How to KILL People

As with any combat training, this advice is just that: ADVICE. If it makes sense to you, use it. If not, don't.

The first thing you need to do to improve your fighting is to decide to improve your fighting. Make it a conscious decision. It sounds simple, but I'm not just talking about deciding to go training every week. You need to think about how you fight when you're not at training sessions. Work out attacks when you're walking to the shops. Go over how you're getting killed while you're in the bath. Try to find patterns in other warriors' fighting. It helps, honest.

When you're fighting you must fight to win. It does not matter if you are facing the most inexperienced thrall or five training officers out for your blood. If you decide you've lost before a blow is struck, a) you will lose, and b) you will not learn from the fight. When outnumbered three to one, chances are a warrior will die. But if he/she kills all three of the opposition, just once, it makes the 25 times they killed him/her worthwhile. So FIGHT TO WIN.

That is not to say that winning is everything. While fighting you must remember two things:

1) Safety takes precedence over everything else on the battlefield. There are no excuses for putting in a dangerous shot.

2) If your will to win means you don't feel the odd hit, you can be the best fighter in the country but you will always be considered a cheat first.

Right, that's enough of the general stuff. Let's get down to specifics.

1/ The Stance

Your combat stance needs to be comfortable and relaxed, but allow fast movement and changes of direction. The stance that the training officers teach is based on a martial arts/fencing stance. The distance between your heels should be about your shoulder width (without shoulder pads). In a defensive stance the foot of the shield-leg points at the enemy while the weapon-leg foot points at 90-degrees to the enemy. The knees are bent to reduce your height by a couple of inches. The back should be straight so that your center of gravity lies directly between them. Your eyes should have a steely glint in them. Your face should have the look of grim determination. Your bulging biceps should... (sorry, got carried away for a moment there). In an aggressive stance the weapon-foot points at the enemy and the shield-leg is at 90-degrees.

The stance needs to be relaxed as this increases your speed of movement and your control. The most common errors people make in their stances are:

a) feet too close together

b) legs too straight

Both raise the center of gravity making the stance more unstable, causing warriors to become unbalanced when fighting. A warrior should also not bend over when fighting as this makes it harder to change direction, exposes the back, and tends to lead to people eating a shield. If you need to make a low strike, widen the stance and bend the knees more.

The shield should be held so that the top edge is below the chin (otherwise eating your own shield becomes a full-time occupation). The shield should be no more than a foot away from the body but not so close as it restricts your movement and hits you every time you parry with it. The art of good shieldwork is to move the shield the minimum distance needed to protect yourself. This makes for a fast and tight defense, so get used to moving the shield just far enough to cover the target areas.

2/ The Grip

The weapon should be held as one holds a hammer. Again, it is important that the grip is relaxed as otherwise the hand just gets tired very quickly and poor control soon follows. An aching hand or forearm after five minutes of fighting is a sure sign of too tight a grip on the weapon. If the weapon keeps flying out of your hand, the grip may be too relaxed.

The movement of the weapon is controlled by the thumb and index finger. With just these two fingers and a supple wrist you could probably put a kill anywhere on an opponent's body. The other three fingers give control when pulling a blow and give strength to a parry. The fingers grip the weapon tightly at the instant a blow is pulled or a parry is made.

OK, that's enough for now. In the next issue:

Gasp as you put one foot in front of the other.
Shudder as you get backed over a corpse.
Scream as your authentic footwear slides you into the audience.