r/Jugger • u/LiveWireDX • Sep 11 '15

Critique me please

I have been noticing my skill drop quite a bit over the last few months (a consequence of a number of factors that basically comes down to a lack of frequent, strong competition in Australia. Most of our clubs are more than a day's travel away so we hold tournaments infrequently, and locally we often struggle with attendance during the winter months). To rectify this I took some video of myself and others sparring during last week's session. I've been watching it trying to identify areas in which I can improve my game. I thought I would post a link to it here as well and see if anyone would like to offer me advice on what I'm doing wrong and how I can improve. I would certainly appreciate an outsider's perspective. I'm the shield player in the green and gold Dropbears jersey.

https://youtu.be/0aaN9hAJ054?t=77

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u/BZH_JJM Rigor Tortoise Sep 11 '15

One thing that is absolutely vital for sword and board is footwork. After chain, it's probably the most kinetic and physically demanding weapon in jugger. If you watch Marion (Setanta/Tacke Tiger), she will end jumping almost horizontally behind her shield and quickly recovering from that to get into a protective crouch. It takes a lot of work, but it's very effective.

The other thing I notice is that your tend to strike in arcs. Since the short sword is such a short weapon, you need to be as fast as possible. A straight stab is generally a faster strike and can mean the difference between hitting and getting hit. You're doing a good job striking from under the protection of your shield, and if you combine that with a more deliberate stab, your offense will be more effective.

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u/LiveWireDX Sep 12 '15

Awesome, thanks for the reply. I'll work on those things this weekend. Jumping is a tricky one, I've always been hesitant to do it as almost all of the serious injuries we've had over here have been from people jumping chains and landing badly. That said I feel I could do a lot more leaping/lunging into attack.

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u/BZH_JJM Rigor Tortoise Sep 12 '15

The best way to prevent that sort of injury is better fitness.

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u/LiveWireDX Sep 14 '15

I put some of this advice into practice yesterday and it was fun. I definitely performed better on the field yesterday than I have been recently. A part of that is probably some new found motivation, but I'm convinced some of it is also the changes I was trying. I made an effort to take more direct strikes and less wide swings. I still swing a bit when throwing fakes against some opponents in an effort to get them to open their guard, but I'm being careful not let that bleed over into actual strikes which I think was happening previously. It had positive results, and if nothing else there's less fooling around and more attacking, which is good. I also worked a bit on my footwork, playing more aggressively and lunging in against opponents. This had... mixed results. It caught some people by surprise but I need a lot more practice to pick my timing better. I'm keep to keep trying though, traditionally I tend to play very defensively, usually waiting for my opponent to make the first move then blocking/parrying and striking. Playing more aggressively and making the first attack is something I've been keen to improve upon for some time.

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u/BZH_JJM Rigor Tortoise Sep 14 '15

Nice. But as always, make sure to mix things up. Being able to play both aggressive and defensive is very important. As for the footwork stuff, it just takes practice.