Melee Drills
These are a few ideas of drills to run at practice. Rapier melees typically include some amount of tactics, but are primarily about cardiovascular endurance. Scenarios are frequently a battle of attrition. Do you have other drills? Let us know!
Things to keep in mind:
- Die loudly
- Have a designated leader
- Have a plan
- Focus on objectives
- Killing can be objective
- Know your role: Just because you may not be good at killing, doesn’t mean you are useless. Foul blades, distract opponents, threaten constantly
- Be a presence on the field
- Melee is not about dueling and 1vs1, bring your friends to the party
- Communicate
- Have fun
2 vs 1 Bear Pit
Start with 2 vs 1. The 1 who kills the 1 becomes the new 1. The next person in line joins the team of two against the new 1. No resetting unless all die. This is a constantly moving pit.
3 Lanes Melee
Make 3 lanes and two teams of 3. Each member has 10 seconds to enter a lane. They cannot move until all fighters have entered a lane once they enter a lane, at that point lay on. Once they kill their opponent, they can go back to their entrance and enter a teammate’s lane. Double kills means both die and no DFB.
Defend the Object
Two or more teams. Each team has a chair that is their resurrection point. The object is to defend their chair from attackers while attempting to touch their opponent’s chair to disable their resurrection point. This can go on for a limited amount of time or until only one team has an active resurrection point.
Standard Team vs Team
Last fighter standing. Run with and without resurrections.
Broken Field
Last fighter standing. Run with and without resurrections.
Defend Your Captain
The object is to kill the other team’s Captain. No resurrections. This can be done with resurrections to see which team can do it quicker.
Team Melee Pit
Start with a designated amount per team, like 5. Two members enter the field and are only replaced when one or both members die. Winner is decided when all members of one team are dead. The amount of fighters per team and active on the field can be altered.
2 vs 2 Bear Pit
This is really a field awareness and endurance drill.
Two vs Two with shifting loyalties
As soon as two people die, the next two people in line immediately come in to attack. The surviving two people on the field, whether they were friends or foes, need to reorient and work together against the oncoming team. It works well with 3 vs 3 as well.
10 second drill
If you can’t kill someone in 5-10 seconds, leave them and seek easier prey. In this drill two people attack one person. They have 10 seconds to kill that one person, or they both lose.