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Combatting Double Kills.

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Thorsteinn:
From my friend Richard Marsden from a HEMA discussion on how to teach folks how to avoid double kills. I think it would be very good as a cross-discipline tool to help folks of all skill levels.

"Hello, I teach lots of students, some quite young. Here are my experiences.

I set up a culture right away of discouraging double-kills. One way we do this is in slow drills at the start called robot-drills in longsword.

Each student picks a guard (Fiore has lots) then on the count of three they get to make one movement at the same rate of speed. We count down again and again till there is a victor. In this slow, methodical training method we rarely get double-kills. Students can see what's going on, they understand the 'game' and they don't consciously decide, "Yeah, hell with it- double kill time."

After we get students used to robot drills we speed up and eventually move into sparring. The robot drills pay off at this point as students have an understanding of how to play to survive- not just win.

Another technique is to really drill the moving off the line in longsword so attacks and defenses aren't directly at the opponent, but use a little movement here and there to be safe.

In rapier, longsword and other systems, we show plays and how they work. When we ask students to find counters, we discourage any counters that will get them hit.

These little techniques have paid off fairly well in our group so far."

Thorsteinn:
I brought this to my local SCA practice with a small modification for use with new folks. He liked and and we plan to use it in the future.

-Ivan

Sir William:
What is wrong with double kills?

Sir James A:

--- Quote from: Sir William on 2011-12-13, 22:07:54 ---What is wrong with double kills?

--- End quote ---

I might be off on this, but I think double kill in this case means when you "kill" your opponent at the same time they "kill" you, making it a draw. Which, in period life-or-death context, means you kill your opponent, at the cost of your own life too.

Thorsteinn:
Double kills are where you both lose.

In a life-or-death fight it means both of you die. Which is foreseeably good in the right circumstances like if your already dying, or their death is just that more important than your life.

In the tournament it means that you must refight the fight adding extra time and effort to the endeavor (unless they are counting a double kills as a loss, then your hosed).

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