Newcomer's Page Of the roughly six forms of martial arts in the SCA, all have two things in common. The first, and most important, is that each and every fighter on the field has honor. The fighter keeps faith with his honor by accepting blows that would be killing or wounding (more about this a little later), observing rules which cannot be otherwise enforced, and accepting his opponent's word -- if she says a blow was too light to cause injury, then it was light. Second, each requires a good deal of training to learn techniques lost for many centuries. The good news is that most of us are enthusiastic to teach and learn from new opponents.
Before being allowed to participate in combat without close supervision, each fighter is trained by senior fighters, known as "marshals." This training aims at ensuring that the fighter is safe to himself and to others, and typically lasts a few months. As part of this training, the novice fighter is taught how to recognize a "good" blow. Each fighter judges whether blows received in combat strike hard enough (for the particular style of combat) to do injury through armor. If the blow is "good" to an arm or leg, the fighter will give up use of that limb; if the blow is good to the head or body, the fighter is "dead," and falls to the ground, signaling that his opponent is victorious. At the end of training, each fighter must prove to a panel of marshals that he is competent to fight on his own. If the panel decides the fighter is safe (not good, you understand, but unlikely to hurt himself or an opponent) they authorize him to fight in tournaments and wars.
The first three forms are common to both single-combat tournaments and wars. HEAVY COMBAT is our spectacular adaptation of armored combat, and resembles nothing so much as a medieval foot tournament. Since we prefer that no one get hurt, this is done with real armor (made with leather, metal, padding, kydex, etc) and wooden swords. Swords are made by wrapping rattan staffs with strapping tape, covering them with duct tape for aesthetic reasons, and attaching some sort of crosspiece or guard. Armor is much more complex -- some armor, being made of steel, rivets, leather, etc, can take more than 40 hours per piece of armor (for example, a gauntlet, or armored glove, with moving fingers and joints can take upwards of 75 hours to complete).
RAPIER simulates the thrust-oriented dueling of the late renaissance. During the 1590's, one third of the French nobility died in "honorable" duels -- we try for a better safety record. Combatants use blunted steel swords, with fencing-style protection sewn into late-period costume. Some cutting blows are permitted, but as prescribed by the Italian masters of that day, the thrust usually reigns supreme. On the other hand, SHINAI relies exclusively on cutting blows, often resembling Japanese swordsmanship and borrowing its name from the bamboo sword used. Blows are much lighter than in heavy combat, ideally approaching a gentle touch, and lessening the armor requirements.
Wars reproduce a variety of combat forms not seen at most day tournaments, ARCHERY comes in two flavors. Target archery often involves contests relevant to medieval warfare, including shooting through arrow slits, and rapid-fire scenarios. Combat archery introduces the arrow to war scenarios, firing blunted arrows at lower speeds, in both heavy and shinai encounters. Longbows, recurves, and crossbows all have their enthusiasts. No war would be complete without SIEGE ENGINES, in the form of catapults, ballistas and trebuchets. Though they seldom see the front lines of the battle, siege engineers seem to have a lot of fun. EQUESTRIAN ARTS within the SCA take place off the war field (we hope the reasons are obvious!) but add a unique flavor to the Current Middle Ages. Participants test their skill both with the reins and the lance, and no one notices the smell if a heavy fighter is nearby.
We have a great deal of fun on the tourney and war fields, and hope you'll join us there.
-Lord Todde mac Donnell
*Heavily cribbed from "Life in the Current Middle Ages" by Mistress Siobhan Medhbh O'Roarke
Webbed 4/5/2000 by Todde mac Donnell.