t know what that is, it’s the idea that anytime you want to leave an in close engagement, you throw a shot a fraction of a second before leaving or ideally just as you back out, so that your opponent has to deal with that instead of getting a free blow as you escape. Had I fired through the head zone as I left, instead of at his thigh and hip, my sword might have deflected the monster punch I ate.
The punch knocks me off balance and almost drops me, but I catch the rail and hang on. Parker’s weapon swing is actually well timed but he stops moving forward fractionally allowing me to dodge(by pure luck). If he starts that step first before the swing, he lands that blow and might have been able to use the contact to get in and drive me to the ground. Even with the whiff though he keeps his wits, slams me against the rail and tries to use his momentum bouncing off to peel me and spin me out into the ring. No dice though. My rail game is strong and he’d have been better served throwing a kneed to the body and trying to keep punishing me, or trying to a kick a leg out.
I’m able to keep my balance and actually over balance him. I get a clinch of sorts up top as I come around and his reaction is to bring his arms over to fight me. That raises his center of gravity up, which it’s already high cause he’s in armor and higher than me, because I have wide hips and am short like a hobbit. Once his weight is up, I can drive forward easier and even drive down and bit using him to balance me, which give me a better lower center of gravity and thus more pushing power. Because physics or something.
We hit the rail and he doesn’t drop into and against it as he should. This give me the opportunity to use the bounce to swing him around. I’m tired and bad at throws, so all I do is try to pull him to ground as his balance goes, but he has some quick feet(a huge improvement over last time we fought) and spins with me. I lose my weapon as we break.
That voice you hear yelling at Brandon and me? That’s regional Commander Cat Brooks, who really stepped up his coaching when off the field and leading as a captain on the field. You’ll hear more about that later, but I just wanted to mention I’m proud that he’s still making progress despite already being a great fighter.
So Parker gives everything he has right there in that last bit trying to keep me from the sword. My next attacks aren’t what weaken him for that throw, it’s all he can do to stand at this point. And that is not meant as a slight. That day was the most brutal endurance event I’ve been too. I’ve fought multiple hour long res battles, used to run a half marathon every weekend, Fight Birka(3 hour bear pit tourney) with no breaks, wrestled a bit in high school, just ran a spartan race in chainmail, and played 3 indoor soccer games in a row no subs, lots and lots of endurance sports. That was the worst I’ve done. Not saying it’s the hardest event ever made, but it was the hardest I’ve done. So for him to gas right there is taking nothing away from him. He’s still a boss and realistically would have probably won that fight had he had another minute of gas in him.
Looks like I went pretty long anyway. Oh well. Next week I’ll be doing some videos from an HMB even in Cali last weekend, the week after that some videos featuring the Lithuanian team in Poland last May, don’t know what will happen the week after that, but the I’ll be putting up videos and commentary on the last Dark Knight v Sentinel chapter match(what this fight came from) the week after that. Don’t want to give anything away before conference at Ft Tryon October 4th. Hope to see you there.