For the record you certainly don't have a shitty standard, you have some of the best form both with longsword and sabre in the club. But being self-critical is often what leads people to improve the most.. so don't stop.
As you guys know I have been unsatisfied with the way our longsword sparring has been going for a while, with generally far too much distance/tip sniping, hand sniping and running away. I've been trying various things to try and enforce better and more martial form (such as ignoring hand hits and restricting the fighting area) and this banning of tip cuts is the latest attempt. I'm not saying that tip cuts would not sometimes achieve a good result (though I believe with pointy longswords they often would not), but rather I am trying to get people using proper cuts with the centre of percussion more (ie. the cuts mostly shown in the treatises, which would incapacitate for certain), which in turn means you have to get closer with the cut, which in turn means you need to use proper technique to get in safely, hit, and then get out again (or grapple), rather than this horrible swing with the tip and run away tactic we have been seeing too much of (this doesn't only relate to Schola incidentally). I also think it helps to have all bouts judged/adjudicated, and for that person to emphasise that the fighters must not stop unless a valid hit is called. This is because despite allowing the afterblow a lot of people are still either stopping immediately they think they have been hit (even when that hit was rubbish) or they are stopping when they think they have scored a hit on the opponent (even when that hit was rubbish and despite the threat of the afterblow). I am as guilty of these things as anyone else.
So let's play to these rules for a while and see what happens. If nothing else I think it is good martial practice to change the rules of the game from time to time.
) and I both made it to the final tournament, but both went out in the first round (myself after one of the longest fights of my competition career, against the excellent Dutch swordsman Arto Fama, lasting about 15 minutes and resulting in a double kill from 3 doubles – something I don’t feel too bad about, as the fight lasted so long!). Gavin did very well to win his pool and Simon also came joint first in his pool, but did not get into the final competition because he had lost his fight against the guy he drew with for 1st in his pool.