Links to all of the pages with results, analysis, and comments from a big survey for SCA rapier.
 |
Ýves’ big SCA rapier survey #1 ~ Main page |
| Updated: May 24, 2005 |
This page has links to the 56 Web pages of compiled results from a survey that I conducted during August and September of 2003.
» A Polite Reminder: Things Have Changed Since Then. «
What's to see? Over 3,500 comments from about 500 people.* And some interesting statistics.
[See actual numbers at end of page.]
The comments range from a few words to a few paragraphs — and from bland to surprising.
Author's names listed: 209 and counting as of 24 May 2005.
Disclaimer
The survey does not represent all geographic or demographic areas of the SCA equally. The survey was available only online. All responses came in via e-mail and all were in English.
That said, about ONE OUT OF SIX authorized SCA fencers at the time took the survey.
Who we are |
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| Demographics | Gender, award rank, current kingdom and previous kingdoms |
| Other awards | Non-rapier awards given for rapier contributions |
| Skill rank | How puissant do we think we are? Or not? |
| Anchorage | "If ____ happened, would you leave?", what we do besides fencing |
Why and how we like to fence |
|
| Why we like it | (SCA) fencing, that is... |
| Let's just fence | One on one, skill vs. skill, no distractions |
| Let's add spice | Melees, scenarios, special rules, theatrics, chatter, RBGs, silly secondaries |
| Mindset | Pretending blades are sharp and/or blunt, courtesy, entertainment |
| Forms | Combinations of weapons and parrying items |
Blades and merchants |
|
| Blades | Years of experience, comments from usage and hearsay |
| Merchants | Praises and gripes and stray comments |
Research and teaching |
|
| Authenticity | Attire, gear, movement, research, translation |
| Teaching | A variety of personal comments |
Activity and practice |
|
| Activity | When we started; how often we fence and do solo practice |
| Slow work | Solo practice and slow sparring at group practices |
| Typical practices | What is your typical local practice like? |
| Ideal practices | What is your ideal practice or training program like? |
and comments about the survey itself...
Most of the pages are not listed above, just the "top-level" pages. For example, the Blades page has links to more pages that have comments only about one blade type.
If you took this survey
... and you'd like everyone to see your name after your comments, just send me a note.
Why the delay?
This would have been done sooner, but I didn't stop everything else in my life; I pecked at this for months, changing the design more than once. Earlier in 2004, I also spent some time working on another fencing-related Web site.
Then I got back to work on the survey and decided to backtrack. I'm glad I did, because I'd missed some things. Among other things, I found five pairs of responses from people who took the survey once in early August and again in late September! (Argh.)
Actual numbers
I say "3,500+" comments, but what someone wrote in a single comment box (such as on blade preference) may have been split up into multiple comments on different pages (such as for the various blade types).
The total number of what I listed as distinct comments (starting with a 'Φ') at last count is a bit under 3,600. I copied each and every one from someone's e-mailed response. By hand. Oofff. Gotta learn to do this with a database...
In total, I received around 600 responses. Omitting those that were incomplete, I retained 572. This includes the five pairs of responses as noted above. So, the official total is 567. Of those, less than 5% sent a survey with zero comments.
Your feedback is most welcome!
Original page posted:
October 1, 2003? Links tested: September 2, 2007. Last tweaked:
July 1, 2006.
The address for this page is [ www.therotunda.net/rapier/survey-1/index.html
]
Nothing on my Web site is the official publication of anyone else. Unauthorized use for profit is not permitted.