Results and comments from the Aug/Sep 2003 survey.

	Ýves’ big SCA rapier survey #1 ~ Typical practices that are also Ideal Practices
	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

When someone's response to Question 26 was essentially the same as their reponse to Question 27, this indicated to me that their typical practice is (or at least was) the same as their Ideal Practice.

Below, you can also learn what "mad-mother" means to a rapierist in the Kingdom of the Outlands.

The "Ideal Practice"

Note that people differ in their standards. Note also that the responses regarding actual practices/training reflect one person's impression of what it was like. This may have been long before this survey (Aug-Sep 2003).

The comments

Note: Any remarks in the comments below from Yves look like this.

"Warm up" can mean exercise, which could be just stretching and maybe a little calesthenics and/or jogging. It can also mean sparring (bouts to warm up). I think for most of the below comments it refers to stretching and (maybe once in a while) calisthenics.

More comments on this topic are on separate pages.
See the links at the bottom of this page.
 

Æthelmearc

Φ Pickups with another fencer, bear pits, team tactics, melee tactics, using various forms, discussion.

Φ Typical practice consists of footwork for about 20-30 minutes, bladework for 20-30 minutes, and the rest just fun (usually 2.5-3 hours total).

Φ Discussion of up coming events and other fencing practices in the area, then we drill, then fence pick ups. I also like to discuss a specific topic, such as melee, RBG use, authorizations, etc...

Φ It varies and evolves over time. These days, it is usually some warm-ups followed by drills, followed by single combats, followed by melee work, and then more single combats until everyone falls down and doesn't get up again. It seems to be working well for us (at least, our program is still growing and people seem to be having fun and improving).  ``Michael

An Tir

Φ Show up, chit chat, dress, and fight.
Φ Footwork, drilling, sparring, decompression.

Φ 2-3 hour practice. 1 hour lessons. 2 hours slow work & free fighting.

Φ Warm up one on one then three on three (or more) then malie then dairy queen.

Φ Approx 20 people. Organized with warmup drills and lesson followed by fight time.

Φ People get together and play. Then someone says hey I learned something and here it is.

Φ Warm up single point, bear pit. Pick up secondaries and play for a while. Start melees for the rest of practice.

Φ The practice I run has 2 hours of drill work followed by 2 hours of bouting for the more experienced fighters.

Φ Now, i am working on the spanish circle, my don and i start with circling and blade work without masks. then we take 20min and play with the masks.  ``Cormac

Φ Start by 10 to 15 minutes of stretching and warm up. Class instruction for about 20-30 minutes. Sparring for the next hour to hour and a half. I think [this] is pretty ideal; I'd like to be able to attend a practice like that twice or even three times a week instead of just once a week.

Φ The way we practice, people come out, warm up one-on-one, graduate to team melees (two on three, three on three, however many people we have), and we finish up with a mad mother (every person for themselves, resurrection, until everyone is tired). Then we go to Dairy Queen. Every so often we have a "salon" or special topic/class. I really like the way we have practice. We could be a bit more disciplined. I *hate* drills.  ``Juana

Φ An Tir ~ [Response is below.]

1. Some form of warm up, generally very short, 3-10 minutes.
2. Optional set of slow work.
3. Some form of excercise/drillwork, generally starting with leg based stuff and moving to blade work. This is a large part of the class, and generally takes up between 40 and 60% of our training time.
4. Optional set of slow work.
5. Fast work, bouting, generally bear pit, but sometimes small melee situations or other bouting formats.
6. Seldom includes a cool down (didn't want you to assume there was one).

[It appears that few of our practices include a cool-down. And for your ideal practice?] Pretty much the same as above, but with more one on one instructor work and a proper warm up and cooldown of at least 10 minutes each.  ``Argan

Ansteorra

Φ Warm up, if just myself and students, we go into old lessons at full speed, We stop to discuss and walk through movements. Full speed sparring, thought sessions. Lots more sparring, interrupted by impromptu lessons.

Φ Some times we have 13 fighters, some times 4. We are, Emerald Keep, Central Region, Ansteorra, Waco, Texas. I am the current Knight Marshal, and Waver Fairy. We have fighters that drive 90 miles or more for Wednesday Nights Practice, from Steppes, Elfsea, and Shaddowlands. It is our goog fortune to have _____ as our teacher. We do drills, single combat, round robins, and Melees. We fight, we talk, we discuss moves, we have a good time.  ``Jacques

Artemisia

Φ Practice runs from 4-12 fighters, generally with not much organisation. Fighters pair off for a few passes with whoever they will. Weather and numbers permitting, we sometimes group up for melee work, which tends to be a bit more structured. Most teaching is done one-on-one otherwise.  ``Justin

Atenveldt

Φ arrive greet fight laugh

Φ First half hour foot and slow drills then next hour and a half open fencing.

Atlantia

Φ Ponte Alto: Do drills, footwork, explain theory and answer questions, get to fight.  ``Belphoebe

Φ Show up, chat for a few, do some drills / slow sparring, free sparring / teaching, melee practice, then out to dinner as a group.  ``Marcus

Φ Elvegast: Stretching,footwork drills, instruction/questions, inspection, one on one, melees and or bearpits depending on number and level.

Φ Caer Mear: Some drill work once in a while, maybe once every other month, but there are a lot of experienced people there so the practices are just hours of straight fighting. It forces me to improve at an accelerated rate. It's been a lot of help.  ``Dante P

Φ Inspect and organize gear-10 minutes, Gear-up and choose sparring partner-10 minutes, Calibration and warm-up (slow sparring)-5 minutes, Fast sparring with partner changes-60 minutes, Breaks-5-10 minutes when needed, Cool-down and socializing-how long have you got? :-)  ``Iseulte

Φ Play a little, to get an idea of what is necessary to work on. Go from there. Generally I will work with anyone and everyone, ask them if they want to work on something, or just play. Often times the answer is "Play, but if you see something let me know) ... I tend to handle practices my way wherever I go :)  ``Gypsy Boy

Φ Our typical practice has people doing sparing. If we have a beginer at the practice, various people will run them thru the basic drills. while other people are sparing. Once they get comfortable with a blade they will spare at slow wpeed and then pick up speed as the get comfortable. We like to play at our practice so lots of different typs of fighting happens.  ``Geoffrey

Φ First half-hour or so, warm-up (lunge drills, stretching, etc.).  ``Renard
2nd half-hour, 1-on-1 fast sparring.
3rd half-hour, melee.
4th half-hour, "other" (bear-pit, 1-on-1, 2-on-1, etc.)
Throughout the practice, myself & other experienced fencers work with newbies. Devote a lot of time to footwork (best way no get hit...no be there) and bladework fundamentals (parry drills, lunge drills, etc.)

Φ When I'm in charge - about 15 minutes of conditioning/stretching/warmup (not in that order :)), 45 minutes to an 1 hour of drilling, 1-1.5 hours of sparring. Ideal? Gosh. Ideally, about the same time commitments ... except I would know every drill to practice every movement, would have great drills in my head to practice moves in situ, have a system of introducing actions tactically too. My fencers would never be bored or lazy, and would come to every practice. They would see immense success in tournament, and always be satisfied with their performance in the context of their level of experience.  ``Gunther

Caid

Φ Stretch, suit up, fight everyone.

Φ I am lucky to have a fine instructor who really works on form and footwork.

Φ Lots of fighting with my fellow companions and occassionally some melee tactics.

Drachenwald

Φ Chat, drill, theory chat and break, drill, theory chat and break, slow fence (to practice new moves if any), fast fence. I'm just impatient, I want to know everything now! :)

Ealdormere

Φ A mix of drill, bear pit and paired combat, with ample time to work on new weapon forms.

Φ A subset of the practice attendees do some drilling while others get out and play. Sparring continues until the end, with people moving according to their own desires between (or not). Drilling being footwork and technique drills led by a senior fencer.

[And your ideal practice?] Like the above, but everybody drills for around half the practice.

East

Φ Lots of fencing and fun for about 4 hours :)

Φ Get there, see who's there, chat a bit, gear up, warm up, slow sparring, get someone to teach me something new, bouts.

Φ 7:30 Show up. Chat while gearing-up. Take care of any business (i.e. paperwork & etc.) Inspect other peoples' weapons & armor, plus get mine inspected.
~8:15 Teach basics to "newbie fencers" (if any) for 45 min. to 1 hr.
~9:00 Work with Cadet.
~9:30-10:30 Open spar, instructions as necessary.
Gear down. Put room back together. Get out of building by 11:00.
Go have a beer (or 3) at the Brew Pub.
At least one practice a month do a special topics class for the first hour.

Lochac

Φ General footwork, drill, followed by sparing at the end to wind up.

Φ Warm-ups, some movement training and then bouting, often working on some particular element.

Φ Lots of drill on new technique and review drill too, some free fencing, meatgrinders with curtique sessions, discussions, etc.Our group marshal is in my opinion one of the best and finest instructors and fencers I have ever seen! :)  ``Marc

Φ I am rather fit & experienced a broad scope of Martial Arts. As such, fencing is natural thing for me & therefore a common practice session for me will be going full speed with as many people as possible. Stopping to examine any moves that appear new, or to assist people in deficincies in their style.  ``Hanbal

Φ [My typical and ideal practice is]

warmup
drills/slow-work   -|
full-speed work    -|--- with or without a theme (ie cloakwork)
meatgrinder/melee  -|

Meridies

Φ Warm up stretch. maybe some drills, lots of sparring at speed.

Midrealm

Φ Spar to warm up, drill, spar with the techniques worked on.

Φ Foot work, slow drills, armed drills, controlled sparring, open sparring.

Φ There all basically the same about 10 min streach and warm up then 1hr of slow
fencing 50 min of drill and hr of fighting.

Φ Streaches, footwork, slow-work, sparring. Teaching if there are new folks there. Teaching gets a higher priority when new folks are about.  ``Alexander

Φ I go to practice, limber up, then try and fight each of the fighters that show up. Lately I've been sparing my teachers more so that I can move my skill level up a bit.  ``Robert

Φ Warmups followed by round-robin bouts with the fencers present (usually 6-10), working on various styles and techniques. This seems to work for me, although I'm sure ir could be improved.

Northshield

Φ Warm up, teach, train with my teacher, fight open bouts.

Φ Warm up, Slow work/drills, slow sparring, fast sparring, advanced styles, rapier games.  ``Cy

Outlands

Φ Warm-up, drillwork instruction, free sparring, melee practice, mad-mother or team madmother to finish.

A mad-mother is an individual or team melee with some optional rules.

1. The fighting takes place in a bounded area. Step out of bounds and you're dead. Benefit - it builds one's awareness of space and surroundings.
2. Resurrection (choose one or more resurrection points as appropriate). Benefit - there are more chances to play in a given round.
3. Include Declared Kill from Behind (DKFB). Benefit - it builds one's awareness of who and where one's opponents are.

My source for this said, "We used to fight until last fighter standing, everybody having bailed from being too tired to go on. It also gets the blood pumping, the adrenaline running, and is an amazingly fun way to wrap up a practice."

More options include having a time limit, a set number of resurrections, or unlimited resurrections. Obviously, it can work for both armored and rapier combat.

Φ Drills for beginners, individual sparring for everyone else. About an hour later - line drills. Final - team resurrection mad mother.  ``Christian

Φ In my own shire we start with drills and move on to bear pits or tourneys. I run practice just how I like it at my practice. I hope this is not to arrogent sounding.  ``Rebekah

Φ Begin with stretches and warm-up exercises. Slow sparring for the first 15-20 minutes. Fast sparring fromm that point on. Speed rounds in the middle with multiple people to keep heart rate up. End with cool down exercises.

Φ At my primary fighter practice (at Scola Metallorum, Outlands), the drills start at 7:00 and run for about 30 minutes. We then switch over to seminar training and split the fighter according to their experience level (newbie, intermediate, advanced) and we drill skill-level specific stuff for about 20 minutes. After that, it's free spar or bear pits for the rest of the practice. During the fall, we often forgo the free spar to run melees in preparation for the Light Metal Mayhem and the Estrella War.

Trimaris

Φ Warm up... drills... pointwork.. matches.

Φ Some warm up and streching, some drills, some melee practice, sparring.  ``Porthos

Φ Warm ups, stretches, drilling repetitive movements, sparring, questioning about sparring, finding out what is wanted and needed, and general comradery.

Φ Our now defunct regional practice [...] was once per month and included staff drills, fence post drills, melee practice, parry drills, 8 brocade, warmups, and schlager work. I miss them. Priceless.

Φ THe normal practice we use is few minutes of warm up, seperate drills and slow sparing for newbies for a period of fifteen to twenty minutes out of the two and a half hour practice. Seperate practice of tactics and form, varying form slow to learn excution to fast to learn how the movements work.  ``Elric

West

Φ Footwork drill, parry drill, specialized drill, sparring.

Φ Warm up, drills, slow-work, fighting, schmoozing and food to follow.

Your feedback is most welcome!

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Original page posted: September 1, 2003. Last tweaked: July 1, 2006.

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