More interesting Headblow?

[Gerard Kraay]

[Nathan]

Really enjoyed Sunday Gerard and will return.


Arrgh sore muscles have I

[Patch]

"I vote for all fighting having a helm requirement and a single strike to the crown of the head.
Moving away from any fighting where there are no head strikes to the crown of the head and banning any fighting with out helms full stop at NAAMA events."

NAAMA rules insist that all fighters wear a helm on the field of battle. You are permitted to do some in club training, sparring or warming up with your own clubs rules at the camp and this may include no helms but all the fighters have helms for NAAMA battles.

I suspect you will find that pretty much everyone agrees that controlled head-blow combat has significant tactical and technique advantages over non-head-blow. The issue here is that again and again when engaged in head-blow melee people are finding that the participants hit with less control. Suddenly it becomes a matter of trust - would you trust someone who has just smashed a significant contusion into your thigh to wave an axe at your head? Especially if they are manifestly unable to stop it if something goes wrong?

With proper control even if you completely flub it and your opponent leaps like a salmon at your weapon trying to hook it into his nose, you should be able to ensure that they are only lightly bruised by the experience, but this level of ability is not being shown, and therein lies the issue.

It is (in my opinion) not a matter of the innate safety or technique issues of head-blow per say that is making this argument - it is simply that the head-blow culture in NZ does not have the skill to do this kind of fighting at large events without significant and nasty injuries. The bigger the field - the more chaotic the environment, the nastier things get. What might be fine in dueling and kind of ok (within the boundaries of acceptable risk), within the club environment can become savage and dangerous in a big fight. This opinion is not based on fear or foreshadowing - it is based on my experiences and what I have seen in videos, some of which have been posted here.
Cheers,
--Patch.

[Victorius]

Might be time to re-summarise my position, as this thread has wandereed off-topic a few times.
I would like to retain non-Headblow combat for those who are uncomfortable with Headblow (eg, they have had concussion so cannot allow ANY strike to their head, that sort of thing). Many people do not have Headblow-rated helmets: mine for instance is too thin, and cannot support a suspension harness, and the expense to change for everyone could be prohibitive. Stuart has already mentioned (if not in this thread, then in another) how in England they kept changing the rules, necessitating huge expenditure to make everyone's kit fit new requirements. I would not like to see that.
However, the new issues being rasied here are another matter. I believe we all understand that no-one is trying to suggest changes to current non-Headblow combat. What we ARE trying to do, and what I would like to see, is discussion on how we can incorporate new strikes to Headblow Combat. The current options are:
1) Make no change. Headblow Combat remains at the same state it is, with only vertical (or near enough) strikes to the crown. Face protection to be RECOMMENDED, but not REGULATED.
2) Seriously consider allowing controlled Horizontal strikes with all weapons. This will allow a strike zone of 180 degrees, with zero and 180 at bottom of the head level (no decapitation strikes or face thrusts). This will require new safety standards and helmet standards, such as faceplates, fencing mesh etc.
3) Same as 2, but allow facethrusts also.
4) Same as 3, but use short weapons only (eg Gladii. Saex, Dagger, single-handed axe).
5) Same as 3, but no use of spears.
And variations thereon...
Or additionally, retain 1, but allow another code, namely options 2 through 5.
use of spear for any headstrikes.

[Victorius]

Strike final line...