Results and comments from the Aug/Sep 2003 survey.
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Ýves’ big SCA rapier survey #1 ~
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| Updated: May 24, 2005 |
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Policy blurb
By default, authors of comments sent in response to this survey are named only by their permission. Usually, other people mentioned in a comment are named only with their permission as well. Each comment represents only what the author typed in for the survey at the time.
» This survey was conducted during August-September 2003. Things change over time. «
Some comments were edited for content. Certain harsh words have been changed for your amusement. Opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the surveyor.
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# of Responses by Kingdom AEth. = 34/235 Anst. = 36/240 An Tir = 56/347 Art. = 12/124 Aten. = 27/460 Atl. = 60/425 Caid = 49/400 Drach. = 21/76 Eald. = 12/77 East = 46/480 Loch. = 22/120 Mer. = 27/140 Mid. = 52/640 Nor. = 25/164 Out. = 26/214 Tri. = 46/237 West = 14/70 Unk. = 2
The gist
The comments below were sent in response to Question 26.
Respondents share their input on their typical local SCA fencing practices (past and present). The theme for this page is: these practices begin with footwork, pointwork, or unspecified drills.
The comments
Note: Any remarks in the comments below from Yves look like this.
More comments on this topic are on separate pages.
See the links at the bottom of this page.
Æthelmearc
Φ Lots of comeradery. Lots of individual one on one. Some melee work (maybe) usualy some (20-30%) drills and footwork.
Φ Footwork drills in the beginning of hte school year when there are many newbies, working up to nearly 100% bouting by the end of the school year. ``Constanza
Φ Different pratice: show up armour up talk for 10 get inspected rotate in to the limited space to fence or do thirdy minits of foot drills. then fence. for two hours.
An Tir
Φ Drills followed by sparring.
Φ Much drill work, and then sparring.
Φ 30 minutes to an hour of drills or slow work and 1-2 hours of sparring.
Φ Footwork, guards, sparring and instruction, then "round robin" practice.
Φ 20 - 30 minutes of class/drill work followed by a hour or two of sparring.
Φ The first part all drills and movement exercises, and then the last bit a bear pit.
Φ Some warmup drills, then a lesson with some slow work, and then wrapped up with open sparring at speed. ``Alicia
Φ Lions Gate: Series of drills and lessons led by someone else (40%), sparring (60%), good mix of styles to compete against. Seagirt: Series of drills and lessons led by myself (45%), sparring (55%), I basically brought rapier back from the dead here so most people fight in a style very close to mine. ``Vincent
Ansteorra
Φ Show up to practice, start slow to warm up, then move into faster fighting/less drills as the evening progresses.
Φ Drill work (footing, range, etc),technique, fast pace, melee (if more than two people at practice) dagger only to finish with. ``Etain
Artemisia
Φ Currently 30 minutes of slow drills, 30 minutes of slow sparring with students, 15 - 60 minutes of fast sparring, hours of talking.
Atenveldt
Φ Drill for the first 15-20 minutes then sparring. ``Egan
Φ Barony of Ered Sul: Practice begins with 15 min or so of footwork, followed by 15 min or so of drilling. The balance is filled with some slow sparring and much fast sparring. The last 20 min will often be a tourney for a week's worth of bragging rights. ``Nathaniel
Φ The practice in Flagstaff is run by HE Gwylym, and during the college school year is combined with the NAU fencing team practice, and is an indoor practice. Practice starts with drills for everyone, then moves on to a new concept (different for each form) and finishes with a reasonable amount of free sparring. During the summer months, the practice moves outdoors, and is nearly as regimented then.
Atlantia
Φ Drills (footwork and otherwise), sparring, melees. ``Constanza
Φ Footwork drills to start practice, followed by free sparring.
Φ Bright Hills: Genneraly there is 30 minutes of drill prior to sparing.
Φ Suit up, inspection. Footwork drills, blade work drills ( parrys ) atttack drills. general field practice.
Φ Start out with some drills and slow sparring, then fight and chat on and off for the next few hours.
Φ The Wednesday practice is about half footwork and training on new or difficult moves, with the other half spent sparring. ``Iseulte
Φ My club in elkin north carolina goes two hours twice a week.consists of footwork, blade work,integrated blade/footwork, theory, reaction drills, and free fighting. ``Rufus
Φ At times that I've been RMiC and other intermitent periods there have been practices that started with group drills and then went to sparring or 1-on-1 and then went to group melee or practice tourneys. ``Cam
Caid
Φ See "The Cross and Dragon" at the bottom of this page.
Φ 20-30% drill work. 20-30% Slow Sparring. The remainder full speed sparring.
Φ At my favorite practice, alternating free sparring sessions with slow drill work out of period manuals. ``David
Φ Begin with drills then sparring. Slow or Fast depending on my opponent. I drill some (I know I should drill more). But its more fun to spar, and I find I learn just as much in sparring. ``Dalen
Φ Foot work drill for everyone. Advanced students go onto to attack defence drills followed by sparing. New students move on to point control drills followed by schedualed teaching of the basic (four practices worth). ``Njall
Φ In Darach we usally start with footwork and slow drills for the newer fighters (teamed up with the more experienced fighters) and then progress to single sword work, and then on to whatever areas we have decided (as a group) need the most work that practice. Depending on the skill level of the student, the practice can consist of only, some, or very little work with drills and control work. When the practice is large enough, we split into squads to practice melee tactics and generally finish by having a King of the Hill session where each fighter comes out one at a time and works through each weapon combination. Of course we tend to have long practices (4 hours) but that's what makes it so much fun. ``Eogan
Drachenwald
Φ Drills, Period techniques, work out/drill 1 hour. Fence 45 min-1 hour. ``Cernac
Φ Thamesreach: It has evolved from 100% fast sparring to about 30% slow drills and 70% fast sparring. ``Muirghein
Ealdormere
Φ 2/3rds drill, 1/rd free play. ``Albrecht
Φ We start with footwork drills for about half an hour, then split off with newbies doing more drills (including wall poking, pair drills etc) and more experienced fencers sparring or practicing moves or whatever.
Φ [In one group] ... it was calibration work, footwork and slow work for at least 1/2 the practice and then sparring with an instructor (not necessarily the teacher).
[In another group] ... it was drill work, calibartion work and slow sparring for everyone then I would work one-on-one with people (sparring at a speed appropriate for them) while the others watched on, talked or drilled on their own. Once there was experienced people new students continued the program pretty much as I had done it (work with me or someone else doing the drills and such then working with me in an instructional sparring), while the experience people (me included) would often spar with who ever was available. ``Wilhelm
East
Φ Almost half drilling. ``Dante P
Φ Usually some footwork drills. occationally blade drills, then open sparing.
Φ 1st hour was drills and footwork, .5 hr of 1-on-1 sparring, then .5 hr of melees.
Φ Footwork. Warm-up/parry/point-control practice (drills). Slow sparring. Fast sparring. Slow sparring. Leave.
Φ Bhakail: [practice led by two specific people] drill, gossip, dress, teacher drill with sword, disscus, open sparring, gossip.
Φ The first quarter would be foot drills, (30-60 min). Then the floor would be open for fast sparing/teaching. From what I have seen this works mostly do to limited space and the increasing number of newbies at our practices.
Φ My Shire recently started its own practice when we acquired a marshal. She was the only authorized fencer (until me), and we had a number of total newbies. Therefore, she started with footwork and point control drills, with occasional sparring for the experienced newbies. (Some of the total newbies didn't have gear yet, and we were short on loaner gear.) ``Lilia
Φ Practices usually start out with group footwork, followed by a mixture of individual instruction for free fencing. There have been at times some group instruction. For about two years one of the practices I attended regularly stopped 45 minutes before the end of practice and had melee's which allowed us to work on melee tactics, skills, and group coordinated combat. ``Ronan
Φ We start with footwork drills as a group, then we pick "fights" as individuals and work with teachers as we need on either material the teacher watns or stuff we feel we need to work on; relaxed practice. This practice usually ends with melee work and talk about melee strategy. very good teachers...good newbie teachers especially. friendly and approachable...criticism must be sought here for things to work on. ``Astridr
Lochac
Φ Drill 45 mins, spar 45 mins.
Φ Gore St. Ward: Drill, slow sparring, and maybe 30-40% open sparring. ``Francois
Φ Training (formal slow work and line drill) for the first hour or two then advanced drills and fast spar for the rest.
Meridies
Φ Footwork drills, bladework drills, a new move, sparring work, open sparring - amount devoted to each depends upon level of fencers present. ``Sigurd
Midrealm
Φ Jaravellir: Slow work and drills for first half of practice then free spar the remainder.
Northshield
Φ Home practice (with household, others): 50%drill or slow work, 50% faster sparring. Lasts 1-2 hours. Baronial practice: 20% drill or slow work, rest fast sparring. Most other folks in barony don't like to do group drills/slow work. ``Margalit
Outlands
Φ We get together and drill for about 1/2 an hour, and then free fence for about 1 1/2 hours.
Φ There are usually a few drills that are run through, and then people would begin fighting. Some fighters who need special attention are worked with off the regular fighting field, and others can then spar as they see fit. ``Peryn
Trimaris
Φ Light drills, open sparring. ``Cillian
Φ Some full speed drills rather than just sparring.
Φ Local sunday, monday, wednsday are sparring and occasionally drills. Once a month full weekend and an individuals home and 80-90% drills.
Φ Mostly drill and slow work during the winter and about 50% drill and slow work, 50% sparing in the summer, with a good bit of technical how to's.
Φ Some foot work, a few drills, parry practice, then a bunch of one on one sparring, often round robin style with comments mixed in and after the fights to recap or point out problems. sometimes some drilling on a problem that came up in the fights.
Φ Some group drill on footwork or guards. Split off experienced fencers with novices for indiviual training swaping instructors and students as breaks permit for slow to medium speed practice. when experinced fencers get a break together give them a chance to actually fence together. let the novices have at least some fun and try to use what they learn at full speed for at least a bout or two.
West
Φ Drill work, technique (new moves), fast pace. ``Etain
Φ My practice is footwork drills, with minimal bladework, then sparring(it's an intro to basics and play class). ``Nytshaed
Φ A short focus drill or two then spar. Another in recent past was 50% or more focus drills then spar. An Event class recently run was 80% howto Drill then short sparring under controlled conditions(usually full speed newbie 1/3 experienced for the experienced fencer they sparred with). ``Nytshaed
Φ I'll e-mail you (this info)...
The Cross and Dragon
A company based in Caid. One of the members kindly me sent me this information:
The company I'm teaching in and fighting alongside is the best I've seen, ever ... The typical Sunday practice is geared to the public and drawing in newcomers. We run training sessions for interested folks on Sundays. The Wednesday practices ... tend to be a little more closed and more focused on working with the fencers who can't specifically make it to the Sunday practice.
We start the Sunday practice by taking the newcomers (if any) out and running them through basic drill work and basic foot work. Emphasis is placed on historical relavance and physical effects of the duel. None of the instructors in our group teach in Italian, French or Spanish, and we believe that keeping it simplified, keeps the learning process effective. The beginner then do about 70% drill work with skilled beginner or intermediate fencers. This can be in the form of shadow work, movement drills and slow parry and riposte drills. The remaining 30% of the time we let them spar with an intermediate or advanced member of the company. We believe strongly in letting them play a little bit to know that it not all work and no fun.
As skill improves, the teachers in the group tend to have the experienced beginners or intermediates continue teaching the newcomers, but allow for more sparring and the addition of secondaries. This usually happens in weeks rather than months. We do this for several reasons. First, when a beginner gets to a point where they've learned the basics, we start them into basic teaching and marshalling to bridge their knowledge gaps. We've found that this helps the experienced beginner bridge the gap to intermediate skills (mulptiple attacks, demonstrating lateral movement, and understanding of secondaries) or solidify these talents in intermediates. The whole time, the teachers in the group are observing the fighting and training to gently correct areas of confusion.
We teach basic fighting skills throughout the year, but [starting in Autumn?] the emphasis shifts between tourney skills and melee training as a group. At this time of year we start shifting to melee work and will add an hour of melee training and tactics work at the end of each practice. In the November/December time frame our melee training shifts into a minimum of two hours or more per practice. This is in preparation for Estrella in February. Following Estrella, we shift entirely back to tourney training till the cycle restarts.
Another difference with our company/school is that we also train in SCA related talents (equiette, awards writing, service and so forth). The company tends to travel to events in mass and this helps encourage newcomers to greater comfort in their first tourneys. Does it all work? YES.. Consistently our new fencers have [won] at least one bout in their first and second tourney. We typically get our new feners to several tourneys within three months of authorizing. This alone has helped to steadily build our humble, happy group into the company that it is. ``John James
The company has an e-mail list group on Yahoo.
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