Pell, Singles, and Melee Training - Finding the Right Balance

Before I started my blog on melee tactics I had a fairly popular "blog" (actually a location on a web forum with links) on run training for triathletes (I was a D1 collegiate distance runner and competed as a triathlete as an adult some time later in the early 00's).  While everyone understood that there needed to be a balance between swim, bike, and run training, they had the hardest time wrapping their head around the fact that there also needed to be a balance between different types of training, specifically fast and slow training.

The best analogy I had heard utilized a recipe for tomato sauce.

You begin with tomatoes and notice that it tastes a little bland, so you add some garlic and notice that garlic improves the taste.  Most athletes then assume that garlic is the best ingredient, get rid of the tomatoes, and dump a pile of garlic on their pasta.  When it doesn't taste very good, they simply add more garlic.

Likewise, if training specifically for the purposes of melee fighting, one must balance pell work to work on fundamental shot mechanics, singles fighting to learn how to put an opponent down quickly and effectively while also developing a solid defense, and melee fighting to learn how to work with other fighters.

I've heard more than a few people say that one needs only to work on singles (and/or pell work) and that it will all transfer into melee.  To those that firmly believe this, I have to ask what percentage of soccer, lacrosse, basketball, and hockey practices are spent working on singles skills?

Part of the inspiration for this post was noticing how quickly some of the fighters I've been working with have developed a great understanding of team work and the ability to think and react quickly, but then realizing that a couple of our fighters have done very little singles work and almost no pell work.  I found ourselves in situations where I couldn't leave a wingman for fear that he couldn't survive if a 1v1 engagement was thrust upon him against a good fighter, or that even in a 2v1 there were certain shots that were not available making it difficult to take down a high level fighter.

These are all in relative terms.  All of the fighters are doing great and have improved quite a bit, but I like to think about what the shortest pole in the tent is, currently.  As I once told a varsity basketball team I coached, "Today we will work on rebounding, not because you are bad at it, but because you have improved everywhere else such that this is now the weakest skill." 

The difficult part comes with figuring out how to get in the right balance.  If 10 people show up to the next practice, there is no way in hell I'm going to want to spend the day working on singles.  ;)



EDIT:  for those who may be curious, google The BarryP Plan and you will find a number of links to my running plans for triathletes.  Or you can probably just go to this one I found:

http://www.jasonmcgee.me/barryp/running.html

Resurrection Battles - Rez in Groups vs. Rez Individually

Rez in Groups or Individually

So this question has come up a few times recently and the answer is, it depends entirely on the level of the fighter, specifically regarding field awareness and understanding of their job on the field.

During an text exchange last night with Anglesey's most experienced melee fighter, we were discussing the tactics of 2v2 fighting, and this is what I had to say (paraphrased):

There are three approaches to this scenario:

Beginner - don't fight a 2v2.  Instead, reform with your unit.  This is, by and large, what the SCA does with the bulk of their fighters who mainly practice singles and have fewer than 4 years experience.

Intermediate - charge if you have the advantage.  This is ideally where you would want your unbelt champions team to be on a tactical level. 

Advanced - understand the advantages and disadvantages of splitting your unit, dragging fighters out, turning the corner, drawing a charge and turning your opponent into your teammate, etc. and being able to to accomplish all of this quickly and without thinking about it.

Any tactically fluid sport (basketball, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, etc.) is going to have fundamentals that are applied differently at different levels of play.  The lower levels typically must have simpler, more structured fundamentals that can be executed without making mistakes.  At the high levels, more flexibility is given to the individual to improvise knowing that they will improvise well, and that their teammates will also know how to react to the improvisation accordingly.


Applying this to Resurrections

Fundamentally I am opposed to resurrecting in groups.  Rather, you should resurrect immediately and then go and find a group to join.  Many fighters fail horribly at the second part, which is why they are told to resurrect in groups.

Singles fighting teaches you to fight every fight with the intention of trying to win regardless of the insurmountable odds.  It also doesn't prepare you for thinking tactically, so a person resurrecting by themselves may walk into a field, come up upon a knight, and engage in a fight that he will ultimately lose.  If that person had waited to walk in with a group of three people, they can defeat the knight. 

The problem with waiting is that there are people in the battle who need support, and the longer a person waits at the rez point, the longer they are without support.  Ideally a fighter would resurrect immediately, walk out into the field, come up upon a knight, and simply avoid fighting him until they either find a group of fighters to join or until a group finds him.

So in a nutshell, beginning fighters probably should be resurrecting in groups.  I am of the belief, however, that one should attempt to learn how to be effective without doing this, but if you rez by yourself, make certain that you know what you are going to do.

Green gains a +2 number's advantage because their fighters did not
wait for a triad to forum before returning to the battle.

Range Tactics for 2v2 Combinations Explained

Last night we had our first melee practice on the college campus with 6 fighters showing up.  After working on some singles fundamentals that were needed from the fighters who don't normally attend SCA practices, we did a 2v2 Endless Resurrection Melee.

Again, if you've forgotten, we begin with teams of 2.  If you die, you go to the rez point and wait for another person to die.  As soon as two people are at rez, the two of you form up a new team, enter the ring, and immediately start fighting anyone else in the melee field.  I prefer to rope off a medium sized area to keep people from running away as a way to survive a fight (though not a terrible tactic, but we are here to learn to fight).

The best aspect of this scenario is that it teaches the fighters to develop small team tactics very quickly.  You have to assess your weapon, your partner's weapon, each others general talent and experience, the side that you are fighting on (left or right) and then all of those same components regarding your opponents.  All of this has to be assessed very quickly before an attack is initiated.

In this kind of fast paced chaos, it is the simplest tactics to employ that become the most important, and in this case that tactic is simply identifying who has the range advantage, whether or not you should be charging, and then coordinating the charge.

So your options are as follows:

You have longer weapons - immediately begin stabbing

They have longer weapons - immediately charge, together

Weapon types are similar - neutral fight


Now you might be thinking, "Why don't the shields just always charge?"  There are a few reasons.  They might be tired.  They might not be tired but don't know if their partner is tired.  They may both be ready to charge, but each is waiting for the other person to call a charge.  They may not realize that they both have shields.  etc. etc.  This is why we practice this.


The Weapons Combinations and Range Tactics
Last night we had six fighters;  two spears, two shields, and two poles.  The following combinations of 2v2 melees can take place.  If you want, read through each one and take a second to decide what course of action would you take in each situation.  Charge immediately?  Thrust from a distance?  Or would it be a neutral fight?


spear, spear vs pole, pole
spear, spear vs pole, shield
spear, spear vs shield, shield
pole, pole vs shield, shield
pole, pole vs spear, shield
shield, shield vs pole, spear
spear, pole vs spear, pole
spear, pole vs spear, shield
spear, pole vs pole, shield
spear, shield vs spear, shield
spear, shield vs shield, pole
pole, shield, vs pole, shield



ANSWERS:

Though the answers may be overly simple and obvious, quick decision making is often the key to winning these engagements and improves through regular practice.

East Kingdom Southern Army Practice 2

Hey all,

Had an excellent practice in the humidity yesterday and wanted to give a quick thank you to everyone who made it happen!

Just a few thoughts that I wanted to highlight here.


Allied Champs Capture the Flag Battle

This is a very fun warmup battle.  We went for almost a half an hour in a capture the flag rez battle where each dead person has to go back to their side and wait for a timed release.  The goal is to capture the other team's flag and return it to their side for a point.

We've done a lot of these and I really like them as it slows the fighting down enough and the situations end up repeating themselves such that it gives everyone a chance to learn what does and doesn't work, how to communicate, send out commands, etc.  In fact, many of the scenarios I run at our Anglesey East practice are very similar in nature.

Case in point;  I've noticed that a weakness we have as a unit right now is that we don't have a good left flank shieldman.  What does that mean?  Generally speaking I put shieldmen into four categories.  Left flank, right flank, middle of the unit, and special teams.  Middle of the unit guys are often your big guys who can lead or repel charges and can push people around, but also lack the mobility to play the other roles.  Right flankers are your killers.  They need to be able to move out fast, get around some people, and win 1v1 fights if necessary, or doubling up 2v1.  These guys need to be mobile but also have great sword skills.  Special teams is a catch all to fit anything not covered in the other three categories, including sitting in the backfield and looking for holes to plug, sneaking up on the front line and looking for a pulse charge opportunity, or leaving the unit altogether and creating chaos.

The left flanker, however, needs to be able to keep people out of the back field and survive.  If they can kill as well, that's great, but the most important job is to secure the flank and stay alive.

Having said all of that, this battle was a perfect opportunity to work the left flank and let Knuter (aka The Jolly Green Giant, aka a handful of nicknames that are not family friendly) hold the outside position.  The job was simply to stay alive, keep anyone from getting around his shield side, and to hit or kill anyone who tries to get to his spearman (me).  100% of the fight he was the far left flank.  (My belief is that 95% of the time, the extreme flanks should either be occupied by shields, or have a shield ready to replace a spear if there's a press.  I will often take that position with a spear, but everyone around me needs to know that if I get charged, I'm not holding the position). 

We did very well with that position, also being backed up by Rygus, our pole arm fighter.  We often had them curled back toward their resurrection point.  I was told by several people that they tried to mount charges on me, but that they failed because one of these two would take them out, so good on them!

The downside was that we often could get them down to a 3 on 2 advantage, or even a 3 on 1, with the 1 curling us back in toward other fighters in the middle of the field.  This was where a lack of individual singles fight skill became a problem and something that we will work more on in our next practice.  If anything, we will work on how you can jump a single sheildman who posseses a good defense. 

As for everyone else, some critiques I heard on the battle were that people were coming out of rez points and not really coordinating as teams.  Instead of groups of 2-3 fighters coordinating together, there were a lot of single fighters working alone.  This is something that everyone will need to work on and I think will only get better by practicing these scenarios.


Not Really an Allied Champs Battle

This is a great scenario, but it doesn't truly reflect an Allied Champs Battle (nothing wrong with that) except for maybe the final stages of a round right before the flag is captured. 

Typically an Allied Champs battle is a grand spear fight with one side being whittled down faster than the other.  Often both flanks will gradually fall (each side pushes their own right flank), one falling faster than the other.  As the line approaches one of the flags, there's a quick coordinated push toward the flag usually lead by a couple of shields and followed by a pole or shieldman with a gauntlet who will grab at the flag.  The typical starting position is pretty packed, however, with lots of spears (pictured below):





Bridge Battles
The bridge battles were a bit of a mess.  That's not to say that they weren't run well, or that they didn't have value.  I think we all got really great practice in these scenarios.  Personally I've been working the left flank a lot more, though historically I've always been more comfortable on the right flank.  As a left handed spearman, I'm noticing an interesting tradeoff.  On the right I've always had a really good line on all of the spears toward the center of the bridge and am able to get off shots without sacrificing too much defense.  From the left side I have to throw across my body, which is a little slower, a little less accurate, and leaves me more vulnerable to spears directly across from me.  It does give me some really good opportunities on the guts, hips, and legs of shieldman in the front rank which is something that I'm not used to, so its been fun going at the shieldmen a little more.

I also think that others got some great experience defending against spears, fighting with spears, charging, calling charges, reading charges, learning to push people off the bridge, etc.  The reason why I say it was a mess is that we were little light in terms of numbers yesterday which I think really takes away from the experience.  Maybe if we had narrowed the bridge up it would have helped.

But then again, sometimes that's what you get in a bridge or pass battle, so it is worth working on.


3v3 Battles

We finished off the day with a series of 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 fights before the humidity killed us.  There were a couple points that came up.  One was that each side should always come up with a plan.  It doesn't have to be a grand plan, but there needs to at least be some discussion about what is going to happen.  "I'll take the left, you take the right."  "Lets jump these guys."  "I'm going to go far out to the right."  "Bob, you take out Fred."  etc.  It needs to be something so that you are all at least on the same starting point.


Lead with the Long Weapon

If I know I won't screw up my shieldman, I've been using this tactic successfully for two decades, and its one I rarely see used.  It won't necessarily work for everyone, but I've managed to make it work for me.

I lead out with the pole in the front, making it super clear to the two shields to let me start off a full two steps in front of them.





What ends up happening is two things.  The first is that because the other side generally begins with their pole behind the shields, I get a free shot before anyone else at the beginning of the battle, one with which I land with a high enough regularity that it makes this tactic worth it for that reason alone (only one of the three people up front needs a weak defense or a lack of situational awareness).

The other thing that happens is that I become bait.  Each person on the other team individually sees me as a threat with not a strong A range defense (because I don't have a shield) so all three of them try to jump me, allowing my teammates to get good attack opportunities on them.  (One of the knights watching had commented that we won our fights because everyone was trying to kill me allowing our shields to get to them).





Work Together

One of the biggest negatives I saw on the day was a lack of people working together.  All I mean by that is if you have a 3v1, all three fighters need to try to surround the one fighter and attack at the same time.  What I see a lot is a basic instinct to follow the most aggressive fighter and let him attack first.  People will, in fact, hold back if they see another fight go on.  I call this "Bruce Lee-ing the fight."  I have seen, literally on multiple occasions, a single fighter with only a few years experience beat four fighters by himself because they will all run in one at a time, often overconfident because they assume that they have an advantage.

Also, if one of your fighters is a spear, he needs to be the most aggressive and run way out in front in these number advantage fights because he gets free shots from range.  Don't stand in the back and wait for others to do something.  Get out there and throw shots with your 9 foot buffer! 

In a nutshell, stop following each other and work together.

The biggest improvement I saw in a lot of fighters is that they've been better about finishing a fight and IMMEDIATELY looking for the next person to hit.  This has been a weakness in the past and I certainly saw at least a few fighters doing much better about this.

Celt Wars - Dealing with terrain features, positioning of shields on flanks, etc.

We had a fun melee event this weekend with great weather, good fighting, and all around fun times.  Galatia was gracious enough to host it this year which offered new terrain features and a different variety of scenarios.

photo by Ursus

The fighting was mostly done on a relatively steep hill and all of the scenarios were resurrection battles of some form or another.  We began with a woods battle (which was more like a maze battle in paths cut out of thick brush), an open field rez battle, a control point town battle with obstacles, a bridge battle, and then two fort battles.

We had a total of 20 fighters, but most battles were probably closer to about 15-18 fighters on a side, not always with even numbers.  Our side consisted almost entirely of Anglesey while the other side had our remaining Bog Celts (Galatia, Concusare, Prechain) plus some tuchux and a handful of SCA kingdom fighters.

There was a pretty wide range of fighter experience and age, but virtually every one had at least a solid 20-30 melee events and practices under their belts, so as one Atlantian guest commented, "there was no chaff on the field," that you normally expect at a melee event.

Unlike most standard SCA melee events, at least in this part of the country, neither side had more than 50% shields.  Anglesey had more spears, while the other side had a mix of spears and archers (normally three archers) which probably made the biggest difference tactically.


Woods Battle

 I don't really have much to comment on this one.  The woods were paths between thick brush with one team on the uphill side and the other on the downhill side.  When I fought, the other team had the uphill side.  With three archers on their side, there wasn't much we could really do other than try to create kill pockets and try to spear around the corners rather than to stand directly in front of the archers.  We may have stood a chance if we were a unit of only shields, but even then we'd have been charging up a fairly steep hill, and they would have been smart enough to form kill pockets at the path intersections.

The nice thing about resurrection battles is that they are almost always fair fights as the front line just gets pushed away from the resurrection point of the better team until an equilibrium is reached, so despite being a little overwhelmed, it was still a very good fight and a lot of fun.

One valuable lesson to take away from the fight is that if you are in a battle and have the option to avoid that situation, I would recommend avoiding it.


Open Field Rez Battle

One of the keys to open field resurrection battles is that the flanks absolutely must be controlled.  In the Pennsic Allied Champions Battles that I've been part of, most points are scored from the right flank.  The opponent is whittled down by spears on the right, hopefully faster than your left flank is losing ground, and then shields will occasionally capitalize on a weakness in the line before making a push for the flag.  While it doesn't hurt to have a strong middle, pushing up through the middle only pushes your side into a kill pocket.

Now those are capture the flag battles.  This weekend we fought a four life attrition battle, which has some similarities but also some differences.  Pushing toward the other side's backfield doesn't accomplish the same goal if there is no flag to capture.  What you are trying to do is find opportunities where a small number of your fighters can overwhelm and out position a smaller number of their fighters, pushing them into kill pockets, and then capitalizing on it with either range attacks or closing with the shields, all the while being aware of enemy combatants returning from the resurrection point.

This battle had a pretty interesting feature being that we were fighting on a slant.  To our left was a significantly steep incline, which would have been to our opponent's right.  Both resurrection points were at the bottom of the hill.  Most of the fighting, as I said, seemed to take place on the flanks.  I was on the uphill side trying to curl their left flank but found myself to be, in my opinion, outmatched by the quality and mix of fighters that they had also trying to take the hill.  Meanwhile we did a great job pressing on our right flank at the bottom of the hill, leading with our best shieldman, but the other side was doing a great job of countering by pulling their line back toward their resurrection point.

The other side won the scenario decisively due to good fighting and good tactical decisions, but also having an advantage in weapon types (three archers).  More importantly, at least from a tactical perspective and understanding terrain, I think that having the rez points at the bottom of the hill, and having the hill on their right flank worked to their advantage.  The right flank typically has an advantage on either team, but adding a hill advantage once they turn their right flank, and a rez point effectively "defending" their left flank were additional features that were difficult to overcome.

If there's anything I would have tried differently, it would be to have assigned one of our better defensive shieldmen to protecting our left flank, or possibly even moving our best shieldman up the hill to see if he could use it to his advantage.

 Comment on resurrecting in groups:  This was recommended by several people and it is something I actually don't agree with.  There are already groups of people out there.  Why wait at your rez point for two more fighters to join up with when you can just walk out onto the field and find two fighters to join up with?  And if you find yourself in a situation where you are outmatched by a group of fighters and are all by yourself, then just walk backwards toward your rez point until others join up with you.

Waiting to join up with others only keeps your fighters out of the fight for longer periods of time, IMO.


Town Battle
This was a timed unlimited resurrection battle on a hill with a control point.  A stop was called every few minutes and whomever controlled the point was awarded a point.  The buildings were small (a few feet by a few feet) wooden structures that could be fought over and around.  Again, the team with the high ground had a big advantage, this time being us.

The biggest lesson from this fight is, again, the flanks are the key to the fight.  Pushing up the middle gets you into a kill pocket, while working the flank can push your opponent into a kill pocket.

On both flanks we had newer (a few years experience) shieldman who didn't fully understand how to hold the position.  They were actually doing something that most SCA shieldman are taught, and it is  100% wrong.

Both extreme flanks, with rare exception, should have a shiledman on that flanking position.  His job is to defend that flank itself, not his teammates on the flank.  That means that his foot should be on the boundary line, regardless of where his teammates are (unless, of course, there are no opponents to defend the flank from in that position).

Additionally, not only do I want our shieldmen to understand the importance of holding that position, but also that they should be looking for it on the field when they come back from rez point.  If there's a gap on either flank, it needs to be filled.  Furthermore, the job is only to defend, unless you have a clear advantage, rather than to attack.  In one case we had a newer fighter engage the shieldman in front of him, in this case the shieldman being someone with three decades of experience.  The odds of winning that fight are low, and the consequences of losing is the dismantling of our previously secure flank.


Taking Ground and Falling Back

In any control point or objective capture rez battle you have to balance the pros and cons of moving the line forward.  The benefits, or course, are getting closer to your objective, or pushing them further away from theirs, which means that if they can break the through the line or make a big push, your side will of time to adjust.  The down side is that you will be further away from your rez point and they will be closer to theirs, which means that they will be feeding reinforcements much more quickly and fatiguing themselves from less required walking.

Another factor to consider is terrain features and overall line consistency and shape.  Pushing from the flanks is generally a better option than pushing up the middle and into a kill pocket.  Pushing to fortifiable positions is generally better than pushing into an open field, or worse, into a position where they can surround you, or have some sort of terrain advantage like up onto a hill.

Never be afraid to fall back.  This is a problem that a lot of tourney fighters have.  Tourney fighting requires you to stand up to the biggest of challenges and to do your best to win the fight.  In the melee, on the other hand, it is often better to avoid those fights.  As I wrote in my last blog, one of the best things you can do tactically is to be able to identify what you will have a hard time beating.  On the field, you avoid these fights, or attempt to drag them out.  In a rez, you generally want to fall back closer to your rez point.  If professional football players can punt, heavy fighters can fall back.

This weekend I felt like we had a good fortifiable position to push up toward, so whenever we had the chance, we did.  We never got beat from this position, but I did call many withdrawals (fallbacks) when I saw that the other side had the advantage at our position.

Controlling Areas with a Spear

You've likely heard that you aren't fighting the guy in front of you with your spear, but rather the guy next to him.  Well, that's half right.  You are fighting both, but more importantly, you are really fighting to control an area.  Simply moving in an out of positions and pointing your spear at people poses a threat that they have to deal with.

Other Thoughts on the Day

In the remaining battles, we had some small bridges and breaches to get through.  The other team had superior archery to ours, so it was clear that we had to push through the breaches.  Not only did coordinated charges need to be called, but the entire unit needed to follow the charge through the breach to support the chargers and to make sure that we don't lose our opportunity.  I've found that this requires a "Go! Go! Go!  Get through the breach!" to be called.  This sends the message to everyone what our objective is.  I can tell you as an old, undersized spearman, I do not like charging it to the enemy if I'm not certain I'll have the support of my unit with me.  Hearing this command called fills everyone with confidence and makes the charge more effective.

Being on the other side of the breach gave us a much better chance than standing there and getting picked apart by archers.