Improving your boffing skills is sometimes easier than you think! There is the old adage of practice, practice, and more practice. But one week I learned more than I thought I ever would, standing outside of the boffer circle. It was an experience that I did not expect and will not soon forget. Due to an injury (which had nothing to do with boffing) I was unable to participate in the battle, but had committed to bringing weapons. So I thought I would just go and watch. And it was interesting what you can see without a boffer in your hand.
You saw people who consistently fought as a team. And no, they weren't a couple as you would expect. Rather they were a pair that just seemed to continually gravitate to the same area for some reason. And even though it was cut throat (every one for themselves) they ended up back to back, fighting off the rest of the group on a regular basis.
I saw strategies I never noticed before coming through again and again. I watched people pull their punches for people smaller than themselves and I also saw people who preyed on peoples weakness and inexperience to make themselves big and powerful in their own minds.
I caught sight of one tall man who was making an effort not to deliver head shots, try again and again to lower his arms to battle as most peoples head were straight out from his arm and he felt most comfortable extending his arm to his full reach with his sword so as to avoid taking shots. I expect him to continue to keep practicing as I have received some of those (fatal for the one who delivers the head shot) shots and think he will not be so upset if he is not losing his own head so much.
I noticed a women who fought while crouched with her buckler shield, sword and her strategy of making herself small and therefore much harder to hit. She would take on the biggest of the warriors and still be left at the end. It didn't hurt that she had perfected this move and was able to "duck walk" as easily as breathing.
I noticed the safety factor that I hadn't realized was so important as when I saw someone's two year old wander on to the battlefield and some one yelled "Hold". The reaction time and the rapid response was impressive as the noise was deafening before we noticed the small one, but with that one word (and I still can't figure out how anyone heard it) all battle ceased, and the small one was escorted off the battlefield with a promise that his time would yet come.
I saw the defeated faces of people leaving the battlefield with their weapon laying across their head to signify they were "dead" for the moment, heading to the corner to count themselves back to life with a grin and a plan to live longer the next time.
It was time well spent for the newbie who was thrilled to be picking up tips for these foam weapons called boffers from the more experienced and then be able to use them on the same person who explained it to them.
I could hear the grunts and groans of warriors, that let you know they took a hit and I could also hear the victorious whooping of someone going for a kill.
I noticed how there were young and old, tall and short, some with money to spend on foam weapons and people who came with no weapons and had to borrow a soft sword to get into the battle, go out onto a battlefield as an equal and sometimes win, sometimes lose, but stay until they were forced to go home.
I saw where the person who was supposed to be a leader, react cowardly and run more often than fight and never admit when he did take a hit. I will make sure next time we battle that he knows he has taken a hit.
So I have come to the conclusion that an injury can be no fun when it happens or in the time it takes to get over it. But that time can be well spent practicing your boffer skills without a boffer in hand.
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