Pell Drills

What is a Pell?

A pell is human sized target used to practice martil arts. I use one to practice medieval style stick combat under the SCA rules

Who made these?

I was taught 1-6 in the 1990's, and the rest have been morphed over time and their provedence is lost. I know credit goes to Sirs Fabian, Uther, Seb, Alaric, Stpehn and Cornelius, and solid thanks to Erik and his wonderful printouts. We still need to get them and video the results one day!

1-6 drill - Basic.

In this drill you mark the pell with markings one to six, and hit them in a pattern. 

Numbers: Numbers one to six are on the foreahand shot side, on the side to be struck most easily by the dominant hand. 1 is at the lower leg target, one inch above the knee on an average combatant. 2 is in the torse, one inch above the hip socket, and 3 is on the head, one inch below the average eye line. Numbers 4-6 are on the 'backhand' shots, where the sword travel to the other side of the body from the doiminant hand. 4 is a backhand to one inch below the eye, 5 is a backhand to one inch above the hip, 6 is a backhand to one inch above the knee.

Pattern: Keep one number standard, then advance the other numbers through the sequence. So 1,1 1,2 1,3 1,4 1,5 1,6 is the start, then 2,1 2,2 3,2 4,2 5,2 6,2 and proceed until 6,1 6,2 6,3 6,4 6,5 6,6.

Aims: This drill gets the sword moving from target to target, and gets the armoured combatant used to choosing the long selction shots like 1,4 and the hard repeats like 5,5 and 6,6. 

1-6 drill - Advanced

Numbers - you can add more numbers and add in 7 wrap to one inch above the leg, 8 wrap to one inch above the hips, 9 wrap to the back of the head, and 10 the face thrust.

Aim: Integrate the wraps and thrusts to the drill

Cutout Pell

I used one of these made by Count Stephen. The pell is a suspended oblong of wood or butchers block plastic, with cuts made just larger than the sword you are practing with. The aim is to throw your shots with sufificent precision that you travel very cleanly into the very small gap for both the strikes and the thrusts.

Multiple Pells

One of the drills I do the most is my war drills - these drills involve using two pells to simulate common war situations. 

Shield Wall - I have three pells in front of me in a line, and I practice standing in front of the middle one and hitting the other two. This simulates the fact that the person in front of you is generally watching you, making the other two easier to hit.

Polearm clearance - in this drill you have two pell with one right in front of you and one further behind you to simulate a shield and a polearm. In this drill you simulate engaging with the shield and practicing the passing shots to engage the polearm.

More later

I hope to expand this out later...

Thanks for the question that inspired the post, StBo!