premise: It would have been easy to close the distance , control the center , and stack the deck heavily in my favor , but I played soft . Sparring time is too precious to waste on that old dilettante bullshit - fight or do n't fight . Nothing in between . On the up side , I learned that putting all that weight on my shield foot was limiting my offensive options , so I ' m going to a more balanced stance . Also , I figured out the mechanics of a funky off - side shot that was used against me at Pennsic , and even managed to score with it once or twice . What may have caused you to switch to a balanced stance ?
hypothesis: My offense felt funky .