Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Fighting Fit: How to get there

Larp fighting is a reasonably intense hobby. On any given weekend I may swing my foam sword thousands of times or throw hundreds of packets. I may have to run or die, I may have to jump or climb, we play a physical game. Generally speaking the larp crowd is not in particularly great shape, but what if there was a workout that revolved around larp fighting? What if every day someone gave you something different to do to make yourself better at your game? Crossfit is a training theory in which a short 5-15 minute workout every day is used to increase overall fitness level while also preparing someone for a particular sport. Many variations of the crossfit theory are available on the internet and each one has a workout of the day, a short workout that focuses on the goals of the program. Generally all of the exercises are explained and demonstrated with short videos and then broken down into a new unique workout which goes up every day. A larp crossfit workout may look like this.

Monday Workout of the Day: Run fight Run
50 Jumping jacks
100 High Cross swings
100 Darkside Swings
50 Jumping jacks
Repeat 3 times for time post time to comments


Its short

Its sweet

And when you get done you will be briefly tired, but if done correctly you will be better at shooting high crosses and darksides and after four weeks or so, you will be in better shape. The time posted to comments allows for people who are competetive to compete with one another.

So what do people think about this? Would you do a workout like this? Do you think it would be helpful?

2 comments:

  1. I think it's marvelously useful and easy to get involved with. What would be as useful (to me personally, if none others) would be a battery of fighting practices with yourself and Bill. I'm always horribly outmatched at Nero when it comes to swordplay.

    I'd like a dictionary of your combat terms, too. I don't know what a darkside swing is.

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  2. I'd definitely do a 15 minute workout to improve my game. It really only took a few months of sparring with Tim 3 times a week to reach the level I'm at now. I would highly suggest getting a sparring buddy and just trying new shots instead of focusing on winning all the time.

    @Cedarlock
    I like the idea of a dictionary, and we'll definitely do that at some point. As for the darkside, there's some disagreement of where that shot gets it's name, but the best way to describe it is a hip cross that originates from behind your shield (Dark Side of the Shield).

    What's a hip cross? For a righty, throw a slash like a checkmark starting left of your opponent and connecting just above the hip.

    Check out the warlord sports definition of that.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHezhTid3vM

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