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.
To get YOUR name listed with YOUR comments, just give me permission. See the e-mail button and information at the bottom of the page. Let me know your SCA name and kingdom (as of Aug/Sep 2003), and I'll add the attribution to your entries.
# 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 27. Respondents share their input on their Ideal Practice. These practices begin with "prep" work.
About "prep"
For simplicity, I use prep to include activities like warming up, stretching, exercise, teaching, and discussing goals of the day that are (one hopes) done before fencing-specific physical activities (footwork, point work, slow sparring, fast sparring, etc.).
I think for most of the comments below "warm up" refers mainly to stretching (and perhaps calisthenics, jogging, etc.) However, "warm up" can also refer to sparring.
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.
More comments on this topic are on separate pages.
See the links at the bottom of this page.
Choice picks
Φ An Tir ~ (I am assuming an ongoing class) 10-15 min stretching, 15 min review of past techniques (1-2 drills), New material & drills 15-30 min. ``Mughain
Φ An Tir ~ My *very* favorite kind is more structured, with expectations every week and a logical progression in learning. Generally you start out stretching, then a formal lesson, then drillwork where you are observed, then a little bit of sparring at the end. (That particular practice is 6 hours distant; and I'd consider going every week if I thought the car could take it....) ``Laurin
Φ Anst. ~ Novices - Simple drills for parries and footwork 50% of the time, followed by sparring for the other 50%. The sparring sessions should be run by an experienced fighter who can slow down to just over novice speed, a rare talent but there are those who do it.If all you do is work, then a prospective novice turns into someone who tried Rapier, and didn't like it. Experienced Fighters - Drill, drill, drill, and when tired, drill some more. At the end, each person holds the field, best 2 of 3, against every other fighter in the group, feeding themseves back into the end of the rotation after they have fought everyone. In addition, all fighters, novice and experienced, must stretch before and after. ``Henri
Φ Drach. ~ Warmup together (without blades), just gymnastics focused on the movements of fencing - trainer shows the movement for this practise - slow drill of that movement - training of a counter-movement - quicker training - use of that movement in a fight - free training.
Φ Nor. ~ Start with warm-ups (stretching, loosening up). Follow a lesson plan for the duration, preferably made up of things that work naturally together (can be combined in a meaningful, intuitive way). Drill the material slowly, sticking to basics at first, then expanding to allow a few alternatives/varitions on the theme. Move to faster drills. Then slow sparring, with stops to examine and correct. Pick up speed in steps. Move into controlled sparring (speed, with specific objectives). Can do open fighting towards the end as a "cookie" for working. Then do a few refresher drills again, followed by a cool down. ``Simon
Æthelmearc
Φ Warm up, footwork drills, blade work drills, lessons, sparring, review, go out for drinks. ``Corwin
Φ Show up with loaner gear. do warm ups, then gearup and inspections. warm up bouts, then some drills. more pickups.
Φ Show up inspect the gear introductions posible senareos for that pratice IE partner drills or melee drills ect. fence talk between matches then finish pratice.
Φ Stretching/warm-up, footwork and other drills with beginners, free sparring (usu. bear pit depending on number of fencers and space) focusing on weak forms or those needed for authorizations. ``Miguel
Φ [My ideal practice is]
1:00-1:30 -- Warm-up, inspections, general talking and socializing.
1:30-2:00 -- Footwork drills and lunge drills (and whatever weird "new" drill we've come up that week")
2:00-2:30 -- Half-hour of "Guest Instructor" drilling (ie, someone other than myself goes over a new parry/stance/form)
2:30-3:30 -- Directed sparing. Either bear pit or speed vollyball (two lines -- everyone fights their opposite and then you rotate)
3:30-4:30 -- More sparing and then melee practice. ``Illadore
Φ [My ideal practice is]
20 minutes of stretching and warm up excercises.
5 minutes of review from previous week.
5-10 minutes of explanation and theory of subject matter for the current practice.
ca. 30 minutes of application in drills and slow work.
30 minutes of application in free and semi-free bouting.
5-15 minutes review, Q&A.
30-60 minutes play time.
Homework assigned, practice ends. ``Christian
An Tir
Φ Warm up, study rules and techniques, slow work, fast work.
Φ One or two very experienced fencers to run warm-up / drills for ~20 minutes and then 40+ minutes of free sparring and individual work.
Φ 15 min muscle warm up, 45 min. drills including slow work, 45- 1 hr.work on specific component, 30 - 45 min spar at speed, 15 min cool down.
Φ Theory or Mindset, Slow-work, Techniques & Drills, Fighting, Assesment & Break, Fighting, Assesment & Break, Small tournament, Discussion of the evening at coffee or a beer. ``Draven
Φ Arrive, chat, suit up, stretch, group drill, group slow work, free bouting at full speed, group cool-down stretches, grab a shower and get back into street clothes, head to a local restaurant for munchies, beer, and conversation. ``Ruaidhri
Φ Body warm-ups and stretching, then drill work and new forms, moving into slow work, and then full combat with some tourny style formats, ending with a cool down period while all fighters critique the nights combat. Open forum. ``Duncan
Φ DISCIPLINED! Warm-up. The basics foot work, stances, etc. A new move. Theory. Slow Work. Slow Sparring. Phoenix Tourney once a week.
[What's a Phoenix Tourney?]I believe it to be a "Tourney" held at a practice where un-carded fighters can take part. It gives them exposure to Tournament conditions and the level of fighting expected.
Φ Group stretch, with someone 'lecturing' on what they are researching, theories, etc. drill, with more theory being discussed. condition sparring ... working on specific detailed stuff, under direction (peer learning is good here). open sparring. group exersize (mini tournie or something). cool down stretch, with people talking about their successes and problems with the days lessons.
Ansteorra
Φ Warm up with stretches, a little drilling, and then sparring with a mix of people I can learn from and people who can learn from me.
Φ Get there, suit up, warm up, start fighting til you drop, go the local eatery and talk about our techniques. That is the time for catch up and talk, not at fighter practice. ``Chiara
Φ Stretch, warm up drill, stretch, spar, one on one slow work or form work with someone (either me teaching or learning), spar trying out the new stuff, spar, spar, stretch, eat. Sparing could include king of the hill type rotations so that I can also observe. ``Claire
Artemisia
Φ Excercizes, warm up drills, fight using the stuff I know, fight while trying out new things, observe others critique session. ``Sionainn
Φ Warm ups to begin with, fifteen or twenty minutes to do drills and and slow work, work on basics, with teaching and feedback, then bear-pit or round robin or challenges after that so everyone has the opportunity to fight other people, or if enough people show up, do two on one, three on five, or "the god's against the world" and melee practice if the facilities allow. ``KyneWynn
Atenveldt
Φ Arrive on time, warm up, stretch, lesson, drill, then free-assault. Heavy practice, then cool down, discuss, leave. Maybe dinner... ``Senan
Atlantia
Φ 15 minutes of warm ups, running, etc. Then about 30 in drills, then 1.5 hours fencing, then a quick cool down. ``Keelin
Φ [My ideal practice is]
- 10-15 minutes stretching
- some light aerobics
- instruction (rotate sessions with particular styles)
- slow work
- sparring
- cool down and discuss the practice. ``Jean Claude
Φ My ideal practice would give people time to stretch and warm up while all the fencers are gathering. Then there would be 10 minutes or so of basic footwork drills, and speed circle footwork drills. Then 10 minutes of parry drills with various amounts of weaponry. After that, fencers would spend as much time as they could stand doing box drills (defender is armed with a dagger, plants one foot and tries not to get hit by parrying and body voiding. attacker has one or two swords and works on different angles of attack. usually this isn't done at full speed). After that, fencers would pair off and spar. ``Rois
Φ Assuming new people (otherwise skip to step 4)
- Introduction to the rules and conventions.
- Basic stance, footwork, parries and attacks (including target areas).
- Drills for above.
- Warm-up/stretching.
- Slow spar for step 2.
- Introduce advance techniques.
- Slow spar for above.
- Independent matches/Fast spar.
- Cool down.
- Critque.
Caid
Φ 1) warm up and stretch. 2) fight. 3) fight some more. 4) keep fighting. 5) shower (my wife insists). ``Tora
Φ Warm up, individual practice, specific targeting and parrying drills, slow work for a specific reason, sparring.
Φ Have a structured training program (voluntary) with floating instructors. warmup. review basics for 1/2 hour. introduce new concept (parries, attacks, footwork, philosophies, etc). Practice new concept. Practice with sparring partners. Practice melees. ``Curteis
Φ We'd arrive. Do 5 minutes of stretches. Do 10 minutes of footword drills. We'd Drill 1 skill/move (disengages, J-Parrys, etc) for 10 minutes, etc. Then we'd talk about a weapon form and spar with it for 20/30 minutes. Then the first hour is done. When spend the other 2 hours fighting. One practice a month would be melee drills. ``Stefano
Φ [My ideal practice is]
Stretching
Drills for ~30 minutes with competent partner (doesn't need to be *good*, just competent at drills, knows how to do them, etc.)
~30 minutes teaching / training someone else
~30 minutes training with someone who can teach me
~30 minutes free sparring with several opponents of varying skill levels. ``Grainne
Wow, an ideal practice that involves doing teaching!
Drachenwald
Φ Warm up; slow sparring for 5-10 minutes; 2 or 3 fights followed by a critique from both fighters and any spectators/marshals; change weapon combos & repeat until tired. ``Acarin
Φ Warmup, drills, practicing new moves or reveiwing ones currently being developed. Sparring, ending with a round robin where everyone pushes themselves. Ending with some melee for fun. ``Gerhardt
Φ Get ther armour up. have a concept of what the group wants to acomplish this practisand work on that 25% slow drills 25% of slow sparring with an emphasis on using the newly lernd drills 50% full speed. Go to the pub wenn it gets drak. ``Gottfried
Φ The ideal is a day of fencing.
11.00-12.00 armour up and warm up
12.00-13.00 warm up fights
13.00-13.30 drills
13.30-14.00 fights
14.00-15.00 lunch
15.00-15.30 class
15.30-16.00 fights
16.00-18.00 lots of fighting.
Ealdormere
Φ Starting with warmups, and stretching... Moving on to footwork drills, and line exercises. Open sparring for the remainder. 3hrs intensive fencing, with only two or three breaks. ``Sebastian
East
Φ Warm ups, stretches, then fast bearpits and melees.
Φ 1. Stretch. 2. Footwork Drills. 3. Drill Students and/or Cadets. 4. Open Fencing.
Φ Start with warming up. Have a teacher make us go through basics, teach a few moves (perfect older ones, introduce new ones, whatever) and then all out fencing for the rest of the practice. Sometimes, introduce scenarios or melee fencing because these are things that are done in events.
Lochac
Φ Physical warm up. 10-20 minutes drilling. 30-40 sparring. add another 10-20 learning/discussing methodology.
Φ Warmup stretch followed by best teacher showing novices a new trick or move. Then set everyone to practice move against each other. Then general bouts against each other as fencers wish.
Φ Start with warming up exercises. Then do some intensive drilling on footwork (about an hour or more) and then a rest. Start doing bladework drills and exercises with emphasis on passing manoeuvres. Do some full speed fighting limited to what the drilling was on. Discussion and comments and looking at what worked and what didn't and why. Finish with a take home message and homework for people just to ram home what they needed to learn from the day (yeah, a whole day). ``Gregory
Meridies
Φ Get to practice, do stretches. Spend third class drill work, third class sparring. Do cool down stretches.
Midrealm
Φ Streching, drills, sparring, melees, beer.
Φ Start out with stretching, move to warm ups, drill, and spar. ``Catalin
Φ Stretching/warm-ups. Repetitive drills. Advanced drills. Slow work. Free play.
Φ Stretch, organized drills, single combat, and then for the last hour or so do melee combat. ``Lydia
Φ Same as our normal practice, but with more stretching before/after the practice, more drills and less sparring.
Φ Stretchs then a little free sparring to warm up followed by drills (your brain remembers the last thing you did so you should always end with doing things correctly.
Φ Start w/ streaching, then warm-up w/group footwork exersize drills, new techniques, drill bladework/ new tech., finish off sparing. Only change when a big event is coming up in order to adapt/get used to that event's format so it's not alien to the fencers.
Φ Five or ten minutes warming up and stretching at 2:00, followed by group footwork drills for half an hour to forty-five minutes and partner drills for a half-hour. After that, the floor was open to free sparring until 4:00, when my warder taught half an hour of melee tactics.
Φ Local practice, to be augmented with regular/more frequent solo work:
10% stretching and physical conditioning (most conditioning should happen in solo practice)
10% solo drills (reminders and tips of what to take home)
35% partner drills
30% free fencing
15% coached/observed fencing (all levels act as observers). ``Christian
Φ Personal private instruction tends to run as follows:
Warm up/Stretching: 5-10 mins (or as suits the student).
Drill work:
Review Foot work: 10-15 mins
Review Blade work: 10-15 mins
Review Slow sparring
[At this point - Advanced Students can separate and spar, or stay]
New lessons: 15-30 mins (depending on the size of the class)
Slow sparring with New material (varies on skills and interest)
[Intermediate and Advanced Students drill newer students at slow drill covering New material]
Open Sparring for Intermediate and Advanced students. ``Grimkirk
Northshield
Φ 1 Hour of classes then pickup fighting. ``Rodrigo
Φ Warm up. Drill a technique. Fight with the technique. Repeat with new technique. ``Fiskr
Φ Stretching folloed by footwork drills, then slow sparring and then some full speed fencing.
Φ 10 minutes warm up with discussion. At least 2 different drills, 10 to 15 minutes long. Then practice - half to a full hour depending on people and room. Then wind down with more discussion.
Outlands
Φ Stretching, warm-up excercises; then parry and foot-work drills for about 45mins - an hour; then slow and fast sparring (concentrating on specific techniques) for another hour and a half to two hours (or more!) ``Antoine
Φ 15 minutes warmup, 30 minutes drills (lines and pairs), 1+ hr sparring, 30 minutes melée (or, sometimes, mini-tourney). During the drills and sparring, one or two of the experienced fencers would give individual lessons to a series of intermediate fencers - especially the ones who were helping run warmups, drills, etc.). Plenty of indoor space (with A/C) and outdoor space (to practice on grass, weather permitting). Never any need to wait to play (space is always available, even if personal instruction is limited). An area for newbies to receive additional instruction while others are sparring. Moderate visibility, so we are easy to find and passers by can "drop in" and, occasionally, join the SCA. ``Guillaume
Trimaris
Φ Warm up... drills... pointwork.. matches.
Φ Group stretch, group footwork practice, spar, melee tactic practice (slow), spar some more.
Φ Group stretching. footwork drills. theory lecture. tactical drills. sparring drills. open sparing. cool down period. ``Cillian
Φ Warm-ups, drill, point control practice, bouts concentrating on one specific style, followed by some melee practice if there is time.
Φ My Don & Dona held practices once a month that lasted an entire day. It was at these practices I found I learned the most and had things to bring back and practice at home. The practice always started with warmups, usually ballet or martial arts style stretches. We then went into drill work. We used sticks and fence posts to practice timing, foot work, movement etc. usually in pairs then lines (we could have up to 30 fencers at a practice). Then do a round robin fighting an opponent for 3 minutes before changing opponents and styles. We had some individual training while fighting along with melee training. It was the best.
Φ Up until recently we actually had what I would consider pretty close to an ideal practice set up on a monthly basis. It was an all-day affair which went something like this.
- Warm up exercises / stretching.
- Drills with various weapon styles.
- Round Robin One on One sparring.
- Melee drills.
- Melee combat.
- One on One pickup fights for anyone who has steam left. ``Silvain
This would start early in the morning, would break for lunch after the round robin fights and melee/pickups would continue till dark. I'm trying to get this started again (the people that hosted it had to stop due to mundane reasons).
West
Φ Warm up, drill, slow work, fast bouts, "wrap up". ``Alail
Φ Half hour of stretching and warm-ups. Hour of drilling and instruction. Hour of sparring and more personal instruction as needed.
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