Lefty Combat

Tag: Lefty

  • Video: Ten Shots

    This is a longer video, about twenty minutes, so it’s embedded via Youtube. It shows ten different shots for striking your opponent in their sword arm. These shots are shown lefty on righty, but most of them work in any hand configuration. The filming is done with a digital camera, so, as always, the appearance…

  • Ask the Champion: Dealing with Tracers

    Dear Champion: How do I deal with tracers? With some fighters, as soon as I throw a shot, they throw a shot. So I end up with a lot of simos. Sometimes I kill them and just lose an arm, sometimes they kill me and I just wound them. If I don’t throw a shot,…

  • Ask the Champion: Choosing Something to Work On

    Dear Champion: I have a laundry list of things I need to improve; footwork, stance, guard, shot accuracy, shot selection, feints, baits, combos…. I’m overwhelmed. Where do I begin and how do I go about improving in a smart and logical fashion. Overwhelmed in the Wetlands Dear Overwhelmed: That is an excellent question. The answer…

  • Video: The High Cross Feint

    A short video on drawing a known counter by feinting the high cross. The core concept is fairly straightforward. People like to throw the high cross. A lot. Eventually people, even silly righties, learn to capitalize on this and kill the foolish high crossing people. Once people have learned to counter the high cross, which…

  • The Rules of Combat, Part 1

    Everyone who has ever had to take an English class has heard about the rules of good writing; don’t end a sentence with a proposition, don’t split an infinitive, don’t begin a sentence with “and” or “but”, and so forth. These are hard and fast rules for beginning writers, but experienced writers break them all…

  • Body Alignment

    If you’re uncertain about a term used in this post, please check the Terminology page. Revised 09/18/2013 As a lefty, there are some concepts that apply to the majority of your combat that do not apply to the majority of righty combat. One of these concepts is body alignment. Body alignment is the term for…

  • Throwing to the Outside

    If you’re uncertain about a term used in this post, please check the Terminology page. Someone recently asked why throwing to the outside is wrong. They correctly pointed out that throwing to the outside on a lefty draws a somewhat predictable return and that there is potential to capitalize on this predictability; the righty can…

  • Fighting on the Dark Side

    If you’re uncertain about a term used in this post, please check the Terminology page. Someone recently asked me if there was ever a reason to attack the shield side when fighting a right-handed shield man. The answer is a resounding “Yes!” Many people avoid attacking the shield side because reaching it is a slow,…

  • Welcome to Lefty Combat

    As I have progressed as a fighter I have benefited greatly from the experience and knowledge of other great fighters. I’ve found that the truly good fighters are always willing to “talk shop”, provide advice and critiques, and even take time out of their schedules to spar and train with less experienced fighters. This has…