As You Wish 2022
On December 10th 2022, I drove back to Columbus for “As You Wish” - A Rapier and Dagger Event hosted by Columbus Saber Academy. I’ve been going to HEMA tournaments pretty regularly for years and I’m used to seeing a bunch of the same faces with a few new people every once in a while that I’ll see on more than one occasion. What I wasn’t prepared for was meeting not one, but 2 HEMA famous people!
Firstly there was David Miller from Sellsword Arts. If you haven't checked them out yet I highly recommend them! Their video's are an awesome combination of funny, entertaining and accurate. He actually looks like he's having fun in his videos! I'd actually reached out a few months ago to see if he goes to any HEMA tournaments because I thought he'd be fun to fight. At the time he said he didn't have any tournament plans, but low and behold we just happened to run into each other at this event!
If you're curious how it went, here's a link to the video. I'm featured around the 12 minute mark.
Secondly, but certainly not least was Robert Childs! I hadn't heard about him until the night before when JW Pugnetti was talking about him coming to the event. Watching the videos it seemed like his opponents didn't know what they were doing. I figured maybe he'd just gone to some back woods HEMA tournaments to rack up wins or something. Then I was told he WON SwordFish (arguably the biggest HEAM Tournament in the world) a few years ago. Still, guy is like super old. How good could he be now right?
On the day of the tournament, Tom Amoroso announces that Robert Childs is here and he's got copies of his book for sale. "Oh Lord ... how pretentious! Who does this guy think he is?" Boy would those words come back to haunt me!
After I saw him flawlessly put down every opponent I was in awe! He was so fast, so precise, every hit was like a kitten's purr it was so soft. The judges often had a hard time telling if the hit was quality with how brief they were, but I could tell and it blew my mind. I fan girl-ed over and bought his book as soon as his pool was finished. I mentioned how I was running a rapier and dagger class and I'd love to read his book and start integrating his lessons into mine. We made a deal that we'd spar a bit after the tournament so I could feel what it's like fighting a legend.
Then I made it into the top 8, and guess who was there to fight me! Robert ... God damn ... Childs!
Robert Childs beating my ass like the red headed step child of a rented mule!
I've never been beaten so thoroughly in all my life and I loved every minute of it ... of which there was exactly one because he beat me like he had other places to be! I did manage to get exactly one point on him though, so at least I've got that. Still though, that was one hell of a weekend! Super glad I went!
Me and David Miller at "As You Wish" 2022
Me and Robert Childs at "As You Wish" 2022
