# weapon sparring footage



## Blindside

So last Saturday was our first, and hopefully annual "Warrior Tipon Tipon" in Bellevue, Washington.
This is weapon fighting event inspired by and conducted under a similar ruleset to the Dog Brothers.  We had lots of guys who this was their first time fighting with bare rattan (probably like 80%) so intensity was not equivalent to the Gatherings that I have attended, the sticks are lighter and guys were often a bit tentative.   I hope that as the fighters get comfortable with the contact level of the sticks the intensity levels of the fights will pick up.  But it was a good intro to stickfighting.
All in all the event was a great success, great attitudes and fun fights.  These are a couple of clips of my fights from the day.  The youtube channel hosts the rest if anyone is interested.

Knife




 
Stick




 
Aluminum sword, this wasn't a 100% match, that is aluminum and the guy in red wanted to not get too banged up before attending the Dog Brothers Tribal Gathering the following weekend.




 
Oh, and any critique and feedback would be apprecieated, I do these to learn what I do in a free environment, any suggestions are welcome.


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## Tony Dismukes

You're the guy in the tan shorts? Looks good.

I'm a poor-to-mediocre weapons guy, so I can't offer too much critique. The one bit of advice I would offer is concerning the moment in the stick match where your opponent crashed the gate and ended up in the clinch. Rather than just overhooking the arm and thrusting with the stick, I would work to actively upset my opponents balance the whole time while mixing up the close range strikes. (Last time I did any stick sparring, 80% of my game was crashing in like that and working the clinch range.)

The swords looked interesting - that reverse curve is pretty unusual. What kind of swords are they?

I've never sparred with metal weapons - even blunted they seem risky.


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## Danny T

Ginunting from the Visayan region.


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## Blindside

Tony Dismukes said:


> You're the guy in the tan shorts? Looks good.
> 
> I'm a poor-to-mediocre weapons guy, so I can't offer too much critique. The one bit of advice I would offer is concerning the moment in the stick match where your opponent crashed the gate and ended up in the clinch. Rather than just overhooking the arm and thrusting with the stick, I would work to actively upset my opponents balance the whole time while mixing up the close range strikes. (Last time I did any stick sparring, 80% of my game was crashing in like that and working the clinch range.)
> 
> The swords looked interesting - that reverse curve is pretty unusual. What kind of swords are they?
> 
> I've never sparred with metal weapons - even blunted they seem risky.



And that is a great point, I am so used to my blade assumption that I was using it like a sword, and I didn't even think about it.  

Brian is right about the sword ID.

This was my first time with low armor and aluminum, wasn't that bad actually, and the reason I did it was for the "risk," I wanted to get a little bit of that adrenaline going.  I must say I felt pretty comfortable out there, it didn't real feel like I got much of an adrenal surge.


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## Buka

That was great. I really enjoyed watching that. Where's the youtube channel so I can watch some more?

The headgear you're wearing - what brand? And how do you like it?

Also, great recovery in the last clip. That rocked.


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## Blindside

Buka said:


> That was great. I really enjoyed watching that. Where's the youtube channel so I can watch some more?
> 
> The headgear you're wearing - what brand? And how do you like it?
> 
> Also, great recovery in the last clip. That rocked.



Youtube channel is at:
Warrior Tipon Tipon - YouTube

My fencing mask is from Blue Gauntlet:
BG Coach Mask with black bib

I have been very happy with it, it was my first new mask and so compared to the previous masks that I owned that were ebay specials it is quite an improvement.  The paint job was a gift from one of my students to personalize it a bit more.


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## Brian R. VanCise

Fun times!!!  Always nice to see some people introduced to rattan stick sparring with less equipment!  Loved the aluminum ginunting sparring really good movement there!


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## mercmonster

That was awesome, man, really impressed!  Nice to know there's another Pacific Northwesterner up here too!


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## Blindside

I put together a highlight reel for the event to get a feel for the day:


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## geezer

Blindside said:


> I put together a highlight reel for the event to get a feel for the day:



I really enjoyed these. We are definitely going to have to do more sparring with less gear. One safety concern I had watching the guys spar with the ginunting trainers is_ throat protection, _especially against thrusts. I've never done FMA sparring with metal trainers, but I have sparred with some friends who are really into HEMA and they use blunt metal swords regularly. They won't let anybody participate without a gorget in addition to a good "three-weapon" fencing mask to protect the throat.

SCA Style Leather Gorget - DK5401 from Dark Knight Armoury


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## Blindside

geezer said:


> I really enjoyed these. We are definitely going to have to do more sparring with less gear. One safety concern I had watching the guys spar with the ginunting trainers is_ throat protection, _especially against thrusts. I've never done FMA sparring with metal trainers, but I have sparred with some friends who are really into HEMA and they use blunt metal swords regularly. They won't let anybody participate without a gorget in addition to a good "three-weapon" fencing mask to protect the throat.
> 
> SCA Style Leather Gorget - DK5401 from Dark Knight Armoury



Sorry for the late reply, the ginunting really doesn't lend itself to thrusts, these had too much of a forward curve to them, but I certainly understand the concern.  We don't often use aluminum to spar with, but I am (slowly) trying to get the protection level in the group up to the level of the HEMA guys.  I really like how they can play with steel at a high level of contact.


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## Blindside

These are from the Beat the Crap Out of Cancer fundraiser in Vancouver BC last month.






At about :20, I pick up a puncture in my forearm from his knife, he was too quick to try to play a reverse grip game against and I paid for it.  After a session with a medic experienced with such issues and a bit of superglue, I went and did a single stick and double stick match.











This is only my second double stick match outside of the safe confines of our school and it shows.  Certainly not symmetric use of the hands, I am pretty much a right handed fighter that remembers that he has a left hand every 20 seconds or so. 

Full playlist at:  Brett Simms

The BTCOOC events are great and I highly recommend people coming to play.  Great environment for weapon fighters of all levels, it was fun watching all the different systems there and how they interacted.  Great people, great cause!   http://btcooc.com/  Events are all over the country now (six locations in Canada and the US) and hopefully it will grow.


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## Buka

I've been without a home computer until a couple days ago, and only had an old computer at work that couldn't play any video, so I'm just seeing this now. Way cool, bro!

How'd that puncture to your forearm turn out?


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## Blindside

Buka said:


> I've been without a home computer until a couple days ago, and only had an old computer at work that couldn't play any video, so I'm just seeing this now. Way cool, bro!
> 
> How'd that puncture to your forearm turn out?



The pointy but not at all sharp aluminum knife caused an impact split down through all the layers of skin, you knew it wasn't good when you can see a bit of your fat layer poking out.   But I had a good medic who was comfortable with superglue and now it is just a dime sized scar.


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## Langenschwert

Blindside said:


> Sorry for the late reply, the ginunting really doesn't lend itself to thrusts, these had too much of a forward curve to them, but I certainly understand the concern.  We don't often use aluminum to spar with, but I am (slowly) trying to get the protection level in the group up to the level of the HEMA guys.  I really like how they can play with steel at a high level of contact.



An opponent can still run onto the point of a sparring weapon throat-first. I've seen ti happen. Fortunately, the Absolute Force throat protector is cheap and good:

http://www.afinternationalsporting.com/product_info.php/products_id/148/cPath/8

It has seen me through many full-contact steel tournaments. When combined with a good jacket with a point-catching collar and a fencing mask bib, it's great.

They have a "deluxe" model which offers some clavicle protection too.

Weapons sparring is dangerous without adequate protection. Be sure your gear has extra "wiggle room" to deal with freak accidents.


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## Blindside

Langenschwert said:


> An opponent can still run onto the point of a sparring weapon throat-first. I've seen ti happen. Fortunately, the Absolute Force throat protector is cheap and good:
> 
> http://www.afinternationalsporting.com/product_info.php/products_id/148/cPath/8



Thanks for that, I had seen that piece of gear before but I never saw a review of it.

As for the clavical protection, for what we do that is intentionally left open, we want these to be low armor fights.  

As a couple of us build toward getting a full HEMA type kit, we may move to include it.


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## Blindside

We are ramping up for our second Tipon-Tipon next week and we were working a bit of double stick.  Randy absolutely took the fight to me in this match, pressuring me and finding the perfect spot for inserting a kick we had only worked on the week before.


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